photo of Dr Rhiannon Werder

Dr Rhiannon Werder

Dr Rhiannon Werder

Details

Role Team Leader / Senior Research Fellow
Research area Stem Cell Medicine

Contact

Available for student supervision
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, leading research utilising stem cell models of the lung to transform the discovery of new therapies for respiratory disease. She received a PhD in Immunology from the University of Queensland in 2017, uncovering novel antiviral mediators regulating responses to respiratory viral infections. Dr Werder was then awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship and an Australian Government Endeavour Research Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral work at a world-leading stem cell institute (Center for Regenerative Medicine, Boston University).

Dr Werder now leads a multidisciplinary team at MCRI, combining expertise in stem cell biology and immunology, to develop new therapies for lung diseases. Her research focuses on investigating respiratory viral infections and chronic lung diseases using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived models of the lung. 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. In addition, Dr Werder is Deputy Convenor of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand Cell, Immunology & Molecular Biology of the Lung Special Interest Group.
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, leading research utilising stem cell models of the lung to transform the discovery of new therapies for respiratory disease. She received a PhD in Immunology from the...
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, leading research utilising stem cell models of the lung to transform the discovery of new therapies for respiratory disease. She received a PhD in Immunology from the University of Queensland in 2017, uncovering novel antiviral mediators regulating responses to respiratory viral infections. Dr Werder was then awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship and an Australian Government Endeavour Research Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral work at a world-leading stem cell institute (Center for Regenerative Medicine, Boston University).

Dr Werder now leads a multidisciplinary team at MCRI, combining expertise in stem cell biology and immunology, to develop new therapies for lung diseases. Her research focuses on investigating respiratory viral infections and chronic lung diseases using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived models of the lung. 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. In addition, Dr Werder is Deputy Convenor of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand Cell, Immunology & Molecular Biology of the Lung Special Interest Group.

Top Publications

  • Werder, RB, Zhou, X, Cho, MH, Wilson, AA. Breathing new life into the study of COPD with genes identified from genome-wide association studies.. Eur Respir Rev 33(172) : 2024
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  • Werder, RB, Berthiaume, KA, Merritt, C, Gallagher, M, Villacorta-Martin, C, Wang, F, Bawa, P, Malik, V, Lyons, SM, Basil, MC, et al. The COPD GWAS gene ADGRG6 instructs function and injury response in human iPSC-derived type II alveolar epithelial cells.. Am J Hum Genet 110(10) : 1735 -1749 2023
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  • Phipps, S, Howard, DR, Werder, RB. Eosinophils apply a handbrake to plasmacytoid dendritic cell antiviral immunity in asthma.. J Allergy Clin Immunol 150(3) : 589 -591 2022
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  • Werder, RB, Liu, T, Abo, KM, Lindstrom-Vautrin, J, Villacorta-Martin, C, Huang, J, Hinds, A, Boyer, N, Bullitt, E, Liesa, M, et al. CRISPR interference interrogation of COPD GWAS genes reveals the functional significance of desmoplakin in iPSC-derived alveolar epithelial cells.. Sci Adv 8(28) : eabo6566 2022
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  • Werder, RB, Ullah, MA, Rahman, MM, Simpson, J, Lynch, JP, Collinson, N, Rittchen, S, Rashid, RB, Sikder, MAA, Handoko, HY, et al. Targeting the P2Y13 Receptor Suppresses IL-33 and HMGB1 Release and Ameliorates Experimental Asthma.. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 205(3) : 300 -312 2022
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