Completed undergraduate studies at The University of Sydney, with honours and a double major of Molecular Biology and Genetics (1999). She continued at the University for her PhD studies, working with Prof. Emma Whitelaw on mammalian epigenetics (2005). During her PhD, she designed and developed a sensitised mutagenesis screen to find novel epigenetic modifiers in the mouse, a challenging project for which she was awarded the Genetics Society of Australia DG Catcheside prize for the best PhD in Genetics. Marnie moved to Melbourne at the end of 2005 to take up a National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Peter Doherty Post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. Douglas Hilton at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Here, she has worked on one of the mouse mutants identified in the mutagenesis screen, identifying a critical role for the novel protein Smchd1 in X inactivation, and has also studied the role of polycomb group proteins in hematopoietic stem cell function. The work above earned her the Australian Academy of Science Gani medal in 2009, and the L’Oreal Australia Women in Science fellowship 2009. In January 2010, Marnie established her own group at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute as an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II fellow, working on the molecular mechanisms behind epigenetic control of gene expression. Marnie attended the 4th IAP Young Scientists Conference in Dalian, 2011, held in conjunction with the World Economic Forum. Marnie volunteers as a tertiary mentor for The Smith Family, to provide advice to underpriveleged students who are the first the progress through university in their family.