Michelle Ozbun was appointed associate director for basic research of the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Ozbun is a Distinguished Professor and the Maralyn S. Budke Endowed Professor in Viral Oncology in the UNM Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology with a secondary appointment in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Ozbun was preceded by Alan Tomkinson, who was associate director from 2012 to 2026. He also served as interim center director and deputy director. During his tenure in these roles, the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center recruited more than 18 faculty members and successfully renewed our NCI designation twice. Tomkinson’s lab has been continuously funded by NIH for more than 30 years and has produced more than 100 publications.
Ozbun served two terms as treasurer and executive board member of the International Papillomavirus Society. She continues serving as chair of the IPVS Constitution Committee and as member of the IPVS Finance Committee and the IPVS Nomination Committee.
She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. At UNM, she currently co-leads the Cellular and Molecular Oncology Research Program for the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Ozbun’s research focuses on HPV biology, replication, and transformation using advanced 3D organotypic “raft” cultures to propagate the virus—an ability few scientists possess.
Her research has been continuously NIH-funded since 2000 and she has obtained significant research funding from foundations and industry. Her landmark discovery identified the MEK signaling pathway, as a crucial regulator of HPV oncogene expression, revealing how carcinogens like tobacco smoke and estrogen promote HPV-driven cancers and reshaping understanding of HPV pathogenesis. Importantly, this work opened a novel translational pathway to NIH and V Foundation supported preclinical work developing topical MEK inhibitors for HPV lesion treatment and cancer interception. Ozbun holds three U.S. patents with one patent pending.
Ozbun directs the NIH-funded T32 training program for predoctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in the biology of infectious disease and the American Cancer Society’s Institutional Research Grant that provides pilot funding to early-career faculty in cancer research at UNM.
