2021 – Karen H. Vousden

Professor at the Francis Crick Institute, UK

Motivation

Prof. Vousden’s research focuses on the tumour suppressor protein p53, which plays an important role in cancer prevention. Her lab is interested in understanding the signals that induce p53 and the functions of p53 that contribute to its ability to prevent cancer progression. This work has also expanded to encompass an interest in cancer metabolism. Ultimately, the hope is to be able find ways to translate this research for cancer therapy.

About the Winner

Karen received her BSc and PhD in Genetics from Queen Mary College at the University of London working with Lorna Casselton, followed by postdoctoral fellowships with Chris Marshall at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and Douglas Lowy at the National Cancer Institute in the USA. She then became head of the Human Papillomavirus group the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in London before moving back to the NCI in 1995, where she was Director of the Molecular Virology and Carcinogenesis Section at the ABL-Basic Research programme and then Chief of the Regulation of Cell Growth Laboratory. In 2002, she returned to the UK to become the Director of the CRUK Beatson Institute in Glasgow, moving back
to London in 2016 to take up the role of Chief Scientist at CRUK and Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute.

Karen has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Medical Sciences, EMBO, the European Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association of Cancer Research Academy and the National Academy of Sciences. She has also received honorary DScs from the Universities of London and Strathclyde and is an honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow). Karen’s awards include the Tenovus Gold Medal, the Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Medal, the Royal Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Mike Price Gold Medal and she was made a Commander of the British Empire for services to clinical science. She has been on the Board of Directors of the AACR and is a member of the EMBO Council.

In occasione della Giornata internazionale dei diritti della donna (8 marzo 2022), in collaborazione con il MUSE Museo delle Scienze di Trento, la Fondazione ha proposto il tema “Donne di Scienza in Dialogo – Traguardi e prospettive della ricerca nelle cure oncologiche” con un dialogo tra Karen Vousden, scienziata al Cancer Research UK e Capo Laboratorio al Francis Crick Institute di Londra, e Francesca Lorenzin, Ricercatrice del Dipartimento CIBIO dell’Università di Trento. Al centro un tema di grande attualità: la relazione fondamentale tra alimentazione e salute, con particolare riferimento al cancro.