OMFS-IMPATH - Key Persons
Andres Torres was born on July 4th, 1988 in Bogota, Colombia. He obtained his degree as General Dentist in 2012 from the University of Los Andes, Santiago, Chile. During the training in Dentistry, he participated twice in a research internship on CBCT in Endodontics at the KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, led by Professor Reinhilde Jacobs. In March 2014 he achieved the equivalence of foreign diploma "Titulo de Cirujano Dentista" with the Flemish degree of "Master of Science in Dentistry". In 2015 he obtained the diploma of Postgraduate studies in Advance Medical Imaging at the KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Further, he obtained a specialization degree in Endodontics in July 2017, under the guidance of Professor Paul Lambrechts at the KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
He works as an Endodontic specialist in private practice. He is instructor of the Endodontic postgraduate at KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Currently he is a PhD candidate (OMFS-IMPATH, KU Leuven, Belgium) with Professor Reinhilde Jacobs as his promoter and Professor Paul Lambrechts as his co-promoter. His research topics are: 3-Dimensional Guided Endodontics, 3-Dimensional Assessment of Apical Radiolucencies, Characterisation of Root and Canal Morphology and Maxillary Sinus and Endodontics.
Catalina Moreno Rabie was born in Concepción, Chile, in 1992. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degree in dentistry in 2016 at the Universidad de los Andes, Chile. During her final year of dentistry, she completed a clinical and research internship at KU Leuven, where she studied anatomical variations in the retromolar area on CBCT. Between 2017 and 2018 she worked as a general dentist in Chile. Within this period she also completed a course in dental emergency management organized by the emergency unit of the Barros Luco Trudeau health care complex and the University of Chile. In 2019, she obtained her diploma in the Postgraduate studies in Advanced Medical Imaging at KU Leuven (2018- 2019, summa cum laude), the thesis topic was on guided endodontics under the supervision of Andrés Torres and prof. Reinhilde Jacobs.
Currently, Catalina is working as a doctoral researcher in biomedical sciences at the KU Leuven under the tutelage of prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs. Specifically, her thesis topic investigates the effects of antiresorptive drugs on the jaw bones, possible risk factors for the development of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaws (MRONJ), and the prognostic risk factors for this pathology. In September 2021, she was awarded the second prize in the Robert Frank Senior Clinical Science Award (CED-IADR/NOF Oral Health Research Congress, Brussels, Belgium).
Job Titles:
- Surgeon
- Head of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery UZ Leuven
Constantinus Politis is Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgeon. He is currently Full Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Leuven University Hospitals, KULeuven, Belgium. He is an invited Lecturer at the EHSAL in Brussels. He graduated at the Catholic University of Leuven in medicine (MD, summa cum laude), in dentistry (DDS, magna cum laude). He specialized in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Catholic University of Leuven. Postgraduate training was additionally followed in Arnhem (Stoelinga), Aachen (Koberg), Copenhagen (Pindborg), Göteborg (Bränemark), and San Francisco (Marx). He holds an honorary professorship at the Fourth Medical Military University of Xi'an, China. He also holds a master degree in management (MM) from the Applied Economic Sciences at the University of Hasselt and a master degree in Hospital Management (MHM) from the Catholic University of Leuven. He became a recognition as a medical specialist in the management of health care data and is now member of the National Council of Hospital Facilities. He is Vice-President of the Professional Union of Belgian Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. He is President of the Belgian Royal Scientific Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He is an acknowledged trainer of OMFS trainees. He defended his doctor's thesis on the subject of complications of orthognathic surgery (PhD). His professional field of interest is in orthognathic and orthodontic surgery and trigeminal nerve dysfunction. Clinical research projects include prevention and repair of iatrogenic trigeminal nerve injury, transplantation of teeth, and orthognathic surgery. He has been granted membership of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine.
Delphine Mulier is a Ph.D. candidate at the OMFS-IMPATH-research group at the University of Leuven under the promotorship of Prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs, Prof. Dr. Constantinus Politis, Prof. dr. Kris Vanhaecht and Dr. Ir. Eman Shaheen. She graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven in Medicine in June 2018. Currently, she is an Oral and Maxillofacial trainee at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University Hospitals of Leuven. Her research is focused on the evaluation of the quality of care for orthognathic surgery.
Dr. Joeri Meyns has a degree as a Medical doctor, Dentist and Maxillofacial surgeon. After obtaining his degree as a maxillofacial surgeon in 2011 he was a staff member at the Academic Hospital Maastricht (MUMC) for almost 4 years, where he further specialised in oral oncology and reconstructive surgery. He is Medical Head of the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg (ZOL) in Genk. His main speciality is orthognathic surgery and oncology. His research topic is growth modification of the face in children.
Dr. Pieter-Jan Verhelst is an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Resident at the University Hospitals of Leuven (Belgium) with a special interest in orthognathic, craniofacial and cleft surgery. In 2017 he obtained his medical degree (KU Leuven, magna cum laude) with a thesis on the free fibula flap in craniomaxillofacial reconstructions and in 2020 he obtained his dental medicine degree (KU Leuven, magna cum laude) with a thesis on 3D volumetric analysis of the jaw joint. He was trained at the University Hospitals of Leuven (Belgium) and the Rijnstate Hospital Arnhem (Netherlands). He is part of the Cleft Lip and Palate Team at the University Hospitals of Leuven. Dr. Verhelst is a PhD candidate within the OMFS-IMPATH research group at KU Leuven, supervised by Prof. Dr. Reinhilde Jacobs, Prof. Dr. Constantinus Politis and Prof. Dr. Hilde Peeters. His research focuses on orthognathic, craniofacial and cleft surgery, condylar resorption, 3D craniofacial phenotyping and associated genetic abnormalities.
Eman (Emmy) Shaheen was born on July 12th, 1982 in Giza, Egypt. She graduated with honor from the faculty of Computer Sciences and Information Technology (2003), Cairo University, Egypt where she also worked as a teaching assistant from 2003 till 2007 with major in Image Processing. Meanwhile, she obtained her Master's Degree in Video Processing (2007) from Cairo University. In 2008, she joined the team of Medical Physics where she finished with distinction her pre-doctoral studies about mammography and breast cancer (2009) in Biomedical Sciences at the KU Leuven, Belgium. She was granted a PhD scholarship from the OPTIMAM project (UK) in 2010 to develop, simulate and validate 3D models of breast lesions and tools to optimize the performance of breast tomosynthesis. She obtained her doctoral degree in 2014, KU Leuven, Belgium. In the same year, she started working in the department of Maxillo-facial surgery, University hospitals Leuven (Belgium) with Prof. Constantinus Politis as clinical engineer with focus on 3D planning of orthognathic surgeries. Next to the patient related work, she is part of the research group of the OMFSIMPATH (KU Leuven, Belgium) where she supervises students, supports different research projects related to 3D printing and 3D simulations. She is also collaborating with Materialise (Leuven, Belgium) as consultant to improve the CMF software for orthognathic surgeries next to other research related projects.
Flavia Preda has graduated as a Dentist (2012) and as an Orthodontics Specialist (2015) in Bucharest-Romania. Since 2017 she has been practicing orthodontics in a private dental clinic in Belgium. Starting with 2019 she is a visiting Orthodontics Consultant in the cleft facility at Marie S. Curie Children's Hospital in Bucharest-Romania. Currently, she is a part-time Ph.D. student in the OMFS-IMPATH research group at KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Reinhilde Jacobs with the main research interest 3D supported and AI-enhanced diagnosis and treatment planning for Orthodontics.
Fréderic Van der Cruyssen was born in Waregem, Belgium on January 23th 1992. He received his medical degree magna cum laude from the Catholic University of Leuven in June 2017 with a master's thesis on trigeminal nerve physiology and his dental degree at the same university in 2020. In 2019 he commenced his PhD project at the OMFS-IMPATH research group under promotorship of Prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs, Prof. dr. Constantinus Politis, Prof. dr. Jan Casselman and Prof. dr. Tara Renton (Oral Surgery, King's College, London, UK). In 2020 he started his oral and maxillofacial surgery residency at the University Hospitals Leuven. In 2021 he obtained a master's degree in healthcare policy and management at the Catholic University of Leuven. Currently, he is a third-year oral and maxillofacial resident at the ETZ Elisabeth Hospital, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Isti Rahayu Suryani was born on November 20 th, 1980. She obtained her Doctor of Dental Medicine (2006) from Faculty of Dentistry, UGM-Indonesia, Master of Biomedical Engineering (2012) from Graduate School of UGM-Indonesia and Specialist in Oral Radiology (2016) from Padjajaran University-Indonesia. She has worked as lecturer in the Departement of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, UGM and also as Oral Radiologist at UGM Dental Hospital. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in OMFS-IMPATH research group, KU Leuven from December 2019 with Professor Reinhilde Jacobs as her promotor. Her research focus on Imaging of Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw.
Jan Meeus obtained his dental and his medical degree at KU Leuven in 2011 and 2016 respectively. Ever since he graduated, he started working in a private practice, where he focuses on implant placement. Besides this, he further specialised to become an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. He has been working as a surgeon at the University Hospital in Leuven, as well as in the Hospital ZOL in Genk. Currently, he is Clinical Staff Member at UZ Leuven in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. In his clinical work, he focuses on special dental implants with bone grafting in upper and lower jaws, oral implants, implantology, poor prosthetic fit due to jawbone problems, dento-alveolar surgery, and preprosthetic surgery.
Jeroen Van Dessel holds a Master in Biomedical Sciences and a Master in Advanced Medical Imaging from KU Leuven. As FWO-aspirant he achieved his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the KU Leuven.
He is active in the field of dentomaxillofacial radiology within the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the UZ Leuven and the OMFS-IMPATH research group at the KU Leuven. He also coordinates the Institute for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Education and Training (www.iomfcot.be).
He is visiting professor at the Department of Surgery, Stomatology, Pathology and Radiology of the Dentistry Faculty at the University of São Paulo in Bauru (Brazil). He is a board member of the European Academy of DentoMaxilloFacial Radiology (EADMFR).
Jeroen received the COB Oral Research Award (2013), EADMFR Oral Research Award (2012; 2014), the EUNETHYDIS Sagvolden Award (2015), the EADMFR Research Fellowship (2016), the ECNP Junior Research Award (2018) and OMFS-IMPATH Young Talent Award (2019). As a visiting researcher, he has been associated with the University of São Paulo (Brazil), Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Parana (Brazil) and Karolinska Institute (Sweden).
Kostas Syriopoulos is dentist specialized in oral and maxillofacial radiology. He graduated as dentist from the University of Athens, Greece. He has a MSc degree (University of London) as well as a PhD degree (VU, Amsterdam) in Dental Radiology. He had an internship in the Dept. of Oral Radiology (Stellenbosch University, Cape Town). Further, he received the diploma in Health Physics level 3 (TU Delft). In the Netherlands Level 3 is a higher expert level of health physics, necessary for supervising in radionuclide laboratories or working in a medical profession with higher risk or responsibility, like clinical physics and nuclear medicine. From 2001 to 2016 he was a staff- member in the department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology, ACTA, Amsterdam. Since February 2015 he has been a staff member in the Department of Imaging & Pathology, KU Leuven. His main professional interests are Diagnostic Radiology, Radiography Education and Radiation Protection.
Krisztian Nagy is a Maxillo-Facial Surgeon with special interest and experience in cleft surgery. He has been working as the co-ordinator and leading surgeon of the Cleft Care Centre, at the 1st Department of Paediatrics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. He has been also working as a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon, in AZ St-Jan Bruges-Oostende Hospital, Belgium since March 2012. He became Fellow of the European Board of Oro-Maxillo-Facial Surgery & Head and Neck Surgery (FEBOMS) in September 2012. He is currently Guest Professor at Leuven University, KU Leuven, Belgium. He graduated at the Semmelweis University Budapest, Hungary in medicine (MD, summa cum laude) and in dentistry (DDS, magna cum laude). He specialized in oral and maxillo-facial surgery at the Semmelweis University, at the KU Leuven and in AZ SInt Jan in Bruges, Belgium. His postgraduate training was additionally followed by clinical experiences in Bruges, Minden, Vienna, Wellington, Zürich and Taipei. He is now member of the European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery (EACMFS), the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery (EAFPS) and the Craniomaxillofacial Section, Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen (AO). He is acknowledged PhD tutor of 3 PhD students. He defended his doctoral thesis on the subject of "Objective methods for evaluation of surgical outcomes in cleft lip and palate surgery" (PhD). His professional field of interest is in orthognathic, cleft and craniofacial surgery.
Laurence Verstraete is a PhD candidate at the OMFS-IMPATH-research group at the University of Leuven under promotorship of Prof. dr. Constantinus Politis, Prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs and Dr. Ir. Eman Shaheen. She obtained her Medical Degree at the University of Ghent in June 2018. Currently, she is an Oral and Maxillofacial surgery trainee at the University Hospitals of Leuven. Her research is focused on the three-dimensional planning, evaluation and follow-up of orthognathic surgery with special interest in soft tissue analysis.
Luiz Eduardo was born on June 27th, 1993 in Princesa Isabel, Paraíba, Brazil. He obtained his degree as General Dentist in 2016 from the Federal University of Campina Grande, Patos, Paraíba, Brazil. After working as a General Dentist from 2016 to 2017 in the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), he obtained his degree of "Master in Dentistry" in 2019 from the State University of Paraíba, Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil. He is currently a PhD student in Oral Radiology at Piracicaba Dental School, University of Campinas, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil, under the advice of Professor Matheus L. Oliveira and participates in the OMFS-IMPATH research group under the advice of Professor Reinhilde Jacobs at KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. His research topics are: digital radiography, cone beam computed tomography, intraoral scanning and infrared thermography.
Maximiliaan Smeets graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven in June 2018 as a Medical Doctor and is now an active Oral and Maxillofacial trainee at the University Hospital of Leuven. His research interests include oral oncology and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in general. Since 2020 Maximiliaan Smeets is a PhD candidate at the OMFS-IMPATH Research Group, and he focuses on the onset, etiology, and treatment of persistent trismus after oral oncology treatment. His research is mentored by Prof. dr. Constantinus Politis, Prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs, dr. Michel Bila, and Jeroen Van Dessel.
Michael Bornstein has been appointed in January 2020 as professor and chair of the Departement of Oral Health & Medicine at the University Center for Dental Medicine Basel (UZB) of the University of Basel, Switzerland. Since April 2020 he is also head of "research" and member of the executive board at the UZB.
He obtained his dental degree (1998) and thesis (Dr. med. dent., 2001) at the University of Basel. He continued with a specialisation in oral surgery and stomatology in Basel (1998-1999, Prof. Dr. Dr. J. Th. Lambrecht) and Bern (2000-2002, Prof. Dr. D. Buser). In 2004, he was visiting assistant professor at the Department of Periodontics (Prof. Dr. D. Cochran) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, USA, with a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. From 2007-2014 he was head of the Section of Dental Radiology and Stomatology, University of Bern. In 2009, he obtained the Habilitation (Privatdozent / PhD) and in 2014 he became Asscociate Professor in the field of "Oral Surgery and Stomatology".
From 2016-2019 he has been Clinical Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology at the Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. In December 2018 he is been appointed as Associate Dean of "Research and Innovation" of the Faculty of Dentistry. He currently is a Visiting Professor at the OMFS-IMPATH Research Group, Department of Imaging and Pathology, University of Leuven, Belgium, and since January 2020 a Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong.
His fields of research include cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in clinical dental practice, diagnostic imaging, stomatology/oral medicine, GBR procedures and dental implants. He has published over 210 original articles, and is the author / co-author of numerous case reports, review articles, and book chapters.
Michel Bila is a maxillofacial surgeon and researcher in the University Hospital of Leuven since 2016. He is currently a faculty member at the University Hospitals Leuven where he specializes in the treatment of oral cancer and reconstruction. With a passion for advancing the field, Dr. Bila is pursuing a PhD in neoadjuvant immunotherapy. His expertise in the field is evidenced by his teaching and research activities, which are focused on improving outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer.
He received his medical degree from the University of Antwerp in 2009 with a master's thesis on retinal straylight before and after implementation of the bag in the lens IOL. He received his dental degree from the Catholic University of Leuven in 2012. During his residency, he was fortunate to have the opportunity to train at a number of prestigious institutions, including the University of Leuven in Belgium, University of Antwerp in Belgium and UCLH in London UK.
Job Titles:
- ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR
- Administrative Coordinator for the OMFS - IMPATH Research Group at the Department of Imaging
Nermin Morgan was born on September 20th, 1990. She obtained her degree in Bachelor of Dental Surgery (B.D.S) from Faculty of Dentistry, Mansoura University, Egypt (2007-2012). After her graduation she worked there as a teaching assistant in the department of Oral radiology and Diagnostic sciences (2013-2018). Meanwhile She has awarded her master's degree of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology (2017). Same year she became a radiology specialist at Ministry of health, Cairo, Egypt. Her research work has focused on Cone Beam CT (CBCT), and its different clinical applications in maxillofacial region. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in OMFS-IMPATH research group, KU Leuven, with professor Reinhilde Jacobs as her promoter.
Omid Jazil received his degree -cum laude- in civil engineering technology in September 2020 from the University of Antwerp. In June 2022 he also obtained the certificate of honourstudent after following a honoursprogram of two years at OMFS-IMPATH under promotorship of prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs. Currently he is studying for his master's in dentistry.
Job Titles:
- Dentist, Doctor in Dental Surgery With Postgraduate Training
Pierre Lahoud is a dentist, Doctor in Dental Surgery with Postgraduate Training in Advanced Medical Imaging. He concluded a clinical internship at UC Louvain in 2018 (Erasmus+ Scholarship) and performed his pre-doctoral research at the OMFS-IMPATH Research Group (KU Leuven, Belgium), focusing on artificial intelligence driven segmentation for tooth auto-transplantation - graduating Magna Cum Laude in July 2020.
He is currently a Clinical Resident in Periodontology and Implant Surgery (KU Leuven, Belgium) and a Ph. D. Researcher (OMFS-IMPATH Research Group, KU Leuven, Belgium) under the promotership of Prof. Dr. Reinhilde Jacobs (KU Leuven, Belgium), Em. Prof. Dr. Marc Quirynen (KU Leuven, Belgium) and Prof. Dr. Michael Bornstein (Universität Basel, Switzerland).
He is also a consultant for trans-alveolar dental transplantations (Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium).
His research topics focus primarily on Artificial Intelligence-driven planning for treatments and surgeries in the oral and maxillofacial region, periodontology and implantology.
He is the recipient of the First Prize - IADMFR Maxillofacial Research Award 2021 (Gwangju, South Korea) and is co-recipient of the Journal of Endodontics Award (2022) in the category of Regenerative Endodontics (Chicago, IL, USA).
Job Titles:
- Coordinator of the OMFS - IMPATH Research Group
Job Titles:
- Head of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Job Titles:
- RESEARCH COORDINATOR
- Clinical Head Dentomaxillofacial Radiology Center Coordinator OMFS - IMPATH Research Group
- Dentist, Doctor in Dental Sciences
Reinhilde Jacobs is dentist, Doctor in Dental Sciences (PhD University of Leuven), periodontologist (KU Leuven) and Master in Dental Radiology (University of London). She is full professor at the University of Leuven and visiting professor at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden and the Dalian Medical University in China. R. Jacobs is heading the omfs impath research group of the KU Leuven (omfsimpath.be) and the clinical center of dentomaxillofacial radiology (UZleuven). She is Secretary General of the International Association of DentoMaxilloFacial Radiology. She is section editor of 4 journals (Clinical Oral Investigations, International Journal of Oral Implantology, European Journal of Radiology and Oral Radiology). She has received the D Collen Research Travel Award (1994), a postdoctoral fellowship of the European Commission (1994-95), the IADR Young Investigators Award (1998) and the Belgian Joachim Award in Odontostomatology (1999). In 2013, she received a Dr Honoris Causa at the "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca. She is involved in many multidisciplinary and interuniversity research collaborations, with a specific focus on imaging research, artificial intelligence and bioprinting. She has been actively participating in 5 European projects and is (co-)author of 5 books and more than 550 publications in peer-reviewed journals besides multiple invited lectures and publications in other journals or books. Scopus (2022): h:72
Soroush Baseri Saadi received an Associate's degree in the field of General Electronics from "Shamsipour Technical College/University" in Tehran, in 2005. In 2009, he graduated as a Bachelor of Science from "Islamic Azad University (IAU) - South Tehran Branch'', Iran, in Electrical Engineering-Electronics. After graduation, he did his military service in the Army University of Medical Sciences as Second Lieutenant Officer in charge of a Biomedical Engineering team. Then he was employed in the Kian hospital as a Biomedical Engineer to design, maintain and operate with medical equipment. In July 2016, he graduated as a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. During his master education, he extensively worked on several Biomedical Image Processing and Biomechanical Simulation projects. At the same time, in order to maintain his living cost, he used his skills to work part-time. To gain work experience in a more advanced degree after graduation, he again cooperated with the Kian Hospital as a R&D member, designer of medical equipment and Surgical Navigation Engineer. After that, he was invited to work as a software developer, R&D member and designer of medical apparatus for a manufacturer of biomedical equipment, Dentus Co. However, since he has always had an interest to be a researcher, and to continue his education to a more advanced level and work in an academic environment, he never stopped advancing his skills in Medical Image Processing. He is highly interested in research positions in the fields of designing medical equipment, Biomedical Image Processing and Deep Learning.
Xiaotong Wang received her degrees in both Bachelor and Master of Dental Medicine from Harbin Medical University, China. After her graduation, she worked as an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at OMFS-IMPATH research group with Prof. dr. Reinhilde Jacobs as her promoter. Her research is focused on Digital dentistry: development of AI-driven prediction and CBCT-based biomodels.