Stef Stienstra
Royal Dutch Navy, The Netherlands
Title: Investing in public health gives especially in low income countries extremely impressive returns
Biography
Biography: Stef Stienstra
Abstract
Dr. Stef Stienstra works internationally for several medical and biotech companies as the scientific advisory board member and is also an active reserve-officer of the Royal Dutch Navy in his rank as Commander (OF4). For the Dutch Armed Forces, he is CBRN specialist with the focus on (micro)biological and chemical threats and medical- and environmental functional specialist within the 1st CMI (Civil-Military Interaction) Battalion of the Dutch Armed Forces. For Expertise France he is now managing an EU CBRN CoE public health project in West Africa. He is visiting professor for the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy for the CBRN Masters Course and lecturer for the NATO School in Oberammergau in Germany and the Joint NATO CBRN-Defense Center of Excellence in Vyskov in the Czech Republic. In his civilian position, he is at this moment developing with MT-Derm in Berlin (Germany) a novel intradermal vaccination technology as well as a new therapy for cutaneous leishmaniasis for which he has won a Canadian ‘Grand Challenge’ grant. With Hemanua in Dublin (Ireland) he has developed an innovative blood separation unit, which is also suitable to produce convalescent plasma for Ebola Virus Disease therapy. He has finished both his studies in Medicine and in Biochemistry in The Netherlands with a doctorate and has extensive practical experience in cell biology, immuno-hematology, infectious diseases, biodefense, and transfusion medicine. His natural business acumen and negotiation competence help to initiate new successful businesses, often generated by unexpected combinations of technologies.