Associate Professor Annika Antonsson
Associate Professor Annika Antonsson is a virologist with epidemiological training. Viruses can cause cancer, and Annika’s research has been focused on human papillomavirus (HPV) and its role in different types of cancer. HPV is the virus that causes cervical cancer, for which a HPV vaccine (Gardasil®) was developed in Queensland.
Their current main research areas are oral HPV infections in the general population and HPV in mouth and throat cancer (mucosal squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck; HNSCC).
Some cancers of the mouth and throat are increasing and some of this increase is caused by HPV infection. HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and changing sexual behaviour is believed to have caused the increase in HPV-positive tumours of the mouth and throat. A/Prof Antonsson is investigating how often HPV in found in HNSCCs and if there are any life-style factors linked with having HPV or not to have HPV in tumours.
It is not known how common the potentially cancer-causing viruses are in the mouth of the general population, and this is another area of research A/Prof Antonsson is looking into.
A/Prof Antonsson has also worked on HPV in skin (normal skin and cancer), infections in breast carcinogenesis, HPV in oesophageal cancer and polyomaviruses in normal skin and skin cancer.