Robyn L. Woods BSc (Hons), PhD is Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Alfred Hospital campus. She was Director of the aspirin primary prevention clinical trial, ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly), which was conducted in Australia and the United States from 2010 to 2017. It was the largest clinical trial to be conducted in Australia, recruiting 16,703 participants aged 70+ years, across South-Eastern Australia and employing up to 100 research staff. She continued as Director of the observational follow-on study, ASPREE-XT, until her retirement from the position in 2021. A/Prof Woods continues as an ASPREE investigator and is the ongoing Director of the large ancillary study, the ASPREE Healthy Ageing Biobank. She was co-first author on the New England Journal of Medicine paper (2018) describing the main ASPREE results that changed clinical guidelines for preventative aspirin use in older persons. A/Prof Woods has more than 175 research publications with H-index of 29.  

A/Prof Woods played a pivotal role in securing the primary NIH grant for ASPREE in 2009, ASPREE completion grant funding from the NHMRC in 2016, and follow-on funding from the NIH for the ASPREE-XT study in 2019. Sub-studies on which she was a key investigator and contributor to successful funding applications include the ASPREE Healthy Ageing Biobank (CSIRO; VCA; NCI/NIH), ASPREE-Age-related Macular Degeneration (NEI/NIH; NHMRC), ASPREE-Depression (NHMRC), ASPREE Cancer Endpoints (NCI/NIH; NHMRC), SNORE-ASA (NHMRC) and ANTI-SEPSIS (NHMRC). She was an associate investigator on other NHMRC-funded sub-studies including ENVISion, Falls & Fractures and ASPREE-NEURO, overseeing the linkages between ASPREE and all sub-studies. Currently A/Prof Woods is the Australian Principal Investigator of the ASPREE-Microbiome and Biobank sub-study funded by the NIA/NIH (2019-2024).  

A/Prof Woods trained as a physiologist with special research interests in the homeostatic integration of the cardiovascular, neuro-endocrine and renal systems and how their regulation is altered in pathophysiology. She established and supervised research laboratories that focused on basic animal physiology research and peptide analysis, at the Baker Institute (15 years) and the Florey Institute (8 years) in Melbourne. For much of this time she was an NHMRC Research Fellow, conducting seminal work on the physiology of the natriuretic peptides. In 2006, A/Prof Woods made the transition to clinical research into ageing health and disease. Her research areas of special interest now include disability, dementia, cardiovascular disease, depression, and declining kidney function in older adults; and the role of aspirin and inflammation in these key health areas.

In 2015, A/Prof Woods was awarded the Howard Florey Medal for her contributions to animal welfare and ethics, and she received the President's Award from the National Heart Foundation for services to the peer review processes in Australia.  She has supervised 4 PhD students and 6 Honours students to successful completion and currently supervises 5 PhD candidates.