By Dr Sebastian Munck
VIB Expert Technologist;
KU Leuven Assistant Professor
Sebastian Munck studied Biology and physical Biology at the LMU in Munich, and worked for a short period in industry and at the Medical University of Innsbruck. He is currently working for the VIB, a research institute with a dedicated translational orientation. At this research institute, he is a group leader and a part-time assistant professor at the KU Leuven. He has set up a professional and internationally renowned imaging facility, which was awarded a Nikon center of excellence in 2019. He collaborates with several other companies, including 10x Genomics and Picoquant, and authored several patent applications whereof one became a product after being licensed to Zeiss.
In his work, he focuses on microscopy, tomography, correlative imaging, and analysis of biomedical images, and his publications cover super-resolution, mesocale imaging on the border between preclinical and biological imaging and analyzing the dynamics of cellular and neuronal processes, neuronal polarity, and regeneration. The thereby used image processing tools are ranging from spatial statistics to machine learning. He also worked on hardware automation for advanced imaging equipment and workflows for high content screening and analysis.
He is keen to work on the interface of artificial materials with tissue, such as neuronal conduits and intramedullary bone rods. He made significant scientific contributions to these themes by publishing 52 peer-reviewed articles in total, of which eight as the first or last author and one peer-reviewed conference article. His ambition is the enabling of the best science. This usually involves a new take on technology rather than a continuation of existing research, such as the tomography of opaque objects. He enjoys reaching out, organizing events, and gaining new insights from neighbouring fields.