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Professor Rachel Allavena

Professor and Deputy Head of S

School of Veterinary Science
Faculty of Science
r.allavena@uq.edu.au
+61 7 54601 826

Overview

Professor Rachel Allavena is a specialist veterinary pathologist, multidisciplinary researcher and Deputy Head of School, at the School of Veterinary Science, Gatton. She develops cancer treatments called immunotherapies which wake up the immune system so it fights the cancer. Her unique approach uses pet dogs with natural cancer to conduct the research. This helps the dog and it's family, as well as progressing the development of veterinary treatments and simultaneously advancing human medicine. As Deputy Head of School she aims to support staff and students to make UQ one of the top school's in Australasia, supporting both pets and people. Rachel is a multi-award winning teacher, lecturinging in veterinary pathology, toxicology, animal welfare and laboratory animal science. Her specialist expertise is nationally and internationally recognised in forensics, animal cruelty and toxicology where she acts as an expert witness in criminal and civil legal cases. She is a strong advocate for racing animal welfare, investigating racing animal injury and deaths and conducting research on how to improve animal welfare in sport, society and research. Prof Allavena has an active media profile and has been featured in national and international media including The Conversation, ABC national and regional radio and TV news, commercial and community TV and radio. In 2022-2023 she is a 'Flying Scientist' for Queensland's Office of the Chief Scientist. Rachel really enjoys doing presentations to school students and teachers as well as public outreach events to promote science to the general public. She has presented a TEDx talk on how dogs can help us cure cancer.

Prof Allavena has a PhD in Comparative Medicine from Cornell Univesity in New York, and undertook her pathology specialistation at Ontario Veterinary College. She has worked in drug safety research and development in the pharmaceutical industry in preclinical safety testing and discovery research in the United Kingdom. Her research interests are strongly focused on comparative and translational medicine and animal model validation and development in rodents, dogs and other laboratory animal species. Her major research projects include developing novel cancer immunotherapics and diagnostics for pet dogs naturally suffering from cancer both as a veterinary therapy and comparative model for human cancer. Further, she has extensive research in drivers of koala population decline in SEQLD. She has wide ranging research collaborations specialising in the pathological assessment and study design for animal models in a variety of areas including novel therapeutics, drug safety, toxicology and natural envenomations, biometallic implants, and animal welfare in laboratory animals and domestic species. She is a board certified veterinary anatomic pathologist with the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) and a registered specialist veterinary anatomic pathologist with the Veterinary Surgeon's Board of Queensland through the Australian Veterinary Boards Council. She is the lead diagnostic anatomic pathologist in the UQ School of Veterinary Science Veterinary Laboratory Service, and in her professional capacity she oversees cases for Racing Queensland, Queensland Police and RSPCA Queensland, with a special interest in animal welfare and forensic pathology. She has an extensive successful track record of training anatomic pathologists for American College of Veterinary Pathology board certification. She was awarded a Faculty of Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2015 and a UQ Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2021. She has served as an office holder in the Pathobiology chapter of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists and the Australian Society of Veterinary Pathologists.

Research Interests

  • Novel immunotherapeutic methods for the treatment of cancer in dogs
    We are currently investigating new methods of stimulating the immune system in dogs suffering from a variety of cancers, with the hope of improving survival times and quality of life.
  • ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacturing of Medical Devices (2016–2021)
    The project aims to transform Australia's $10.8Bn medical technology sector by developing cost competitive technologies for the rapid production of personalised devices for Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR). To ensure that the Australian industry remains globally competitive, the Hub seeks to concurrently develop materials, technologies and flexible manufacturing processes. The intended outcomes include more efficient design and manufacturing processes and a new range of EVAR products generating increased market share and higher workforce capability. The resulting impacts are better health outcomes, job creation and providing SMEs with new technologies and skills that can be transferred to the manufacture of products for other sectors. https://researchers.uq.edu.au/research-project/29042
  • Morbidity and mortality in SE Queensland Koala populations
    Prof Joerg Henning and I research the major causes of death, injury and disease which are causing a dramatic decline in the SE QLD koala population using pathologic and epidemiologic approaches. We co-developed the medical record database KoalaBASE https://www.koalabase.com.au/Default.aspx used by the Queensland State government Department of Environment and Science to track koala disease and injury through Queensland, monitoring population health and planning interventions to conserve koalas.
  • The pathology of natural tick and snake envenomations in companion animals
    Tick and snake envenomations are major causes of companion animal death in Australia. Owners are devastated when returning home to find a pet gravely ill or dead from snake bite. Treatments are expensive, mortality is high, and little is known about the pathology caused by these venomous animals. My teams analysis looks at pathology and patterns of snake bites in pets.

Research Impacts

Cancer is common and devastating in our pet dogs and causes heartache for their families. As a veterinary pathologist and immunologist my understanding of disease and immunity drives cures for cancer. For many decades, science relied on mice to help us research cancer, but treatments that work fantastic in mice frequently fail in human patients. My research takes a different approach. I use pet dogs with natural cancer and no hope for other treatments to develop new cancer therapies. Dog cancer is similar in appearance, behaviour, genetics and environmental causes to human cancers. I test novel conventional and immunotherapy treatments. Because dog and human cancer is so similar, dogs provide excellent safety and efficacy information on potential new human treatments. My treatments have cured pets, and are now helping human patients. I am proud to receive international philanthropic support from Canine Cancer Alliance https://www.ccralliance.org/ and local support from the Kibble trust and Canine Research Fund.

Dogs and humans share a special bond, and sadly the cancers that dogs and people develop are very similar. My research group looks at several major common and devastating cancers in pet dogs shared with people; brain cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, osteosarcoma and others. We are conducting trials on novel immunotherapies, which aim to 'wake up' the dog's immune system so it realizes the cancer is there and starts to destroy it. Our treatments include injections into the cancer and vaccinations. Our intratumoural injection resulted in 20% of the dogs being cured of their cancer. These dogs were no longer sick, and their cancer melted away. These dogs also had much longer with their families. Two of our patients were told they only had 2-3 months to live but they survived 12 and 17 months. Another dog was given 8 weeks to live but his cancer disappeared and he lived for 3 more years into old age. The data from these dogs has helped start a hospital trial in human patients with advanced cancer. We only use volunteer pet dogs who have naturally developed their cancer and have no hope for other cures. The pets get to stay with their owners throughout their treatment, which we know is safe for them and their families. Because the cancer in these dogs is natural, it interacts with the dog's body and immune system in a very similar way to how a human cancer does damage. For this reason, we are confident about how well our treatments work, and how safe they will be when they are used to treat human patients. By conducting research on pet dogs with natural cancer, we help the dog, its family and the human patients who will benefit from these new therapies. Dogs are man's best friend in so many ways, and they can help us cure cancer too.

We are currently recruiting dogs suffering from osteosarcoma, mast cell tumour (mastocytoma), lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, malignant melanoma and adenocarcinoma (mammary and apocrine anal sac). Dogs must have a diagnosis and be referred by their current veterinary surgeon to participate in the trial. Please contact PhD student and veterinarians Dr Matthew Weston on matthew.weston@uq.net.au for cancers except osteosarcoma, or Dr Abhi Dadhich aba.dadhich@uq.edu.au if your dog has osteosarcoma.

Along with Prof Joerg Henning, Prof Allavena also co-leaded KoalaBASE and the collaboration has contributed a large body of work analysing the declines of SEQLD's koala population. They have published papers in Scientific Reports, Preventative Veterinary Medicine, and J Comparative Pathology on koala conservation. Prof Allavena is also actively researches envenomation and toxicity in pets, as well as forensic and animal welfare matters, with a focus on racing animals.

Qualifications

  • Veterinary Anatomic Pathologist
  • Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Medicine, Cornell University
  • Graduate Diploma in Anatomic Pathology, University of Guelph
  • Bachelor of Veterinary Science (Honours), The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Veterinary Biology, The University of Queensland

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Note for students: Professor Rachel Allavena is not currently available to take on new students.

Current Supervision

  • Exploring Novel Immunotherapies for Canine Osteosarcoma

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Analysis of morbidity and mortality causes in Australian Racing animals

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Investigation into stem cell markers as potential therapeutic vaccine targets for cancer treatment in dogs

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Comparing the clinical and histological changes seen in dogs treated with either an autologous anti-cancer vaccine or intra tumoral adjuvant.

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Exploration of the use of novel immunotherapeutics in canine lymphoma

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Spatiotemporal analysis of cancer patterns in pet dogs related to human patients.

    Doctor Veterinary Clinical Sci — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The epidemiology of interactions between snakes and their anthropogenic environment

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Comparative oncology in companion animal models

    Doctor Veterinary Clinical Sci — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Elapid snake envenomation in domestic dogs and cats in Australia: temporal-spatial distribution, clinic-pathologic characteristics, treatment options and economic costs

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Translational medicine, Comparative medicine, Dogs, Animal Welfare, Dog Cancer, Koala threats, Animal Cruelty, Animal Forensics, Animal Research, Pets, Pet health, Pet Poisonings, Racing Animals, Animal health, Animal Pathology

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: F-5720-2012

ORCID: 0000-0001-5126-7125

Scopus ID: 35387444400

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