Professor Marcel Nold, Fielding Foundation Fellow
My research focuses on much-needed new therapies to combat inflammation - a major cause of newborn disease - by utilising bedside-to-bench-and-back approaches to explore the molecular mechanisms underpinning severe illnesses that affect infants and children.
Areas of interest
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) COVID-19 Influenza Lupus Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC)
Research group
Interventional Immunology in Early Life Diseases
Biography
Professor Marcel Nold is a clinician-scientist, Australian and German Board-certified paediatrician and neonatologist.
His work, carried out in Germany, the USA and for the last 12 years in Australia, is focused on interventional immunology and anti-inflammatory cytokines. It has attracted the interest of opinion-leading journals such as Science Immunology, Nature Immunology, PNAS, Blood and others (cumulative impact factor 422, 6100+ citations), of pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and of venture capital firms such as the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (Marcel is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of an MRCF-funded spinout company).
On the clinical side, Professor Nold was recruited to Monash Children’s Hospital and Monash University in 2009 to expand collaborations between clinicians and researchers at the Monash Medical Precinct, and to strengthen translational research into the developing immune system of infants and children.
Since his arrival in Melbourne, Professor Nold has fostered a growing network of collaborations that includes close alliances with the Royal Women’s and Children’s Hospitals, the Mercy Hospital for Women, groups at the Hudson Institute, Monash University, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute as well as interstate and international partners, for example in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Singapore, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the USA.
Professor Nold is passionate about his research making a meaningful difference to his patients and their families. Therefore, aiming to lay the foundations and then establish much-needed new therapies, he employs bedside-to-bench-and-back approaches to explore the molecular mechanisms underpinning severe illnesses that affect infants and children.
In addition to early life-diseases, his work in translational molecular medicine aspires to develop and advance novel cytokine-based therapeutics towards clinical application, thus bringing urgently needed relief to paediatric and adult patients with auto-inflammatory and autoimmune illnesses such as systemic lupus erythematosus as well as viral illnesses such as influenza and COVID-19.
READ MORE ABOUT PROFESSOR NOLD’S RESEARCH
Charlie’s story – Grieving couple’s mission to end necrotising enterocolitis
Delivering hope: anti-inflammatory drug trial for preterm babies
New treatments for preterm babies
Student opportunities
Publication highlights
