From the Netherlands to Harvard: Researching the future of cancer surgery
Can you imagine a tumour lighting up during surgery as if it were a glow-in-the-dark object? For surgeons, it is often a challenge during surgery to see exactly where a tumour starts and ends. Healthy and diseased tissue can look very similar, especially in minimally invasive surgery, where surgeons cannot rely on their sense of touch. CT or MRI scans are taken prior to surgery, but provide only a snapshot with limited accuracy. In the days between the scan and surgery, a tumour can change, and even a small residual tumour can increase the risk of the disease returning. Real-time visual guidance in the operating theatre can therefore help to remove tumours more safely and completely, preventing follow-up surgery and additional treatment and significantly reducing the risk of recurrence.
Thanks to the KIVI scholarship, I had the unique opportunity to spend five and a half months doing research at Harvard Medical School in Boston. There, I worked on developments within fluorescence-guided surgery that are promising for the future of oncological surgery.
A new dimension in tumour imaging: measuring in time rather than intensity
Before leaving, I did a 10-week internship at Greenlight Leiden, a leading research group in the field of fluorescence imaging. In Boston, I continued this research in Dr Kumar's laboratory at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, part of Harvard Medical School. Whereas traditional fluorescence imaging mainly looks at the intensity of the dye, my project focused on an innovative technique: fluorescence lifetime imaging. This measures not the intensity, but the time a dye molecule remains "in excitation" before emitting a photon. This lifetime, measured in nanoseconds, provides a kind of fingerprint that allows healthy and tumour tissue to be more reliably distinguished. A major advantage is that the technique works with indocyanine green (ICG), a safe dye that is already widely used and could potentially serve as a universal tumour marker.
Translating research to the operating room
During my internship, I contributed to the first clinical application during surgery of a new portable fluorescence lifetime system. I helped integrate this system into surgeons' workflow, allowing them to get immediate feedback during surgery without disrupting the process. This immediate feedback can ensure that all tumour tissue is removed during the initial surgery, which can prevent reoperations, additional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and reduce the risk of disease recurrence. I also worked with a fluorescence-lifetime microscope and developed a MATLAB tool that brings together multiple analysis steps into one easy-to-use application. This further strengthened my technical and programming skills and taught me how to turn technical innovations into practical tools for doctors and researchers.
Besides this research, I broadened my lab knowledge by helping with histological staining of tumour tissue and organising an international symposium with speakers from the Netherlands, the UK and the US. The results of my work led to two accepted abstracts for the SPIE conference in San Francisco in January 2026, where I may present my findings both as a poster and as a lecture. I am also collaborating on a joint scientific publication.
New insights and ambition
My time in Boston was not only academically valuable, but also personally enriching. I immersed myself in Boston life, joined Harvard's recreational rowing team and got to row on the famous Charles River with students from all over the world.
I am very grateful to KIVI for making this experience possible. This internship strengthened my ambition to bring technical innovations to the clinic, and I will take the knowledge and inspiration gained into my further career.