Associate Professor Kelly Avery-Kiejda is the Manager of the Molecular Medicine Department, NSW Health Pathology, John Hunter Hospital and a Conjoint Associate Professor of the University of Newcastle. She is also the Deputy Director of the HMRI Cancer Detection and Therapy Research Program.

Associate Professor Avery-Kiejda has conducted research in breast cancer for >20 years and is internationally recognised for work on a well-known tumour suppressor called p53. Her program has identified a novel mechanism by which breast cancer cells bypass cell death in response to therapy, driving resistance and has developed innovative approaches to target this mechanism and regain sensitivity to therapy. She also has extensive expertise in a very aggressive subtype of breast cancer, called triple negative breast cancer, where her research program has led to the identification of novel markers of metastatic progression. She has attracted a total of $5.5M in funding from sources including a CINSW Fellowship, Tour de Cure and the Cancer Council. She has 61 publications and 1 book chapter; in highly revered journals including Clin Cancer Res, Cancer Res and Nature Commun.

As Manager of the Molecular Medicine Department at NSW Health Pathology, Kelly leads a team of 54 staff who perform testing on ~20K patients/year, specialising in genomic and cytogenomic analysis of germline, prenatal, haematological and solid tumour samples. The team are at the forefront of innovative diagnostic pathology services, performing genomic tests that are critical for determining cancer therapies and cancer progression in solid and haematological malignancies; and they offer bespoke sequencing panels for hereditary cancers.