Hein W. Verspaget is professor in Biobanking at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Nowadays he is head of the centralized biobank facility in the LUMC, national and LUMC biobank-coordinator of the Parelsnoer Institute from the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres. He is also staff member of the department of Gastroenterology-Hepatology at the LUMC, member of the board of the Dutch Society of Gastroenterology, and member of the executive committee of the Netherlands Donor Feces Bank.

More information about Henricus Verspaget

Biobank

Main goal of the centralized biobanking organisation and the professorship of Hein W. Verspaget is to implement a high standard uniform infrastructure for disease-related biobanking in the LUMC, as a best practice model and in accordance with (inter)national law, rules and regulations. The biobanking organisation as such does not have a direct impact on the patient care. However, the biobanking activities are indicated to patients, recognising the invaluable importance of biobanking biomaterials and clinical data in order to perform research to improve patient care. This is executed by using a clear and open access general informed consent for research application of the requested information and accountability through (web-based) reporting of research results. Finally, results obtained in research setting from biobanking is made accessible to further (cyclical) improvement of patient care. The inter-divisional biobanking organisation within the LUMC provides a sustainable, accountable, high standard biobanking organisation which supports the profiling research areas and contributes to the valorisation of the biomedical research efforts. This also contributes to an increased engagement and (public) awareness of patients, medical doctors and basic scientists towards biobanking as a pivotal tool for clinical innovation.

Academic career

As a trained cell-biologist Hein W. Verspaget started his research on gastrointestinal diseases in 1979. He performed cellular and biomedical research on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the LUMC. He defended his thesis entitled: Cellular activity in Crohn's disease, abnormalities in the immune response, in Leiden in 1987. Later on he also performed and supervised research on Gastrointestinal Cancer and on Liver Diseases and Liver Transplantation in the same department, at present he is still involved in these research lines. In December 2014 he became professor in Biobanking at the Leiden University Medical Center. The title of his inaugural lecture was: Biobanking for translational research: valuables, rules and playing field. 

Publications