Piper Trelstad

As head of chemistry, manufacturing and controls at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, Piper Trelstad, Ph.D., and her team develop robust, innovative, and cost-effective manufacturing processes and ensure clinical supply availability for the Institute’s drug and vaccine candidates.

Piper brings over 20 years of experience in vaccine development, manufacturing, and supply chain, during which time she provided strategic and technical support for a variety of vaccine products at differing stages of development. Prior to joining the Institute, Piper served as vice president of technical development for Takeda’s Vaccine Business Unit, where she provided essential shared services and overall leadership for the cross-functional teams responsible for process, formulation, and analytical development of Takeda’s vaccine products. Earlier at Takeda, Piper held several roles focused on vaccine manufacturing strategy development and implementation, including life cycle management. Before joining Takeda in 2014, Piper worked at Merck, where she most recently served as vaccine product leader. Previously, she held a number of leadership roles within the Merck Manufacturing Division, including capital project team leader, startup leader, and potency investigation leader, as well as positions within vaccine technical operations.

Piper holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. She has an undergraduate degree from Yale University in English Literature and another from the University of Maryland at College Park in Chemical Engineering.