Early Career Fellow
BSc (Hons), PhD
Dr Alison McDonnell is a post-doctoral scientist with a research focus in cancer immunology. Following a PhD using preclinical models of cancer to investigate how an efficient and productive anti-tumour immune response is mounted and how chemotherapy can affect this process, Dr McDonnell undertook training in chemo-immunotherapy clinical trials for mesothelioma. This provided her with a unique translational perspective with expertise in both animal and human based laboratory science, immunology, and clinical trials.
Dr McDonnell currently runs a research program focussed on understanding how the immune system “sees”, “controls” and “attacks” cancer cells with a particular focus on tissue resident memory T cells. Dr McDonnell is now using her expertise in this field to understand the anti-tumour immune response in neuroblastoma with an aim to develop more effective and less toxic immune based therapies for this disease.
Find Dr McDonnell on ORCID.