Etienne Noel Masle-Farquhar

Dr. Etienne Masle-Farquhar is a Lab Head & Faculty Member at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW and Principal Investigator of the Exceptional Responders Program. At Garvan, the Masle-Farquhar Laboratory is a team of 8 people specialising in Arthritis and Tissue Immunogenomics. The lab's rapidly expanding, unique biobank includes synovial fluid, tissue, bone marrow and other samples from over 300 individuals (and ongoing) from >10 hospitals across Australia, who donated inflamed tissues collected during their hospital procedures - primarily from major forms of arthritis (rheumatoid, psoriatic, spondyloarthritis, osteoarthritis, gout), as well as primary cold agglutinin disease (pCAD) and giant cell arteritis (CGA). Using bespoke mouse models, and via collaboration with the new Garvan Biologics Platform, the Masle-Farquhar Lab is designing and producing novel biologic therapies for pre-clinical assessments and/or clinical trials. During his early training, Etienne obtained Hons (1st Class; Alexander McTaggart Scholarship) at the ANU, with A/Prof Anselm Enders and Prof Stefan Broer. He completed his PhD with Prof Chris Goodnow (2025 Crafoord Prize Winner) and A/Prof Joanne Reed, with a UNSW Dean's Award for Outstanding Thesis on his study of shared genetic mechanisms of autoimmune diseases and haematological malignancies. Etienne then completed a first postdoc with A/Prof Owen Siggs, studying Acquired Errors of Immunity, immune syndromes caused by monogenic acquired mutations. And a second postdoc with Prof Joseph Powell, a world-leader in single-cell genetics and eQTL. Etienne's interests include monogenic immune diseases caused by germline or acquired variants in STAT3, KMT2D, CARD11, UBA1 – and more recently, a major focus on studying and treating major forms of arthritis and their comorbidities. Supported by NSW OHMR, NHMRC and other grants, the Masle-Farquhar Lab is investigating disease mechanisms and testing novel treatments for arthritis, inflammatory and hematological diseases. Arthritis, Tissue Biobanking, Autoimmune disease, Inflammation, Somatic mutations, Cytotoxic T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes