Sanquin PHD award for Lotte van de Stadt

Lotte van de Stadt has won the biannual PHD-award at Sanquin’s Science day on November 28th at Science Center NEMO. She presented the results she obtained during her PhD period, which she performed at Sanquin and Reade, The Amsterdam Centre for Rehabilitation and Rheumatology. In her presentation, titled “The development of auto-antibodies in pre-clinical rheumatoid arthritis”, Lotte showed how autoantibodies, such as rheumatoid factor and antibodies to various citrullinated peptides (ACPAs) can help to predict rheumatoid arthritis (RA). For her research Lotte van de Stadt used blood samples drawn from blood bank donors years before they developed RA. To further investigate whether the onset of RA can be predicted she followed a group of patients who presented themselves with joint pain. One-third developed RA over time. From the results she created a model with several clinical and lab parameters to predict RA. Using this model it might be possible to intervene before the onset of RA, so to prevent or postpone the onset of the disease.

Lotte van de Stadt received her PhD cum laude in April 2013 and is currently training to become a rheumatologist.