Heleen Scheerens

Biography
Heleen Scheerens, PhD, is Vice President and Global Head of OMNI-Biomarker Development at Genentech, where she leads biomarker strategy across ophthalmology, metabolism, neuroscience, immunology, and infectious diseases. Her work focuses on using translational pharmacology and biomarkers to understand how investigational medicines act in patients, identify biologically distinct disease subtypes, and improve clinical development and personalized treatment approaches. At Genentech, she has helped advance biomarker programs across multiple stages of drug development and has contributed to work that used biomarkers to distinguish subtypes of asthma and guide more targeted therapeutic strategies. Scheerens joined Genentech in 2006 after scientific roles at Celera and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, and earlier completed postdoctoral research in immunology at DNAX Research Institute. She earned her PhD in immunopharmacology from Utrecht University after training in pharmacochemistry at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is also an active mentor and advocate for developing scientific leaders.