Article in IO+
November 26, 2025: The journalism platform IO+ (Innovation Origins) wrote an article about our research and latest publication. The article is called: “A new lens into the brain’s fiber maze”. The platform focuses on innovations and developments in the Netherlands and beyond, and publishes stories of people and organizations whose innovations are tackling the big problems of our time.
Article in 'De Ingenieur'
November 18, 2025: Our research and latest publication has been featured in the Dutch magazine De Ingenieur which describes relevant technology developments in the Netherlands. The article is called “Belichtingstechniek onthult vezelnetwerk in hersenen” (English translation: Imaging technique reveals fiber network in brains).
Dissertation Award
November 7, 2025: Franca auf der Heiden (former PhD student in the Menzel lab) has received the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Dissertation Award in Physics. The prize is endowed with 4,000 euros and honours outstanding doctoral achievements in physics. Franca wrote her PhD thesis on “High-Speed Multi-Modal Scattering Polarimetry for Nerve Fiber Imaging”. Congratulations on this great achievement!
Publication in Nature Communications
November 5, 2025: We have published a paper in Nature Communications about the ability of Computational Scattered Light Imaging to visualize directed structures in all kinds of histological tissue samples, independent of sample preparation. This study has been made possible by a collaboration between Stanford University (USA), Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), and Erasmus MC in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
New Master Student
September 1, 2025: Rens van Elk has joined the Menzel Lab as Master student. He will be working on enabling collagen-specific computational scattered light imaging to investigate collagen fiber organization at tumor boundaries. Rens will be supervised by Dr. Hamed Abbasi.
Rens is a final-year Applied Physics MSc student at TU Delft with specialization in physics for instrumentation. Previously, he did his Bachelor in Applied Physics and a Minor in Computer Science. In his Bachelor thesis, he designed an optical setup for an optoelectronic tweezer.
ENW-XS Grant for Hamed Abbasi
July 23, 2025: Hamed Abbasi has received an NWO Open Competition Domain Science-XS Grant from the Dutch Research Council for his proposal: “Identifying Prognostic Markers of Oral Cancer Using a Novel Computational Microscopy Technique”. In total, 48 from 336 eligible proposals received funding. The ENW-XS grant encourages curiosity-driven research that involves the exploration of a promising idea. Hamed wants to use scattered light microscopy to explore the collagen fiber organization at tumor boundaries in a large oral cancer database in order to provide tailored treatment for high-risk oral cancer patients.
Funding for Two Bioengineering Master Projects
July 2, 2025: Hamed Abbasi has received funding for two bioengineering Master projects from the Delft Bioengineering Institute. In one project (together with Lisanne Rens, faculty of electrical engineering, mathematics and computer science), scattered light microscopy and histological images will be used to create computational models for predicting the invasiveness of oral cancer. Another project (together with Baris Kumru, faculty of aerospace engineering) investigates the correlation between fiber orientation (determined with ComSLI) and mechanical strength in recycled short glass fiber composites of wind turbine blades. We’re still looking for Master students – please contact Hamed if you’re interested!
Presentation at CARES Medical Delta Conference
June 30, 2025: Hamed Abbasi gave a talk and presented a poster at the first CARES conference in the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam. The Medical Delta program CARES (Cancer diagnostics for sustainable health care) is a transdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from TU Delft, Erasmus Medical Center, Leiden University Medical Center, and The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Hamed talked about how computational scattered light imaging can be used for cancer optical diagnostics.
Article on Scattering Polarimetry
June 25, 2025: Our Scattering Polarimetry paper has been featured in an article by Forschungszentrum Jülich. In the paper, published in Scientific Reports, we enable polarization and scattered light microscopy measurements in a single system (Scattering Polarimeter).
Presentations at World of Photonics Congress
June 22-26, 2025: Loes Ettema and Mark Vermeulen have presented their work at the World of Photonics Congress in Munich, Germany. Loes gave a talk about “Exploring backscattered light microscopy for visualizing fiber network organization in intact biological tissues” and Mark presented a poster on “Computational scattered light imaging of 3D-nanofabricated fiber models for an enhanced reconstruction of fiber 3D-orientations and diameters in biological tissues”.
