Dr Joanna Achinger-Kawecka is a Laboratory Head at the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI) at the University of Adelaide.  She completed her PhD in cancer epigenetics at the University of Tubingen, Germany, supported by the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship.  Her work has significantly advanced the understanding of the 3D genome and epigenome in cancer, including the development of innovative technologies and bioinformatics for mapping 3D chromatin structure in cancer cells. Her research has been recognised by numerous awards including the Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship (2026-2031), National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) Mavis Robertson (2021-2024), NBCF Eleine Henry Fellowship (2025-2029), Garvan Rising Star Award 2022 and Prostate Cancer Young Investigator Award 2021. She joined SAiGENCI in 2024, where she established the 3D Chromatin Organisation Laboratory. The lab integrates computational biology, functional genomics, and translational research to explore the principles of 3D genome folding and gene deregulation in rare and hard-to-treat cancers.