Student Research Assistant

Are you a Bachelor or Master student in (Applied) Physics, Nanobiology, Technical Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, or similar? Are you interested in microscopy or histopathology and have basic experience with Python? Then join our lab as research assistant and work with us on computational microscopy for cancer research!

The position is part-time (~8 hours/week) with flexible start date and up to 1 year (contract via Flex Delft, pay scale SA2-4 of the CAO of Dutch Universities). See our Flyer for more information.

If you’re interested, please contact Hamed Abbasi.

Assisting in Computational Microscopy for Cancer Research

You’ll work in the Menzel Lab at TU Delft, in close collaboration with the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam (Department of Head and Neck Surgery), together with physicists, biomedical engineers, and medical researchers. Your task is to image microscopy slides, run image-processing pipelines, annotate and analyze image datasets, maintain documentation, and prepare summaries for reports. As a research assistant, you’ll gain hands-on experience in computational microscopy, learn from a multi-disciplinary team, and contribute to cutting-edge cancer research.

The work is related to our recently granted NWO project on oral cancer diagnostics. Oral cancer is a highly aggressive disease with a 5-year survival rate of less than 50%. After tumor removal, patients are referred for personalized follow-up treatments (e.g., radiotherapy) based on the prognosis of the resected tumor.

This project aims to improve oral cancer prognosis using Computational Scattered Light Imaging (ComSLI). We will sudy the role of collagen fiber directionality (a recently recognized, promising cancer biomarker) and invasion patterns by mapping interwoven tissue structures in and around the tumor. If proven useful, our technique can be used to provide more personalized prognoses, ultimately leading to better treatment plans and improved patient survival.