Jelle HENDRIX
- Group Leader - Dynamic Bioimaging Lab
- Associate Professor - Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences
- Directory Board - Biomedical Research Institute
- Management Board - Advanced Optical Microscopy Centre
- Strategic Board - Flanders BioImaging
- Vice-president - Belgian Biophysical Society
- Board - Royal Belgian Society for Microscopy
prof. dr. Jelle HENDRIX
Agoralaan C (BIOMED), B3590 Diepenbeek
Jelle Hendrix (°1983, married, 3 children) holds a KU Leuven Master in Biochemistry (magna cum laude) and obtained a PhD in Science (Biochemistry, IWT, now FWO-SB, funded) from KU Leuven in 2010 with Profs. Yves Engelborghs and Zeger Debyser on the quantitative application of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and related methods in live cells and discovered that the chromatin scanning mechanisms of transcription factor LEDGF/p75 is hijacked by the HIV/AIDS virus.
He realized KU Leuven lacked critical expertise in quantitative multicolor microscopy, so in 2011 he moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich for a two-year postdoc (FWO/DAAD funded) and developed together with Prof. Don C. Lamb an artifact-free multicolor laser scanning confocal microscopy method using nanosecond alternating multicolor excitation and applied it to study the HIV/AIDS virus.
From 2013, he worked as a senior postdoc with Prof. Johan Hofkens in the Molecular Imaging and Photonics division at KU Leuven, specializing in multicolor single-molecule time-resolved spectroscopy and imaging, continuing his research activities on HIV, and setting up different collaborations on single-molecule dynamics structural biology within Flanders.
In 2016, after having lectured part-time for two years as guest professor Biochemistry at UHasselt, he secured an assistant professorship Bioimaging at UHasselt-BIOMED, in follow-up of Prof. Marcel Ameloot. He founded the Dynamic Bioimaging Lab consolidating his unique expertise from Hasselt University, setting up a research network within the university and in Flanders, and working on defined research projects. He currently lectures in different course on many aspects of imaging in the UHasselt Biomedical Sciences programme (both bachelor and master level), but also teaches on imaging as a part-time guest professor at KU Leuven. He also manages the UHasselt Advanced Optical Microscopy Centre.
He is an active member of different national (Belgian Biophysical Society, Royal Belgian Microscopy Society, Flanders Bioimaging) and international consortia (American Biophysical Society, global FRET community, Eurobioimaging) and academic promotor of a European Training Network (NanoCarb).
Taming the Academic Triangle
The optimal acquisition settings of a microscope depend on the sample and on the research question. Will you need a super sharp image? Or the most sensitive detection? Or better yet, the fastest imaging speed? Settings that benefit one of these three properties, inevitably sacrifice the other. Microscopists refer to this as the 'Imaging Triangle'.
In fact, the Imaging Triangle is a perfect metaphor for being an academic leader, continuously balancing Family, Research and Education!
