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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Food and fasting periods as medicine to prevent disease
Professor Leonie Heilbronn is based at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), where she leads the Obesity and Metabolism laboratory. Her research is at the interface between basic and clinical science. She is internationally recognised for her work in nutritional modulation in humans and has made major contributions to our current understanding of mechanisms underlying conditions such as insulin resistance, particularly inflammation and lipid metabolism. She has also contributed significantly to current concepts of caloric restriction (CR), intermittent fasting (IF) and time restricted eating (TRE) in humans. She has published more than 110 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals and is an Associate Editor of Obesity, and Obesity Research and Clinical Practice.
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Genetics and Environmental Factors of Glaucoma & Myopia
Professor David Mackey’s original research, over more than 30 years into the genetics of glaucoma and in the fields of optic atrophy and congenital cataract, has received constant professional accolades, attracted ongoing research funding and led to his publication of more than 400 peer-reviewed papers.
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Professor Sandy Middleton
NURSING RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ST VINCENT’S HEALTH NETWORK SYDNEY, ST VINCENT’S HOSPITAL MELBOURNE AND AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA
