Karen Vousden

Career Vousden's early postdoctoral research positions were with Chris Marshall at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK (1981–85) and Douglas Lowy at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, United States (1985–87).

From 1987 to 1995, she led the Human Papillomavirus Group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, UK. She also led the institute's Tumour Suppression research group. She also served on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2014.

Since 2016, she has moved back to London to take up the role of CRUK Chief Scientist and Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute. In 2018, she was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

Research

Human papillomaviruses Vousden's early work focused on the molecular biology of human papillomaviruses (HPVs), which are associated with cervical cancer. With Douglas Lowy and others, she pinpointed the specific viral oncoproteins required by HPV-16 to immortalise epithelial cells. She was also part of a group which showed that E6, one of the HPV-16 oncoproteins, binds to the human tumour suppressor protein p53 in vivo, resulting in its degradation.

p53 suppressor protein Vousden's recent research has centred on p53,

Key publications

Peters G, Vousden KH, eds. Oncogenes and Tumour Suppressors (Oxford University Press; 1997)

Awards and honours Vousden is a fellow of the Royal Society (2003), Royal Society of Edinburgh (2004) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (2006); she was also elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2004. The Institute of Cancer Research awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in Science (Medicine) in 2006. She gave the Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Memorial Lecture of the Biochemical Society in 2008. She was awarded the Royal Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2009. Vousden was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.

In 2004, The Scotsman named Vousden among the 25 most powerful Scottish women.

In 2021, Karen Vousden was recognized with the first Pezcoller Foundation-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro-EACR Women in Cancer Award .