Koen van der Maaden

Koen van der Maaden is a postdoc researcher at Leiden University (Netherlands). He studied Pharmacy (2004-2008) at Utrecht University (Netherlands) where he obtained his BSc degree and started in 2008 as a master student Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences at Leiden University on a research project on DNA vaccine delivery using liposomes. Based on his excellent performance (he obtained his master degree with honor), he was offered a PhD position on a project “Microneedle-based vaccine delivery” at the division of Drug Delivery Technology of Leiden University. His PhD work resulted in 9 first-author papers and two patent applications. Koen obtained his PhD degree in 2014 with honor. After his PhD he was offered a position at MyLife Technologies to evaluate their microneedles for dermal drug delivery, where he is still involved part-time. Furthermore, he developed a digitally- controlled microneedle applicator after his PhD that is now being commercialized by startup uPRAX Microsolutions. Since March 2015 he is working as a postdoc researcher at Leiden University (Netherlands), were he is focusing on new liposomal SLP formulations for immunotherapy of cancer and microneedle-based intradermal drug delivery.