Marisa Herson graduated in Medicine (Brazil, 1979) and trained in General and Plastic Surgery in Israel. She returned to Brazil in 1990 and joined the Hospital das Clinicas University of Sao Paulo Plastic Surgery Department.

In 1999 she received a PhD from the Sao Paulo University working on the development of an in vitro skin substitute. She was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery in 2004 and became responsible for the cell culture area of the Laboratorio de Cirurgia Plastica and Microcirurgia, University of Sao Paulo.

Burn care, both acute and reconstructive surgery, became the focus of her clinical activity triggering the interest in skin substitution and banking, leading to the establishment and management of the local Hospital das Clinicas Skin Bank and expert involvement in a number of tissue banking related projects in Brazil and Latin America. She was founding member of the Latin American Association of Tissue Banks (ALABAT), its Vice President (2002-2004) and President (2004-2006).

In 2007 Marisa moved to Melbourne, Australia to take the position of Head, Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria - DTBV (2007-2011); an important milestone in her tenure was the design of the new manufacturing facility for the DTBV. She also held the position of Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University.

From January 2012 to 2016, she was a Fellow to the Skin Cell Culture Laboratory, Adult Burns Unit - The Alfred Hospital, contributing to the refurbishment of the Laboratory and the introduction of GMP principles into its clinical research program into cultured keratinocytes as skin substitutes.

2016, she was invited to join Deakin University as an Associate Professor (Hons) to the Department of Health Ethics and Professionalism, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health. She was an expert member of the Australian National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) review on the Ethical Guidelines for Ethical guidelines for organ and tissue donation and transplantation in Australia.

Marisa has maintained an interest in all fields of Medical Products of Human Origin, and has contributed via diverse advisory roles and commissioned national and international projects. In Australia, she was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health to write the current Guidelines for Milk Banks in Australia and New Zealand and as of 2022, she is the Chair of the Eye and Tissue Advisory Committee of the Australian Organ and Tissue Authority (OTA), following her membership in the OTA Advisory Council from 2009 to 2016 and in the OTA Board from 2017 to 2021. She is an appointed Member to the Advisory Committee on Biologicals (ACB Committee) of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). She has undertaken diverse roles in the Biotherapeutics Association of Australasia and is a member of its Executive Council.

As of 2015, she was nominated as a member of the WHO Advisory Panel on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation and provided expert input to a number of consultations. As of 2018, she is as an expert member to the WHO Taskforce on Human Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation where she has co-chaired the Global Framework for Tissue Donation and Transplantation (GAFT) Working Group. As of 2020, she is a member of the Canadian Hema-Quebec Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee.

She was the General Secretary of the World Union of Tissue Banking Associations (WUTBA) from 2014-2021.