Christa Cobbaert is a Laboratory Specialist in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine and heads the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine at LUMC, Leiden. She is vice-chair of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Scientific Division Executive Committee and chair of the European Federation of Laboratory Medicine Working Group on Test Evaluation . She is an expert in metrology, i.e. the science of measurement, which is essential for global standardization c.q. harmonization of medical tests.

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Precision Diagnostics and P4-medicine

Most diagnoses and treatments are made based on tests results produced by medical laboratories.  Therefore, medical tests and diagnostic care pathways offered by the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine should be both state-of-the-art and innovative, fulfilling the unmet clinical needs of the LUMC as tertiary care centre.  On top, the diagnostic processes are continuously improved, based on the striving for 6  quality and operational excellence.

In collaboration with cardiologists, nephrologists, oncologists, the Centre of Proteomics and Metabolomics and/or IVD-manufacturers she searches for more effective medical tests using a deep proteomics approach, taking into account specific functions of unique proteoforms derived from single genes.  This research contributes to Precision Diagnostics and P4-medicine (i.e.  Preventive, Predictive, Personalized medicine, with Participation of the patient).
 
Medical test results should be accurate and comparable in time and space. To that end standardization and harmonization of medical tests at the international level is essential. With her professorship Dr. Cobbaert contributes to standardization and progress on the science of measurement, for the sake of metrological traceability of test results and better patient care. Comparability of medical test results is required for universal application of reference intervals, decision limits and clinical guidelines.

Academic career

Christa Cobbaert studied Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium from 1977-1982.  She subsequently specialized in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium from 1982-1985.  She was a staff member at UZ Leuven from 1985-1992. Dr Cobbaert was appointed as staff member at the EMCR, Rotterdam from 1992-1998. On 8 October 1997 she defended her doctoral thesis entitled: " The elusive Lp(a) lipoprotein: a cardiovascular risk factor after all?".  From 1998 to 2009 she headed the Departments of Clinical Chemistry at Baronie respectively Amphia Hospital in Breda.  Since 2009 she is the head of the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the LUMC.  

In June 2015 she was appointed Professor in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the Leiden University Medical Center. The title of her inaugural lecture presented on 19 February 2016 was ‘Laboratory medicine: from evolution towards revolution’.

Prizes and honourable appointments

• NVKC Public Price 2017 for the NUMBER  (Nederlandse UniforMe BEslisgrenzen en Referentieintervallen) project: National Reference Intervals and Decision Limits in the Netherlands using a big data approach’

• NVKC E.C. Noyons Stichting Stipendium 2015. Development of a mass spectrometry based method for simultaneous quantification of urine TIMP-2 en IGFBP7 for early detection of kidney injury. 

• NVKC Public Price for the project on 'Self assessment of kidney function after kidney transplantation', 2014.

• Vice-chair / former member of the IFCC Scientific Division (SD) Executive Committee (EC), since 2012. The mission of the IFCC SD is to advance the science of Clinical Chemistry and to apply it to the practice of Clinical Laboratory Medicine. 
Her membership is appreciated because of her expertise on the domain of metrology and the science of measurement.

• NVKC E.C. Noyons Stiching Stipendium 2011. ‘Evaluation and development of a candidate reference method for simultaneous quantification of serum apolipoproteins  AI, B, CI, CII, CIII and E using high resolution mass spectrometry of peptides'

• National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) 2005. Distinguished Award for the work entitled: CM Cobbaert, JMA Boer, DL van der A, EHJM Jansen, A Koeken, E de Baar, L Schrauwen and EJM Feskens. Significance of HFE and FPN1 (N144H) gene mutations in the development of cardiovascular disease. Results from the Dutch Prospective Monitoring Project on Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors. Presented at the AACC congress, Orlando, Florida, USA; 27 July 2005. Published in Clin Chem 2005; 51 (Suppl.): Abstract C-60, p. A121 (and in Acta Clin Belg. 2012; 67: 430-5). 

• The Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Price 1998 for Clinical Chemistry from the Dutch Clinical Chemistry Society. April 8th, 1999.

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