Rate My Professor Marisa Herson

Dr. Marisa Herson serves as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery at Alfred Hospital, Monash University, within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Holding an MD and a PhD in skin bioengineering, she began her professional life as a Burns Surgeon in Brazil. Looking for ways to improve patient care, she became involved in research in skin bioengineering, establishing the University of Sao Paulo Skin Bank under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. She was President of the Latin American Association of Tissue Banks and advisor to the Brazilian Organ and Tissue Transplant authorities and national regulatory body ANVISA before moving to Australia in 2007 to head the Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria, a multi-tissue banking facility in Melbourne. In 2011 she returned to academic life and has since undertaken diverse roles in public and professional bodies in Australia and overseas, including Associate Professor at Deakin University in Ethics and Professionalism and Senior Lecturer at Monash University Surgery Department.

Dr. Herson's research interests encompass skin bioengineering, tissue banking, organ donation, and tissue donation. Her key publications include "Performance of a hospital-acquired complication algorithm using administrative data for detection of central line-associated bloodstream infections: experience at an Australian healthcare facility" (Journal of Hospital Infection, 2021), "Xeno-free expansion of adult keratinocytes for clinical application: the use of human-derived feeder cells and serum" (Cell and Tissue Research, 2019), "CEA as an adjunct treatment for major burns: a phase 1 study" (Cytotherapy, 2017), "Artificial dermal templates: A comparative study of NovoSorb™ Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) and Integra® Dermal Regeneration Template (DRT)" (Burns, 2016), and "Dependence of optical attenuation coefficient and mechanical tension of irradiated human cartilage measured by optical coherence tomography" (Cell and Tissue Banking, 2015). She holds influential positions such as advisor to the Australian TGA-ACB Committee, member of the ICCBBA-ITTAG Committee, member of the World Health Organization Expert Panel in Organ and Tissue Donation, member of the WHO Task Force on Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues, and General Secretary of the World Union of Tissue Banking Associations (WUTBA) as of 2014. She was previously a member of the OTA Advisory Council from 2009 to 2016.