Leading Australian doctors and researchers are calling for the release of Kathleen Folbigg, saying new genomic research casts doubt on her conviction for killing her four children.

Nobel laureate immunologist Professor Peter Doherty and former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley are among 90 mainly Australian medical experts and researchers who have signed a petition calling for the immediate pardon of Ms Folbigg.

Ms Folbigg, 53, has spent 18 years in jail for murdering Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and for the manslaughter of her son Caleb, between 1989 and 1999. The children were aged between 19 days and 18 months.

However, this week, doctors and researchers have released a petition that says genomic data from the children, which wasn’t available during the first trial, “creates a strong presumption that the Folbigg children died of natural causes”.