A/Prof Ingrid Winkler

Associate Professor Ingrid Winkler is a Senior Research Fellow at Mater Research and leads the Stem Cells and Cancer Research Group, with a team of seven researchers (four staff and three PhD students).

A/Prof Winkler’s research seeks to understand how normal and malignant haematopoietic stem cells are regulated by their local microenvironments (niches). This innovative research has already led to several discoveries, such as a novel strategy to protect haematopoietic stem cells from chemotherapy or radiation damage. This work could alleviate potentially life-threatening side-effects of cancer therapies and also lead to new complementary strategies to improve how well cancer therapies work. Ingrid’s basic research has been recognised as among ‘Ten of the best research projects in Australia’ by NHMRC (2013) and has contributed to Phase I/II clinical trials to help patient outcomes.

Over the last 10 years Ingrid has attracted more than $5 million in competitive national and international research funding to Mater, has generated five patents on new strategies to alleviate disease and published over 30 scientific publications.

A/Prof Winkler is also passionate about training the next generation of leaders and leads our highly successful mentorship program at Mater. In other leadership roles Ingrid also sits on the Translational Research Institute (TRI) Mentorship and Leadership Group, TRI Caucus, Gender Equity Committee and Biosafety Committee at The University of Queensland.

“I undertook a career in medical research because it combines my passion for solving puzzles with helping others. I love this about Mater Research. Part of this drive comes from my experience whilst travelling the world where I worked with patients in a small hospital in Bavaria, Germany. It was there I realised I needed to do more to help these patients and followed the path to research. It is now wonderful to know this passion for seeking to understand how the body works has now led to discoveries already helping to save lives.”