Dr Rogier Sanders is a professor of virology, specialising in designing novel antiviral vaccines and antibodies. He studied medical biology at the University of Amsterdam and the Rockefeller University in New York. In 2004, he obtained his PhD (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam. Dr Sanders also holds an affiliate faculty position at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, where he spends part of his time.

His research focuses on viral glycoprotein vaccines, in particular those based on native-like trimers. Several of Dr Sanders’ HIV-1 envelope trimers are now in phase I clinical trials as candidate vaccines, and his proline stabilisation of HIV-1 envelope trimers has inspired many Covid-19 vaccines currently in use. He also co-isolated one of the most potent and broad HIV-1 neutralising antibodies, PGDM1400, which is also currently in phase I and II clinical trials.

Dr Sanders has received several prestigious grants, such as the Veni, Vidi and Vici grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and a Starting Investigator grant from the European Research Council (ERC). He leads and/or participates in various research consortia funded by the EU, NIH/NIAID, and the Gates Foundation. Dr Sanders has (co-)authored more than 250 articles in scientific journals, including journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell, and his papers have been cited over 15,000 times. In 2011, he received the Dutch Prize for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In a top-10 list of “hottest authors” in HIV/AIDS research 2013-2015, compiled by Thomson Reuters, Dr Sanders shared the top position. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southampton in UK.