Professor Judith Breuer FMedSci

Judith Breuer, Professor of Virology at University College London, is an outstanding clinical virologist. As chair of the varicella zoster and papillomavirus vaccine subcommittees, she has achieved the introduction of three vaccination programs that are likely to eliminate HPV cancers in the UK and massively reduce cases of shingles. Breuer was the first to develop genomic methods, now widely used, for sequencing hard-to-culture pathogens directly from clinical material, pioneering their use for investigating transmission and the action of new antiviral drugs. Her studies on Norovirus, the major global cause of gastroenteritis, has led to new theories of how Norovirus pandemics arise that are likely to influence surveillance and vaccine design.