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About

Dr Doerflinger completed a Master of Science Degree with focus on Biochemistry and Immunology at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Dr Doerflinger then moved to Australia in February 2012 to undertake PhD studies under the supervision of Associate Professor Hamsa Puthalakath at La Trobe University, and their work on cell death regulation resulted in several first author publications.

In 2016, they took up a position as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Pellegrini laboratory at WEHI, where they expanded their skillset and career focus towards translational outcomes and have built productive collaborative networks nationally (such as The Peter Doherty Institute, Hudson Institute, La Trobe University, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, MCRI and The Florey) and internationally (Austria, Germany, Japan, US).

Dr Doerflinger has recently been appointed Laboratory Head at WEHI and in this role oversees the PC3 facility within the Infectious Diseases and Immune Defense division. This is the basis to lead a comprehensive research program in which Dr Doerflinger continues to uncover the regulatory processes of programmed cell death processes and their contribution to shaping immune responses to infection.

Publications

Selected publications from Dr Marcel Doerflinger

Shojaee F, Azadian E, Wong MX, Ma X, Rickard J, Pang J, Hall C, Kueh AJ, Masters SL, Rioja I, Prinjha RK, Doerflinger M, Lawlor KE, Rashidi M, Vince JE. NLRP3 inflammasome–driven hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis occurs independent of IL-1β and IL-18 and is targetable by BET inhibitors. Science Advances. 2025;11(28):10.1126/sciadv.adv0079

M. Bader S, Scherer L, Schaefer J, Cooney JP, Mackiewicz L, Dayton M, Georgy SR, Davidson KC, Allison CC, Herold MJ, Strasser A, Pellegrini M, Doerflinger M. IL-1β drives SARS-CoV-2-induced disease independently of the inflammasome and pyroptosis signalling. Cell Death & Differentiation. 2025;32(7):10.1038/s41418-025-01459-x

Cooney JP, Hirons A, Jansz N, Allison CC, Hickey P, Teh CE, Tan T, Dagley LF, Yousef J, Yurick D, Khoury G, Preston SP, Arandjelovic P, Davidson KC, Williams LJ, Bader SM, Wang L, Bhandari R, Mackiewicz L, Dayton M, Clow W, Faulkner GJ, Gray DH, Einsiedel L, Purcell DFJ, Doerflinger M, Pellegrini M. Combination antiretroviral therapy and MCL-1 inhibition mitigate HTLV-1 infection in vivo. Cell. 2025;:10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.023

Renz A, Hohner M, Jami R, Breitenbach M, Josephs-Spaulding J, Dürrwald J, Best L, Dulière V, Mialon C, Bader SM, Marinos G, Leonidou N, Cabreiro F, Pellegrini M, Doerflinger M, Rosa-Calatrava M, Pizzorno A, Dräger A, Schindler M, Kaleta C. Metabolic modeling elucidates phenformin and atpenin A5 as broad-spectrum antiviral drugs against RNA viruses. Communications Biology. 2025;8(1):10.1038/s42003-025-08148-y

M. Bader S, Calleja DJ, Devine SM, Kuchel NW, Lu BGC, Wu X, Birkinshaw RW, Bhandari R, Loi K, Volpe R, Khakham Y, Au AE, Blackmore TR, Mackiewicz L, Dayton M, Schaefer J, Scherer L, Stock AT, Cooney JP, Schoffer K, Maluenda A, Kleeman EA, Davidson KC, Allison CC, Ebert G, Chen G, Katneni K, Klemm TA, Nachbur U, Georgy SR, Czabotar PE, Hannan AJ, Putoczki TL, Tanzer M, Pellegrini M, Lechtenberg BC, Charman SA, Call MJ, Mitchell JP, Lowes KN, Lessene G, Doerflinger M, Komander D. A novel PLpro inhibitor improves outcomes in a pre-clinical model of long COVID. Nature Communications. 2025;16(1):10.1038/s41467-025-57905-4

Reynolds GK, Williams L, Anderson MA, Dowling MR, Minson A, Dickinson MJ, Thursky KA, Harrison SJ, Slavin MA, Doerflinger M, Teh BW. Predicting Risk of Infection in Patients Receiving CAR-T for Aggressive Lymphoma: A Study Exploring the Utility of Immune Profiling. Blood. 2024;144(Supplement 1):10.1182/blood-2024-203133

Reynolds GK, Williams L, Anderson MA, Dowling MR, Minson A, Dickinson MJ, Thursky KA, Harrison SJ, Slavin MA, Doerflinger M, Teh BW. Longitudinal Cytokine Expression in Aggressive Lymphoma Patients Treated with CAR-T: Applications of Immune Profiling to CAR-T. Blood. 2024;144(Supplement 1):10.1182/blood-2024-202836

Wang TT, Hirons A, Doerflinger M, Morris KV, Ledger S, Purcell DFJ, Kelleher AD, Ahlenstiel CL. Current State of Therapeutics for HTLV-1. Viruses. 2024;16(10):10.3390/v16101616

Muhi S, Buultjens AH, Porter JL, Marshall JL, Doerflinger M, Pidot SJ, O’Brien DP, Johnson PDR, Lavender CJ, Globan M, McCarthy J, Osowicki J, Stinear TP. Mycobacterium ulcerans challenge strain selection for a Buruli ulcer controlled human infection model. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2024;18(5):10.1371/journal.pntd.0011979

M. Bader S, Cooney JP, Bhandari R, Mackiewicz L, Dayton M, Sheerin D, Georgy SR, Murphy JM, Davidson KC, Allison CC, Pellegrini M, Doerflinger M. Necroptosis does not drive disease pathogenesis in a mouse infective model of SARS-CoV-2 in vivo. Cell Death & Disease. 2024;15(1):10.1038/s41419-024-06471-6

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