Professor and head of department
prof.dr. Meta Roestenberg
Research
The translational parasitology group led by Roestenberg integrates controlled infection of human volunteers with epidemiology, in vitro models including primary human hepatocytes and immunological systems and ethics research with the ultimate goal to develop novel vaccines, drugs or diagnostics for parasitic diseases of global importance. Focussed mainly on malaria, schistosomiasis and hookworm, we aim to fill the gap between fundamental and preclinical vaccine research and generate knowledge that will ultimately benefit the health of all.
Malaria vaccines
Together with the Franke-Fayard team, Roestenberg has invested in the exploitation of experimental human infections for malaria to develop attenuated parasite vaccination. The work was pioneered by the teams of Sauerwein, Janse and Khan at LUMC and Radboudumc. In 2025, the Roestenberg-Franke-Fayard team demonstrated the potency of such late-liver-stage-arresting parasites, being able to protect malaria-naïve adults with a single immunisation. With support now from the Murugan team, investigating the development of B-cell memory to malaria, the team continues to invest efforts into these novel types of vaccines with the goal of developing a vaccine for global use.
Academic Career
Meta Roestenberg is an infectious diseases clinician and professor in Human Models for Vaccine Development at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. She is head of the Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), a large department with 400+ employees tasked with the clinical infectious diseases and medical microbiology care, teaching and research. Within the department she leads her own team of translational researchers making use of controlled human infection models to support her research into pathophysiology of disease and to complement phase 1 vaccine safety studies for preliminary efficacy. Roestenberg holds a medicine degree (cum laude), a PhD in medicine (cum laude) and is registered as a travel medicine and infectious diseases clinician and clinical pharmacologist.
Future
In the future, Roestenberg will remain dedicated to combatting infectious diseases that cause significant morbidity and mortality in the world through research, clinical service and training of the next generation of clinicians and scientists in the infectious diseases field.
Publications
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Single immunization with genetically attenuated Pf∆mei2 (GA2) parasites by mosquito bite in controlled human malaria infection: a placebo-controlled randomized trial.
Roozen GVT, van Schuijlenburg R, Hensen ADO, Koopman JPR, Lamers OAC, Geurten FJA, Sijtsma JC, Baalbergen E, Janse JJ, Chevalley-Maurel S, Naar CM, Bezemer S, Kroeze H, van de Stadt HJF, de Visser B, […] Murugan R, Franke-Fayard BMD, Roestenberg M.
Nat Med. 2025 Jan;31(1):218-222. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03347-2. Epub 2025 Jan 3.
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Clinical tolerance but no protective efficacy in a placebo-controlled trial of repeated controlled schistosome infection.
Koopman JPR, Houlder EL, Janse JJ, Lamers OA, Roozen GV, Sijtsma JC, Casacuberta-Partal M, Hilt ST, [...] Brienen EA, Wammes LJ, van Lieshout L, van Dam GJ, Corstjens PL, van Diepen A, Yazdanbakhsh M, Hokke CH, Roestenberg M.
J Clin Invest. 2024 Dec 12;135(4):e185422. doi: 10.1172/JCI185422.
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Protective efficacy of short-term infection with Necator americanus hookworm larvae in healthy volunteers in the Netherlands: a single-centre, placebo-controlled, randomised, controlled, phase 1 trial.
Hoogerwerf MA, Janse JJ, Kuiper VP, van Schuijlenburg R, Kruize YC, Sijtsma JC, Nosoh BA, Koopman JR, Verbeek-Menken PH, Westra IM, Meij P, Brienen EA, Visser LG, van Lieshout L, Jochems SP, Yazdanbakhsh M, Roestenberg M.
Lancet Microbe. 2023 Dec;4(12):e1024-e1034. doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(23)00218-5.
Groups:
Translational Parasitology
