Dr O’ Reilly studied immunology at the University of Glasgow, Scotland and completed her PhD in the Department of Immunology at University College, London. Following post-doctoral training at the University of Cambridge, England, she joined the Walter and Eliza Institute of Medical Research with Prof. Andreas Strasser. During this time, she established the role of membrane and soluble FasL in apoptotic cell death and inflammation.

Currently Lorraine is a senior scientist based within the Inflammation Division at WEHI investigating upper gastrointestinal cancers (gastric, oral). A new focus for her research is image guided virtual biopsy technologies for the early detection and prediction of oral cancer. She is also uncovering the relationship between inflammatory and cell death signalling pathways in oral cancer initiation and tumourigenesis, whilst testing combinative new therapies for advanced disease using murine models and a patient-derived oral tumour organoid platform.