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, Prof Nold was recruited to Monash Children’s Hospital and Monash University in 2009 to expand collaborations between clinicians and researchers at the Monash Health Translation Precinct, and to strengthen translational research into the developing immune system of infants and children. Since his arrival in Melbourne, he 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.

Prof 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 autoinflammatory and autoimmune illnesses such as systemic lupus erythematosus as well as viral illnesses such as influenza and Covid-19.

Selected publications

• Nold-Petry CA, Lo CY, Rudloff I, Elgass KD, Li S, Gantier MP, Lotz-Havla AS, Gersting SW, Cho SX, Lao JC, Ellisdon AM, Rotter B, Azam T, Mangan NE, Rossello FJ, Whisstock JC, Bufler P, Garlanda C, Mantovani A, Dinarello CA, Nold MF (2015) IL-37 requires the receptors IL-18Rα and IL-1R8 (SIGIRR) to carry out its multifaceted anti-inflammatory program upon innate signal transduction. Nat Immunol.

• Nold MF, Mangan NE, Rudloff I, Cho SX, Shariatian N, Samarasinghe TD, Skuza EM,Veldman A, Berger PJ, Nold-Petry, CA (2013) Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist prevents murine BPD induced by perinatal inflammation and hyperoxia. PNAS 110(35):14384-89.

• Nold MF, Nold-Petry CA, Zepp JA, Palmer BE, Bufler P, Dinarello CA (2010) IL-37 is a fundamental inhibitor of innate immunity. Nat Immunol, 11(11):1014-22.

• Dinarello CA, […] Nold MF et al (2010) IL-1 family nomenclature. Nat Immunol, 11(11):973.

• Nold-Petry CA, Rudloff I, Baumer Y, Ruvo M, Marasco D, Botti P, Farkas L, Cho SX, Zepp JA, Azam T, Dinkel H, Palmer BE, Boisvert WA, Cool CD, Taraseviciene-Stewart L, Heinhuis B, Joosten LA, Dinarello CA, Voelkel NF, Nold MF (2014) IL-32 promotes angiogenesis. J Immunol, 192(2):589-602.

• Zepp JA, Nold-Petry CA, Dinarello CA, Nold MF (2011) Protection from RNA- and DNA-viruses by IL-32. J Immunol, 186(7):4110-8. [featured among 10% best papers in the issue]

• Netea MG, Nold-Petry CA, Nold MF, Joosten LA, Opitz B, van der Meer JH, van de Veerdonk FL, Ferwerda G, Heinhuis B, Devesa I, Funk CJ, Mason RJ, Kullberg BJ, Rubartelli A, van der Meer JW, Dinarello CA (2009) Differential requirement for the activation of the inflammasome for processing and release of IL-1beta in monocytes and macrophages. Blood, 113(10):2324-35.