Rachael Zemek
Honorary Research Associate
BSc (Hons), PhD
rachael.zemek@telethonkids.org.au
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachaelzemek/In late 2023, Rachael was awarded a Fred Hutchinson IIRC Fellowship – a prestigious appointment aimed to support immunotherapy research and she has since relocated to the Fred Hutch Cancer Centre based in Seattle. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Newell Lab to identify the time-dependent events that activate tumor-specific T cell responses after surgical removal of solid tumors and after checkpoint-blockade immunotherapy.
Rachael aims to inform the optimal timing when scheduling these therapies in relation to each other, for improved immunotherapy responses. At The Kids, Rachael’s work in immunotherapy treatments for Sarcoma has made breakthrough discoveries to advance our understanding about why some cancers do not respond well to immunotherapy and has identified effective new drug combinations to improve responsiveness to immunotherapy. Her skillset spans both the lab and computational analyses, allowing her to combine immunology, cancer biology, computational biology and drug discovery.
Rachael is a successful NHMRC Emerging Leader (Lvl 1) Investigator Grant recipient and is currently an Honorary Research Associate at The Kids Research Institute Australia and collaborates closely with the team to continue the research program, produce manuscripts, and supervise students.
Find Dr Zemek on ORCID.