Marios Koutsakos

I obtained my BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Imperial College in London, where I worked with Prof. Wendy Barclay on the molecular virology of influenza B viruses. I then obtained my Masters degree in Systems and Synthetic biology, also at Imperial College. I then moved to Australia for my PhD, joining the group of Prof. Katherine Kedzierska at DMI. My PhD work focused on understanding protective immunity to influenza viruses, especially the understudied but clinically relevant influenza B viruses. In 2017, I was the recipient of QIAGEN PhD Achievement award as well as the James S Porterfield Prize in international virology by the University of Oxford, the ASI Pharmaxis award, an ASI International Travel Award and a ASI New Investigator finalist. My PhD work has so far resulted in 3 first-author manuscripts, including Nature Immunology and Science Translational Medicine, as well as a patent inventorship on the design of novel universal influenza vaccines. My postdoctoral work focuses on the pre-clinical development of universal influenza vaccines, immunity to influenza B viruses and immunity in high-risk groups of severe influenza infection, like transplant recipients.