Deborah is the Precision Medicine Theme Co-Leader at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in Adelaide, and Group Leader of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Genomics and Functional Genomics Research Group (Australian Lead Centre). She is a Professor in both the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Faculty of the Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

Deborah is a member of the ALLG Laboratory Sciences Working Party and the Leukaemia/Lymphoma scientific steering committee of Australian and New Zealand Childrens Oncology Group (ANZCHOG). She is a NHMRC Research Fellow, a Beat Cancer Principal Research Fellow and Senior Principal Research Fellow with SAHMRI.

Her research focus is genomics and rationally targeted therapies in ALL and she has presented more than 200 papers at scientific meetings, and authored more than 130 scientific publications with >8200 citations (to end of 2022). She is the current convener of the New Directions in Leukaemia Research Meeting and is a Section Editor for two international journals.

Deborah has received a number of awards for her work. She established, led and federated the ALL Stream of The Australian Genomics Health Alliance (AGHA) now known as Australian Genomics, and was a member of the AGHA Executive. Deborah is also the ALL Co-Chair for the Zero Children’s Cancer (ZCC: PRISM2) Genomics Initiative.

A highly sought supervisor and Post-Doctoral mentor, she is the current mentor of 6 post-doctoral scientists/clinical scientists within and outside (nationally) of her group.

Deborah is currently a member of four International Grant and Fellowship Review boards and five national. She is also the only Australian member (by invitation) of The Variant Interpretation for Cancer Collaboration (VICC) Executive Group, an initiative of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health.