Professor Margaret Stanley OBE is Professor of Epithelial Biology in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge.

She has served on several research council committees and was a member of the Biology and Biotechnology Science Research Council from 2000 to 2003, as well as a member of the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee (SEAC) that advised the UK government on prion diseases. In 2004, she was awarded the OBE for services to Virology, before being made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2005.

Professor Stanley’s research interests have always concerned the biology of cervical epithelium and how and why cancer of the cervix develops. Her current research focuses on mechanisms of host defence and the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against HPV.

She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, has given keynote or plenary presentations at national and international meetings, and has been advising the Throat Cancer Foundation since the charity was founded.