After performing a master thesis in the Biomedical Photonic Imaging Group (BMPI) of the University of Twente, I graduated from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in 2011. I then came back to the university of Twente to fulfill a PhD in the Physics Of Fluids Group, under the supervision of prof. Michel Versluis, on ultrasound contrast agents and graduated in 2015. I am now a assistant professor in the Physics Of Fluids Group, working on ultrasound, microscale fluid dynamics, bubble physics, and deep learning for ultrasound super-resolution contrast agents.Ā 

Expertise

  • Physics

    • Ultrasound
    • Bubbles
    • Contrast
    • Acoustics
    • Pressure
    • Droplet
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

    • Microbubble
  • Medicine and Dentistry

    • In Vitro

Organisations

My research interests include a broad array of microscale phenomena, in particular these that can lead to the generation of contrast for ultrasound and photoacoustics. Such phenomena often involve cavitation, phase change and heat and mass transfer. I also have a keen interest in therapeutic applications of microbubbles for sonoporation, sonoprinting and gene therapy. Studying microscale physics also requires a precise control of the particles properties, and in particular their size. Part of my research activities therefore focuses on production methods and precise control of agents created using microfluidics. High-speed imaging is a critical tool in such studies and allows for the direct visualization of the response of the contrast agents. The recent arrival of ultrafast plane-wave ultrasound technology combined with monodisperse microbubbles opens new possibilities for highly controlled and localized drug delivery and greatly improved diagnostics for personalized medicine.

Publications

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2022

2024

Optimizing high-intensity focused ultrasound-induced immunogenic cell-death using passive cavitation mapping as a monitoring tool (2024)Journal of controlled release, 375, 389-403. Engelen, Y., Krysko, D. V., Effimova, I., Breckpot, K., Versluis, M., De Smedt, S., Lajoinie, G. & Lentacker, I.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2024.09.016Bubbles and waves for ultrasound imaging and therapy (2024)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Nawijn, C. L.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036562874Transverse flow under oscillating stimulation in helical square ducts with cochlea-like geometrical curvature and torsion (2024)European journal of mechanics. B - Fluids, 107, 165-174. Harte, N. C., Obrist, D., Caversaccio, M., Lajoinie, G. P. R. & Wimmer, W.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euromechflu.2024.07.001Second order and transverse flow visualization through three-dimensional particle image velocimetry in millimetric ducts (2024)Experimental thermal and fluid science, 159. Article 111296 (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Harte, N. C., Obrist, D., Versluis, M., Jebbink, E. G., Caversaccio, M., Wimmer, W. & Lajoinie, G.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2024.111296High-Speed Optical Characterization of Protein-and-Nanoparticleā€“Stabilized Microbubbles for Ultrasound-Triggered Drug Release (2024)Ultrasound in medicine and biology, 50(8), 1099-1107. Nawijn, C. L., Segers, T., Lajoinie, G., Berg, S., Snipstad, S., Davies, C. d. L. & Versluis, M.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2024.03.011PROTEUS: A Physically Realistic Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Simulator—Part I: Numerical Methods (2024)IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics and frequency control (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Blanken, N., Heiles, B., Kuliesh, A., Versuis, M., Jain, K., Maresca, D. & Lajoinie, G.https://doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2024.3427850Data underlying the publication: Additive manufacturing of 3D flow-focusing millifluidics for the production of mono-sized curable microdroplets (2024)[Dataset Types › Dataset]. 4TU.Centre for Research Data. Saleem, M. S., Chan, T. T. K., Versluis, M., Krug, D. & Lajoinie, G.https://doi.org/10.4121/bee2260c-630d-46cb-aa1d-a10032fa8a8fDissolution and vaporization of superheated droplets and capsules (2024)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Saleem, M. S.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036561655Validation of ultrasound velocimetry and computational fluid dynamics for flow assessment in femoral artery stenotic disease (2024)Journal of medical imaging, 11(3). Article 2450001. van de Velde, L., van Helvert, M., Engelhard, S., Ghanbarzadeh-Dagheyan, A., Mirgolbabaee, H., Voorneveld, J., Lajoinie, G., Versluis, M., Reijnen, M. M. P. J. & Jebbink, E. G.https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.11.3.037001Active Learning Strategies onĀ aĀ Real-World Thyroid Ultrasound Dataset (2024)In Data Augmentation, Labelling, and Imperfections - 3rd MICCAI Workshop, DALI 2023 Held in Conjunction with MICCAI 2023, Proceedings (pp. 127-136) (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 14379 LNCS). Springer. Sreedhar, H., Lajoinie, G. P. R., Raffaelli, C. & Delingette, H.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58171-7_13A unifying Rayleigh-Plesset-type equation for bubbles in viscoelastic media (2024)The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 155(2), 1593-1605. Oratis, A. T., Dijs, K., Lajoinie, G., Versluis, M. & Snoeijer, J. H.https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0024984CFD models for the PROTEUS simulator (2024)[Dataset Types › Dataset]. Zenodo. Lajoinie, G., Maresca, D., Jain, K., Blanken, N., Heiles, B. & Versluis, M.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10570012Control of monodisperse microbubble properties for high-precision medical applications (2024)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. van Elburg, B.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036559683

2023

Wall Shear Stress and Pressure Fluctuations under Oscillating Stimulation in Helical Square Ducts with Cochlea-like Geometrical Curvature and Torsion (2023)In 2023 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) (pp. 1-7). IEEE. Harte, N. C., Obrist, D., Caversaccio, M. D., Lajoinie, G. P. R. & Wimmer, W.https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC40787.2023.10340844A unifying Rayleigh-Plesset-type equation for bubbles in viscoelastic media (2023)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Oratis, A. T., Dijs, K., Lajoinie, G., Versluis, M. & Snoeijer, J. H.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.00484Dependence of sonoporation efficiency on microbubble size: An in vitro monodisperse microbubble study (2023)Journal of controlled release, 363, 747-755. van Elburg, B., Deprez, J., van den Broek, M., De Smedt, S. C., Versluis, M., Lajoinie, G., Lentacker, I. & Segers, T.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.09.047Microbubble formation by flow focusing: Role of gas and liquid properties, and channel geometry (2023)Journal of fluid mechanics, 972. Article A27. Cleve, S., Lassus, A., Diddens, C., Van Elburg, B., Gaud, E., Cherkaoui, S., Versluis, M., Segers, T. & Lajoinie, G.https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2023.704Dependence of sonoporation efficiency on microbubble size: An in vitro monodisperse microbubble study (2023)The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(4_supplement), A277-A277. van Elburg, B., Deprez, J., Van den broek, M., De smedt, S., Versluis, M., Lajoinie, G., Lentacker, I. & Segers, T.https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0023517Towards in vivo immunotherapy using high intensity focused ultraosund (2023)The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(4_supplement), A278-A278. Lajoinie, G., Engelen, Y., Breckpot, K., Krysko, D., De smedt, S. & Lentacker, I.https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0023519

2022

Super-Resolved Microbubble Localization in Single-Channel Ultrasound RF Signals Using Deep Learning (2022)IEEE transactions on medical imaging, 41(9), 2532-2542. Blanken, N., Wolterink, J. M., Delingette, H., Brune, C., Versluis, M. & Lajoinie, G.https://doi.org/10.1109/TMI.2022.3166443A theoretical framework for acoustically produced luminescence: From thermometry to ultrasound pressure field mapping (2022)Journal of luminescence, 248. Article 118940. Michels, S. E., Lajoinie, G., Hedayatrasa, S., Versluis, M., Kersemans, M. & Smet, P. F.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2022.118940Blood Flow Quantification with High-Frame-Rate, Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Velocimetry in Stented Aortoiliac Arteries: In Vivo Feasibility (2022)Ultrasound in medicine and biology, 48(8), 1518-1527. Engelhard, S., van Helvert, M., Voorneveld, J., Bosch, J. G., Lajoinie, G., Jebbink, E. G., Reijnen, M. M. P. J. & Versluis, M.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2022.03.016Time-resolved absolute radius estimation of vibrating contrast microbubbles using an acoustical camera (2022)The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 151(6), 3993-4003. Article 3993. Spiekhout, S., Voorneveld, J., Elburg, B. v., Renaud, G., Segers, T., Lajoinie, G. P. R., Versluis, M., Verweij, M. D., de Jong, N. & Bosch, J. G.https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0011619Super-Resolved Microbubble Localization in Single-Channel Ultrasound RF Signals Using Deep Learning (2022)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Blanken, N., Wolterink, J. M., Delingette, H., Brune, C., Versluis, M. & Lajoinie, G.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2204.04537Evaluation of Liposome-Loaded Microbubbles as a Theranostic Tool in a Murine Collagen-Induced Arthritis Model (2022)Scientia Pharmaceutica, 90(1), 17-23. Article 17. Deprez, J., Roovers, S., Lajoinie, G., Dewitte, H., Decruy, T., Coudenys, J., Descamps, B., Vanhove, C., Versluis, M., Elewaut, D., Jacques, P., Smedt, S. C. D. & Lentacker, I.https://doi.org/10.3390/scipharm90010017

Research profiles

For the past 6 years, I am involved in teaching medical acoustics to master students with Prof. Michel Versluis. I have also supervised several bachelor thesis students and 9 master thesis students.

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2023/2024

The research projects in which I am involved revolve around the idea of using microscale physics in order to generate contrast or induce therapy down to the single cell level. These mechanisms involve in particular phase change, microbubbles resonance and controlled production of complex particles.

Recently, I have focused on the use of these physical mechanisms combined with deep-learning for super-resolution ultrasound imaging.

Current projects

Ultrafast plane-wave ultrasound imaging

Plane-wave ultrasound allows us to image at several thousands of frames per second and thereby image biological processes that are otherwise too fast. In particular, we aim at flow parameters quantification using plane ultrasound and microbubble contrast agents, at a sub-millisecond timescale and resolve the details of the blood flow in relation to stents or vascular diseases.

Ultrasound super-resolution from raw ultrasound data using deep learning

Recently, ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) has received much attention as a method to overcome the diffraction limit in ultrasound imaging. However, ULM relies on low concentrations of microbubbles, ultimately resulting in long acquisition times. In this project, we investigate an alternative super-resolution approach, based on deconvolution of the raw ultrasound data with neural networks. We focus on low-frequency ultrasound in order to image deep in the body, which is needed for cardiovascular diseases or cancer. To that end, we train the neural network to recognize the specific nonlinear feature of echoes generated by monodisperse bubbles (uniform in size).

Lab-on-a-Chip Microfluidics.

The formation of microscopic droplets, bubbles and particles with an accurately controlled and narrow size distribution is crucial in a wide variety of applications and products. For example, in medical applications such as diagnostic ultrasound imaging, targeted drug delivery, and drug inhalation therapy, but also in inkjet printing, cosmetics and in modern food industry.

Ultrasound Therapy with microbubbles.

The use of ultrasound contrast agents as local drug delivery systems continues to grow. Microbubbles are an interesting vehicle that can carry a variety of payloads from functional nanoparticles to RNA loaded liposomes. We study here the physical aspects that lead to the controlled release of the payload upon ultrasound exposure. The effects on cells and mechanisms such as sonoporation or sonoprinting, that can temporarily open cell membranes, are also of prime interest. The project includes the study of single bubbles and of their interaction with 3D cell structures, in parallel, and makes use of ultra-high-speed imaging, fluorescence imaging, ultrasound, optical microscopy and confocal imaging.

Ultrasound Imaging.

Contrast agents for ultrasound imaging are used daily in the clinics in order to, for example, assess blood perfusion or give information on tumor malignancy. In this project, we study the formation and the behavior of microbubbles in response to ultrasound in order to find innovative contrast mode for ultrasound imaging, and provide new information for diagnosis.

High-speed imaging.

High-speed imaging is a core technique for the study of ultrasound contrast agents. This project aims at designing and implementing new techniques in order to push further the exploration of small length scales and short time scales.

Finished projects

Multimodal agents: ultrasound and photoacoustics

Ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging are complementary by many aspects. Here, we design agents consisting of microbubbles or microcapsules, that are made sensitive to light by the addition of a dye in the bubble oil coating or in the polymer shell of the capsules. The fast heat and mass transfer on the microscale combined with the dynamics of microbubbles allow these agents to mechanically respond to both laser irradiation and ultrasound excitation. These agents could thus be use in a multimodal imaging setting including ultrasound and photoacoustics.

Phase-change agents for ultrasound.

Microbubbles have undeniably proven their value as ultrasound contrast agents, both for imaging and therapy. However, their micron size confines them to the blood vessels, making them exclusively blood pool agents. In this project, we study the vaporization mechanisms of superheated perfluorocarbon droplets that can be made small enough to extravasate and subsequently turned into microbubbles, using ultrasound as trigger. These microbubbles can then be used beyond the endothelial barrier for both diagnosis and therapy.

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room ME214A
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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