Dr Kate Hedley is a neuroimmunologist with expertise in the peripheral to central neuroimmune connection. Her research focuses on the bi-directional relationship between pathophysiology in the body, such as infection and an altered microbiome, and disrupted neuronal signalling in the central nervous system.
Dr Hedley’s research focuses on discovery science, with a strong emphasis on unravelling the mechanisms that explain our observations.

Dr Hedley’s academic foundation includes a Bachelor of Biomedical Science Hons I (2018) and a PhD in Human Physiology (2024), both from the University of Newcastle, Australia.
During her PhD, she studied how neonatal respiratory bacterial infections affect the brainstem centres that control respiration. This work showed lifelong neuroinflammation and dysfunctional signalling within the brainstem. She also have a special interest in sex as a biological variable, with her work identifying sex-specific differences between the responses generated to the neonatal infection.

Dr Hedley’s current work as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Gastrointestinal Research Group at the Hunter Medical Research Institute focuses on the gut-microbiome-brain axis in relation the cognitive performance and mental resilience. The overall aims are to modulate the microbiome to a composition that is functionally associated with improved mental resilience. She specifically looks at the mechanisms and signalling pathways between the changes seen in the microbiome and the behavioural and biological changes in the brain.