Jaap van Laar

Jacob M. van Laar is Professor at the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands. After obtaining his MD and PhD degrees at Leiden University, he specialised in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology in Leiden University Medical Center and worked at the Department of Rheumatology as clinical academic in various roles from 1997-2007, interrupted by a postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, USA. From 2007 until 2013 he held a Chair in Clinical Rheumatology at Newcastle University, and post as honorary consultant rheumatologist at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, UK. He has been working as Professor of Rheumatology at UMC Utrecht since 1 November 2013. His main research interests involve clinical and pathogenetic aspects of systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, aimed at improving the outcome of patients with rheumatic diseases by innovative clinical-translational research.