Eric Claas's Biography

Eric Claas, Principal Investigator/Associate Professor, Leiden University Medical Center

Eric C.J. Claas has a long standing experience in development and implementation of molecular diagnostic tests in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Already in 1991, clinical application of the PCR for detection of HPV and Chlamydia was the topic of his PhD thesis. Subsequently, he worked for eight years at the Dutch National Influenza centre (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) where his group identified the first human H5N1 (bird-flu) infection in 1997. Since 1998, he is heading the molecular diagnostics section of the department of medical microbiology at the LUMC, Leiden, The Netherlands. In this lab, molecular assays are performed for all areas of microbiology, i.e. virology, bacteriology, parasitology and mycology. In addition, testing is performed for antimicrobial and antiviral resistance, genotyping including bacterial typing for hospital epidemiology and ribotyping as part of the Clostridium reference lab function.
He published his research in over 150 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and books and has been involved in diagnostic assay development and implementation of these assays in several EU funded projects.
He holds two consultancy positions in two other Dutch hospitals: the Slotervaart Hospital in Amsterdam and the St. Franciscus Hospital in Rotterdam
Since 2008 he is an associate editor for the Journal of clinical Virology. In addition he is involved in quality assurance as an auditor for the Dutch Accreditation Council (RVA). He has been member in national expert committees on influenza vaccination as well as the National Society for Health Insurance. In the Dutch society for Medical Microbiology, he is former president of the Working Group on Molecular Diagnostics (WMDI) and is secretary of the concilium for trainees Molecular Medical Microbiologists. Finally he is board member of the VMDG (Council for Molecular Diagnostics in Health Care).