Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Group Leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, where she heads the Lung Disease Group. Her team integrates stem cell biology and immunology to advance new therapies for chronic lung disease and respiratory infections. Dr Werder completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2017 and undertook postdoctoral training at Boston University supported by a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship. Her work has been recognised with prestigious awards, including the Metcalf Prize, the highest honour from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia, and she is an Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellow, supported by the Rebecca Cooper Foundation. She currently leads several MRFF-funded projects using stem-cell models to investigate lung disease. Dr Werder is an Associate Investigator in the global stem cell consortium, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW), and serves as Convenor of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand’s Cell, Immunology & Molecular Biology of the Lung Special Interest Group.