SD-EC Chair Christa Cobbaert Biography

Christa M. Cobbaert, PhD, Clinical Chemist, EuSpLM
Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC)
Leiden
The Netherlands
E-mail: C.M.Cobbaert@lumc.nl

Christa Cobbaert is Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Leiden. She is heading the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the Leiden University Medical Center.  

Her scientific research focuses on test evaluation with great attention to standardization, harmonization and trueness verification of medical test results, for the sake of better of patient care. Her  scientific work is done in close collaboration with the Dutch External Quality Assessment Scheme organizer (SKML) and with international colleagues which collaborate in joint working groups. Her efforts resulted in ca. 150 original publications and several appointments on (inter)national positions because of her expertise on metrological traceability of test results. 

She is currently vice chair of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) Scientific Division EC and member of ISO TC 212/ working group 2. She also chairs the European Federation of Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) working group on Test Evaluation. At the national level she is heading the Dutch Calibration 2.000 initiative. She also does research on the selection, development and standardization of protein biomarkers using quantitative clinical chemistry proteomics, as a promising alternative for immunoassays. In that context, she leads the IFCC working group on standardization of serum apolipoproteins by mass spectrometry.