Senior Research Fellow
Dr Dorothy Machalek
Medicine & Health
The Kirby Institute
Dr Dorothy Machalek is a Senior Research Fellow at the Kirby Institute and an Honorary Research Fellow with the Centre for Women’s Infectious Disease at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. She holds a Doctorate in epidemiology and a Master of Public Health from the University of New South Wales.
Her research focuses on the development and implementation of novel public health surveillance systems, and the evaluation of vaccination and screening strategies for the prevention of HPV and related diseases.
Since the award of her PhD in 2014, Dr Machalek has led the development and implementation of a Commonwealth Department of Health-funded National HPV Monitoring Program (called IMPACT) that is evaluating the long-term impact of HPV vaccination on HPV infections. This program has provided the basis for well-cited publications on the impact of Australia’s vaccination program. The program methodology underpinned the design of a world-first project to evaluate the impact of one and two-dose HPV vaccine schedules in South Africa funded by NHMRC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Currently, she also coordinates the implementation of serological surveys to track the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Australia.
Dr Machalek is also leading a number of projects that aim to generate new evidence to improve the control of M. genitalium infection. This includes epidemiological investigations into the association between M. genitalium infection and disease in women and novel surveillance methodologies for monitoring M. genitalium burden and patterns of resistance.
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2021: Victorian Department of Health: Serological testing of blood donors to characterise the impact of COVID-19 in Melbourne, 2020
2020: Commonwealth Department of Health: National 2020 SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey
2020: NSW Health Emergency Response Fund: Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in Sydney, Australia following the first epidemic wave in 2020
2020: University of Melbourne Innovation Grant: Identification of microRNA biomarkers for HPV-related cancer screening
2019-2023: NHMRC Project Grant: Impact of 2-dose and 1-dose HPV vaccination schedules on community level HPV prevalence in South African adolescent girls
2019-2023: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Impact of 2-dose and 1-dose HPV vaccination schedules on community level HPV prevalence in South African adolescent girls
2019-2022: Australian Government Department of Health HPV Surveillance Fund: National HPV Monitoring Program
2017-2021: NHMRC CRE: Centre for Research Excellence in Cervical Cancer Control
2015-2018: Cancer Council Victoria: Evaluating molecular biomarkers of anal cancer risk
2014-2018: Australian Government Department of Health HPV Surveillance Fund: National HPV Monitoring Program
2013-2014: Cure Cancer Australia/Cancer Council NSW Project Grant: HPV biomarkers to predict anal disease progression and persistence
2020: Kirby Institute Emerging Leader Award
2020: International Papillomavirus Society Travel Award
2019: MJA Prize for Excellence in Medical Research
2016: Seqirus Australia Travel Award
2016: Royal Women’s Hospital Early Career Researcher Award
2013: Australasian Society for HIV Medicine, Australasian HIV & AIDS Conference Best Oral Presentation
2013: Australasian Society for HIV Medicine, Junior Researcher Support Travel Award
2013: Public Health Association of Australia, Aileen Plant Memorial Prize in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology
2012: University of New South Wales, Faculty of Medicine, Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research
2012: University of New South Wales, School of Public Health and Community Medicine Symposium Best Student Oral Presentation