ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE TO FUNCTION OF LUNG EPITHELIAL STEM CELL BIOLOGY
Dr Clare Weeden
Laboratory Head
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI)
Melbourne, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne, Australia | March 2025
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.
Dr Weeden completed her PhD studying lung squamous cell carcinoma initiation and treatment with Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat at WEHI, where she discovered distinct DNA repair abilities in lung stem cells that enabled their susceptibility to cancer, published in PLOS Biology.
Dr Weeden conducted postdoctoral research at WEHI and found that the pre-existing lung immune microenvironment had lasting effects on tumour immunogenicity and response to immunotherapy, published in Cancer Cell. She then continued her research on early tumour biology in Professor Charles Swanton’s laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute, London, where she was part of a team discovery that air pollution triggers inflammatory signalling in the lung that awakens previously dormant cells to initiate lung cancers in people who don’t smoke, published in Nature.
Dr Weeden is the past recipient of prestigious fellowships (Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions, Lung Foundation Australia Deep Manchanda Early Career Fellowship), research grants (Cancer Research UK, Mark Foundation, Cure Cancer/Cancer Australia) and has published 36 research publications with over 1000 citations.
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Anaemia guidelines updated after 50 years
Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha is the Acting Deputy Director at the Walter Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. He is also a clinical haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. From a young age, Prof Pasricha dreamed of becoming a doctor and found joy in learning about the human body and how to care for patients. After completing medical school, he developed a passion for working in low and middle-income countries, which led him to spend time working in East Timor, India, and Central Australia with First Nations communities.
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World-first clinical trial improves patient outcomes for kidney transplants (2023)
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The lead-author of the study, was Royal Adelaide Hospital Nephrologist and University of Adelaide researcher, Dr Michael Collins.
