Duits’ technique uses invertible scores to visually enhance the structure of tissue (including that of heart, brain, and retina). Automatic image enhancing software is known to have serious trouble recognizing crossing patterns (such as intersecting lines), resulting in computers failing to properly recognize the structure of blood vessels or nerve bundles that the naked eye can spot easily in a blurry picture.
 
Sandra Hofmann Boss of Orthopaedic Biomechanics (Biomedical Engineering) will receive a Starting Grant to study how bone tissue adapts to mechanical loads by researching cultured bone tissue in a bioreactor. The pieces of bone are subjected to forces to see how they react. In healthy bones, the balance between bone-forming and bone-depleting cells is very delicate. Any disbalance may lead to skeletal conditions, like the common old-age ailment osteoporosis. For this project, Hofmann Boss wants to use a technique called micro-computed tomography.