Professor in vaccinology, Clinical head of CHIC, internist-infectiologist
Prof. Dr. M. (Meta) Roestenberg, MD
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Introduction
Meta Roestenberg is professor in vaccinology, and clinical head of the Controlled Human Infections Center. She leads a translational research group focused on the development of vaccines for poverty-related infectious diseases. In her (out)patient care she focusses on the daily management of the vaccination department LUMC and she sees patients with (tropical) infectious diseases, parasitic infections or complex vaccination requests. She is chair of the Dutch Society for Parasitology, and is member of the WHO advisory committee for malaria vaccines. She is involved in several EU consortia and obtained various personal grants (Veni, Vidi, ERC-StG) and prizes (Bailey K. Ashford medal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2020), Heineken Young Investigator Award (2020), Letten prize (2021)).
In the future, she will continue to focus on clinical translational vaccine research to fight infectious diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality among the poorest people in the world.
In the future, she will continue to focus on clinical translational vaccine research to fight infectious diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality among the poorest people in the world.
Scientific research
Human models for vaccine development
Experimental medicine approaches such as the controlled infection of human volunteers can accelerate the development of novel vaccines through early proof-of-concept efficacy testing as well as by increasing the understanding of host-pathogen interaction in the human setting. As such, the development of human infection models has the potential to fill the gap between fundamental and preclinical vaccine research and generate knowledge that will foster the design and development of novel vaccines. More importantly, infection models may prove to be a method to reduce research and development costs and ensure that health care can be made accessible and affordable for populations worldwide, now and in years to come, including those affected by poverty. As the field of malaria vaccines has taught us, transfer of human models to endemic areas can be challenging but is essential to unleash their full potential in the vaccine pipeline.
Experimental medicine approaches such as the controlled infection of human volunteers can accelerate the development of novel vaccines through early proof-of-concept efficacy testing as well as by increasing the understanding of host-pathogen interaction in the human setting. As such, the development of human infection models has the potential to fill the gap between fundamental and preclinical vaccine research and generate knowledge that will foster the design and development of novel vaccines. More importantly, infection models may prove to be a method to reduce research and development costs and ensure that health care can be made accessible and affordable for populations worldwide, now and in years to come, including those affected by poverty. As the field of malaria vaccines has taught us, transfer of human models to endemic areas can be challenging but is essential to unleash their full potential in the vaccine pipeline.
