Dr Celeste Donato
Dr Celeste Donato
Details
Role
Team Leader / Senior Research Fellow
Research area
Infection, Immunity and Global Health
Group
Enteric Diseases
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 with Associate Professor Carl Kirkwood and Professor Ruth Bishop. After completing 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 she undertook at Monash University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Celeste is currently the Enteric Virus Team Leader within the Enteric Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which hosts the Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Network, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Child Health and the WHO Rotavirus Regional Reference Laboratory for the Western Pacific region (https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/research-areas/infection-immunity-and-global-health/enteric-diseases).
Celeste is also a senior postdoctoral researcher within the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; where she is the co-lead of the One Health research theme and is a lead postdoctoral researcher for the Australian Pathogen Genomics program overseeing the One Health and Candida auris projects (https://www.auspathogen.org.au).
Celeste is currently the Enteric Virus Team Leader within the Enteric Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which hosts the Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Network, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Child Health and the WHO Rotavirus Regional Reference Laboratory for the Western Pacific region (https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/research-areas/infection-immunity-and-global-health/enteric-diseases).
Celeste is also a senior postdoctoral researcher within the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; where she is the co-lead of the One Health research theme and is a lead postdoctoral researcher for the Australian Pathogen Genomics program overseeing the One Health and Candida auris projects (https://www.auspathogen.org.au).
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 with Associate Professor Carl Kirkwood and Professor Ruth Bishop. After completing a...
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 with Associate Professor Carl Kirkwood and Professor Ruth Bishop. After completing 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 she undertook at Monash University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Celeste is currently the Enteric Virus Team Leader within the Enteric Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which hosts the Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Network, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Child Health and the WHO Rotavirus Regional Reference Laboratory for the Western Pacific region (https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/research-areas/infection-immunity-and-global-health/enteric-diseases).
Celeste is also a senior postdoctoral researcher within the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; where she is the co-lead of the One Health research theme and is a lead postdoctoral researcher for the Australian Pathogen Genomics program overseeing the One Health and Candida auris projects (https://www.auspathogen.org.au).
Celeste is currently the Enteric Virus Team Leader within the Enteric Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, which hosts the Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Network, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Child Health and the WHO Rotavirus Regional Reference Laboratory for the Western Pacific region (https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/research-areas/infection-immunity-and-global-health/enteric-diseases).
Celeste is also a senior postdoctoral researcher within the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity; where she is the co-lead of the One Health research theme and is a lead postdoctoral researcher for the Australian Pathogen Genomics program overseeing the One Health and Candida auris projects (https://www.auspathogen.org.au).
Top Publications
- Tosif, S, Neeland, M, Sutton, P, Licciardi, P, Sarkar, S, Selva, K, Do, LAH, Donato, C, Toh, ZQ, Higgins, R, et al. Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in children of parents with symptomatic COVID-19. 2026 view publication
- Vieira, MC, Donato, CM, Arevalo, P, Rimmelzwaan, GF, Wood, T, Lopez, L, Huang, QS, Dhanasekaran, V, Koelle, K, Cobey, S. Lineage-specific protection and immune imprinting shape the age distributions of influenza B cases. 2026 view publication
- Xu, S, Yan, AWC, Peck, H, Gillespie, L, Barr, IG, Yang, X, Turner, SJ, Donato, CM, Zhang, T, Olshansky, M, et al. Saturation of influenza virus neutralization and antibody consumption can both lead to bistable growth kinetics. 2026 view publication
- Toh, ZQ, Anderson, J, Mazarakis, N, Neeland, M, Higgins, RA, Rautenbacher, K, Dohle, K, Nguyen, J, Overmars, I, Donato, C, et al. Reduced seroconversion in children compared to adults with mild COVID-19. 2026 view publication
- Licciardi, P, Wurzel, D, Neeland, M, Anderson, J, Abo, Y-N, Do, LAH, Donato, C, Bines, J, Toh, ZQ, Higgins, R, et al. Immune Responses in an Infant with Congenital Heart Disease and Severe COVID-19. 2026 view publication
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