Biography

Rick Dijkhuizen 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, part of the Center for Image Sciences, at the University Medical Center Utrecht. He was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Department of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine from 2013 until 2014.

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 has recently initiated a translational research project that aims to establish safe and effective modulation of neural networks to enhance functional recovery after stroke through non-invasive brain stimulation in stroke animal models and patients.

He has teamed up with different colleagues of the UMCU Brain Center for preclinical imaging studies on brain disorders, and he collaborates with various national and international institutions on topics such as brain plasticity and molecular imaging. Rick Dijkhuizen has been workpackage leader in two EU-FP7 research programs (EUSTROKE and TACTICS). He served/serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Translational Stroke Research, and Stroke. He is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neurology|Stroke and the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

Research line

Experimental and Translational Neuroimaging

Most recent key publications

1: Otte WM, van der Marel K, van Meer MP, van Rijen PC, Gosselaar PH, Braun KP, Dijkhuizen RM. Altered contralateral sensorimotor system organization after experimental hemispherectomy: a structural and functional connectivity study. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2015;35:1358-67.
2: Dijkhuizen RM, Zaharchuk G, Otte WM. Assessment and modulation of resting-state neural networks after stroke. Curr Opin Neurol. 2014;27:637-43.
3: Dijkhuizen RM. Imaging neuronal loss and recovery in compromised but viable brain tissue. Brain. 2013;136:1689-91.
4: van Meer MP, Otte WM, van der Marel K, Nijboer CH, Kavelaars A, van der Sprenkel JW, Viergever MA, Dijkhuizen RM. Extent of bilateral neuronal network reorganization and functional recovery in relation to stroke severity. J Neurosci. 2012;32:4495-507.
5: Schaechter JD, van Oers CA, Groisser BN, Salles SS, Vangel MG, Moore CI, Dijkhuizen RM. Increase in sensorimotor cortex response to somatosensory stimulation over subacute poststroke period correlates with motor recovery in hemiparetic patients. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2012;26:325-34.