Feb, 2015 – Nov, 2019 Bachelor of Advanced Science (first class honours), UNSW
Honours project: Candidate prognostic biomarkers in ovarian carcinoma
Undertaken in the Molecular Oncology group, UNSW Australia
Supervised by Professor Susan Ramus and A/Professor Caroline Ford
May, 2022 – February, 2026 PhD candidate of the Davidson Laboratory, Bioinformatics Division, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (thesis submission in early February 2026).
Medicine & Health
School of Clinical Medicine
Ms Ashley L. Weir is a Research Associate in the School of Clinical Medicine at UNSW Sydney, where she investigates the molecular determinants of ovarian cancer progression and therapeutic response. She completed her PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in the Bioinformatics Division, focusing on the functional consequences of genomic damage in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. From this investigation, Ashley developed the open-access software tool IdentifiHR, the only gene-expression based predictive model of homologous recombination status in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. With approximately seven years of research experience spanning cancer biology, inflammation, and computational genomics, her work integrates experimental and computational approaches to understand tumour evolution and therapeutic vulnerability.
Ashley has led and contributed to large-scale international studies through the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis Consortium, integrating gene expression, genomic, and clinicopathological data to identify prognostic biomarkers and predictors of homologous recombination deficiency. She has authored 13 peer-reviewed publications, including five first-author papers in leading journals such as British Journal of Cancer, Immunity, and EMBO Journal, with an H-index of 10 and over 450 citations.
Her research has been supported by competitive national and international funding, including recognition from the American Association for Cancer Research. In addition to her research, Ashley is an active educator and mentor, contributing to bioinformatics training at the University of Melbourne and supervising undergraduate and graduate students. She is passionate about interdisciplinary science, AI-driven biomedical research, and translating genomic insights into improved outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer.
Frank D; Garnish SE; Sandow JJ; Weir A; Liu L; Clayer E; Meza L; Rashidi M; Cobbold SA; Scutts SR; Doerflinger M; Anderton H; Lawlor KE; Lalaoui N; Kueh AJ; Eng VV; Ambrose RL; Herold MJ; Samson AL; Feltham R; Murphy JM; Ebert G; Pearson JS; Vince JE, 2022, 'Ubiquitylation of RIPK3 beyond-the-RHIM can limit RIPK3 activity and cell death', Iscience, 25, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104632
Journal articles | 2022
Olivier FAB; Hilsenstein V; Weerasinghe H; Weir A; Hughes S; Crawford S; Vince JE; Hickey MJ; Traven A, 2022, 'The escape of Candida albicans from macrophages is enabled by the fungal toxin candidalysin and two host cell death pathways', Cell Reports, 40, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111374
Journal articles | 2022
Simpson DS; Pang J; Weir A; Kong IY; Fritsch M; Rashidi M; Cooney JP; Davidson KC; Speir M; Djajawi TM; Hughes S; Mackiewicz L; Dayton M; Anderton H; Doerflinger M; Deng Y; Huang AS; Conos SA; Tye H; Chow SH; Rahman A; Norton RS; Naderer T; Nicholson SE; Burgio G; Man SM; Groom JR; Herold MJ; Hawkins ED; Lawlor KE; Strasser A; Silke J; Pellegrini M; Kashkar H; Feltham R; Vince JE, 2022, 'Interferon-γ primes macrophages for pathogen ligand-induced killing via a caspase-8 and mitochondrial cell death pathway', Immunity, 55, pp. 423 - 441.e9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2022.01.003
Journal articles | 2022
Weir A; Vince JE, 2022, 'No longer married to inflammasome signaling: the diverse interacting pathways leading to pyroptotic cell death', Biochemical Journal, 479, pp. 1083 - 1102, http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20210711
Journal articles | 2021
Weir A; Hughes S; Rashidi M; Hildebrand JM; Vince JE, 2021, 'Necroptotic movers and shakers: cell types, inflammatory drivers and diseases', Current Opinion in Immunology, 68, pp. 83 - 97, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coi.2020.09.008
Preprints | 2024
Weir A; Lee S; Li M; Tan CW; Ramus S; Davidson N, 2024, IdentifiHR: predicting homologous recombination deficiency in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma using gene expression, http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.15.608185
2025Scholar-in-training award, awarded by theAmerican Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
2024 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning PhD Scholarship top-up, awarded by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
2023 Travel scholarship, awarded for the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Australia PhD Symposium
2023 Research Training Program Scholarship
2022 CSL Translational Data Science Award
2022 Tour De Cure PhD Scholarship
2022-2023 Johnson PhD Scholarship, awarded by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
2021 Professional development grant, awarded by the Walter and Eliza Hall Research Assistant Association
2024 Best oral “fast forward” presentation (2nd place),the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Society (ABACBS) Symposium
2024 Best oral presentation,the 3rd Asian Student Council Symposium (ASCS)
2024 Best oral presentation (student), the Cancer Bioinformatics Australia (CBA) Symposium
2023 Best poster presentation, the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Student Society (COMBINE)Symposium
2023 Best oral presentation, Comprehensive Cancer PhD Symposium
2022 Best poster presentation, Victorian Cancer Bioinformatics Symposium (VCBS)
2021 Nominee of UNSW Students’ Choice Teaching Award
