Professor Robker is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. Her Ovarian Cell Biology Research Group sits within the School of Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Adelaide. Her lab is also part of the Robinson Research Institute, where she is a Leader of the Early Origins of Health Theme, which is identifying biological mechanisms by which events in early life, including at conception, influence later health.

Dr Robker received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at Austin and her PhD in
Biomedical Science from Baylor College of Medicine (Houston TX). Her PhD studies discovered novel mechanisms by which hormones control ovarian cell proliferation (Nature 1996; Mol Endo 1998) and identified long sought proteases that control ovulation (PNAS 2000). Dr Robker undertook an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in Leukocyte Biology (Baylor College of Medicine) where her studies revealed that leukocytes are resident in adipose tissue and activated by high fat diet (Obesity 2004; AJP- Cell Physiol 2006).

In 2003, Dr Robker re-located to the University of Adelaide in order to join its unparalleled
concentration of leaders in the fields of Reproductive Medicine and Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DoHaD). Here her work demonstrated that ovarian somatic cells and oocytes are affected by obesity (Endocrinology 2008, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 2009). Dr Robker’s team has further discovered the mechanisms by which lipid metabolism and lipid excess affect oocyte developmental potential (Biology of Reprod 2010, Mol Endo 2010), and most recently found that obesity-induced alterations in oocyte mitochondria persist into offspring tissues (Development 2015), revising our understanding of developmental origins of health.