A/Prof Tara Roberts is a mid-career researcher who completed her PhD and first post-doctoral position at the University of Queensland examining immune responses to cytosolic DNA and identifying the HIN-200 protein, AIM2 as the receptor for inflammasome activation in response to cytosolic DNA. She was awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship in 2007 and moved to The Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Here she commenced work examining the role that inflammation plays in disease development and progression, particularly the role of inflammation in cancer and neurodegeneration. In 2014 she accepted a Cancer Institute New South Wales Future Research Leader Fellowship to move to The Ingham Institute and University of Western Sydney. This role involved the establishment of her research group “Cancer and Inflammation” which has interests in lung, gastric, prostate, brain and colorectal cancer, DNA damage responses including induction of inflammation by DNA damage, immunotherapy and liquid biopsy. The group aims to understand how individual characteristics of each patient and their tumour can be used to personalise cancer treatment. Currently A/Prof Roberts is the Irene and Arnold Vitocco Cancer Research Fellow and the Associate Dean Higher Degree Research for School of Medicine, Western Sydney University.