Organizing Committee Member
Geert Vanden Bossche
Director
Coimeva Llc
Belgium
Biography
Geert Vanden Bossche received his doctoral degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and obtained his PhD degree in Virology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Following his postdoctoral training in Equine Medicine and Surgery at the Free University of Berlin, Dr. Vanden Bossche went on to complete additional training in Virology, Immunology and Molecular Biology at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin where he became board certified in Virology and Microbiology. Geert then transitioned to Environmental Virology and joined the University of Hohenheim as Head of the Virology research lab where he conducted several research projects related to the detection of microbial contamination in environmental samples and biophysical behavior of viruses in aqueous environments.
Research Area
Dr. Vanden Bossche was given the venia legendi in Virology (1996) and held adjunct faculty appointments from the University of Hohenheim and the European Faculty for Environmental Sanitation where he taught Zoonotic Diseases and Environmental Virology. After his career in Academia, Geert joined GlaxoSmithKline to serve various roles in early and late vaccine development and as Head of GSK’s Vaccine Adjuvant and Alternative Vaccine Delivery platform. After leaving GSK, Geert joined Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics in Siena (Italy) and Emeryville (US) where he served as director on the RSV and Influenza vaccine project and as Head of Adjuvants. Following his engagement with Novartis, Geert served as Global Project Director in Solvay Biologicals’ Influenza program devoting his primary efforts to coordinating the early stage development of an improved seasonal and pandemic Influenza cell-culture vaccine. He then moved on to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team in Seattle, US. In his role as Senior Program Officer, Geert has been initiating and coordinating numerous efforts supporting the innovation needed to develop new vaccines and new approaches to immune intervention. Geert also worked with GAVI, where he has been tracking efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. He has represented GAVI in fora with other partners, including WHO and CDC, to review progress on the fight against Ebola and to build plans for a global pandemic preparedness. More recently, Geert joined the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) where he has been coordinating R&D projects related to vaccines and infectious diseases at German universities and research centers. Geert’s research activities are now centered on the design and development of NK cell-based vaccines. He is the author of more than 20 scientific papers and has been invited to speak at multiple international congresses.