Biweekly magazine of the Eindhoven University of TechnologyFor news: www.cursor.tue.nl and follow tuecursor on Twitter and Facebook

8December 13, 2012 | year 55

Lazy fat7Go go, Feng Fang6DNA doesn’t like its picture taken

3

4 | Happy holidays

This is the last Cursor of 2012. You can pick up

Cursor 9 from January 10. Until that time,

we’ll be updating www.cursor.tue.nl regularly.

The editorial staff wishes everyone

happy holidays. See you in 2013!

2 | For Starters December 13, 2012

Brainmatters

Alphas and BetasPeople love contradictions. Universities have hard and soft sciences, or the alphas (humanities) and the betas. It is easy to think about how different they are, but eventually alphas and betas (like two letters in the alphabet) have more similarities than differences.If you want to calculate how billiard balls move you have to include the gravity of the people in the room in your calculation from the 9th time the balls hit each other, Michael Berry explained in 1978. This is practically impossible, and that unpredict-ability makes billiards a game. In psychology, it is often practically impossible to measure all variables that affect people’s behavior, for example because of that annoying human characteristic ‘free will’. However, there are plenty of situations where we can make extremely good predictions.

For example, in 1935 Ridley Stroop asked one-hundred students to pronounce the colors of squares ( █ █ █ █), and to pronounce the color in which words were written (while the words have a different color-meaning: yellow green blue red). Although the meaning of the words is irrelevant to the color naming task, people

cannot resist to process the meaning of the words, which makes them slower in the second task.

With one-hundred students, a piece of paper, and a watch, the observed difference was statistically more likely than the 5 sigma which the existence of the Higgs boson was recently demonstrated at CERN. Alphas and betas do not necessarily vary in the certainty with which they can make scientific statements. But where the factors that make people happier are just as difficult to predict as a game of billiards, we do not consider human happiness to be a game. And so it is up to psychologists to not only investigate how quickly people can name colors, but to also face the challenge to try to predict, at least to some extent, human behavior, despite its extreme variability.

Psychology is becoming ever more important at TU/e. Technical systems and artifacts, be they games, cars, robots, lighting systems or buildings, are all meant for human end users eventually. It’s essential to know how these users perceive, think, feel, and act. The new human-oriented program Psychology & Technology examines every technical design from a psychological perspective. From now on, Cursor will be taking a closer psychological look at students, teachers, labs, technical artifacts, the workplace, the scientific business, campus, education, and websites.

Daniel Lakens, Assistant Professor in Applied Cognitive Psychology

Colophoneditor in chief

Han Konings

executive editor Brigit Span

editorial staff Judith van Gaal

Tom Jeltes (Science)Odette Knappers (trainee)

Frits van OtterdijkNorbine Schalij

Monique van de Ven

Staff Nicole Testerink

Photography Rien Meulman

Bart van Overbeeke

Illustrations Studio Lakmoes

CoverBart van Overbeeke

translationAnnemarie van Limpt (pages 2,3,4,5,6)

Benjamin Ruijsenaars (page 7)

LayoutNatasha Franc

Editorial boardprof.dr. Cees Midden

prof.dr. Hans NiemantsverdrietAngela Stevens- van Gennip

Thomas ReijnaertsArold Roestenburg

Anneliese Vermeulen-Adolfs

Address editorial officeTU/e, Laplace 0.40

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International university?Groep-één says it wasn’t intentional, but putting an international student on their ballot turned out to be a genius move. The Chinese Feng Fang received no less than 173 votes. Unfortunately, the student didn’t make it into the student council after all, and that’s a missed opportunity if you ask me. We may be telling everyone we’re an international university, but there are hardly any international students or faculty members represented in our most important advisory bodies. And if there were, would members even consider speaking English during their meetings? I fear Feng would

Which brings me to a different point. The Wired article mentions the Founder’s Fund, a fund that invests the money of heavyweights like Elon Musk and Sean Parker. They state that “Venture capital has ceased to be the funder of the future, and instead has become a funder of features, widgets, irrelevancies…”. Have a look at Kickstarter and you will see all these incredibly useless projects in the likes of strawberry-scented iPad covers being funded(some are pretty cool though). The Founder’s Fund manifesto reads, “We wanted flying cars. We got 140 characters.” Ouch! Where did we go wrong?

Gerardo Ochoa, masterstudent Embedded Systems

Tech-NO-logy

have had to boost his Dutch… Welcome to our international university, indeed…

Turn to page 6 for the interview with Feng Fang.

Our Rewwwind feature provides you with snippets of last week’s news. What happened online after the previous Cursor magazine was published?

12 December 2012 - On Monday, December 17, TU/e will have four new charging stations for electric cars. What’s special about this -a national first even, according to the university- is that the energy consumption of the charging stations is compensated by

solar power from solar panels on the roof of the Multimediapaviljoen. The new charging stations were installed at the Auditorium and the Multimediapaviljoen at the end of November already.

11 December 2012 - To illustrate his lecture on periodic motion, lecturer dr. Richard Engeln swung through the Auditorium Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 December. These lectures were attended by a thousand students in total. He dropped a ten-pound ball from a five and ten-degree angle.

With this, he showed the period does not depend on the oscillation of the pendulum. After having detached the ball and fastening himself to the construction, he proved the period does not depend on the mass of the pendulum as well.

7 December 2012 - In the Selection Guide for Higher Education 2012, the TU/e ended up third of the country. The other universities of technology ended up a bit lower, Twente on the sixth place and Delft on place eight. Besides universities the guided rated

bachelor studies as well. The ones with more than 76 points were labeled excellent program’. Three programmes from the TU/e received this title: Applied Physics, Innovation Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering.

TU/e first to use sustainable charging stations

Lecturer swings through Auditorium TU/e best university of technology

www.cursor.tue.nlRewwwind

Clmn

Judith van Gaal

I read the article ‘We might be living in the least disruptive age in history’ at Wired the other day. They mention how technology nowadays just seems boring compared to the discoveries and achievements from the past. On the other hand, different articles state that makers and the DIY-movement are already changing the world. Being myself an Internet addict and a pseudo-maker, I have been keeping up with the trends and benefits that followed after the introduction of 3D printing, open-source hardware(OSHW), and other related platforms/techno - lo gies. 3D printing and Arduinos are awesome and they offer a lot of prototyping freedom to businesses and individuals.Last week Fujitsu launched Wandant, a fitness tracker for dogs. Really? Do you think Sparky needs a fitness tracker? Or are we creating just for the sake of creating? Yes, there might be a market for neurotic pet owners. But come on, Fujitsu, don’t you think with your hundreds of engineers and a fat R&D budget you can try solving more complex problems? Let us young poor makers armed with nothing but Makey-Makeys and Sugru solve these completely irrelevant issues!

For Starters | 3See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl

Vox Academici

How do you represent dnA directly?

Dr. Nico Sommerdijk, associate professor of Materials and Interface Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry

Nico Sommerdijk. Photo | Bart van Overbeeke

Thanks in part to TV series like CSI, the audience has been introduced to DNA and DNA analysis techniques. DNA is often pictured as the twisted ladder-like structure we all know, or as colored peak- the DNA sequence. Visualizing DNA as a molecule is still a very specialized area of expertise, and that’s why the genetic material is often shown indirectly. Last week, several media reported about an Italian research group that had managed to represent the strands of DNA for the very first time. And there it was indeed: a double helix. Is it very special to picture our genetic material this way, and why is it that DNA doesn’t like its picture taken?

“The article in question that appeared in Nano Letters featured some wonderful images, no doubt about that. Still, the first thing I thought, was: I’ve seen this before”, says dr. Nico Sommerdijk, associate professor of Materials and Interface at the Department of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry, and involved in the founding of the TU/e Soft Matter CryoTEM Research Unit. “It turns out directly visualizing DNA is not new. Already in 1995 did researchers show a double helix in watery surroundings with the help of Atomic Force Micro-scopy (AFM). With AFM, a microscopic needle scans the surface, enabling a

very high resolution of the nanometers. A DNA molecule measures approximately 3 nanometers, so AFM has no trouble showing it. The media stating that DNA has never been pictured directly before is therefore just not right.”

“What is new, however, is the fact it’s been pictured without any background, so there’s no interference. By stretching groups of DNA helixes around two ‘pickets’ and drying those, a clothesline of sorts is formed in between the pickets: a floating group of DNA strands, which can be photographed beautifully by means of an electron microscope. The calculations they’re doing on the strands might be less trustworthy. After all, who says the drying process doesn’t create tensions that influence mutual distances?”

“Since DNA is so small, you’ll need high-resolution techniques such as

electron microscopy (EM). At the same time, anyone prefers to study the DNA molecule in its natural -watery- surroundings, and DNA is very vulnerable at that. All of that doesn’t help. High-resolution EM methods used for material research are unsuitable for DNA, because it will literally be scorched by the strong electron beam. And EM methods from biology are too limited to properly picture DNA. Over the past years, the methods from these two areas have been merging -one of the strong suits of our own CryoTEM Unit- and that opens up new possibilities. For example, we’re currently working on the development of liquid-cell-TEM, in which molecules and nanoparticles in a tiny liquid-cell can be viewed in high resolution. For DNA, that means we can meticulously study the replication mechanisms, as well as find out if and where the genetic code fails. The ultimate dream is to be able to see the genetic letters individually. For now, that would mean fundamental research, although sequencing DNA should be feasible as well. But as you can tell from CSI, there are much faster and easier ways to do that.” (NT)

“the ultimate dream is to be able to see the genetic letters individually”

Christmas spirit abounds

in the heart of campus.

The Auditorium boasts a

5.5-meter tree, and the

Hoofdgebouw and MetaForum

were treated to a 4.5-meter

specimen each. Along the

footbridge in the Hoofdgebouw

you’ll find approximately

225 meters of Christmas

decorations that will be up from

December 7 through January 8.

In total, some 5,000

baubles and 14,000

lights adorn the three build-

ings. The LEDs use 0,12 watts.

Taking into account the number

of hours they’re on, the total

power consumption would

be around 2400 kWh.

With TU/e paying almost

11 cents per kWh, the costs

for bright Christmas lights amount

to well over 200 euro. (OK)

decorated

Photo | Rien Meulman

www.cursor.tue.nl

Zelf dnA zien?

4 | People December 13, 2012

From dumpling to zampone: the holiday season around the world

In the Netherlands, everyone celebrates Christmas their own way and each family has their own traditions. Still, the big picture is the same: we decorate a Christmas tree, eat together and exchange gifts. On New Year’s Eve, most Dutch people will probably be eating ‘oliebollen’

and setting off fireworks at midnight. But what do other cultures do? TU/e folk talks.

Trang Kager-Nguyen

“I celebrate New Year’s twice”Trang Kager-Nguyen works at the Office of Doctoral Presentations and

Academic Ceremonies. She moved from Vietnam to the Netherlands with

her parents and sisters when she was four years old. She’s had a

Vietnamese upbringing, but it has mixed with Dutch culture.“I decide for myself which holidays I celebrate. I choose what I like to

celebrate, and what I think adds value. My family is Buddhist, and Christmas

is a Christian holiday. Because people of both religions live in Vietnam,

we know of Christmas, but we don’t celebrate it.”“There are more and more people in Vietnam celebrating Christmas because

they enjoy it and want to be more western. My own family and I celebrate

Dutch holidays like Christmas, and Sinterklaas visits our house, too.”

“Vietnamese New Year is celebrated at a different date because we have

the lunar calendar like the rest of Asia. For example, in 2013 our New Year is

celebrated on February 10. I choose to celebrate it twice. In the Netherlands

it’s much bigger and exuberant, whereas in Vietnam the night is meant to

remember your grandparents and reflect on the year that has gone by.”

“In 2007 I was in Ho Chi Minh City during Asian New Year’s. That was really

something. Everyone stood by the roadside to see the organized fireworks,

which lasted at least half an hour. Afterwards, everyone went about their

business, at which point I realized it had been quiet for thirty minutes

straight.”

“The main difference is that in Vietnam, it’s the food that’s the most

important during the holidays, while in the Netherlands the focus seems

to be on being together when eating the food. In Vietnam, the mess of

the fireworks is a sign of good luck, so nobody cleans up after themselves

on the first day of the New Year. Everyone just goes back to work.”

“25 days of Christmas”

Mahsa Bagheri from Iran and Thomas Henry and Tijmen Stuurman from

the Netherlands, all students of Architecture, are currently staying in

the Mexican village of Querétaro. None of them have celebrated Mexican

Christmas before, and for Mahsa it will be her very first Christmas ever.

“According to my country’s calendar, the Solar Hijri Calendar, Iranian New

Year is celebrated on March 21”, Mahsa tells us via e-mail. “It’s only the

Christian minorities that celebrate Christmas; it’s not an official holiday.

I’ve always wanted to know how it’s celebrated, so this is my chance.

I’m staying with a Mexican friend and his family during the holidays.

I’m extremely curious!”

The Christmas spirit sweeps over Mexico from as early as December 1, the

three students have noticed. Thomas: “There are all kinds of events in the

period before Christmas. From nine days before Christmas until Christmas

Day, there’s a daily ‘posada’, a parade through the village with statues,

fireworks and dance. Every day, the parade finishes in another house.

Someone from Querétano invited us to attend her grandfather’s posada.

We’re thrilled to experience the tradition - it will be a colourful Christmas!

It’s almost as if people here celebrate Christmas 25 days in a row.”

Although they’re very excited about the Mexican holidays, they’ll also

be missing the Netherlands. Tijmen: “Although Mexico isn’t around the

corner, but it’s pretty easy to stay in touch these days. On my birthday,

at Christmas and on New Year’s Day I’ll probably Skype my family and

girlfriend Anoek. I won’t be seeing her for three months, after all.

Christmas time in the Netherlands is great, but it’s still nice to see

how it’s celebrated elsewhere.”

Kuangyuan Ying is a student of Electrical Engineering and has been in the

Netherlands since September. He’s from Shanghai, where they have entirely

different holidays and traditions.

“We don’t celebrate Christmas; we don’t know that tradition in China. I’ll be

celebrating Christmas for the first time this year, with friends in Paris. I’m very

excited to get to know the tradition. I really like the Christmas decorations at

university, so that’s a good start.”

“We do celebrate New Year in China, but at a different date. We live by the lunar

calendar, due to which our New Year is usually celebrated some time February.

The most important aspect is being with your family, and by family I mean every

single member from grandparents to great-grandchildren - four generations.

We eat with the whole family, and serve dumplings on the side. The adults drink

Chinese wine, which is very strong with an alcohol percentage of 40 to 50

percent. Sometimes we play drinking games.”

“We do set off fireworks, especially children and teenagers. Adults light

fireworks on the fifth day of the New Year. It’s a tradition, because on that day,

the god of prosperity is said to descend on earth. The more noise you make

that day, the greater the chance he’ll come by. His visit is said to increase your

wealth and salary.”

“I’ll be celebrating Christmas

for the first time this year”

Kuangyuan Ying

People | 5See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl

Holiday customs ARound tHe woRLd

On New Year’s at midnight, people in Spain eat a single grape every time the clock strikes. That’s twelve grapes in one minute, and it’s said to bring

a happy and prosperous New Year.

In Greece on January 1, they cut a cake that has a coin hidden inside. Whoever finds the coin, will enjoy a year filled with good luck.

Russians open all their windows and doors to invite the New Year into their homes on New Year’s after midnight.

In denmark and Norway, they end the Christmas meal with rice pudding and mostly chopped almonds. The person who finds the one whole almond

receives a small gift. Guests tend to make sure a child finds the almond. In Iceland they have a similar tradition with a hidden bean.

In countries where the Eastern Orthodox Church is the largest, such as Russia and Egypt, Christmas is celebrated on January 7.

In Scotland, they burn the year on New Year’s Eve: they light barrels of tar on fire and race them through the streets.

In Georgia, people visit their ancestral graves. The deceased are remembered with a glass of wine.

Ever since 1947, Norway has been donating a large Christmas tree to England, to remember their collaboration during World War II.

The tree is put up at Trafalgar Square.

In the Czech Republic, every girl puts a cherry tree branch in water on December 4. If the twig blossoms before Christmas Eve, she’s said to

marry in the year to come.

In Iran, people fast until December 25. They eat no meat, eggs and cheese, and drink no milk. Christmas Eve marks the last day of the fasting period.

They don’t exchange gifts, but children are given new clothes.

Interviews | Odette Knappers and Judith van GaalPhotos | Rien Meulman

Judy Williams

“Men prepare the goat”In Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Christmas is all about going to church,

spending fun time with family and drinking a lot. It’s where Judy Williams

is from, a post-master student of Mathematics for Industry. This year

she’ll be celebrating the holidays in Georgia though, because that’s

where her husband is staying at the moment.Judy can’t believe the Netherlands has two Christmas days. “For us, the

26th is meant to recover from Christmas Day”, she says jokingly. There’s

usually lots of alcohol involved. “Everyone looks stunning”, says Judy.

“People are wearing their newest outfits and have had their nails done.

The menu consists of roasted or fried chicken with chapatti, and tradi-

tionally men prepare a goat. We talk about life. Those who have relatives

in the countryside go there. At Christmas Eve, most Kenyans attend

a long evening service.”As much as Christmas is a family thing in Kenya, most Kenyans celebrate

New Year’s with friends. “We go to a club, get drunk, party like there’s no

tomorrow. You’ll find many people out on the streets.” This year there will

be neither a Dutch nor a Kenyan Christmas for Judy, but an American one.

She and her child will be traveling to Georgia, Mississippi to celebrate the

holidays with her husband and his family. “I’m excited to see how they do

things.”

“we smash old crockery”

Rosilde Corvino is a research scientist at Electrical Engineering and has been living

in the Netherlands for two years now. She grew up in Italy and lived in France for

eight years.

“Like in the Netherlands, we decorate my parents’ home in Italy with a Christmas

tree and go to church. We always enjoy a festive lunch and visit relatives we haven’t

seen in a while. As a gift, we bring panettone, a type of Christmas bread that’s quite

high and round. Our drink of choice is spumante, a sparkling wine. In France,

Christmas is the time for foie gras and champagne.”

“We don’t have fireworks in Italy at New Year’s, but we do smash old crockery for

good luck. It’s a tradition I don’t necessarily have to go without now I’m in the

Netherlands, because I can smash plates whenever I want. And if I don’t,

I don’t have to clean up the mess. That’s a plus.”

“At Christmas, we have dinner with the family. A staple on the menu is

zampone, pig’s foot, which we eat with lentils. Superstition says the

more lentils you eat, the more money you’ll make in the year to come.”

“The Netherlands have Sinterklaas on December 5, and in Italy we

celebrate La Befana on January 6. The holidays are very similar,

although instead of a bearded bishop we have a witch.”

Rosilde Corvino

Thomas Henry, Mahsa Bagheri and Tijmen Stuurman in Mexico.

6 | People December 13, 2012

Go go, Feng Fang!He received no less than 173 preferred votes. Chinese student Feng Fang, who’s been studying Innovation Management at TU/e since the summer of 2011, was the only international student on the student party ballots for the University Council. The passionate student is disappointed he didn’t make it into the council despite all the people who voted for him, but pleased he managed to bring internationalization to the attention of the TU/e community.

“My name is Feng Fang. I am the only one international candidate in the election for the University Council. Join me together to make our university more international. If I get selected, the next university council meeting will be in English, which will be the first stepping stone into giving a louder voice to the international community in the campus.” The above Facebook announcement was part of Feng’s campaign. And witness the 173 students who pressed the digital voting button that had his name on it, it was a successful one. Especially international students displayed their excitement in social media with slogans

like Go go, Feng Fang!, and he even received support from the Dutch. Feng: “A Dutch student told me he was definitely voting for me, because he felt so strongly about internationalization. That’s just really cool.”

Early last week we saw enthusiasm and hope, but on Friday we talked to a slightly disappointed Feng Fang. “It’s too bad, but apparently I didn’t receive enough preferred votes. The good thing is a large group of international students has spoken, and it’s obvious they see the importance of a more internationally-oriented university.”

Groep-één had hoped an international student would get them more votes, but they were quite surprised at the high number, says party leader Lars Beke. So why isn’t he allowed a seat in the University Council anyway? Beke: “When we were making the list, we also determined who would be allowed in the council. To deviate from the ballot, someone needs more than half of the simple quota in preferred votes. The simple quota is the number of votes divided by the number of seats.

Feng was just a few votes shy. Still, we now realize what internationalization means to the TU/e community, so we’ll be sure to pay attention to that”, Beke promises.

Feng was born in October 1985, which makes him 28 in China - where babies are one year old upon being born - and 27 in the Netherlands. He used to live in Putian in eastern China and studied Pharmaceutical Engineering in Shanghai. Last year he followed his girlfriend who had moved to Tilburg.

The happy-go-lucky Chinese soon discovered certain things are organized differently in the Netherlands. “The Dutch are so-well organized they even have timetables for buses. People are much more on their own over here, and they’re expected to act independently

at an early age. In China, parents want to arrange everything for you, even at old age.”Like most foreigners, he misses his country’s food, although he’s come to appreciate the efficiency of bread in a plastic bag. He was very surprised at the beer culture, and the fact students are allowed to run a bar in a university building. The motivated student was downright shocked when he witnessed the involvement of students; he could hardly believe they had any say at all. “Decisions are discussed over here, which is a major difference compared to China.” Last summer he acted as ‘intro daddy’ with a Groep-één member, and that’s when they started talking about him running for election. “I want to put my two cents in to give internationaliza-tion a higher priority at university. Besides, I want to work on my own skills as well, communicative ones for example. Speak better English, meet even more people.” On the one hand, it helped him, and on the other, Groep-één ‘used’ him to win more votes. “A clear case of a win-win scenario”, he grins.

Compared to the university he attended

in Shanghai, Feng thinks TU/e is rather international. “There are students from so many different countries here.” Be that as it may, he does see room for improvement. Had he made it into the council, he would have devoted himself to the housing situation for students. “Accommodation can be cheaper if you arrange it yourself instead of having university help you. It’s important to let people know what the possibilities are.” He’d like to see more microwaves at university too, so foreign students can enjoy a warm meal like they would in their home countries. Another issue is the high tuition fee; Feng would like to see more students receive a scholarship. It’s important to him the move of the Common Room from the Bunker to MetaForum goes smoothly as well. He’ll still be laboring for these causes, but just not as he had hoped. “I didn’t want to be one of the first international students in the University Council, but I did want to be the first one to make a difference.”

Interview | Judith van GaalPhoto | Bart van Overbeeke

“I wanted to be the first one who made a difference”

Research | 7See for more news www.cursor.tue.nl

Lazy fat under the microscope

Diabetes type 2, commonly called ‘onset diabetes’, is a metabolic disorder accompanied by a broad range of health complaints. In the preliminary stage of the disorder, patients develop a diminished sensitivity to the hormone insulin, which regulates the sugar metabolism. “The body tries to compensate for this by producing extra insulin”, doctoral candidate ir. Richard Jonkers explains. “In the long term, though, this results in damage to the insulin-producing cells.” As a result, the production of insulin breaks down in the end, which leads to an increased blood glucose level and damage to blood vessels and organs.

Accumulation of fat in the liver and in muscular tissue appears to be instrumental in the development of diabetes, says Jonkers. “There is a clear connection between diabetes and the amount of fat in liver and muscle cells. However, it is not yet entirely clear what causes the fat to accumulate. Is it due to the extra absorption of fat, because too little fat is metabolized, or is it a combination of those two processes?”

The question, then, is what happens to the fat we eat, and how this depends on physical exercise, for instance. In order to monitor the metabolism of fat in the body, Jonkers used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). “This is a technique akin to MRI”, he explains. “Whereas MRI produces pictures, MRS yields a spectrum.” Such a spectrum is like a fingerprint of the chemical compounds present. MRS even enables us accurately to determine the concentration of various molecules at a certain spot.

By means of MRS Jonkers researched how fat is absorbed (and broken down again) in the liver and in muscles of rats with different stages of diabetes. For this purpose he administered a specially

prepared fat to the animals, containing an increased amount of the rare isotope carbon-13. “This isotope has special magnetic properties. This allows us to make the signal of this fat in the spectrum negative, so that we can distinguish it from the ordinary fat.”Jonkers thinks that this is the first time that MRS with carbon-13 was used for this purpose. It is by no means simple to make the negative peak visible, because it is soon lost in the signal of the ‘ordinary’ fat. Nevertheless he succeeded in retracing the administered fat in liver and muscle cells. “An extra problem is that I was only interested in fat that has been absorbed into cells, and not in subcutaneous fat. This makes it necessary to measure with extreme accuracy in the right spot.”

Jonkers’ approach has great benefits over alternative ways of measuring the absorption of fat. “Although you can see many things by taking a blood sample, that is a very indirect way.” And taking a so-called biopsy also comes with its own drawbacks. “It is rather drastic. You need to make a cut and slice away a piece of tissue. Especially in the liver that is quite a serious operation.” Besides, a biopsy can only be analyzed afterwards, whereas MRS leaves everything intact so that you can measure at the same spot again later - which is exactly what Jonkers wanted. The experiments with healthy rats showed that the administered fat had nestled in the liver after about four hours.

“After 24 hours you see a decrease again in the amount of fat with carbon-13. That has then been broken down partly or transported to muscles where it is used as fuel.” Subsequently the doctoral candidate repeated the measurements in both rats with an initial stage of diabetes and in genuinely diabetic animals. Both groups proved to store much more fat in the liver than healthy animals, while the absorption of fat in muscles was only higher in rats with real diabetes. This means that things go wrong sooner in the liver than in the muscles.

The next step was physical exercise; in rats this can be stimulated easily by means of a treadmill. Regular exercise can help prevent diabetes, but it is less clear whether it also changes the metabolism of fat in the liver and the muscles. An hour’s exercise in the treadmill reduced the fat content in muscle cells of healthy and sick rats alike, Jonkers observed. That is healthy alright, but it is more important that the subsequent absorption of fat was not stimulated extra by the preceding exercise. Jonkers did not only study rats, though.

To see whether prolonged inactivity automatically results in too high a fat content in muscle cells, he examined the leg muscles of people with paraplegia. To this end he combined ‘standard’ MRS with fluorescence microscopy. “Although paraplegic people who are otherwise fit and healthy did have another distribution of fat in their muscle cells, their leg muscles did not contain more fat than in the control group. So it looks as if prolonged inactivity causes these muscles to adapt to a lower energy need.”

The MRS technique involving carbon-13 proves to be eminently suited to monitor fat in the body. In the Biomedical NMR research group the doctoral candidate had a small MR scanner at his disposal with a magnetic field of 6.3 Tesla - more powerful than the average hospital scanner and hence more accurate. In principle the new method can also be applied to humans, but a few practical problems need to be solved first. “If you convert the amount of fat you need to ingest from rats to humans, you arrive at 80 grams of pure fat. That is really a large amount; it could even generate acute insulin resistance.”Still, Jonkers is optimistic about the possibilities of the technique. “When you use a stronger magnetic field, you do not need so much fat. Moreover, you can also label sugar with carbon-13, for example. My former roommate at Biomedical NMR, Sharon Janssens, is working on that at the moment.” (TJ)

Increasing numbers of people suffer from diabetes. There seems to be a link between this increase and the high-calorie western

diet and our ‘sedentary’ lifestyle. Indeed, fat, accumulated in the liver and the muscles, is the culprit. For a better understanding

of what is going wrong, doctoral candidate Richard Jonkers exposed the absorption of fat by means of an MR scanner.

He will obtain his PhD on December 20.

An MRS spectrum is like a fingerprint of chemical compounds

Things go wrong sooner in the liver than in the muscles

Richard Jonkers. Photo | Rien Meulman