The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Dr Marios Koutsakos

+61 3 8344 3791 | marios.koutsakos@unimelb.edu.au

Position:
Senior Research Fellow
Theme(s):
Immunology, Viral Infectious Diseases
Discipline(s):
Discovery Research
Unit(s):
The University of Melbourne, Department of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI)
Lab Group(s):
Kent Group

Marios completed his BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Imperial College in London, working with Professor Wendy Barclay on the molecular virology of influenza B viruses. He then obtained a Masters degree in Systems and Synthetic biology, also at Imperial College. Marios subsequently undertook a PhD with Professor Katherine Kedzierska within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, focusing on understanding protective immunity to influenza viruses, especially the understudied but clinically relevant influenza B viruses. He is now a Senior Research Fellow with the Kent Group at the Doherty Institute, working on dissecting the antigenic evolution and antibody responses to influenza B viruses in order to rationally designing a universal influenza B virus vaccine. He is interested in exploring the possibility of influenza B virus eradication. 

  • Key Achievements
    • Marios’ work has so far resulted in numerous lead author manuscripts, including in Nature, Nature Reviews Microbiology, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Nature Microbiology, Nature Immunology, Immunity, Science Translational Medicine, as well as a patent inventorship on the design of novel universal influenza vaccines. He has received numerous awards, including the NHMRC Frank Fenner award for research excellence, the NARF Postdoctoral Scientist award, the QIAGEN PhD Achievement award, the James S Porterfield Prize in international virology by the University of Oxford. He is a recipient of an NHMRC EL1 fellowship, the Locarnini-Morningside Fellowship in Virology and a CGCPT Foundation Grant.

    Publications
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    Research Groups
    • Kent Group

      Stephen’s group studies immunity to HIV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2. They are analysing a variety of vaccine strategies, including nanoparticle-based vaccines. They are studying a series of immune responses to gain better insights into protective immunity to important viral pathogens. They are developing monoclonal antibody therapies for HIV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 to improve the treatment of these infections. The Kent group works very closely with Dr Amy Chung’s laboratory at the Doherty Institute.


      Lab Team

      Kent Group

      • Laboratory Head
      • Laboratory Head
      • Hyon-Xhi Tan
        Research Officer
      • Senior Research Fellow
      • Research Officer
      • Mai Ngoc Vu
        Postdoctoral Fellow
      • Lara Schwab
        Research Officer
      • Mitchell Zheng
        Postdoctoral Fellow
      • Rosela Webster
        Postdoctoral Fellow
      • Chris Gonelli
        Research Officer
      • Palak Mehta
        Research Officer
      • Thakshila Amarasena
        Research Support Officer
      • Andrew Kelly
        Research Assistant
      • Lauren Burmas
        Research Assistant
      • Julie Nguyen
        Research Assistant
      • Robyn Esterbauer
        Research Assistant
      • Ellie Reilly
        Research Assistant
      • Jane Batten
        Project Manager
      • Janavi Rambhatla
        Academic Specialist - Research Officer
      • Devaki Pilapitiya
        PhD Student
      • Ruth Purcell
        PhD Student (co-supervisor with Amy Chung)
      • Kirsty Field
        PhD Student
      • Thu Do
        PhD Student
      • Yee-Chen Liu
        PhD Student
      • Veronica Zoest
        PhD Student
      • Nanouk Zuidmeer
        International Masters Student Placement
      • Professor David O'Connor
        Honorary
      • Professor Shelby O'Connor
        Honorary
      • Dr David (Yi) Ju
        Honorary
      • Dr Hillary Vanderven
        Honorary
      • A/Prof Matt Parsons
        Honorary
      • Dr Nghia Truong
        Honorary
      • Dr Sinth Jegaskanda
        Honorary
      • A/Prof Steve Rockman
        Honorary
      • Dr Emily Pilkington
        Guest Scientist
      • Dr Shiyao Li
        Guest Scientist
      • Diyana Hassanel
        Guest Scientist
      • Zihnil Mazrad
        Guest Scientist