Purnima Bhat is a Senior Lecturer staff member at the ANU Medical School. She is a practicing clinical Gastroenterologist with appointments at Canberra Hospital, and at Canberra Gastoenterology in Deakin ACT. Purnima obtained her medical degree at the University of Queensland and specialised in Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation at the Austin Hospital, Melbourne. She received her PhD from Melbourne University working on transcytosis of Hepatitis B Virus in epithelial cells at the Burnet Institute.

Purnima's research interests focus on mucosal immunology in the gut. Her lab works in translational medicine with a view to the development of novel therapies for diseases such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and viral hepatitis. Her laboratory has developed in vitro and animal models for the examining the gut immune system and applies these methods to investigate the behaviour of diseases in patients.

Purnima is a member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Ethics Committee which oversees the creation, maintenance and use of publically held databases of health and welfare information on Australians.