INFECTIONS AND OTHER LUNG DISEASES USING MODELS OF HUMAN LUNG TISSUE GROWN FROM STEM CELLS
Dr Rhiannon Werder,
Team Leader
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne, Australia | February 2025
Released on the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11th February 2025 @WomenScienceDay
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute leading a multidisciplinary team, combining expertise in stem cell biology and immunology, to develop new therapies for lung diseases. Her research centres around induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate respiratory diseases, spanning acute respiratory infections to chronic lung diseases. Using stem cells, Dr Werder’s team creates models of human lung tissue. With these models, Dr Werder is investigating how human-specific pathogens infect different regions of the lung, the ensuing immune responses, and how the lung repairs itself after infections, especially in people with preexisting lung diseases.
After completing her PhD in Mucosal Immunology at the University of Queensland, Dr Werder was awarded a NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral training at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston University. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Werder’s research led to significant findings, including the first discovery of how the lung epithelium responds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. She has also pioneered new gene-editing techniques in iPSC-derived epithelial cells to understand chronic lung disease inception. The impact of her research has been recognised by prestigious awards including the Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research by National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6432-4587
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Biostatistics in Clinical Trials
As a biostatistician working in research and clinical settings, Kate Francis plays a vital role in ensuring all projects adhere to best practice guidelines and are transparently reported. She has served as the lead statistician for the analysis of clinical trials across a broad range of subject areas, including neonatal resuscitation, BCG for allergy and infection, convulsive status epilepticus and her work has been published in the top journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The Lancet. Most recently she was awarded the 2025 Excellence in Trial Statistics Award for her work on the PLUSS trial.
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Healthcare associated infection prevention
Professor Philip Russo is an internationally regarded expert in healthcare associated infection prevention, and led the recently completed the Australian National Healthcare Associated Infection Point Prevalence Survey, the first in Australia for 34 years. He is also Past President of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC), the peak body for Infection Prevention and Control professionals in the Australasian region.
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Environmental exposure to function of lung epithelial stem cell biology
Dr Clare Weeden has recently commenced as a Laboratory Head at WEHI in 2025, supported by the CSL Centenary Fellowship.
Dr Weeden specialises in lung epithelial cell biology in the context of homeostasis, inflammation, and lung cancer, particularly in people who don’t smoke. Her work endeavours to understand how past environmental exposures shape the responses of lung cells and the molecular mechanisms underlying this cellular recall, with the aim to develop novel early detection strategies for lung disease.
