Dr (Isobel) Mary Poynten

Mary is a Senior Research Fellow in the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program and is the Group Leader of the Anal Cancer Prevention Research Group. She graduated in Medicine in 1992 (MBBS, UNSW) and completed an MPH (Honours) at Sydney University (1997). She then worked as an Infectious Diseases Registrar and Microbiology Registrar for 5 years, before joining the Kirby Institute in 2003 as a clinical epidemiologist. Mary has been involved in the design and implementation of HIV prevention trials, both nationally and internationally. She completed her PhD on biomedical methods of HIV prevention in 2010. 

The main research focus of Mary's work is the natural history of anal human papillomavirus (HPV) and the development of anal cancer precursor lesions and anal cancer in high risk populations. Mary was the project leader of the Study of the Prevention of Anal Cancer (SPANC) which ran from 2010-2018, a large cohort study investigating the natural history of anal HPV and dysplasia in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. She is currently leading anal cancer screening studies in people living with HIV and in women with previous lower genital tract cancer. She is a founding member of the NSW Anal Cancer Advocacy Group and a member of the International Society of Anal Neoplasia working group for the development of anal cancer screening guidelines.