The Hemoglobinopathy Laboratory at the Department of Human and Clinical Genetics
at the Leiden University Medical Center, led by Dr. P. C. Giordano
and Dr. C.L. Harteveld, is the Dutch reference laboratory for research,
diagnostics and prevention of the haemoglobinopathies. The laboratory has to deal
with a heterogenous target population, in which many different haemoglobinopathic
mutations occur, and has a good international reputation in the analysis, at the
haematological, biochemical, and molecular level, of α- and β-globin-gene
defects. It has further been successful in the development of technologies, and
in the introduction of primary prevention protocols in the health systems of immigration
countries.