Magdalena Plebanski

Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski is an internationally recognised immunologist. In recognition of her contributions, she received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence 2020.

Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski is an internationally- renowned leader in immunology and bioengineering research, Head of the Translational Immunology and Nanotechnology Theme, and Head of the Cancer, Ageing, and Vaccines Laboratory at School of Health and Biomedical Sciences. She is also Director of RMIT’s Biomedical and Health Innovation Enabling Impact Platform.

Magdalena forged a stellar career in medical and health research. At Oxford University, she showed new ways in which malaria parasites trick the human immune system and pioneered vaccine modifications now widely used around the world. Magdalena globally changed the design of nanoparticle based vaccines, showing smaller sized particles improve immune responses. This, and her related discoveries, led to 40 patents in 10 patent families supporting her setting up and running two successfully commercialized biotechnology companies in various roles as Director, CSO and CEO.

Currently, Magdalena interests lie in changing the extremely low survival outcomes from ovarian cancer, by identifying new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in the blood. One of her patented biomarkers currently underlies a large-scale Phase II human clinical trial across 15 hospitals around Australia. Magdalena and her team are also testing innovative gold-based immunotherapies in collaboration with RMIT chemists, as well as collaborating with RMIT nanoengineers to develop practical point-of-care diagnostic devices.

As well as cancer, Magdalena’s team of immunologists, bioinformaticians and geneticists study the impact of ageing on the immune system, and how this changes vaccination responses in the elderly. Her team utilize their expertise in epigenetics, bioinformatics, big data and flow cytometry, as well as access to multiple large scale human clinical trials, to understand the influence of age, sex and mood on the immune response.

Magdalena has published more than 200 peer-reviewed full-length papers, including in leading journals such as Lancet, Nature, Science, Immunity, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine and Nature Communications among others, and has secured more than $30 million in funding from national and international grant bodies, as well as charitable and commercial funding.

As Director of the Biomedical & Health Innovation Enabling Impact Platform (EIP), Magdalena further mentors and supports researchers across the university whose work aligns with the research priorities of this platform: ‘Ageing population’, ‘Population growth and urbanisation’, ‘Regional and global citizenship’ and ‘4.0’ revolution and personalised medicine’. From organising and hosting international symposia, workshops, conferences, funding opportunities, newsletters, establishing and leading Networks, Magdalena brought together hundreds of researchers from multiple Schools and Colleges to form multidisciplinary research groups, that have led to outcomes and impact on real world problems. Examples of impact include a rapid response to staff and students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Indian subcontinent by providing relevant mental health resources and tools. This has since been adapted to create the STEM College Mental Health Resources Kit for staff and students. Another example includes the establishment of the Mental Health Innovation Network, which has published 5 Concept Papers, three webinars for students’ mental wellbeing and a personalised email initiative to support students falling between the cracks during and post- pandemic. Magdalena sees her mentorship role as pivotal to the success of the BHI EIP evidenced by the project, ‘Pathways to Healthy Ageing’ (PHA) it has funded, which started off with a lecturer taking his students to practice ‘hands on learning’ at aged care facilities, to a holistic program that encompasses a multidisciplinary research team at RMIT, hospitals, industry, local councils, the community and receiving small and large external grants.

To learn more about the work the the BHI-EIP are doing, visit Biomedical and Health Innovation at RMIT. 

• Plebanski has around 40 patents in 10 patent families.
• Two of her patents for malaria treatments accrued related patents in over 10 countries, leading to multiple Phase I and II human trials before being purchased by Oxford Biomedica.
• One of her patents led to development of a biotechnology company Panvax Pty Ltd (joint venture with ARI/ Burnet institute), then Plebanski’s own independent company PX Biosolutions Pty Ltd. This patent was then acquired by the international Charity Reliable Cancer Therapies (Belgium).
• Another of her nanoparticle patents was licensed to the Cooperative Research Centre for Asthma and Airways in 2008 before also being acquired by DROIA Ventures.
• Her current patent for ovarian cancer diagnosis underlies the major human Phase II clinical trial funded by AstraZeneca (SOLACE2).
• In 2020, Plebanski led the RMIT and ECHAlliance ‘Australia and Europe – Digital Health Transformation, Agility and Resilience’ international webinar.
• Plebanski is the National Spokesperson for the ‘State of the Nation Report on Ovarian Cancer’ (2020).
• Plebanski sits on the SAB of diverse large scale charitable institutions.

Magdalena and her team are currently dedicated to changing the extremely low survival outcomes from ovarian cancer, the most lethal of all female reproductive cancers. Early detection is notoriously difficult with this type of cancer, which her team hope to rectify by using epigenetics, bioinformatics and immunoassays (e.g. Flow cytometry) to identify new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. These biomarkers are being incorporated into practical point-of-care diagnostic devices designed by RMIT nanoengineers.

One of her patented biomarkers is currently being utilised in a large-scale Phase II human clinical trial, SOLACE2, which is testing new combinations of drugs for recurrent ovarian cancer. This trial is in collaboration with WEHI and is across 15 hospitals around Australia. Magdalena is also working with collaborators across multiple Schools at RMIT, and globally, to develop alternative ovarian cancer treatments, such as gold-based drugs that show superior selectivity and activity for otherwise drug-resistant cancer cells.

As well as cancer, Magdalena’s team are using big data and bioinformatics, as well as epigenetics and microbiomics, to study the impact of ageing on the immune system. In a large Phase II clinical trial with 600 participants, Magdalena, her team, and her collaborators at Launceston General Hospital (Prof. Katie Flanagan), are generating an extensive biobank of blood and tissue samples, as well as psychological and nutrition tests, of young and older volunteers. With these samples, they hope to study the impact of ageing, sex, diet and mood on the immune system and how these differences may affect responses to vaccines such as influenza, whooping cough, cancer and diabetes. Excitingly, new trials have also started using similar tools to study the immune response to COVID-19 and its immunological side effects (long-COVID19 and post-COVID19) as well as COVID19 vaccines in vulnerable populations, particularly pregnant women and older individuals.

Magdalena’s work to optimise vaccine design by combining immunology and bioengineering still continues. Her team is currently combining particle engineering, comprehensive proteomics analysis, and whole human blood immune assays to investigate the relationships between particle design, protein corona composition, and the association of particles with human immune cells. They are also working to enhance the immune response using nanoparticle and adjuvant combinations and assessing their potential in vaccines.

Immunology, Vaccines, Nanoparticles, Cancer, Ovarian cancer, T cells, Malaria, Immunotherapy, Healthy ageing

• Immunology
• Cancer
• Vaccines
• Epigenetics
• Mental health
• Nanoparticles
• Ageing
• Ovarian cancer
• Non-specific effects of vaccines
• T cells
• New cancer treatments
• Ageing immune system
• Link between immunity and the brain

• Age-related immune dysfunction, inflammation, and nutritional status: implications to infections, cancers and vaccine response.
• Epigenetics in immunosenescence: implications to cancer and infections.
• Metagenetic approach to analyse vaccine immunomodulation in the elderly.
• Mood and Immunity in the Elderly: Big Data and Systems Biology.
• Understanding the role of protein corona on nanoparticle-cell interactions for improved nanomedicine.
• Enhancing the immune response using nanoparticles and assessing their vaccine potential in animal models of cancer and malaria.
• Gold-based drugs for the effective treatment of ovarian cancer
• Immunomodulatory properties of natural anti-cancer compounds.
• Ovarian cancer and the immune system.
• Using biobanks to study cancer targets and develop cancer vaccines.