‘From childhood, I had an inquisitive and curious mind. I remember my mother saying, ‘stop asking why the moon is following us when we’re travelling in a bus’…’
Each month, the Library highlights the work of one of our remarkable researchers. This September, we feature Professor Chamindie Punyadeera, a dedicated advocate for women in STEMM. Professor Punyadeera has a fascinating background that spans academia and industry, from Africa to Australia. She currently holds a joint appointment across Sciences and Health, and she is a Principal Research Leader for the newly formed Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics. Learn about how her curious nature led her into academia, her commitment to improving clinical care, and her passion for changing lives through innovations that help enable equitable healthcare access for all.
What path led you to becoming a researcher?
From childhood, I had an inquisitive and curious mind. I remember my mother saying, ‘stop asking why the moon is following us when we’re travelling in a bus’. I’ve always liked understanding and finding reasons for the things happening around me. During my Bachelor of Science with Honours, I had no idea what research was or that one could make a career out of it. I enjoyed doing lab experiments in biology and chemistry practicals, especially the reasoning when experiments didn’t go as planned. I often spent hours in the library, searching for explanations when a chemical reaction didn’t yield the expected results, and I started to enjoy this process. It felt like being a lawyer, proving evidence for a case.
My first research project was for my honours degree in analytical chemistry. I worked on detecting metals in potsherds (broken ceramics, especially on archaeological sites) from various parts of Africa to group communities based on trace elements in the pottery. It was a challenging task that required many long hours in the lab. Looking back, did I enjoy it? Honestly, not really. My weekends were lonely, spent in the lab producing results.
When it came time to defend my thesis, I was a nervous wreck. I could barely speak, shaking with nerves, but my supervisor saw this, came up to me, comforted me, and gave me water to drink. I drew strength from that moment and did well in the end. Fortunately, I’ve never seen any of my students in such a state, and I’m glad that advancements in technology have helped them become more confident.
My interest in research has always been driven by seeing family members diagnosed with diseases. For example, I pursued my PhD studies to understand the molecular pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes after my mother was diagnosed with the condition. I felt a personal responsibility to learn about the disease and help her manage it. Interestingly, my PhD co-supervisor was also my mother’s endocrinologist. My current research on head and neck cancer began after losing my brother-in-law to this aggressive disease. From diagnosis to death was less than six months, largely due to the lack of effective diagnostic and monitoring tools. This experience has inspired me to focus on addressing this critical gap in clinical care.
‘ …I experienced firsthand the challenges of limited healthcare access…This personal experience motivated me to address the barriers caused by the lack of timely, accurate data…’
Can you tell us a bit about the projects you are currently working on?
I joined Griffith in November 2021 as a research capacity-building professor from Queensland University of Technology. Recently, Griffith launched the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, a new flagship research institute, where I now serve as a Principal Research Leader. This role allows me to collaborate with a diverse group of researchers, each bringing different skill sets to the Institute as well as to mentor the next generation of research leaders in this space.
My research focuses on developing affordable, low-cost, non-invasive diagnostics that can provide equitable healthcare access to rural and remote communities, regardless of geographic location. Growing up in Maun, Botswana, I experienced firsthand the challenges of limited healthcare access. We had to wait for a consultant to fly in from the city once a month, and my father often drove an hour just to see a general practitioner. I struggled with this reality and frequently questioned why we didn’t live in the city. This personal experience motivated me to address the barriers caused by the lack of timely, accurate data from point-of-need sensor technologies, which is a major factor in the health, economic, and social divide between urban and rural areas.
I have secured several grants to develop next-generation diagnostics that use saliva as a medium. My main research programs focus on cancer, liver fibrosis and cardiovascular diseases, which are prevalent in developing countries and remote areas. For instance, we are using biomarkers from cancer patients—such as circulating tumour cells, circulating tumour DNA, and exosomes—to diagnose cancer early, assess prognosis, stratify patients and monitor disease recurrence earlier than current methods allow. We have shown that head and neck cancer patients with circulating tumour cells at follow-up are 2.5 times more likely to develop a recurrence or die from cancer. This transformative information enables clinicians to offer more effective, multimodal treatment options.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of non-invasive diagnostics became crucial in controlling the spread of the virus. Saliva emerged as a reliable diagnostic medium, with studies in leading journals confirming its accuracy in detecting the virus, allowing individuals to test themselves in the comfort of their homes. When I began this program a decade ago, it took considerable effort to convince grant reviewers to fund the research. The pandemic has since brought salivary diagnostics into the spotlight, and I am now involved in multiple projects utilising saliva as a diagnostic tool.
One example is the development of a mouthguard that monitors stress-related biomarkers in real time for Australian soldiers, helping determine combat readiness. We also became the first in the world to detect a 2mm occult head and neck cancer (which an MRI scan missed) in a healthy, asymptomatic individual using salivary human papillomavirus as a biomarker. Our findings were independently validated by a United States of America-based research group.
What sparked your passion for this research area?
Growing up in a village in Africa, where access to water and healthcare was nearly non-existent, I shaped my research program to address the healthcare disparities faced by people in rural and remote communities. I am a strong advocate for equitable healthcare access for all Australians. Currently, individuals visit a general practitioner only after symptoms appear, and in some cases, it’s too late. My goal is to shift this approach towards early detection and screening for those at risk of developing diseases. This theme is at the core of all my research efforts—early diagnosis and treatment to improve patient outcomes.
Do you have any advice for researchers just starting out?
The most powerful advice I can offer to early and mid-career researchers is to believe in yourself and pursue your dreams with determination. The path to success is winding and difficult—it’s not for the faint-hearted—but persistence will take you far. Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo, as I have done throughout my career.
‘What drives me every day is the knowledge that our impactful research has the potential to change lives. This is the legacy I hope to leave behind.’
Griffith is proud to produce world-class research contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals.
