Rate My Professor Lily Williams

Dr Lily Williams serves as a Research Associate in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, part of the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. An early career researcher specializing as a Nutritional Biochemist and Immunologist, she earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Nutritional Biochemistry in 2023, along with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours) and a Bachelor of Biomedical Science from the same university. Since 2018, Dr Williams has conducted laboratory-based translational research within the Nutrition Team of the Immune Health Research Program at the University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute. Her doctoral work under Professor Lisa Wood examined the impact of soluble fibre interventions and their metabolites on immune responses and clinical outcomes in asthma. Presently, her research investigates nutritional interventions' effects on innate immune function and obesity's role in worsening asthma, with emphasis on nutritional and exercise therapies. She contributes to clinical and lab projects encompassing study design, ethics applications, participant recruitment, data analysis, and scholarly publications.

Dr Williams has authored or co-authored over 20 publications, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses such as "The Effects of Prebiotics, Synbiotics, and Short-Chain Fatty Acids on Respiratory Tract Infections and Immune Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" (2021), "Effect of Lactoferrin Supplementation on Inflammation, Immune Function, and Prevention of Respiratory Tract Infections in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" (2022), and "Effects of Plant-Based Protein Interventions, with and without an Exercise Component, on Body Composition, Strength and Physical Function in Older Adults" (2023). Other notable works include "Nutrition in Asthma" (2022), "Medicinal Mushroom Extracts from Hericium coralloides and Trametes versicolor Exert Differential Immunomodulatory Effects" (2023), and forthcoming articles on lactoferrin and exercise in asthma (2024-2026). She has secured funding as lead investigator for projects like "Investigating how excess nutrients in obesity affect immune responses to respiratory virus infection" (2023, $14,767) and as investigator for NLRP3 inflammasome research (2022, $10,484). Her accolades include the Hunter Cancer Research Alliance Best Poster Presentation (2019, Australian Society for Medical Research) and the Faculty of Health and Medicine Faculty Medal (2017).