Deborah’s background in veterinary medicine kindled her interest in immunology. She undertook her honours at WEHI investigating the genetic pathways which regulate blood clotting. In 2019, she completed a PhD at the Garvan Institute researching the role of antibodies in protective immune responses and autoimmunity. Deborah’s PhD made profound discoveries which redefined the role of antibodies in health and disease and led to first author publications in prestigious journals including Science, Cell and PNAS. The significance of her discoveries were acknowledged in her receipt of the “Garvan Best PhD Thesis”, the “UNSW Dean’s Award” and the “UNSW Faculty of Medicine Award” for Outstanding Contribution to Research.

With the emergence of the COVID19 pandemic Deborah pivoted her expertise to explore vaccination strategies to induce antibodies resistant to viral escape. This resulted in discoveries published in Immunity, Nature Microbiology, EJI, mAbs and Cell Reports Medicine. This work led Deborah to receive a highly commended Discovery Award from Research Australia in 2022.

Deborah currently co-leads collaborative initiatives that span research institutions and hospitals, her focus is on enhancing vaccine efficacy against challenging infectious threats including those linked to autoimmune diseases.

In 2023 Deborah was awarded one of 4 Australian "Loreal-UNESCO For Women in Science" Fellows, and 2023 the Premier's Prize for Early Career Researcher of the Year (Biological Sciences).