P. Eline Slagboom (born January 18, 1960,

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

, the Netherlands) is a Dutch

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

specializing in the human familial longevity and ageing.

Education

Slagboom attended Christelijk Lyceum in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, graduating in 1978, before continuing to

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

for her Bachelors (1979) and Masters (1985) degrees in biology, followed by a Ph.D. focusing on Genomic Instability and Aging (1993) from the same institution.

Career

After receiving her Ph.D., Slagboom joined the Department of Vascular and Connective Tissues Research at the Gaubius Laboratory (TNO-PG, the Netherlands). As a post doc she initiated a unit for genetic epidemiological studies aimed at the identification of genetic determinants of multifactorial diseases. Slagboom started between 1995 and 1997 a genetic research line on

osteoarthritis Osteoarthritis is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of articular cartilage, joint cartilage and underlying bone. A form of arthritis, it is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the world, affect ...

(OA) including linkage studies in families with early onset OA, genetic association studies in population cohorts and linkage studies in populations of affected sibling-pairs. From 1998 on, Slagboom, in collaboration with research groups at different universities, obtained various grants that allowed initiation of a genotyping facility for genome scanning at the

Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (, abbreviated TNO, literally "Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research") is an independent statutory research organisation in the Netherlands that focuses on applied science ...

(TNO). In 2000, Slagboom was appointed as

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of molecular epidemiology at the

Leiden University Medical Center Leiden University Medical Center (Dutch: ''Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum'') or LUMC is the university hospital affiliated with Leiden University, of which it forms the medical faculty. It is located in Leiden, Netherlands. LUMC is a modern u ...

. She established a new section of Molecular Epidemiology and Genotyping Center at the department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics. Slagboom has initiated a masterclass for Statistical Analysis of Genetic Data and Bioinformatics in Genomic Research and is involved in various teaching activities. Focus of the research in the past 10 years is on genomic, epigenetic and biomarker studies of healthy/unhealthy

ageing Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biol ...

and familial

longevity Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth ...

in humans. These studies include

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, ...

metabolomics Metabolomics is the scientific study of chemical processes involving metabolites, the small molecule substrates, intermediates, and products of cell metabolism. Specifically, metabolomics is the "systematic study of the unique chemical fingerpri ...

, and

proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital macromolecules of all living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replicatio ...

analysis of

age-related disease An aging-associated disease (commonly termed age-related disease, ARD) is a disease that is most often seen with increasing frequency with increasing senescence. They are essentially complications of senescence, distinguished from the aging proce ...

. A diversity of human cohorts with unique study designs is being analysed for this purpose. Slagboom is one of two founders of the Research on Ageing at the Leiden University Medical Center, supported among other foundations by the Netherlands Genomic Initiative. She initiated and heads the Leiden Longevity Study (LLS) together with R.G.J. Westendorp and a research cohort of osteoarthritis patients. The mission of her research group is the identification of genomic factors,

biomarkers In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, p ...

, and functional mechanisms marking and contributing to complex diseases in humans with a focus on ageing, longevity, and age-related disease. Slagboom has a leading role in large consortia within ageing research such as the Netherlands Consortium on Healthy Ageing, in which she established collaborative research with industry, and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

large scale collaborative research projects (Treat~OA, GEHA, and LIFESPAN). Currently she heads a group of 15–20 scientists and academic staff has now started to obtain grants for new research lines (functional genomic studies in osteoarthritis and studies into interaction between genetic and epigenetic variation). She is PI of a new large scale collaborative FP7 project (IDEAL: ) together with Bas Zwaan (

Wageningen University and Research Centre Wageningen University & Research (also known as WUR) is a public research university in Wageningen, Netherlands, specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. It is a globally important center fo ...

; 2011–2016).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slagboom, Eline 1960 births Living people Scientists from Dordrecht Dutch biologists Leiden University alumni Academic staff of Leiden University Longevity study projects