First in person 2-day meeting in Leiden
Lunchtime on the 1st of June was the start for the first in person meeting for HBCI. We met in a sunny (but windy) Leiden, at the LUMC for a two-day meeting. The first day was focused on presenting ourselves and our research and discussing the overall goal of this consortium, so that we all had the same starting point. In the evening, we had a nice stroll along the Leiden canals, ending with a delicious dinner and continued talking research and other matters. On the way home, we passed one of the Leiden formula walls, displaying the “electron spin”, a fundamental concept for magnetic resonance imaging (and therefore for HBCI as well!) which was discovered by Leiden physicists.
Evening stroll in Leiden
Source: muurformules.nl
We started the second day with visits to the research facility, including a visit to the 7 Tesla MRI scanner. The differences in the magnetic field strength compared to a 3 Tesla scanner was astonishing, one could really feel the difference. The visit continued to the low-field scanner (50 mT), which was developed and constructed in the Leiden lab. The rest of the morning was focused on the research activities of the different consortium members, with informal presentations from several groups. Finally, we concluded the goals for the consortium until the next in person meeting.
The lunch was a classic Dutch lunch, sandwiches with a great variety of toppings. Unfortunately some of the members had to leave after lunch (the security waiting times at the Schiphol airport was one of the main subjects to discuss except research these days), but the early career researchers, as well as some of the others stayed for a master class with Dr. Erik Bakker, from the Amsterdam Medical Center. We had many interesting discussions on many aspects of brain clearance. The dinner together in the evening was the end of the meeting.
Walk in Leiden
Thijs van Osch showing the low-field scanner, developed and build in Leiden
Post by Klara Mogensen