Dr. Pereira-Fantini is a scientist and Leader of the Molecular Lung Injury program of the Neonatal Research group (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute). Since obtaining her PhD from The University of Melbourne (2005), her career has focused on using preclinical animal models to define the injury mechanisms underlying paediatric disease. Her research focuses on using innovative methods to (1) define the cellular events underlying preterm lung injury initiation, (2) identify new treatment targets and (3) develop tests for the early detection of lung injury.

Dr Pereira-Fantini is a recognised leader in preterm lung injury research with expertise in the preterm lamb model, mass-spectrometry-based proteomics and pulmonary morphology and cellular composition assessment. Over her post-doctoral career, she has published a total of 41 publications (>700 citations) including 16 first author publications and 4 last author publications. She founded the Neonatal Proteomics program at MCRI to provide comprehensive analysis of the molecular events underlying preterm lung injury in the sheep model and has since translated this success to the clinic, leading the first study of the preterm plasma proteome.