Director, Clinical Development
Moderna, Inc
Mieke Soens, M.D., is a currently serving as the Director of Clinical Development, Infectious Diseases at Moderna. In this role, she oversees clinical trial design, protocol development, and medical monitoring. She also provides medical leadership for individual programs and for cross-functional internal workstreams, including pharmacovigilance, biostatistics, clinical operations,.... Prior to joining Moderna, Dr. Soens held significant positions at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where she pioneered the first U.S. Pain in Pregnancy Clinic and served as an Attending Anesthesiologist. Her work in the Pain in Pregnancy Clinic addressed the unmet need for specialized care for pregnant women with acute and chronic pain, and patients with opioid use disorder. This groundbreaking initiative has positioned her as a leader in her field, and she has been invited to speak at international conferences and podcasts on the topic of chronic pain and opioid use disorder in pregnancy.
Dr. Soens's research contributions include investigating inflammatory biomarker responses to nutraceuticals, the effects of inflammatory and pro-resolving lipid mediators on pain resolution after thoracic surgery, and the impact of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids on pain prevalence and severity in older adults. She has also developed a machine learning model to predict patient pain and opioid requirements after surgery. In addition to her research, Dr. Soens has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on topics such as obstetric hemorrhage, anesthesia for obese patients, substance use disorder in pregnancy, and fetal physiology. Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the Brigham Care Redesign Incubator and Startup Program award and the Foundation of Anesthesia, Education and Research (FAER) –MRTG Award. Dr. Soens earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from Ghent University, Belgium. She has completed advanced training programs at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.