Skip to main content

On the Front Line Profile: Yingxia Wen

Seqirus Head of Drug Discovery Research shares her passion for influenza prevention and her work on the sa-mRNA program.

Story
Yingxia Wen, Seqirus Head of Drug Discovery Research, with her daughters.
Yingxia Wen, Seqirus Head of Drug Discovery Research, with her daughters.

Our research and development group focuses on improving our influenza vaccines and their manufacturing processes and exploring the opportunities in new vaccine platform technologies to help protect against influenza and other infectious diseases. A key member of this team is Yingxia Wen, Head of Discovery Research at Seqirus.

Yingxia’s passion for influenza prevention became clear while she was working at Novartis during the 2009 influenza pandemic. She saw first-hand how her research has a direct impact on public health, and has since dedicated her career to the study of influenza and other infectious disease-causing viruses. Now, Yingxia leads the design, characterization, and production of vaccines.

What are Yingxia’s priorities for a perfect career? “Making a positive impact on society, having a genuine interest in the work you’re doing, and feeling valued.”

She’s part of a team culture that values collaboration and welcomes new ideas, opinions, and potential solutions from all team members, all under one common overall goal of protecting public health. “I really enjoy working with smart and dedicated scientists to solve scientific challenges,” Yingxia shared. “It makes me feel proud that we are helping to move research projects into development, and hopefully supporting their commercialization in the future.”

Yingxia has also played an integral role in driving our sa-mRNA program forward, helping with the development of sa-mRNA-based influenza vaccine candidates.

Outside of the office, Yingxia loves to travel and enjoys hiking in the mountains and spending quality time with her daughters.