BIOLOGY
“Luciferase-based protein denaturation assay for quantification of radiofrequency field-induced targeted hyperthermia: Developing an intracellular thermometer”
Dr Mustafa Raoof received his medical degree with honours in 2006 from the Aga Khan University Medical College. During the following year, he pursued basic science research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, working on several projects in trauma immunology. During 2008–2009, he completed his general surgery internship at Yale University and entered general surgery residency at University of Arizona in July 2009. In July 2010, he took a two-year sabbatical to pursue a postdoctoral research fellowship at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he devoted his efforts towards development of a novel nano-hyperthermia system using non-invasive radiofrequency fields for cancer therapy. During the same time he attended the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he received an M.S. in patient-based biological research/translation sciences. Dr Raoof is currently pursuing his general surgery training at the University of Arizona Health Science Center with an aim to become an academic surgical oncologist. His research interests are focused on development of radiofrequency-activated nano-susceptors for thermal therapy of cancers, remotely triggered drug release from nano-carriers and cancer cell trafficking of nanomaterials.
CLINICAL
“Treatment of plaque-type psoriasis with the 308nm excimer laser in combination with dithranol or calcipotriol”
Dr Christina Rogalski is employed at the University of Leipzig, in the Department for Quality and Risk Management, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. She is educated as a dermatologist, and also has a degree as a business economist (VWA), Biometrician, internal and external auditor DIN EN ISO 9001.
Her research interests include Clinical Trials, Health Economy, and Quality Management.
PHYSICS/ENGINEERING
“Tumour hyperthermia and ablation in rats using a clinical MR-HIFU system equipped with a dedicated small animal set-up”
Nicole Hijnen received her M.Sc. degree (cum laude) in Biomedical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, in 2008. During her master’s project, she focused on dual isotope SPECT imaging of angiogenesis using radiolabeled peptides. Currently she is a Ph.D. candidate in the biomedical NMR group at the Eindhoven University of Technology in collaboration with the department of Minimally Invasive Healthcare at Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Her Ph.D. project is on the pre-clinical evaluation and optimalization of magnetic resonance guided high intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU) based thermal cancer therapies, supervised by Prof Dr Holger Grüll. In that context, Nicole studied the use of gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents during MR-HIFU treatment planning and the evaluation of MR-HIFU treatment using functional nuclear imaging techniques (PET 18F-FDG and 18F-FLT). Currently, Nicole is investigating the usefulness of local chemotherapy from image-able temperature-sensitive liposomes as adjuvant to MR-HIFU ablation treatment. Her Ph.D. project is part of the Non-invasive treatment of cancer by MRI-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation project (acronym: VOLTA) of the Dutch Center for Translational Molecular Medicine.