Director
Translational Medicine, Vaccines & Immune Therapies, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca
Disclosure(s): AstraZeneca: Employee of AstraZeneca and may own AstraZeneca stock or stock options.
Deidre Wilkins is a Director of Translational Scientific Management within AstraZeneca’s Vaccines & Immune Therapies unit. Deidre received her B.S. in biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University and has a Masters certificate in healthcare project management from Villanova University. She is a certified project manager professional with more than 20 years of expertise in drug discovery and development.
In her current role she provides scientific and technical leadership to support the development and validation of translational biomarkers for early- and late-stage clinical studies. She has co-authored over 20 research articles with a recent focus on validating serologic biomarkers to support AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) COVID-19 vaccine and RSV programs.
Her support for the nirsevimab clinical development program includes management of the Observational US Targeted Surveillance of Monoclonal Antibody Resistance Testing for RSV (OUTSMART RSV) and the International Network for Optimal Resistance Monitoring of RSV (INFORM RSV) viral surveillance studies. She has published on the conservation of the nirsevimab binding site throughout these studies and during the clinical development program. Her recent work explores the effects of nirsevimab administration on the immune response to RSV infection and the durability of anti-RSV neutralizing antibodies.