Dr Rick Dijkhuizen

Rick Dijkhuizen is a neurobiologist who received his Ph.D. at Utrecht University in 1998 (thesis title: 'Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy in Experimental Cerebral Ischemia'). From 1999 until 2002 he worked at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital/Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Harvard Medical School (Charlestown/Boston, MA, USA), first as Postdoctoral Fellow and later as Instructor. There his research focused on elucidating spontaneous and therapy-induced recovery after cerebrovascular injury (e.g., stroke) with different MRI techniques in patients and experimental models.
In 2002, he became head of the Biomedical MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Group at the University Medical Center Utrecht. He holds a position as Associate Professor and is responsible for daily management of the preclinical MRI facility (equipped with 4.7 T and 9.4 T MR systems), coordination of internal and external research projects, and supervision of postdoctoral researchers and Ph.D. students.

His current research interests include multiparametric imaging of brain structure and function in health and disease, with a particular focus on i) development of tools for improved diagnosis of brain pathophysiology, ii) characterization of neural network (re)organization, and iii) monitoring of neuroprotective and -restorative therapies. He collaborates with various national and international academic institutions, is workpackage leader in two EU-FP7 research programs (EUSTROKE and TACTICS), and has held different (inter)national committee assignments. He is an active member of the EU-funded European Stroke Network, and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.
Rick Dijkhuizen has received funding for his research from the American Heart Association (Postdoctoral Fellowship Award), the Commission of the European Communities (FP7), the National Institutes of Health (R01), the Netherlands Epilepsy Foundation, the Netherlands Heart Foundation, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Talent Fellowship Award, VIDI Award, NWO-Groot, TOP), the Qatar National Research Fund (National Priorities Research Program), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellowship Award), and Utrecht University (High Potential Award).

Key publications:

• Extent of bilateral neuronal network reorganization and functional recovery in relation to stroke severity. van Meer MP, Otte WM, van der Marel K, Nijboer CH, Kavelaars A, Berkelbach van der Sprenkel JW, Viergever MA, Dijkhuizen RM. J Neurosci. 2012;32:4495-507.
• Imaging neuroinflammation after stroke: current status of cellular and molecular MRI strategies. Deddens LH, Van Tilborg GA, Mulder WJ, De Vries HE, Dijkhuizen RM. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2012:33;392-402. Review.
• Multiparametric MR imaging of brain disorders. Wu O, Dijkhuizen RM, Sorensen AG. Top Magn Reson Imaging. 2010:21;129-38.
• Structural and functional plasticity in the somatosensory cortex of chronic stroke patients. Schaechter JD, Moore CI, Connell BD, Rosen BR, Dijkhuizen RM. Brain. 2006;129:2722-33.
• Magnetic resonance imaging in experimental models of brain disorders. Dijkhuizen RM, Nicolay K. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2003;23:1383-402. Review.