Our Team
The Ageing and Immunotherapies Group at RMIT University is passionate about using our understanding of the basic biology of ageing and the immune system to develop more tailored immune-based therapies.
Dr Kylie Quinn
Group Leader and Senior Lecturer
Dr Kylie Quinn is Senior Lecturer at RMIT with extensive research experience in vaccines, immunotherapeutics, and ageing.
After a PhD in New Zealand on vaccine strategies for Tuberculosis, she took post-doctoral positions in Dr Robert Seder’s lab (2008-13; Vaccine Research Center, NIH), where she defined the mechanism of action for a number of novel vaccines and provided key pre-clinical data for Ebola vaccine selection by the World Health Organisation in 2014, and in Prof Nicole La Gruta’s lab (2013-18; University of Melbourne, Monash University), where she developed a project on how ageing limits the function of CD8 T cells.
Her group at RMIT focuses on developing ways to improve immune responses in the elderly during infection, vaccination and cell-based therapies.
She also has a longstanding interest in issues around equity and diversity, as the former Women’s Initiative Co-ordinator for the Australia and New Zealand Society of Immunology (ASI), and effective science communication.
Dr Gemma Trollope
Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Gemma Trollope is an early career researcher with extensive experience in immunology, virology and the fetal/maternal interface.
She completed a Bachelors of Biomedical Science with Honours (1st class) at RMIT in 2019. She then completed her PhD project focused on understanding how TLR7 contributes to fetal and maternal inflammation in influenza infection during pregnancy. She was co-supervised by Prof Stavros Selemidis and Dr Stella Liong (RMIT).
Gemma’s work with the RMIT Ageing and Immunotherapies Group is focused on developing an in vitro model of vaccination with human donor-derived DCs.
Shivali Savita Chinni
PhD candidate
Shivali Savita Chinni is a PhD candidate and early career researcher with a passion for cancer research.
She completed a Bachelors of Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Laboratory Medicine through RMIT University, Australia.
In 2021, Chinni started her PhD project focused on developing a mouse model to dissect the impact of age on T cell function, CAR T cell therapy and vaccination. She is co-supervised by Dr Jonathan McQualter (RMIT).
Anna Iasinskaia
PhD candidate
Anna Iasinskaia is a PhD candidate in our team with extensive experience in T cell stimulation and culturing approaches.
She completed a Bachelors of Biotechnology at the Russian Technological University in 2018 and a Masters of Science through Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in 2020.
In 2022, Anna started her PhD project focused on testing whether physical stimulation methods could be used to improve activation of aged T cells. She is co-supervised by Dr Amy Gelmi (RMIT).
Dr Palak Mehta
Former PhD candidate
Palak Mehta is a former PhD candidate in our team and is now a post-doctoral researcher with Dr Jen Juno at the Doherty Institute.
She completed a Bachelors of Biomedical Science and a Masters of Clinical Immunology through Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She then worked for two years with Prof Graham Le Gros at the Malaghan Institute.
Palak’s PhD project focused on identifying biomarkers that are predictive of protective responses during CAR T cell therapy in older people. She completed this project in 2024 and was co-supervised by A/Prof Anthony Jaworowski (RMIT), Prof David Ritchie (Royal Melbourne Hospital) and Dr Rachel Koldej (Royal Melbourne Hospital).