dr. Loren Deblock (PhD)

CRIG member
Loren Deblock


Postdoctoral researcher – INFINITY lab and SCRiPTS group – Department of Electronics and Information Systems (UGent) and Department of Chemistry (UGent)
Principal investigators: prof. Christian Vanhove (PhD), prof. Isabel Van Driessche (PhD) and prof. Klaartje De Buysser (PhD)

 

Research focus

Colloidal nanocrystals have been considered for a multitude of bio-imaging applications, with recent research interest growing towards hybrid nanomaterials that combine multiple imaging modes, examples of this can include combinations of scintigraphy, fluorescence, MRI, photoacoustics, etc. in a single nanomaterial. Metal oxide nanocrystals have been particularly successful in nanomedicine, of the three types of inorganic nanocrystals that have achieved clinical translation,  two of them are oxides.

My research is mainly focused on:

  • Synthesis, surface functionalization and characterization of (multimodal) metal oxide nanocrystals for medical imaging.
  • Preclinical in vivo imaging using nanocrystals, particularly for image-guided surgery applications aiming to detect primary tumours and sentinel lymph nodes.  
  • Exploring the interactions of inorganic nanomaterials with organs and elucidating how this influences their in vivo faith.
  • Driving nanomaterials towards clinical translation
     

Contact & links