Elly is a researcher and principle investigator of the INDIGO project at AIGHD. She uses her 15 years of experience in several aspects of vaccine research to move the development of safe, effective and affordable vaccines forward. She earned her MSc as an engineer in biotechnology at Wageningen University and Research Centre, followed by a Ph.D. in immunology at the Department of Parasitology, Leiden University Medical Centre, both in The Netherlands.

During her PhD, she became involved in vaccine research when she studied the effect of helminth infections on the immune responses to vaccination in children in Gabon. She has worked on vaccine development ever since, first as a postdoc at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (The Netherlands) where she was involved in studies on nanoparticles for transcutaneous and intranasal vaccine delivery. She was granted a postdoctoral fellowship by the ‘Japan Society for the Promotion of Science’ to investigate human immune responses to intranasal administration of both seasonal and H5N1 influenza vaccines at the Influenza Virus Research Center of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (Tokyo, Japan). In 2013 she joined Intravacc, a Dutch organization developing vaccines from discovery to phaseI/II clinical trials, as head of the department Clinical Development and later worked as Program Manager of Innovation, Program Manager of Bacterial Vaccines and Vice President R&D.