Heleen Kraan is Associate Director of Preclinical at AdJane. She is a vaccine scientist with expertise in vaccine formulation, mucosal delivery and the preclinical development of outer membrane vesicle (OMV)-based vaccines.

Heleen began her career in 2008 at the Netherlands Vaccine Institute (NVI) and continued at its spin-off Intravacc in Bilthoven. In 2018, she obtained her PhD from Leiden University with a thesis on novel formulation and delivery strategies for inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Over the years, she has worked on numerous formulation and delivery projects for vaccine candidates in collaboration with international partners, including the WHO, the NIH and industry. More recently, her work has focused on the preclinical and translational development of OMV-based vaccines, including gonococcal vaccine programs and an intranasal OMV-based COVID-19 vaccine that was evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial. Heleen brings more than 15 years of experience in vaccine research and development.