Dr. Renske Hesselink

Director PDM Innovations at CEPI

Keynote

Dr Renske Hesselink is a biochemist with a background in the vaccine industry, who is currently working as Director PDM Innovations at CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. At CEPI, she works on technology innovations that enable the rapid development and suitably scaled manufacturing of equitably accessible vaccines for outbreak response. Such innovations are instrumental for CEPI’s 100 Days Mission, to prevent future pandemics by developing safe and effective vaccines against the next Disease X within 100 days. Prior to joining CEPI, Renske worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 10 years, mainly in formulation, analytical, and drug product development for various vaccines and biologics. She contributed to the Ebola vaccine developed by Janssen during the outbreak in West-Africa, scaling up the process and making vaccine doses available as soon as possible for clinical trials and containment of the epidemic. She also worked on the stabilization of protein- and viral vector-based vaccines against e.g. RSV and HIV. Renske holds an MSc degree in Molecular Sciences from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and a PhD in Membrane Biology from the University of Leeds, UK.