Fijs van Leeuwen is professor of radiology and chair of ‘molecular imaging and image guided therapy’. He also co-directs the LUMC-wide image-guided surgery program. In addition to his appointments at the LUMC he has guest-appointments at the Bionanotechnology group of Wageningen University, the departments of head-and-neck surgery and urology of the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, MedTech coach at the Unlock incubator program and elective coordinator at the Leidse instrumentmakersschool. On top he holds several editorial positions and positions at grant funding agencies. His research has received various personal awards, among which three ERC grants, NWO VENI, VIDI and VICI grants and a translational KWF-fellowship.

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Fijs van Leeuwen is professor of radiology and chair of ‘molecular imaging and image guided therapy’. He also co-directs the LUMC-wide image-guided surgery program. In addition to his appointments at the LUMC he has guest-appointments at the Bionanotechnology group of Wageningen University,  the departments of head-and-neck surgery and urology of the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital, MedTech coach at the Unlock incubator program and elective coordinator at the Leidse instrumentmakersschool. On top he holds several editorial positions and positions at grant funding agencies. His research has received various personal awards, among which three ERC grants, NWO VENI, VIDI and VICI grants and a translational KWF-fellowship.

Molecular imaging and image-guided interventions

Within the LUMC, the chair ‘molecular imaging and image-guided interventions’ facilitates the realization of precision surgery. This done by enrinching the surgical environment with perception enhancing biomedical imaging technologies. More specifically, by ‘illuminating’ the molecular fingerprint of a disease using dedicated pharmaceuticals, it becomes possible to accurately, but non-invasively, identify disease dissemination throughout the human body. Subsequently these images help stratify individual patients into sub-groups for which optimized treatment plans exist. Imaging roadmaps, can also help to anatomically guide interventions (image-guided therapy) and can even predict intraopertive findings. With that imaging has become more than merely a diagnostic tool and evolved into an essential part of modern patient care. This provides the (bio)medical imaging community with a chance to rise above and beyond their facilitating diagnostic activities and actively get involved in treatment e.g. in the form of an out-patient clinic. In treatment, imaging can broadly be used for two purposes: 1) To accurately guide pharmaceutically based therapy (e.g. delivery of drugs, vaccines or therapeutic cells; so-called theragnostics) and/or provide insight in the underlying biological mechanisms. 2) Steer interventions with medical devices (e.g. biopsies, ablations, surgical resections, or radiotherapy). The latter means that the chair technically not only revolves around chemical innovations, but also addresses the development of medical technology, including surgical fluorescence cameras, robotic sensory-enhancing devices, and digital medicine solutions such as image analysis and ‘gps-like’ navigation and AI-based video-analysis.

The medical aspects of the chair are expressed by the clinical implementation of the developed technologies, so-called translational science. The technologies under investigation all address and unmet clinical need, which ensures a favorable outcome when they find their way into humans and in particular applications in clinical care (“from molecule/device to man”). To create a translational environment, the chair actively work on creating an entrepreneurial and multidisciplinary team wherein technical personnel, scientists and clinicians partner up - if necessary, with industry - to deliver co-design, co-creation and valorisation. Ultimately leading to a continuously evolving ‘toolbox’ that cuts across research disciplines. Integration of these innovations in clinical trials, routibne clinical care, (academic) education, public outreach activities, (inter)national collaborations/medical societies and private-public-partnerships ensures a broad dissemination and helps realize impact.

Academic career

Prof. van Leeuwen has a master in (organic) chemistry (Leiden institute for chemistry). These skills were substantiated with a PhD in supramolecular chemistry under supervision of prof. David Reinhoudt that set out to address the societal challenge of naturally occurring nuclear waste commonly encountered in the oil and gas industry (March 2005; Technical University of Twente). During his PhD he was actively involved with industrial end-users and conducted part of his research at the Nuclear Research and Consultancy group (NRG; Petten). This was followed by a brief postdoc at the Mesa+ Institute for nanotechnology. To acquaint himself with different applications of chemistry, he moved to chemical biology group of the late prof. Huib Ovaa at the Netherlands Cancer institute (NKI).  Here he spend a year developing diagnostic proteasome inhibitors and educated himself in in vitro diagnostics. Being motivated by the potential impact that could be created in the (bio)medical field, he applied for and was awarded a Veni-scholarship (2006) to develop bi-modal, or rather hybrid, agents for surgical applications. With this application driven research line he moved to the clinical departments of radiology at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital (AvL), where he joined the physics-oriented Image processing group of dr. Kenneth Gilhuijs. This shifting of gears and the unique focus on molecular imaging applications, substantiated by a personal KWF-scholarship drove him to set-up his own independent research group at the departments of nuclear medicine and radiology within the division of diagnostic oncology (under supervision of prof. Laura van ‘t Veer). Following a Vici-Scholarship, in 2011 he moved to the department of radiology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) where he was appointed as associate professor. Since then his research activities expanded well beyond the field of chemistry and surgery, going into biology, engineering and physics. All converging into a highly multidisciplinary research team that jointly pursues innovations in intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI-Lab). Since then, he has held guest-appointments at surgical departments of the AvL (head-and-neck cancer and urology) and the bionanotechnology of Wageningen University. From this foundation he and his team have been able to translate several in-house innovations to prototypes used together with their partners in clinical trials (> 25), created several patents (> 10), and even helped generate commercial clinical products (>5; both pharmaceuticals and medical technologies) sold by his industrial partners. All these efforts were enabled by competitive grants and personal scholarships such as three ERC grants (StG and 2x PoC) and a Vici-scholarship. In 2020 he was appointed a full chair in molecular imaging and image guided therapy. A position that he uses to drive medical impact by research in the fields of chemistry, engineering, and medicine. On top he and his team are actively involved in public engagement activities.

In addition to his research and teaching activities at the LUMC prof. van Leeuwen has had a few (unpaid) side-appointments, including editorial positions at academic journals, positions at medical societies, positions at grant-funding agencies, and consultancy positions at Hamamatsu Photonics and Orsi Academy. Currently he is medical technology coach in the Leiden incubator program Unlock and he coordinates an elective in (bio)medical technology at a vocational mechanics education (Leidse instrument makers school). Revenues out of his additional efforts, if these occur, are being managed by the LUMC legal department (luris), who also manage the patent portfolio, and are being put back into research.

Publications