Draft:Menzo Havenga

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Menzo Havenga (Rotterdam, 24 december 1966) is a Dutch virologist and expert on viral vectors for vaccine and gene therapy purposes.

Biography

Havenga graduated cum laude in molecular biology from Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands in 1994. During his studies, he worked with, among others, Nobel laureate Prof. Dr. Hartmut Michel and Prof. Dr. Heribert Appelhans at the Max Planck Institute for brain research in Frankfurt and with Dr. Giel Bosman, with whom he conducted research on Alzheimer's disease. In 1998, he received his PhD from Leiden University on the development of retroviral vectors for stem cell therapy for Gaucher’s disease, an hereditary lysosomal storage disease.

From 1998 to 2001, Havenga worked at the start-up IntroGene on the development of adenoviral vectors to combat cardiovascular diseases. Following IntroGene's name change to Crucell and the company's IPO, Havenga was promoted within Crucell to Head of Research and subsequently to Head of Research and Development. During this research period, from 2001-2007, Havenga worked mainly on the development of a technological platform of adenoviral vectors for vaccine applications against, for example, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

In 2008, Havenga moved from Crucell to the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, TNO, where he headed a business unit active in pharmacokinetics, clinical trials, in vivo models and drug manufacturing technology development. In 2010 he started the company Batavia Biosciences BV , together with several partners, where he has since been Managing Director.

Contributions

At Crucell, Havenga and his research team developed new adenoviral vectors and production platforms based on human serotype 11, 26, 35, 48, 49, among others. The choice of these viruses was based on the low sero-prevalence in humans worldwide. By providing the adenoviral vectors with genes coding for certain antigenic proteins from, for example, mycobacterium tuberculosis, the plasmodium falciparum parasite or the HIV virus, a potent immune response could be elicited after vaccination.

At Batavia Biosciences Havenga has also been involved with the development of what is referred to as ‘the second generation of corona vaccines’. Batavia Biosciences is going to supply the Swiss company RocketVax with the trial doses for the clinical trial of a new corona vaccine, which should provide much more comprehensive protection against viral mutations.

At Batavia Biosciences and in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Havenga developed the HIP-Vax production platform, which can produce vaccines very cost-effectively. The platform offers the ability to grow mammalian cells in small volumes to very high cell densities. This significantly reduces the amount of material needed for production and thus the production space and personnel required, and substantially reduces the cost of product purification.

In addition to using the HIP-Vax platform for the development of inactivated and attenuated virus vaccines, the platform is used to develop gene therapy products and vaccines based on vector systems, such as adenovirus, and the vesicular stomatitis virus vector (VSV). The Lassa vaccine, which is being tested in phase II clinical trials, was also produced on the HIP-Vax platform.

For the development of the HIP-Vax, Havenga and Batavia Biosciences have received multiple awards including the Vaccine Industry Excellence (ViE) Award 2022 and The Most Iconic Leader In Pharmaceuticals To Watch In 2024.

Acknowledgment

Havenga is (co-)author of more than 150 scientific articles. In May 2018, Havenga was appointed Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his scientific work and for his commitment as an entrepreneur. In the years 2016-2017 and 2018, Havenga was voted CEO of the year by several national and international organizations.

Publications (selection)

• Vogels R., Zuijdgeest, D., van Rijnsoever, R., Hartkoorn, E., Damen I., de Béthun, M-P., Kostense, S., Penders, G., Helmus, N., Koudstaal, W., Cecchini, M., Wetterwald, A., Sprangers, M., Lemckert, A., Ophorst, OJAE., Koel, B., van Meerendonk, M., Quax, P., Paniti, L., Grimbergen, J., Bout, A., Goudsmit, J., and Havenga, M.J.E. Replication-deficient human Ad35 vectors for gene transfer and vaccination: efficient human cell infection and bypass of pre-existing adenovirus immunity. Journal of Virology 2003, Aug;77(no.15):8263-8271.
• Holterman L, Vogels R, van der Vlugt R, Sieuwerts M, Grimbergen J, Kaspers J, Geelen E, van der Helm E, Lemckert A, Gillissen G, Verhaagh S, Custers J, Zuijdgeest D, Berkhout B, Bakker M, Quax P, Goudsmit J, Havenga M.J.E.. Novel replication-incompetent vector derived from adenovirus type 11 (Ad11) for vaccination and gene therapy: low seroprevalence and non-cross-reactivity with Ad5. Journal of Virology 2004 Dec;78(23):13207-15.).
• Sandra Verhaagh, Esmeralda de Jong, Jaap Goudsmit, Sylvie Lecollinet, Gert Gillissen, Margreet de Vries, Kees van Leuven, Ivo Que, Krista Ouwehand, Ratna Mintardjo, Gerrit Jan Weverling, Katarina Radosevic, Jennifer Richardson, Marc Eloit, Clemens Lowik, Paul Quax, Menzo Havenga. Human CD46 transgenic mice in pre-clinical research involving B2-group adenoviral vectors. Journal General Virology 2006 Feb;87(Pt 2):255-65.
• Roberts DM, Nanda A, Havenga M.J.E., Abbink P, Lynch DM, Ewald BA, Liu J, Thorner AR, Swanson PE, Gorgone DA, Lifton MA, Lemckert AA, Holterman L, Chen B, Dilraj A, Carville A, Mansfield KG, Goudsmit J, Barouch DH. Hexon-chimaeric adenovirus serotype 5 vectors circumvent pre-existing anti-vector immunity. Nature 2006 May 11;441(7090):239-43
• Peter Abbink, Angelique Lemckert, Bonnie Ewald, Diana Lynch, Matthew Denholtz, Shirley Smits, Lennart Holterman, Irma Damen, Ronald Vogels, Anna Thorner, Kara O’Brien, Angela Carville, Keith Mansfield, Jaap Goudsmit, Menzo Havenga, Dan Barouch, Comparative seroprevalence and immunogenicity of six rare serotype recombinant adenovirus vaccine vectors from subgroups B and D. Journal of Virology 2007 May;81(9):4654-63
• Waddington SN, McVey JH, Bhella D, Parker AL, Barker K, Atoda H, Pink R, Buckley SM, Greig JA, Denby L, Custers J, Morita T, Francischetti IM, Monteiro RQ, Barouch DH, van Rooijen N, Napoli C, Havenga M.J.E., Nicklin SA, Baker AH. Adenovirus serotype 5 hexon mediates liver gene transfer. Cell 2008 Feb 8;132(3):397-409.
• Kaufman DR, Goudsmit J, Holterman L, Ewald BA, Denholtz M, Devoy C, Giri A, Grandpre LE, Heraud JM, Franchini G, Seaman MS, Havenga M.J.E., Barouch DH. Differential antigen requirements for protection against systemic and intranasal vaccinia virus challenges in mice. Journal of Virology 2008 Jul;82(14):6829-37.
• Kaufman DR, Liu J, Carville A, Mansfield KG, Havenga M.J.E., Goudsmit J, Barouch DH. Trafficking of antigen-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes to mucosal surfaces following intramuscular vaccination. Journal of Immunology 2008 Sep 15;181(6):4188-98.
• Liu J, O'Brien KL, Lynch DM, Simmons NL, La Porte A, Riggs AM, Abbink P, Coffey RT, Grandpre LE, Seaman MS, Landucci G, Forthal DN, Montefiori DC, Carville A, Mansfield KG, Havenga M.J.E., Pau MG, Goudsmit J, Barouch DH. Immune control of an SIV challenge by a T-cell-based vaccine in rhesus monkeys. Nature 2009 Jan 1;457(7225):87-91.
• B. David Persson, Lijo John, Karim Rafie, Michael Strebl, Lars Frängsmyr, Monika Z. Ballmann, Katja Mindler, Menzo Havenga, Angelique Lemckert, Thilo Stehle, Lars-Anders Carlson, Niklas Arnberg. Human species D adenovirus hexon capsid protein mediates cell entry through a direct interaction with CD46. PNAS 2021 Jan 19; 118(3): 1-8