Arnaud Didierlaurent

Assistant Professor, ADVAC Executive Director, and Director of the Center of Vaccinology Centre de Vaccinologie

Département de Pathologie et d'Immunologie

Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva Geneva

Switzerland

Arnaud Didierlaurent was trained as an engineer in Biotechnology in France. After gaining his Master's degree at the University of Washington (Steve Ziegler's lab) in 1999, Arnaud obtained his PhD in cellular immunology from the University of Lausanne in 2003 at ISREC under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Kraehenbuhl and Jean-Claude Sirard. Arnaud continued his work on innate immunity in the lab of Jürg Tschopp before joining the Imperial college, London, where he worked as postdoctoral fellow from 2004 to 2007 on the long-term impact of viral infection on the lungs.

In 2006, he was awarded a prize from the Novartis Foundation as a research fellow in Ralph Steinman's lab at Rockefeller University in New York. Arnaud then joined the R&D department of GlaxoSmithKline in 2008 in Belgium, where he held several leading positions in vaccine research and development. Initially head of a lab investigating the mode of action of adjuvant, Arnaud became in charge of the GSK Adjuvant System portfolio and thus directly involved in the licensure of several adjuvanted vaccines. Arnaud's scientific 14 contributions have consequently been focused on deciphering the interplay between innate immunity and pathogen/vaccine-specific adaptive response. Before joining the University, he was global medical affairs director and responsible for the launch of the GSK Zoster vaccine in Japan and European markets, which further increased his understanding of implementation of vaccine programs.

With his experience in both academic and industrial settings, Arnaud has acquired a deep understanding of how vaccines are created, developed, and deployed. He joined the Center of vaccinology in March 2020 to continue his work on translational vaccine research as Assistant Professor. He was recently appointed by WHO as chairman of the Technical Advisory Group who provides recommendations for the Emergency Use listing of COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Since February 2023, he is the director of the Center of Vaccinology at the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva and responsible of ADVAC for the University of Geneva.