Kevin Ault '84
Kevin Ault entered medical school just
as the medical community was beginning to recognize that it had
seriously neglected women's healthcare. Even so, when he decided to
focus on women's health and gynecology, he never imagined he would
one day become involved with a vaccine that could potentially save
the lives of thousands of women.
Ault's career has led him to positions at the University of
Kansas Medical Center and the University of Iowa Hospitals and
Clinics, where today he holds a position of associate professor of
obstetrics and gynecology. In 1995, Ault became involved with a
study for which he is probably best known among his peers - an
experimental vaccine that was designed to protect against the virus
that causes cervical cancer.
It was during a meeting with other researchers interested in
infectious diseases that Ault began talking with two scientists
from Merck Research Laboratories about the experimental vaccine
that protects against a form of Human Papillomavirus type 16, or
HPV-16, a virus responsible for about half of the cases of cervical
cancer. Ault became involved on the ground level of planning the
student, and was an author and principle investigator for the
University of Iowa site. When the initial results of the study were
positive, Ault was interviewed on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and on
MSNBC, as well as quoted in the Boston Globe, Washington Post and
London Times. Ault is currently involved with the next phase of the
study, involving quadrivalent vaccine, which, if successful, will
protect against more than one type of HPV.