Professor Griffiths graduated with a Bachelor's degree in science in 1978 from the University of New South Wales. After subsequently completing her honours degree, she was awarded an NHMRC Biomedical Postgraduate Scholarship to undertake her PhD at the Sydney University. She went on to spend time as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Sydney, before moving to Griffith University on the Gold Coast, Queensland. There, she worked her way up to become Professor and Dean of Research (Griffith Health) and Director of the Griffith Health Institute (now called Menzies Health Institute Queensland). In 2013, she relocated her laboratory to the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University of Technology, where she took up the role of Executive Director. When the Institute was disbanded in 2020, she was appointed to the position of Inaugural Director of QUT's Centre of Genomics and Personalised Health.