Ozbun, Michelle Adair

The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center
The University of New Mexico School of Medicine

Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

Tel: +1.505.272.4950

Professor Ozbun is the Maralyn S. Budke Endowed Professor in Viral Oncology at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center of The University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She holds academic appointments in the Departments of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology (primary) and Obstetrics & Gynecology at The UNM School of Medicine. She is also the Co-leader of the Cell and Molecular Oncology Research Program at The UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is the PI of the American Cancer Society’s Institutional Research Grant to UNM and the Program Director of the NIH NIAID NRSA-Funded “Infectious Disease and Inflammation Program” (IDIP) T32 Training Program.

Dr. Ozbun received a B.S. in Microbiology, with a minor in Chemistry, from Colorado State University in 1987 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Virology (with Janet S. Butel, Ph.D.) from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, in 1994. She completed U.S. NIH-funded postdoctoral training with Dr. Craig Meyers at the Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania from 1994-1998. Dr. Ozbun joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1998.

Research in Dr. Ozbun’s lab spans from the basic science molecular virology of human papillomavirus infections and cancer progression to efforts aimed at HPV lesion treatments and improving clinical outcomes. Dr. Ozbun’s research has been continuously funded by the U.S. NIH since 2002 and her research group has striven to improve our understanding of HPV infections and carcinogenesis. Her studies aim to challenge the status quo and dogma in the HPV field using all available methods for virion production and replication and insisting upon biologically-relevant cell, tissue, and animal models for the study of papillomavirus infection and pathogenesis. She was elected as the treasurer of the International Papillomavirus Society in 2018.