Associate Professor Erin Symonds completed her PhD through the University of Adelaide, then received a NHMRC Post-doctoral fellowship to further the research into the prevention of gastrointestinal diseases, in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in University College Cork, Ireland, and the Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics laboratory at CSIRO, Adelaide. Since the 2013 she has been the team leader of the Bowel Health Service group at Flinders Medical Centre. The research focus is on cancer biomarkers and prevention, and through funding from NHMRC, the Medical Research Future Fund, and the Hospital Research Foundation, the team are developing and optimising non-invasive diagnostic screening and surveillance techniques for gastrointestinal cancers.