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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Optimising Rural Musculoskeletal Health
Adnan Asger Ali is a Director of Accelerate Physiotherapy and PhD candidate at The University of Sydney, where he is researching implementation strategies for musculoskeletal care pathways in rural Australia as part of the PACE-RURAL project.
A passionate advocate for physiotherapy, Adnan serves as Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s National Musculoskeletal Committee and sits on the Capital Health Network’s Clinical Council. His commitment to clinical excellence was recognised when he received Physiotherapist of the Year at the 2023 Allied Health Awards.
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Visceral pain and the gut-brain axis
Professor Stuart Brierley is Director of the Visceral Pain Research Group, Director of the Hopwood Centre for Neurobiology, and Theme co-Leader of Lifelong Health at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).
Prof Brierley is an international expert on the ‘gut-brain axis’ and chronic visceral pain mechanisms. Current investigations are on a individual cell type called the enterochromaffin cell, and it helps signal pain and anxiety from the gastrointestinal tract to the brain.
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In his father’s footsteps as a kidney transplant specialist
Since he was a young child, Dr Collins, has been interested in kidney failure and kidney transplants in particular. His father was also a kidney specialist, and he used to sit by the phone when his father, was on call and ringing people who were being offered a kidney transplant. The joy in their voices through this interaction created a lasting and profound impact on Dr Collins. This carried through his career and today he continues to seek better outcomes for Kidney patients.
