Chantal Donovan

Dr. Chantal Donovan is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Newcastle's School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and an NHMRC Early Career Post-doctoral Fellow (Peter Doherty Biomedical Fellow) with the Priority Centre for Healthy Lungs. She is a key member of Professor Phil Hansbro's renowned respiratory medicine research team based at the Hunter Medical Research Institute in Newcastle, Australia. Her work focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of lung diseases and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Dr. Donovan completed her PhD in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Melbourne (January 2012-April 2015) and earned her Bachelor of Science (Honours) with first class honors from the same institution. Prior to joining Newcastle, she completed postdoctoral training at Monash University and received additional training under precision cut lung slice expert Professor Michael Sanderson at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the USA.

Her research specializes in respiratory medicine with particular expertise in asthma, COPD, airway remodelling, and the role of IL-33 and iron metabolism in lung diseases. Dr. Donovan is highly skilled in mouse models of respiratory disease (allergic, bacterial, viral, cigarette smoke), assessment of lung function (whole lung mechanics, DLCO, large airway organ bath, small airway myography, precision cut lung slices), and molecular biology techniques. She has played an integral role in advancing precision cut lung slice methodologies in Australia.

Analysis of Dr. Donovan's recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a strong focus on molecular mechanisms of respiratory diseases, particularly examining airway remodelling, sex differences in asthma, the gut-lung axis, environmental impacts on respiratory health, and novel therapeutic targets. Her work increasingly incorporates multi-omics approaches including transcriptomics and spatial analysis to understand disease mechanisms at a deeper level.

• British Pharmacological Society/ASCEPT Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2016)
• Finalist in the Young Investigator Award (TSANZ, 2014)
• Garth McQueen oral presentation prize for best PhD student (ASCEPT, 2012)
• NHMRC Early Career Fellowship
• Over $500k in competitive grants and fellowships
• Prestigious international travel awards from American Thoracic Society

Dr. Donovan has secured significant research funding including an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship to investigate IL-33's role in lung diseases and potential new treatments. She has presented 25 abstracts as first/last author and 15 as co-author at national and international conferences. As a passionate science communicator, she participated in Science Meets Parliament in Canberra in 2017 to advocate for respiratory research funding.

Based at the Hunter Medical Research Institute, Dr. Donovan works within Professor Phil Hansbro's world-leading respiratory medicine research center. Her laboratory focuses on experimental models of asthma, COPD, and asthma-COPD overlap, with particular emphasis on airway remodelling mechanisms. The team utilizes advanced techniques including precision cut lung slices, spatial transcriptomics, and comprehensive lung function assessment to investigate novel therapeutic targets for currently untreatable aspects of chronic respiratory diseases.