Research Activities

Dr Kylie Quinn is a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT University, with long-standing research interests in cellular immunity, ageing, vaccines and immunotherapy. After a PhD in New Zealand on vaccine strategies for Tuberculosis, Dr Quinn took post-doctoral positions in Dr Robert Seder’s lab (2008-13; Vaccine Research Center, NIH), where she defined mechanisms of adjuvancy 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 and age-related inflammation limits the function of CD8 T cells. Now at RMIT, Dr Quinn is building a program of research focused on improving cellular immune responses in older individuals during infection, vaccination and new cell-based therapies. Dr Quinn also has a longstanding interest in issues around equity and diversity and is the ASI Women’s Initiative Co-ordinator. She also enjoys engaging with the public to talk about science through a number of forums, including the Scientists in Schools program, talks at Nerd Nite and Pint of Science and media interviews with the Herald Sun and the RRR show, Einstein-A-Go-Go.