Deborah Burnett

Deborah originally trained as a veterinarian, working in emergency practice in Australia and New Zealand before transitioning into medical research. She undertook her honours at the WEHI under the supervision of Prof Ben Kile, investigating the mechanisms of platelet survival. In 2015-2019 she completed a PhD at the Garvan in the laboratory of Prof Chris Goodnow. Her PhD investigated the role of B cells in tolerance and immunity. It had joint aims of understanding the mechanisms of the autoimmune diseases, LRBA deficiency and understanding the role of self-binding B cells in immune responses.

In 2019 she was awarded a DAAD visiting Scholar Fellowship, in 2020 she was awarded an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship and in 2021 she received a Perpetual Impact Grant for her ongoing research on Guillain Barre Syndrome.

Her current research has focussed on understanding strategies to generate antibodies to conserved regions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This research has been supported by a COVID19 Catalytic Grant.