Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Group Leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, where she heads the Lung Disease Group. She completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2017 and undertook postdoctoral training at Boston University, supported by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (2018–2022). She then returned to Australia to establish her own research program, integrating stem cell biology and immunology to find new therapies for respiratory conditions.
Dr Werder has received prestigious awards including the Metcalf Prize from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia and leads several MRFF-funded projects aimed at discovering novel therapeutic pathways. She is also an Associate Investigator in the global stem cell consortium, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW).
Research
Respiratory viruses are a major cause of illness worldwide and cause disease progression in people with chronic lung conditions. Most lack effective vaccines or antivirals, and existing treatments often lose efficacy due to viral mutations. Host-directed therapies offer a promising alternative, but remain scarce.
Dr Rhiannon Werder’s research aims to address this gap by using human “mini lung” models, lab-grown lung tissue derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells that incorporate key cell types, to study viral pathogenesis in a physiologically relevant system. Her team will investigate how these models respond to acute respiratory virus infections, how pre-existing chronic lung disease alters these responses, and then use genetic screens to identify new host-directed therapeutic targets.
With the support of the Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship, this work will provide a mechanistic understanding of virus-host interactions in the lung and uncover novel therapeutic pathways to combat respiratory infections, particularly in people with chronic lung conditions.