CID seminar, Interventional Immunology for Early Life Diseases, 8 May

8 May, 12-1pm, Seminar room 1, TRF

Professor Marcel Nold

Research Group Head, Interventional Immunology in Neonatal Diseases

Inflammation is now recognised as the main pathogenetic culprit in many of the major diseases that affect infants born prematurely, for example illnesses of heart and lung such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia and pulmonary hypertension, and of the intestine such as necrotising enterocolitis. These diseases cause not only acute morbidity and mortality, but commonly also severe long-term sequelae. However, the immunological processes that underlie these diseases are surprisingly poorly characterised, with the result that clinicians have no preventative approaches or effective treatments. Our research aims to address the resulting urgent unmet medical need by deriving novel treatment strategies from our exploration of the virtually unmapped frontier of neonatal immunology.  

Professor Marcel F Nold is a clinician-scientist, paediatrician and neonatologist. His work, carried out in Germany, the USA and lately in Australia, is focussed on interventional immunology and has attracted the interest of opinion-leading journals and pharmaceutical companies. Marcel is passionate about his research making a meaningful difference to his baby patients and their families. Therefore, aiming to lay the foundations for much-needed new therapies, Marcel employs bedside-to-bench-and-back approaches to explore the molecular mechanisms underpinning severe diseases of premature infants, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia, pulmonary hypertension and necrotising enterocolitis.