IHRC - International Human Papillomavirus Reference Center

The Center was originally established at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg in 1985 and was run under the leadership of Dr. Ethel-Michele deVilliers until 2012. In 2012, the International HPV Reference Center was transferred to the Karolinska Institutet, under the leadership of Dr. Joakim Dillner.

In 2020, the IHRC actively started coordinating a network of national HPV reference laboratories from 13 different countries in order to promote faster progress towards laboratory standardization and quality assurance by collaborative efforts. Examples of joint work include: an HPV laboratory e-manual, e-learning resources, a joint standard operating procedure for promoting quality in HPV testing services by re-analysis of seemingly HPV negative HSIL and cervical cancers and development of validated bioinformatic pipelines for analysis of HPV sequences.

One of the most popular services provided by the IHRC is the proficiency panels, where the Center distributes blinded panels to laboratories worldwide to ensure accurate and internationally comparable human papillomavirus DNA typing and screening.

IHRC members