Dr Celeste Donato completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Science at La Trobe University and then undertook her PhD at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and La Trobe University with Associate Professor Carl Kirkwood and Professor Ruth Bishop. Graduating in 2015, she then completed a two-year postdoc at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. She returned to Australia after being awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Biomedical Fellowship which was conducted at Monash University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Doherty Institute in 2023 as a postdoctoral fellow leading the Candida auris and E. coli One Health projects within the Australian Pathogen Genomics program.
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Key Achievements
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Celeste has extensive collaborations across Southeast Asia and Africa; and supervises Masters and PhD students in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. Her work has resulted in multiple lead author publications in Nature Communications, Journal of Infectious Diseases and The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Publications
Research Groups
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Howden Group
Research from Professor Ben Howden’s group uses genomics, molecular biology, epidemiology and clinical studies to address a broad range of issues related to invasive bacterial diseases in humans, especially those caused by staphylococci, enterococci and other antimicrobial-resistant species. Additionally, working closely with scientists in the MDU PHL, they investigate the epidemiology, evolution and spread of bacterial pathogens of public health significance such as Neisseria gonorrhoea, Listeria monocytogenes, Shigella and Salmonella spp., Legionella spp., and carbapenemase-producing gram-negative bacteria.
Lab Team
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Director Of Microbiological Diagnostic Unit (MDU) Public Health Laboratory
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Deputy Director, Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory
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Adrianna Turner
Research Assistant
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Alexandra-Maria Blejusca
Research Assistant
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Ashleigh Hayes
Research Assistant
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Dr Calum Walsh
Research Fellow
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Dr Celeste Donato
Research Fellow
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Dr Chris Connor
Research Fellow
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NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow
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Diane Daniel
AMR Research Scientist
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Emily Sotheran
PhD student
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Dr Jean Lee
Research Fellow
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Dr Jessica Webb
Research Fellow
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Joseph Napier
Masters student
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Karolina Mercoulia
PhD student
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Lamali Sadeesh Kumar
PhD student
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Dr Lisa Ioannidis
Centre for Pathogen Genomics Coordinator
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Dr Louise Judd
CPG/DAMG Senior Genomics Scientist
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Lucy Li
Research Assistant
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Maria Duarte Aguilera
AMR Research Technical Assistant
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Dr Marielle Babinear
CPG / DAMG
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Marwa Alhotali
PhD student
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Munazzah Maqbool
PhD student
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Neta Petersiel
PhD student
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Dr Patiyan Andersson
Research Fellow
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Dr Paul Kinsella
PhD student
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Rachel Cass
AMR Research Technical Assistant
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Dr Ryan Wick
Research Fellow
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Samriddhi Thakur
PhD student
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Dr Sarah Baines
Research Fellow
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Sher Maine Tan
PhD student
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Clinician Researcher and Infectious Diseases Physician
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Taylor Harshegyi
CPG / DAMG
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Thinley Dorji
PhD student
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Warasinee Mujchariyakul
PhD student