In Memoriam

Abstract

The present generation active in epileptology may be only vaguely or not at all acquainted with the acronym, WODADIBOF, which stood for Workshops On the Determination of Antiepileptic Drugs In Body Fluids. Yet those who write science history will probably agree that the workshops formed the basis for therapeutic drug monitoring in the field of epilepsy. One of its founding fathers, Jaap (Jacobus Wilhelmus Antonius) Meijer, died on April 28, 2001, at age 74 years. He finished pre-university education at the end of World War II in Breda, The Netherlands. He hesitated between careers as a pianist and as a chemist and solved the problem by playing in ensembles to finance his academic studies. In 1953 he accepted a job at the Leiden University Laboratory of Endocrinology (Prof. Dr. A. Querido and Dr. A.A.H. Kassenaar) and collaborated with J.B. Stanbury, leading to the discovery of dehalogenase deficiencies. In this laboratory, he met two co-workers who were pivotal in his later work in the field of epilepsy. However, first he joined the atherosclerosis group of Prof. Dr. C.J.F. Böttcher at the Department of Physical Chemistry, where he acquired his expertise in gas chromatography. In 1968 he was appointed head of the Clinical Chemistry and Research Department of the Instituut voor Epilepsiebestrijding Meer en Bosch-De Cruquiushoeve in Heemstede. This institute, now renamed SEIN, is the oldest (founded 1882) and largest special center for epilepsy in the Netherlands. His focus was on all aspects of antiepileptic drugs in body fluids. In the international scene, his first epilepsy article appeared in Epilepsia in 1971; it was entitled “Simultaneous Quantitative Determination of Antiepileptic Drugs, including Carbamazepine, in Body Fluids.” Twenty years later, he summarized his work in a thesis defended at Nijmegen University: “Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice in Antiepileptic Drug Monitoring,” which also was published as a supplement to Acta Neurologica Scandinavica (1991;(suppl 134):1–128). He was awarded the distinction Ambassador for Epilepsy by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) in 1986. His innovative thinking, his musical and graphic talents, but above all, his amiable character ensure that he will be long and fondly remembered by his many friends and his family.