From Rochedale to Cambridge and back to Brisbane – Dr Amanda Oliver is collecting accolades for harnessing one of the body’s most overlooked defence systems to tackle chronic inflammatory diseases
It’s been a triumphant homecoming for Dr Amanda Oliver since returning to Brisbane with her young family 12 months ago to set up her own research lab at QIMR Berghofer. Dr Oliver moved back to Queensland after an acclaimed five year stint at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge in England.
Her research at QIMR Berghofer is focused on increasing knowledge about chronic diseases of the gut and lungs, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and asthma, that affect millions of people globally.
The former Mansfield State High School student and UQ alumni has just been awarded a 2026 L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honours for young women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM).
She is one of five exceptional scientists, and the only Queenslander, to be recognised in this milestone 20th year of the initiative in Australia and New Zealand.
It’s the latest in a series of accolades for Dr Oliver who was named the Rising Star for 2026 by the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) at a ceremony in Parliament House this August. That honour came just weeks after she secured a highly competitive Investigator Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) .
Dr Oliver returned home in September last year to form her own research group and is now Team Head of the Barrier Immunity Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer.
“I feel so fortunate that my hometown of Brisbane is a fantastic place to do world class science. QIMR Berghofer is at the forefront of the cutting-edge technologies I use in my work and I’m surrounded by colleagues who are leaders in their fields.
I’m able to continue my research at that international level with my family close by while enjoying the Queensland lifestyle again which I really missed while overseas.”
Dr Amanda Oliver
2026 L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellow
She will be officially awarded her L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship at a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday 12 November. As part of this, she receives $25,000 in flexible funding to access services such as career coaching and childcare support. The initiative aims to champion women in STEMM, showcase their achievements and remove barriers to their progression.
Dr Oliver’s research centres on the body’s first line of defence – the mucous membranes that line the lungs and digestive system.
Her particular focus is the epithelial cells that make up the top layer of these mucosal tissues. These special protective cells interact with the immune system, forming a barrier against the outside environment.
However, when that barrier-immune communication breaks down, it can lead to chronic inflammatory diseases of the gut and lung, such as IBD, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, and cancers like bowel cancer.
During her five years in the United Kingdom working in the lab of celebrated cellular genetic scientist and co-founder of the Human Cell Atlas Project , Professor Sarah Teichmann, Dr Oliver led the creation of the world’s largest atlas of the cells in the human gastrointestinal tract. By coordinating international efforts, this incredible resource mapped 1.6 million cells across hundreds of donors and is now helping scientists worldwide to unravel the workings of the gut.
As part of that research, she discovered that a specific type of gut cell that was long thought to aid healing in the gut in IBD patients, was instead contributing to inflammation in some patients and could be making their symptoms worse.
This research was published in one of the world’s top academic journals, Nature , in 2024, just a few months after her son, Ollie, was born.
In another major project, she discovered how barrier cells in our airways help protect us from infections. This work, published in Nature Genetics in 2023, is important for advancing understanding about lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and bronchiectasis.
The honour of being named a L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship has extra significance for Dr Oliver because her mentor in the UK, Professor Sarah Teichmann, was named as the Laureate for Europe for the 2026 L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science International Awards earlier this year.
“My goal is to emulate what Sarah has done in Europe right here in Queensland, so this Fellowship is confirmation I’m on the right track.
My research team and I want to advance discoveries that could make a real difference to the lives of patients with chronic inflammatory diseases of the gut and lung.”
Dr Amanda Oliver
Team Head, Barrier Immunity Lab
Dr Oliver’s team is currently working with global collaborators to extend her human gut cell atlas research, by mapping cells from important infant gut samples to better understand drivers of disease.
They are using state of the art spatial tissue analysis technologies, computational biology, and tiny lab-grown organoids to study a range of gut and lung diseases and test new and existing treatments.
