Meta Roestenberg | Clinical Head, Controlled Human Infection Center
Leiden University Medical Center (Netherlands)

Meta Roestenberg is an infectious diseases clinician at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands  where she leads a group of translational researchers in answering key questions related to host-pathogen interaction by making use of controlled human infection models. Her team pioneered the clinical testing of a genetically attenuated sporozoite vaccine against malaria by intravenous administration and demonstrated the exceptional potency of late-arresting genetically attenuated malaria parasites as immunisation strategy. Her research group was the first to establish a controlled human infection model (CHIM) using single-sex schistosomes and the first to establish a controlled human infection model for hookworm using higher doses of larvae, enhancing the power of experimental hookworm infections. As the portfolio of CHIM trials is expanding to include rhinovirus, influenza, RSV, C. difficile and OC43, Meta has founded the InFECT-NL foundation for the early-phase clinical testing of novel products for infectious diseases including CHIM studies. Operating as a CRO, InFECT-NL aims to make CHIM expertise widely available at a quality which would be fit for product registration. Recognising the ethical complexity of such healthy volunteer studies, the group is active in establishing ethical frameworks for such CHIM trials, contributing to generating guidelines and leading discussions.