dr. Yolande Ramos

Yolande Ramos (1970) obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of Utrecht in 1991 and her master’s degree with a specialization in tumor biology and neuropharmacology at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1995. After working for a year in the Department of Pathology of Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, in the laboratory of Prof. dr. Tsai, she started her first PhD in 1996 at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, section Molecular Carcinogenesis with Prof. dr. van der Eb at Leiden University, in the laboratory of dr. Jochemsen. Research in this period resulted in 2001 in the thesis ‘Analysis of MDMX: functions and expression pattern’.

After several years of research as a postdoctoral associate of Dr. Zantema and Dr. van Dam at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology where she specialized in transcription regulation, she decided to do a second PhD at the Department of Medical Statistics, section Molecular Epidemiology with Prof. dr. Barrier at the Leiden University Medical Center, in the laboratory of Dr. Meulenbelt. This resulted in the thesis entitled: ‘Osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease of the articular joints: towards the implementation of functional genomics in OA’

Ramos continues her research as a postdoctoral scientist in the Osteoarthritis group of the Dept. of Molecular Epidemiology (LUMC). Her work is aimed at increasing the knowledge of the etiology of osteoarthritis (OA). Dr. Ramos is interested in advancing the unification of genetic analysis and functional studies, especially in the field of osteoarthritis and skeletal health.

Genetic variants associated with osteoarthritis are further characterized by applying functional studies using tissues and cells collected from patients undergoing joint replacement surgery, as done for the osteoarthritis susceptibility gene deiodinase iodothyronine type 2 (DIO2) and osteoprotegerin (OPG). In addition, Dr. Ramos tries to identify biomarkers that facilitate the diagnosis of early stage osteoarthritis patients and may help distinguish subtypes of osteoarthritis patients and patients prone to rapid progression.