Blood cancers are Australia’s third-biggest cause of cancer deaths. My research is focused on signalling pathways that control the function of blood and immune cells to treat blood cancers such as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).
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Biography
Dr Jim Vadolas received his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, where he developed novel adjuvant technologies designed to enhance immune responses to vaccines. In 1999, Dr Vadolas undertook postdoctoral studies at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, where he acquired expertise in genetic and molecular techniques utilising bacterial artificial chromosome (BACs) and homologous recombination systems.
In 2005, Dr Vadolas became group leader of the Cell and Gene Therapy group, primarily interested in the development of novel therapeutic strategies for β-thalassaemia and related β‑haemoglobinopathies. There, he established several unique cell-based assay systems and clinically relevant animal models of β‑thalassaemia. These innovations enabled investigations that provided important insights into the epigenetic mechanism(s) involved in globin gene regulation throughout development and disease. A major aspect of his research is the development and evaluation of genetic-based approaches involving lentiviral gene therapy and genome editing.
More recently, Dr Vadolas’ expertise in β‑haemoglobinopathies enabled his group to establish a new research program investigating how iron overload contributes to aberrant innate immune responses in β‑thalassaemia. Dysregulation of iron homeostasis in inherited or acquired anaemias may tip the immunoregulatory balance to allow increased growth rates of infectious organisms and cancer cells, and therefore complicate the clinical management of acute and chronic diseases.
Dr Vadolas is a research group leader at Hudson Institute and co-heads the Immunohaematology research group with Dr George Grigoriadis. Dr Vadolas is the current Vice President of the Australasian Gene and Cell Therapy Society, and has served as Committee Member and Vice President of the Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Society of Australia from 2005-2017.
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