Speakers at EBSA Conference 2022 and Preconference courses

Bas Kolen (living together, 2 children) graduated in 1999 at the University of Twente at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Management. In 2013 he obtained his doctorate from Radboud University University in which he looked at the effectiveness of multi-layer safety and evacuation as part of the (flood) risk approach.

Bas is Director of Research and Development and senior partner at HKV Lijn in water (since 2015). HKV (www.hkv.nl, 80 employees) is an independent consultancy that focuses on 'water and safety' and where knowledge entrepreneurship is central. Within HKV, Bas has been working on issues related to flooding and climate risks since 1999, looking at protection, adaptation and crisis management. Dealing with risks and uncertainty is central to his work.
> 20 years of experience in research and projects in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Japan, United States, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany and France. Related to healthcare issues, he has looked at the vulnerability and evacuation of hospitals and healthcare institutions, the cascade effects of a flood on health. He also conducted research into risk-based decision-making about (forms of) evacuation in the event of an imminent flood.

Since 2015, Bas has also been part-time at TUDelft. He started here as an initiator and connector for research into natural disasters within the Safety and Security Institute at the Faculty of Technology, Governance and Society. From 2022 he will be Senior Technical Officer for the TUDelft role within the Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, Bas became involved in research around the pandemic, which also focuses on dealing with risks. He started this to gain more insight into the
relationship between valuing (lost) human lives during a crisis and during policy studies. To this end, he has drawn up and published a cost-benefit analysis (in ESB), with special attention to the effect of the uncertainty in the situation without measures. In addition, he is involved in Fieldlab events. To this end, he and a team of colleagues in
In collaboration with Radboud UMC and BUAS, a Risk Assessment Model has been drawn up based on the test events. With this model, measures can be evaluated to determine whether the risks of infections and hospital admissions are acceptable. He is currently (in collaboration with Utrecht UMC, Erasmus UMC and Erasmus University) involved in research into the effectiveness of CTB evidence and various forms of access for VWS.

Dr. Dimiter Prodanov, MD, Ph.D., obtained an MD degree from the Medical University – Sofia in 1999 and a Ph.D. degree from the Twente University, Enschede, the Netherlands in 2006.

He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the International Brain Research Organization to continue his research in neuroprosthetics at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, in 2006 and later at the University of Liege, Belgium. Since 2008 Dimiter Prodanov joined Imec, Belgium in the role of a Senior Scientist in neurotechnology. Since 2013 Dimiter Prodanov also became an affiliated researcher in Neuroscience Research Flanders and a member of the safety team in Imec. From 2016 to 2018 Dr. Prodanov successfully coordinated the H2020 project NanoStreeM. He is a biosafety coordinator, and a nanosafety specialist and he supports actively Imec’s research programs in life sciences, health care, and nanoelectronics. Dr. Prodanov has extensive experience in the risk assessment of viral vectors and related induced genetic modifications. Dr. Prodanov is an EBSA council member since 2021 and a member of the EBSA biocide task force.

Working for over ten years in virology research, I gained a broad experience in the biomedical field, as a scientist studying different infectious diseases at KULeuven, and as a biosafety manager of the laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy at the Rega Institute for Medical Research.

EDUCATION

PhD Biomedical Sciences/ University of Leuven, Jan 2010 - May 2014
Master of Biomedical Sciences/ University of Leuven, Sept. 2003 - July 2009
Qualified teacher: Biomedical Sciences/ University of Leuven, Sept. 2006 - July 2009

WORK EXPERIENCE

Postdoctoral researcher/ University of Leuven, June 2014 - December 2016

Wellcome Trust funded project: Development of small molecule directly acting non-entry inhibitors against the human respiratory syncytial virus.

Laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy, Advisor: Prof. dr. Johan Neyts.

Biosafety manager laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy, Since June 2016

I became the biosafety coordinator of the high containment facilities at the Rega institute, the largest BSL3 facilities in Belgium. In addition, I manage both technical and managerial aspects related biosafety of infectious diseases and molecular biology BSL1 and BSL2 laboratories. I developed theoretical and hands-on training programs for the safe operation of labs within V&C. I have experience with the daily management of research facilities, including (but not limited to) GLP, PPE, waste management, emergency procedures, disinfection methods, import and export procedures. Advisor: Prof. dr. Dominique Schols.

Team leader laboratory kitchens Virology and Chemotherapy, Since January 2016

I am coordinating a dedicated team in order to guarantee the continuity of the research (sterilizing equipment and waste and ordering and resupplying lab consumables).

President Belgian Biosafety Professionals, Since January 2021

The Belgian Biosafety Professionals (BBP) provide a forum for biosafety professionals to exchange experience, developments and issues in biosafety practices and regulation in a Belgian context.

Member of the Board of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Since July 2021

I was elected to be member of the board and council as representative of the academic staff (AAP-BAP-OP1-OP2).

Academic Education and Degrees
2013 Graduate certificate in biosafety and biosecurity
2000 Master degree in quality management
1998 Bachelor degree in biochemistry

Present Professional Position
Quality and metrology manager
Biosafety officer

Special Remarks
Member of the Committee for control of biohazards in the ANSES laboratories
EBSA member
IVBW member

Activity :
Manager of the LRFSN contained facilities (BSL-3 and ABSL-3) : design, follow up and reconditioning, in-house trainings
Biorisk manager

Peer-Reviewed periodicals
Allix S., Garin Bastuji B., Jestin V., Madani N., Marianneau P., Monchâtre-Leroy E., Rizzo F., Rousset E., Sidi-Boumedine K. et Zini S.- Implementation of the new French regulations on microorganisms Euro Ref., 2013, n°11, pp 5-9.
Allix S., Etienne S., Garin-Bastuji B., Gassilloud B., Iteman I., Jestin V., Lavissière F., Madani N., Marianneau P., Monchâtre-Leroy E., Rizzo F., Rousset E. et Zini S.- Methodological guide to the assessment of biological safety and security risks Euro Ref., 2013, n°11, p 13.
Maris P., Allix S., Etienne S., Garin Bastuji B., Gassilloud B., Lecarrou G., Madani N., Marianneau P., Monchatre-Leroy E., Rizzo, F., Rousset E., Sidi-Boumedine K. et Zini S.- Methodological guide to the implementation of a process for airborne surface disinfection applied to containment areas. Euro Ref., 2014, n°12, pp 11-18.

Books, book chapters
Allix S, Bécard N, Bellanger L, Biagetto L.G., Binz T, Binder P, Braun N, Carbonnelle C, Cavallo JD, Chao ML, Courcol R, de Cavel JP, Descamps S, Edelman AC, Hoest P, Jaulhac B, Le Saux R, Liang L, Marianneau P, Mérens A, Pannetier D, Paucod JC, Peyrefitte C, Rizzo F, Schramm F, Simons J, Valade E, Zini S.- Manuel de sécurité et de sûreté biologiques SFM, 2014, 123 p

Academic Education and Degrees

• Doctor in Veterinary Science (2003), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium
• Doctor in Veterinary Medicine DVM (1998), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium

Present Professional Position

Senior Biosafety Manager at 3Bio (https://3bio.eu/biosafety/)

Perseus offers efficient solutions for biorisk management and regulatory compliance.

Biorisk management covers all aspects of biological safety and security such as risk assessment, containment requirements, training, audit, transport, waste handling and emergency preparedness. Perseus experts can act as external biosafety officers to your organisation. Perseus integrates technical background with an in-depth knowledge of the European regulatory requirements for biological material, including genetically modified organisms. We assist clients in complying with complex regulatory requirements on e.g. contained use, workers protection, import and export, emergency planning, deliberate releases such as field trials and clinical trials, as well as commercial applications.

Special Remarks

• Senior expert in biosafety and biotechnology regulation
• Long term expercience in R&D in life sciences
• Active member of key biosafety associations and working groups

Kyra Delsing (MA) works as a researcher at the Rathenau Instituut. She has a background in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (Utrecht University) and a master in New Media and Digital Culture (University of Amsterdam). Within the Rathenau Institute she specializes in the societal aspects of biotechnology and leads the T-TRIPP (Tools for Translation of Risk Research into Policies and Practices) project on safety in biotechnology and the BaSyC (Building a Synthetic Cell) project on the societal and ethical aspects of the development of the synthetic cell. She also co-developed a podcast series together with designer Mies Loogman on the synthetic cell called “Herschept” (or Recreated in English).

Before the Rathenau Institute, Kyra worked as a content manager and a behavioral scientist at a consultancy agency in the field of online behavior change. As a behavioral scientist, Kyra conducted extensive behavioral studies based on qualitative and quantitative research and set up online experiments (A/B-tests) to validate and further investigate findings or assumptions.

Education

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

• 1997 Master of Science in Communicable Disease Epidemiology : ‘Distinction’

Cambridge University 

• 199 4 Master of Arts (MA) - Biological Anthropology and Medical Sciences.
• 1992 Veterinary Medicine (VetMB)

Experience

• 2019 – present
  Director, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
  Academic institute of 480 staff with mandate for fundamental, translational and applied research, education, clinical service, and capacity building, with large international collaborative network.
• 2015- 2019 Director, Division of Global Health Protection, US-CDC, Kenya
  Technical direction of large scientific research program of emerging infectious diseasesincluding Alkhurma, CCHF, Rift Valley Fever, Zika and other pathogens in humans and animals 
• 2014 –2015 Co-Principal investigator of Ebola Vaccine Evaluation Team- STRIVE, US-CDC
  Lead of Atlanta and Field team to design and implement Ebola Vaccine Phase III trial in Sierra Leone of investigational Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV in healthcare workers.
• 2008 –2015 Lead, International Epidemiology and Research Team, Influenza Division, US-CDC
  Lead of teams sent to Mexico to investigate origins of pandemic swine H1N1 in 2009 and of team sent to China to investigate emergence of H7N9 in 2013.
• 2001- 2008 Medical Epidemiologist- Division of Viral and Respiratory Diseases US-CDC
  Lead of foodborne virus epidemiology program, with focus on noroviruses. 
• 1999- 2001 EPIET fellow-National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands.
  Surveillance studies; early warning algorothms; outbreak investigation and zoonotic source of Hepatitis E virus, norovirus, rotavirus and other causes of foodborne disease.
• 1998- 1999 Veterinary Zoonosis Epidemiologist, Department for International Development (DFID), Bolivia
  Urban/rural rabies outbreak investigation and dog/vampire control. 
• 1996-1996 Veterinary wildlife disease epidemiologist (DFID), Zimbabwe. 
  Epidemiology of wildlife viral diseases including foot-and-mouth disease, theileirosis and  novel Trichinella infection of farmed crocodileCertified wildlife immobilisation.
• 1992- 1996 Veterinary practitioner – Large/small animal.  Tuberculosis and brucella testing in rural France.

Mark Wheatley is a Biocontainment Engineer, Chartered Building Services Engineer, and a specialist consultant in Containment Laboratory Design, Construction, Operation & Maintenance (since 1998).

Mark is an independent consultant operating internationally providing services tailored to meeting highly specialist needs of companies, organizations, institutions, governments and NGOs worldwide. Marks particular specialism lies in the detailed investigation, fault-finding and remediation of poorly functioning, failing and/or failed biocontainment facilities. Mark has extensive experience spanning more than 23 years of problem solving worldwide, and also a broad portfolio of allied skills such as auditing and project management as well as developing wider skills including training and authoring.

Mark is currently appointed to MORU (the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok, Thailand) as the Project manager for the DTRA/BTRP (US Defense Threat Reduction Agency/ Biological Threat Reduction Programme) funded project to renovate the Regional Reference Laboratory (RRL) for FMD (foot and mouth disease) for Southeast Asia located at Pak Chong in Thailand; Mark is also appointed a as technical expert to the Dutch NAC (National Authority for Containment) as the biocontainment engineer advising the 5 person WHO GAPIII PEF (polio essential facility) audit team. In the recent past Mark has acted as the interim Senior Biocontainment Engineer for DEFRA (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs UK). Mark was Key Expert 4 on the EU CBRN CoE Project 46 during which he developed and delivered training to Engineers, Architects and Scientists from 8 ASEAN countries on ‘Laboratory Design, Construction, Operation and Management’ including the production of a booklet “A broad introduction to the design and construction of biosafety laboratories in low-resource settings”. Mark was also a contributor to the recently released WHO LBM4 monograph on Laboratory Design & Maintenance, and is a volunteer on the Sandia National Laboratories (US) twinning programme. Mark is currently a member of the ISO TS 7446 Writing Team working on a guidance document in support of ISO 35001, Biorisk management for laboratories and other related organisations. Mark lives in Cornwall in the UK.

Mark specialises in peer review and is also often invited as a technical expert to join on the expert panel of structured risk assessment teams (SWIFT, HAZOP etc.) on critical systems such as EDS (effluent decontamination systems), autoclaves, and high containment HVAC & Controls. During his time at Defra Mark worked closely with the Functional Safety specialist contractor at Defra working to satisfy HSE (Health and Safety Executive) requirements. This interest in Functional safety and structured risk assessments was first kindled during the initial response to the HSE investigations after the 2007 FMD Outbreak in the UK and Mark worked closely with HSE delivering a £3M+ project to enhance the safety systems in place at both the Pirbright and Compton sites of the Institute for Animal Health (Pirbright Laboratory).

Academic Education and Degrees

• B.Eng (Hons) Building Services Engineering Design & Managment
• HNC Instrumentation and Control Engineering
• ONC Electrical and Electronc Engineering
• ONC Mechanical and Production Engineering
• ONC (level II) Building Services Engineering

Present Professional Position

• Director, Environment & Services Ltd.; Biocontainment Engineer
• Project Manager: MORU-DTRA refurbishment of FMD RRL in Southeast Asia(BTRP)

Academic Education and Degrees:

PhD. Faculty of Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
MSc. Molecular Sciences, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Present Professional Position

Scientific Director Global Environmental Risk Assessor
Environmental Product Compliance and Sustainability, Global Sustainability, Janssen R&D (since 2019)

Currently responsible for the Environmental Risk Assessments of Janssen R&D product portfolio: chemicals (API SM) and biologicals, including genetic modified organisms [GMO]s) for Marketing Authorization and clinical trials

Trained as a biologist, Patrick Rüdelsheim started his career in a Dutch seed company. He then joined Plant Genetic Systems N.V., Ghent, Belgium. After being in charge of Product Development and Registration, he was appointed Director Regulatory Affairs and Member of the Board. 

Following the acquisition of PGS, he became Global Head of Biotechnology Regulatory Affairs for the AgrEvo group and remained in this function during the subsequent creation of Aventis S.A. and the acquisition by Bayer. In this function, he ensured the scientific argumentation for Product Safety and Quality as well as the compliance with all regulatory acquirements related to genetic engineering.

In 2003, he founded and became General Manager of Perseus BV, a service company focused on bio-safety and related regulatory requirements. Mid 2015, he was co-founder and served as Senior Regulatory Advisor for ABS-int, a multi-disciplinary initiative dedicated to Access and Benefit Sharing requirements for genetic resources. Since 2023, Perseus and ABS-int operate together as 3Bio, in which he acts as Director and Chief Regulatory Officer. In this capacity he offers his extensive and global experience in every aspect of biosafety and biotechnology regulation to a range of users and developers. He lectures on biosafety and regulations at the University of Ghent and the University of Antwerp.

Academic Education and Degrees

Msc in molecular sciences, Wageningen university, The Netherlands

Present Professional Position

René Custers is regulatory & responsible research manager at VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology), Belgium. He has more than 25 years of experience in regulatory affairs, biosafety, and the societal and ethical aspects of modern biotechnology. He is an expert in the legislation and safety of GMOs and genome edited organisms and has been very active in the European debate on the regulatory status of genome edited organisms. At VIB he coordinates the institutes’ policies on regulatory compliance, (bio)safety, ethics and integrity. He is also involved in science communication activities to a wider audience. He is a member of the Belgian Biosafety Advisory Council, and member of the board of EU-SAGE (European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing).

Full Professor in Epidemiology of Tropical Infectious Diseases at Radboudumc (The Netherlands) and honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK). Prof Bousema is specialised in the biology and epidemiology of Plasmodium falciparum with over 200 publications on malaria and other infectious diseases. He is an elected member of the Academia Europaea and advisor to the World Health Organization on malaria elimination. According to a recent analysis, he belongs to the 20 most cited malaria researchers worldwide.

Education

2011 Certificate in higher education, University of London
2003 – 2007 PhD Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
1995 – 2000 MSc in Toxicology and Epidemiology, Radboud universiy Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Key publications

• No time to die: An in-depth analysis of James Bond's exposure to infectious agents. Travel Med Infect Dis, 2021.
• Sources of persistent malaria transmission in a setting with effective malaria control in eastern Uganda: a longitudinal observational cohort study. Lancet Infect Dis 2021
• Higher gametocyte production and mosquito infectivity in chronic compared to incident Plasmodium falciparum infections. Nature Communications 2021