Deborah White, PhD, FFSc (RCPA) (Member)

South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute

Professor White is the Precision Medicine Theme Co-Leader at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in Adelaide, and Group Leader of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Genomics and Functional Genomics Research Group (Australian Lead Centre). She is a NHMRC Research Fellow, a Beat Cancer Principal Research Fellow and Senior Principal Research Fellow with SAHM RI. She is a Professor in both the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Faculty of the Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

Prof White’s research focus is genomics and rationally targeted therapies in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). She leads her group of scientists and bioinformaticians in the interpretation of genomic data and the curation of clinical relevant genomic alterations in leukaemia patients. She has presented more than 200 papers at scientific meetings, and authored more than 130 scientific publications with greater than 8200 citations (to end of 2022).

Prof White established, led and federated the ALL Stream of The Australian Genomics Health Alliance (AGHA) now known as Australian Genomics, and was a member of the AGHA Executive. She is ALL Co-Chair for the Zero Children’s Cancer (ZCC: PRISM2) Genomics Initiative.

Prof White has received a number of awards: Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Leading Light (2014), the University of Adelaide James McWha medal (2016), the prestigious NHMRC Research Excellence Award (2019) and the Beat Cancer Women in Leadership Award (2020). From 2016-2018 (max. term) she was an invited member of the South Australian Premier’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Prof White is a member of both the Australasian Leukaemia Lymphoma Group (ALLG) and the Australian and New Zealand Childrens Oncology Group (ANZCHOG). She is also a member of the Lab Sciences Committee for ALLG and the Leukaemia/Lymphoma scientific steering committee of ANZCHOG.

Prof White is the current convener of the New Directions in Leukaemia Research Meeting (NDLR 2021-) and is a Section Editor for two international journals. She is currently a member of 4 International Grant and Fellowship Review boards and 5 National.