Gilles Besin

Dr. Besin brings 15 years of research experience in immunology and vaccines for infectious diseases, oncology and metabolic disorders to Affinivax. Recently, Dr. Besin led the Research and Discovery groups at both Moderna and In-Cell-Art. In Moderna, he led the platform immunology and the efforts to modulate T cell responses in cancer and autoimmune diseases using mRNA lipid nanoparticles. Dr. Besin also collaborated in the development of numerous mRNA cancer and infectious diseases vaccines in Moderna, some in clinical phase. Prior to Moderna, Dr. Besin was involved in the discovery of DNA vaccines mainly in cancer, e.g. hepatocellular carcinoma in In-Cell-ART (France). In parallel to these efforts, Dr. Besin participated in the development of mRNA vaccines in collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur and CureVac under the umbrella of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prior to his industry experience, Dr Besin worked on the characterization of autoimmune T cells and dendritic cells in autoimmune disease (Type 1 diabetes) in the Clinical Research Center of Sherbrooke University in Canada. Dr. Besin received his PhD in Immunology from the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Germany and an Engineering Diploma in Biotechnology from ESBS in France.