Rate My Professor Nikola Bowden

Professor Nikola Bowden is a Professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health within the Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle. She completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Honours) and PhD in Medical Genetics at the same institution. Throughout her career, she has held several prestigious fellowships, including NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (2009–2014), Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Fellowship (2015–2017), and Vanessa McGuigan HMRI Fellowship in Ovarian Cancer (2018–present). She serves as Co-Director of the Centre for Drug Repurposing and Medicines Research, leads the DNA Repair Group, and heads the Australian Program for Drug Repurposing for Treatment Resistant Ovarian Cancer as part of the NSW Regional Cancer Research Network. Additionally, she leads investigator-initiated clinical trials repurposing existing drugs for treatment-resistant cancers in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry.

Bowden's research centers on DNA repair mechanisms, particularly nucleotide excision repair, chemotherapy resistance, immunotherapy, and drug repurposing strategies for melanoma, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, and other cancers. Her work has led to breakthroughs, such as identifying DNA repair pathway dysfunction in chemotherapy-resistant melanoma (2010 publication), and clinical trials treating patients with repurposed drug combinations, with many patients surviving beyond expectations. Selected key publications include "BCL-2 family isoforms in apoptosis and cancer" (2019, Cell Death & Disease; 801 citations), "Dysregulation of miRNA 181b in the temporal cortex in schizophrenia" (2008, Human Molecular Genetics; 425 citations), "Biomarkers of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer: what can we use to improve treatment" (2018; 256 citations), "Nucleotide excision repair: why is it not used to predict response to platinum-based chemotherapy?" (2014, Cancer Letters; 183 citations), and "The Role of Altered Nucleotide Excision Repair and UVB-Induced DNA Damage in Melanomagenesis" (2013, International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 161 citations). Among her awards are the NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2015), Australian Financial Review Emerging Leader in Higher Education Finalist (2019), Cancer Institute NSW Research Fellow of the Year Finalist (2018), and University of Newcastle Young Alumni Award (2011). She has contributed to committees such as the NHMRC Post-Doctoral Reference Group, Research Translation Faculty, and chaired the Australian Academy of Science Early-Mid Career Researcher Forum.