Diane van der Woude appointed professor of rheumatology

Van der Woude wants to help patients by better understanding the cause of their disease. She does this in her research by looking at the immune system. She focuses mainly on risk factors and autoantibodies. Autoantibodies are important signs (biomarkers) of autoimmune diseases. "By studying how these autoantibodies form and what their properties are, we have already learned a lot about rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the most common rheumatic autoimmune disease."

Over the next five years, her main focus will be on the role of the microbiome and mucous membranes in the development of rheumatic diseases. In doing so, she will take advantage of the Vidi grant she received for her research from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Ultimately, her goal in doing so is to prevent rheumatic diseases by eliminating certain risk factors.

Patient care

Van der Woude is aided in her scientific research by her work in patient care. For example, she has initiated several studies in people with RA, aimed at unraveling the role of risk factors. In addition, she is responsible for the care of patients with rare autoimmune diseases such as vasculitis. For this, she is the permanent rheumatologist at LUMC.

"I want to further improve the care of these patients. I do that by collaborating on multidisciplinary care pathways and by helping to introduce new treatments. At LUMC, we have a fantastic team of nephrologists, pneumologists, ENT doctors and others with whom we will build our top referral patient care and translational research on vasculitis in the coming years."

The rheumatologist is also coordinator of care for clinically admitted rheumatology patients at the hospital. Previously, Van der Woude was head of the rheumatology outpatient clinic, one of LUMC's largest outpatient clinics, and responsible for quality management within her department.

Education

The physician-researcher also wants to continue his commitment to education about autoimmune diseases. "I strongly believe that we can only really cure autoimmune diseases if we understand the cause properly. That is why I teach about the immune system with great enthusiasm." She teaches different audiences: rheumatology nurses, (bio)medical students, PhD students and physicians. She does this at the university, in the Netherlands and abroad.

Curriculum Vitae 

Diane van der Woude studied medicine at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2004. She then proceeded to train as an internist and rheumatologist at LUMC, which she combined with PhD research. In 2012, she obtained her PhD cum laude for her thesis 'Anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) in rheumatoid arthritis - linking genetic predisposition to clinical outcome'. Two years later, she completed her rheumatology specialization.

Van der Woude received several prestigious research grants, including a Veni and Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Counsil (NWO). She is actively involved in international research consortia and supervises PhD students and medical students. She is also editor-in-chief of the Dutch Journal of Rheumatology and rheumatology editor of the Dutch Journal of Medicine.