Meta Roestenberg awarded Mercator Sapiens Stimulus for pioneering malaria research
Professor Meta Roestenberg has been awarded the Mercator Sapiens Stimulus 2025 by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW). The prize of EUR 1 million will allow Roestenberg and her team to further develop an innovative malaria vaccine.
Roestenberg, Professor of Vaccinology and clinical head of Leiden University’s Controlled Human Infection Center, is working on a unique approach in the fight against malaria. This infectious disease claims more than half a million lives each year around the world. What is innovative about her research is the use of living, genetically attenuated malaria parasites as a vaccine. The first research results are promising and show almost complete protection. This breakthrough has already gained attention in leading medical journals.
Roestenberg will use the prize money to make the vaccine even more potent for effective application in countries where malaria is widespread. She will also be able to add a PhD candidate and two postdoctoral researchers to her team. ‘That is one of the great aspects of prizes like this: they give young academics the chance to develop. That’s how you change the world’, says Roestenberg.
The Mercator Sapiens Stimulus is the largest privately funded science prize in the Netherlands. What is special about this prize is that the researchers have full freedom in how to spend the money. ‘Securing trust-based funding has a huge impact’, says Roestenberg.
The prize ceremony will be held at Hodsonhuis in Haarlem on 12 February 2025. Roestenberg is the second researcher from Leiden to receive this prestigious prize. The prize went to Professor Mariska Kret last year for her research looking at emotions from a comparative and evolutionary perspective.