معرفی
Reinhilde Jacobs is a full professor at KU Leuven's Faculty of Medicine, Department of Imaging & Pathology. She serves as Head of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery - Imaging & Pathology (OMFS) unit and division head of the OMFS-IMPATH Division. Prof. Jacobs also holds membership in several prestigious institutes including iSi Health - KU Leuven Institute for Physics-based Modeling for In Silico Health, Leuven.AM – KU Leuven Institute for Additive Manufacturing, and LKI - KU Leuven Cancer Institute. Internationally, she serves as Secretary General of the International Association of DentoMaxilloFacial Radiology and President-elect of Digital Dentistry Society.
Prof. Jacobs earned her Doctor in Dental Sciences from the University of Leuven, is a certified periodontologist (KU Leuven), and holds a Master in Dental Radiology from the University of London. She also maintains visiting professor positions at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and Dalian Medical University in China. Her educational background forms the foundation for her interdisciplinary approach to dental research and clinical practice.
Her research focuses on the integration of advanced imaging technologies with artificial intelligence to improve dental diagnostics and treatment planning. Specializing in dentomaxillofacial radiology, her work spans CBCT imaging optimization, AI-assisted surgical planning, biofabrication of dental tissues, and nanoparticle applications in endodontics. The OMFS-IMPATH research group she leads aims to develop and validate surgical tools and image-based solutions to advance oromaxillofacial surgery while minimizing peri- and postsurgical risks.
Analyzing her recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on AI applications across multiple dental specialties. Approximately 60% of her 2024-2025 publications incorporate artificial intelligence for diagnostic or treatment planning purposes, particularly in implantology, endodontics, and prosthodontics. Her work consistently bridges fundamental imaging science with clinical applications, with significant focus on reducing radiation exposure while maintaining diagnostic quality and developing multimodal imaging approaches that integrate hard and soft tissue visualization.
Her scientific achievements have been recognized with numerous awards:
- D Collen Research Travel Award (1994)
- Postdoctoral fellowship of the European Commission (1994-95)
- IADR Young Investigators Award (1998)
- Belgian Joachim Award in the Odontostomatology (1999)
- Dr Honoris Causa at the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (2013)
Prof. Jacobs actively supervises doctoral candidates and has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous research projects, including multiple European-funded initiatives (Pisa, Minosquare, Osteodent, SedentexCT, Dimitra). Her current research portfolio includes 10 active projects running through 2028, with significant focus on AI applications in endodontics, bioengineered scaffolds for tissue regeneration, and multimodal fusion of oral hard and soft tissues. She has secured substantial funding for developing bench-top machines for electrospinning and electrospraying, as well as for personalized endodontic care through low-dose 3D imaging.
As leader of the OMFS-IMPATH research group, Prof. Jacobs oversees a multidisciplinary team working at the intersection of dentistry, medical imaging, and engineering. The group's mission focuses on creating virtual patient replicas through global integration of digital datasets, enabling full surgical simulation and development of image-based surgical tools. The team maintains strong connections with the Centre for Dentomaxillofacial Imaging and the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at University Hospitals UZ Leuven, ensuring direct translation of research findings into clinical practice.
