Marcel works at the interface of plant structural and cell biology, with a particular focus on the structural basis of intercellular communication. His doctoral research with Wolf B. Frommer (Heinrich Heine University) and Wolfgang Baumeister (Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry) focused on developing cryo-electron tomography workflows for plant tissues and applying them to resolve the in situ architecture of plasmodesmata. He studied biology and biochemistry at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Michigan State University, with earlier research spanning protein biophysics, plant physiology and protein engineering.