Rate My Professor Orla Morrissey

Professor Orla Morrissey is an Infectious Diseases Physician at Alfred Health in Melbourne, serving as the lead clinician for the Immunocompromised Host Consult Service, and holds positions as Adjunct Professor and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Monash University’s Central Clinical School. She is co-chair of the Australia and New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group and has played a key role in developing national and international guidelines for managing infections in immunocompromised hosts. Morrissey, who holds the qualifications MB BCh, FRACP, and PhD, leads the Morrissey research group focused on infections in immunocompromised patients, including those undergoing chemotherapy, cancer immunotherapy, biologics for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, and transplant recipients. Her work targets opportunistic infections caused by pathogens like Nocardia, cytomegalovirus, Pneumocystis jirovecii, Aspergillus, and Strongyloides, which account for significant morbidity, mortality up to 89 percent, and substantial healthcare costs, such as AUD$55,642 per case of invasive aspergillosis.

The group conducts pioneering research, including the world-first UPPRITE Study, a randomised controlled trial comparing universal antifungal prophylaxis to pre-emptive therapy in lung transplant recipients, with sub-studies on cost-effectiveness, airway cytokine profiles, and posaconazole pharmacokinetics. Additional efforts determine immune recovery post-bone marrow transplantation to enable personalized antimicrobial prophylaxis and vaccination, reducing breakthrough infections, drug toxicity, and resistance. Morrissey utilizes genomics to elucidate Aspergillus virulence factors, host-pathogen interactions, and resistance mechanisms. She is a Fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology, has secured World Health Organization funding for antifungal stewardship, and was appointed Associate Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation. With over 70 peer-reviewed publications, notable works include 'ISHLT consensus statement on the perioperative use of ECLS in lung transplantation: Part II: Intraoperative considerations' (2026), 'Graft-versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis with Cyclophosphamide and Cyclosporin' (2025), 'Bringing optimised COVID-19 vaccine schedules to immunocompromised populations (BOOST-IC)' (2024), and 'Revision and Update of the Consensus Definitions of Invasive Fungal Disease' (2019). Her contributions shape global clinical practices in transplant infectious diseases and mycology.