VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST INFECTIONS TRIGGERING AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
Dr Deborah Burnett,
Scientia Senior Lecturer & Laboratory Head
UNSW Sydney, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | April 2026
Dr Deborah Burnett is a Scientia Senior Lecturer and Laboratory Head at UNSW, where she leads a multidisciplinary research program spanning mechanistic immunology and translational vaccinology. Her work focuses on understanding how immune responses can protect against challenging infectious threats, including bacterial infections and infections associated with autoimmune disease.
After completing her PhD in 2019, Dr Burnett established her first independent group at the Garvan Institute in 2022 and launched her laboratory at UNSW in 2024. Her research, published in major research journals including Science and Immunity, has helped redefine how self-reactive B cells contribute to protective immunity and is now shaping new approaches to prevention and cure of infections linked to autoimmunity.
Her contributions to research leadership and translation have been recognised through the NSW Premier’s Prize for Early Career Researcher of the Year, Research Australia’s Discovery Award, the Australian L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship, a Young Tall Poppy Award, the Marie Krogh Prize for Women in Science, and selection as an International Union of Immunological Societies Rising Star. Through the Snow Fellowship, Dr Burnett and her team aim to develop new ways to distinguish protective from harmful immune responses, advancing safer vaccines, diagnostics and therapies for vulnerable communities affected by infection-associated autoimmune disease.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5642-3315
-
Podiatric Research In Children, the workforce and the LGBTQIA+ community
Professor Williams holds the role of Deputy Head of School, School of Primary and Allied Health Care, and course coordinator of the Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree. She is a podiatrist, and has held professional roles in community health, acute and subacute services in child health care teams, research leadership and professional governance.
-
At the frontier of human cellular neuroscience research
Associate Professor Cedric Bardy is the Director of The Laboratory for Human Neurophysiology, Genetics & Stem Cells, located at SAHMRI. South Australia.
His current research uses preclinical, patient-derived cell models to test innovative therapeutic strategies, with a current focus on Parkinson’s disease, brain cancer and childhood dementia (Sanfilippo syndrome).
His work has established a platform to facilitate the discovery and validation of treatments for brain disorders. Their research is at the frontier of human cellular neuroscience research and translational applications that benefit global public health.
-
Identifying biomarkers for immunotherapy using spatial biology
Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe is a Principal Research Fellow at The University of Queensland’s Frazer Institute, where he leads the Clinical-oMx Lab. He holds the inaugural Brazil Family Chair in Spatial Medicine and is the founding Scientific Director of the Queensland Spatial Biology Centre at the Wesley Research Institute. He completed his PhD at Queensland University of Technology.
