Professor Meta Roestenberg elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Roestenberg is a pioneer in research on vaccines and infectious diseases. Her group contributes to the development of a vaccine against malaria, an infectious disease that affects 200 million people each year and causes thousands of deaths.

Malaria is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Developing vaccines against parasites is difficult because they are biologically extremely complex and have evolved extensively to evade the human immune system.

Roestenberg’s approach is based on live but artificially weakened malaria parasites. It has shown promising results in an initial clinical study.

‘Human infection models’

In addition, Roestenberg is a pioneer in developing “human infection models.” In these models, volunteers are deliberately infected under controlled conditions in order to study the immune response and the effects of vaccines and medicines. Roestenberg developed such models for the parasitic disease schistosomiasis and hookworm, tropical diseases that affect millions of people.

Because these models involve infecting healthy individuals, she is also engaged with the ethical aspects of this approach. She addressed these issues in the documentary First, do no harm.

Extensive network

Roestenberg has an extensive network of vaccine researchers in Europe and the United States, as well as in Africa and Asia. Drawing on this network, she founded the non-profit organizations InFECT-NL and INFECTA, with the aim of connecting expertise in the Netherlands and accelerating early clinical testing of new vaccines and medicines.

At LUMC, Roestenberg is also head of the Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID).

A select group

Becoming a member of the KNAW is considered highly prestigious in the Netherlands. KNAW members contribute to discussions on major societal and scientific issues. The institution has approximately 600 members, and appointments are in principle for life. Only a limited number of new members are elected each year.

See here which other LUMC researchers are also members of the KNAW.