My Expertise
- Cancer
- Leukaemia
- Immune Therapy
Fields of Research (FoR)
Haematological Tumours, Tumour Immunology, Transplantation Immunology, Applied Immunology (incl. Antibody Engineering, Xenotransplantation and T-cell Therapies)Biography
Alla Dolnikov, PhD, is Principal Hospital Scientist and project leader in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Research Laboratory at Sydney Children’s Hospital. She also teaches post-graduate students at the UNSW as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine supervising post-graduate students conducting their Honour, Master’s and PhD projects. Dr Dolnikov has done her PhD in Histology and Embryology. For the last 20 years Dr Dolnikov is...view more
Alla Dolnikov, PhD, is Principal Hospital Scientist and project leader in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Research Laboratory at Sydney Children’s Hospital. She also teaches post-graduate students at the UNSW as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine supervising post-graduate students conducting their Honour, Master’s and PhD projects. Dr Dolnikov has done her PhD in Histology and Embryology. For the last 20 years Dr Dolnikov is developing gene therapy for leukaemia and solid tumours. In 2012 her groups has started the new project developing novel experimental immunotherapy that employs patient’s own immune cells genetically modified in laboratory with the chimeric molecules allowing them recognise tumour cells.
Dr Dolnikov has strong expertise in gene and cellular therapy obtained while performing her research in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Research developing the new gene therapy technology targeting haematopoietic stem cells. This collaboration was extremely productive and resulted in several important publications in high profile journals in the areas of stem cell biology, cancer research and gene therapy including Blood, Leukaemia, Cancer Research, Oncogene, Stem Cells etc. Dr Dolnikov continued her research at Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research as Senior Scientist leading Leukaemia Gene Therapy group. She continues her affiliation with the industry, her recent proposal was approved by the research committee of Novartis.
My Grants
Dr Dolnikov has demonstrated productivity in attracting independent grants including 10 project grants as a CIA, 2 grants as CIB and 3-year Project Grant from the Cancer Council NSW as a single CI. During the last 10 years Dr Dolnikov alone or in the partnership with Dr O’Brien has attracted more than $1,250,000 of external funding for group’s research.
Current grants:
- Kids Cancer Project Grant (2016-2019)
- Inner Wheel Foundation Project Grant (2017)
My Qualifications
Dr Dolnikov has done her PhD in Histology and Embryology. For the last 20 years Dr Dolnikov is developing gene therapy for leukaemia and solid tumours.
My Research Activities
Dr Dolnikov’s team is involved in the pre-clinical development of the novel immune therapies for cancer including adoptive T cell therapy and checkpoint inhibitors. Dr Dolnikov’s team is conducting the collaborative research with the clinicians from SCH and Westmead hospitals. Additionally, Dr Dolnikov collaborates with the scientists from CCIA developing novel mouse models for the testing of novel experimental immunotherapies and small molecule drugs. These “humanised” immune competent mice are generated using human stem cells reconstituting fully functional human immune system in immune compromised mice. Dr Dolnikov’s team is also testing the combinations of targeted therapies and immune therapies to prolong anti-tumour responses.
Dr Dolnikov has established collaboration with Dr Kenneth Micklethwaite and Dr David Gottlieb, both from Westmead Hospital, Sydney, who are the experts in adoptive T cell therapy. Established collaborations with Prof Luca Dotti and Prof Malcolm Brenner from Baylor College of Medicine both of whom are internationally recognised experts in genetic modification of haematopoietic stem cells and T cells and pioneers in immunotherapy for cancer using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells. In addition, I established novel collaboration with Dr Clemenceau from INSERM CRCNA, France, known for her expertise in genetic modification of human leukocytes.
Publications: Over 47 publications in international peer reviewed journals including Blood, Stem Cells, Cancer Research, Leukaemia, Oncogene, Current Medicinal Chemistry, Experimental haematology, Stem Cells & Development.
Published 4 invited review articles and 3 book chapters.
H-index 18
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
Dr Dolnikov successfully supervised 2 MSc, 4 PhD and 3 Honours students to date. One PhD student, Guy Klamer, became a NSW finalist of AusBiotech-GlaxoSmith Kline Student Excellence Award (2011), obtained scholarship from Financial Markets for Children Foundation (2010-2011) as well as the UNSW Post-graduate Research Support Scheme Conference Travel Grant. Another PhD student, Tiffany Holmes has also received several conference travel awards.
PhD, Masters:
- Novel Immune therapies for cancer
Currently supervising
At the moment, Dr Dolnikov supervises 2 PhD students.