Tim De Coster

Tim is specialized in mathematical modeling and computational methods, with a special interest in the biophysics underlying heart rhythm disorders, i.e. cardiac arrhythmias. In his interdisciplinary research, he applies methods and techniques from physics, mathematics and computer science in the biological and medical fields. After obtaining his Master's degree in Theoretical Physics at KU Leuven (Belgium), he started his PhD training in the cardiac interdisciplinary field at the Physics department at UGent (Belgium) and the Biomedical Sciences department at KU Leuven (Belgium) under the supervision of Sasha Panfilov, Piet Claus and Karin Sipido. For his thesis, he investigated the influence of adipose tissue into the genesis of cardiac arrhythmias, both looking at structural and electrical changes to the heart. He joined the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology at the LUMC (the Netherlands) in the fall of 2018 to delve deeper into the concept and realization of biological cardiac defibrillation. These studies were supported by the ERC. In the near future, he wants to unravel the underlying mechanisms of spontaneous termination, which studies are supported by an NWO Off Road grant. His aim is to use the acquired insight to strengthen the heart such that it is less prone to sustained arrhythmias.