Meeting the Editorial Board Member of JLPM: Dr. Xander M. R. van Wijk

Posted On 2024-12-09 13:55:42


Xander M. R. van Wijk1, Jin Ye Yeo2

1Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; 2JLPM Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company

Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. JLPM Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: jlpm@amegroups.com

This interview can be cited as: van Wijk XMR, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of JLPM: Dr. Xander M. R. van Wijk. J Lab Precis Med. 2024. Available from: https://jlpm.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-jlpm-dr-xander-m-r-van-wijk.


Expert introduction

Dr. Xander M. R. van Wijk (Figure 1) is a board-certified clinical chemist and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. His diverse expertise stems from working as an independent consultant in diagnostics overseeing various clinical laboratories; as a Senior Medical Director at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics where he supported medical strategy, innovation, and new product development & launch; and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago where he oversaw the Clinical Chemistry, Mass Spectrometry, Blood Gas, and Pharmacogenomics Laboratories as an attending clinical chemist.

Dr. van Wijk obtained his PhD in Medical Sciences in the Department of Biochemistry at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and performed postdoctoral research at the University of California San Diego. He completed his fellowship in Clinical Chemistry in the ComACC-accredited training program at the University of California San Francisco.

He is an active member of the community and has (co-)authored over 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. In 2020, he received the AACC Academy George Grannis Award for Excellence in Research and Scientific Publication, in 2021 he was an ASCP 40 Under Forty honoree, and in 2022 he was part of The Pathologist Power List.

Figure 1 Dr. Xander M. R. van Wijk


Interview

JLPM: What drove you to pursue clinical chemistry?

Dr. van Wijk: I have long been fascinated by how disruptions to biochemical and molecular processes can lead to disease. This led me to pursue my academic studies and post-doctoral research. However, it became increasingly clear to me that I wanted to make a more direct impact on healthcare. Clinical chemistry bridges this gap perfectly, allowing me to translate complex biochemical knowledge into practical diagnostic tools that aid in patient care.

JLPM: Could you provide a brief overview of the current landscape of pharmacogenomics (PGx) in personalized medicine? How has this landscape evolved over the years?

Dr. van Wijk: Clinical implementation and adoption of PGx testing has lagged behind its potential and experts’ expectations for many years. Within the last five to ten years, we have, for example, seen increased efforts concerning systematic implementation programs around the world, new cost-effectiveness studies, and a generally more favorable reimbursement landscape (1).

JLPM: How do you think the recent FDA final rule on laboratory-developed tests will affect clinical pharmacogenomics testing in the United States?

Dr. van Wijk: As commercial offerings for PGx testing are generally not comprehensive enough and often insufficient to meet the needs of a healthcare system and individual patients, many PGx assays currently used in the clinic are tests developed and validated by the clinical laboratory themselves (i.e., laboratory developed tests [LDTs]). In its essence, the FDA’s final rule will bring LDTs under medical device regulations in the US (2). This additional layer of regulation on top of the current CLIA regulations will increase labor and costs significantly and many clinical laboratories may decide not to update their current PGx assays with new variants, may not offer new PGx assays, or may decide to stop offering in-house PGx testing altogether (3).

JLPM: You have recently led a special series on cardiac troponin, a cardiac biomarker, for JLPM. In your opinion, which area of this cardiac biomarker do you think could be further studied in the future?

Dr.van Wijk: Cardiac troponin is a ternary complex that consists of cardiac troponin T, cardiac troponin I, and troponin C. In the bloodstream of patients with damage to the myocardium, for example, after a myocardial infarction (MI), it consists of many different forms with respect to ternary and binary complexes versus individual subunits and their degradational forms (4). It has recently been shown that ternary complexes and ‘long forms’ of cardiac troponin are relatively more abundant within the first 12 to 24 hours after MI and may not be present in chronic disease states that typically exhibit increased circulating troponin concentrations such as end-stage renal disease (5,6). I believe that uncovering these relationships between different circulating forms of troponin with different disease states is an interesting area for future research.

JLPM: What are some other cardiac biomarkers that you are focusing on currently? What do you hope to achieve through your research in these areas?

Dr. van Wijk: I have recently given a presentation at the ADLM (Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine) annual meeting on “Serum Biomarkers and Algorithms to Differentiate Myocardial Infarction Types”. A diagnostic test to better differentiate between a type 1 MI and a type 2 MI is a clinical unmet need for which several biomarkers, biomarker models, and machine learning algorithms are currently evaluated. I hope that my research and research by others will ultimately lead to a better diagnostic test to aid in differentiating different MI types that will help physicians in their patient management decisions.

JLPM: How has your experience been as an Editorial Board Member of JLPM? What are your expectations for JLPM?

Dr. van Wijk: I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my esteemed colleagues—experts in cardiac biomarkers and also JLPM Editorial Board Members—Drs. Jaffe, Meex, and Saenger, on the JLPM special issue on cardiac troponin (7). I am very proud of this issue that addressed a wide variety of clinical and analytical matters, and I am grateful for our impressive line-up of authors who have contributed to it. I expect JLPM to continue attracting the most esteemed experts in laboratory and precision medicine to their Editorial Board and to keep developing high-quality special issues of broad interest to their readers.


Reference

  1. Kanegusuku AG et al. Challenges and Considerations in Implementing Clinical Pharmacogenomics. JLPM; In Press.
  2. van Wijk XMR, Master SR, Genzen JR. FDA's Final Rule on Laboratory Developed Tests. Clin Chem 2024;70(9):1192-1194.
  3. van Wijk XMR, McMillin GA. FDA's Final Rule on Laboratory-Developed Tests: What Is the Impact on Clinical Pharmacogenomics in the United States?. J Appl Lab Med 2024; jfae105
  4. Vylegzhanina AV, Kogan AE, Katrukha IA, et al. Full-Size and Partially Truncated Cardiac Troponin Complexes in the Blood of Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction. Clin Chem 2019;65(7):882-892.
  5. Damen SAJ, Cramer GE, Dieker HJ, et al. Cardiac Troponin Composition Characterization after Non ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Relation with Culprit Artery, Ischemic Time Window, and Severity of Injury. Clin Chem 2021;67(1):227-236.
  6. Airaksinen KEJ, Aalto R, Hellman T, et al. Novel Troponin Fragmentation Assay to Discriminate Between Troponin Elevations in Acute Myocardial Infarction and End-Stage Renal Disease. Circulation 2022;146(18):1408-1410.
  7. Jaffe AS, Meex SJR, Saenger AK, van Wijk XMR. A special series on cardiac troponin: an analytical and clinical matter. J Lab Precis Med 2024;9:11.