A Hove student has switched from acid house band member to cancer research scientist in a transformation that could save lives.
Cressida Bowyer, a former member of KLF, is carrying out groundbreaking research into liver cancer at Brighton University.
She is working on more effective ways to deliver life-saving chemotherapy in “beads” which are inserted directly into the liver and carry the drugs directly to tumours.
The mother of three travelled to Montreal in Canada in September to present her work at the International Liver Cancer Association conference.
And she is now nearing the completion of her PhD at Brighton University’s School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences.
She turned to science having left school at 16 to sing in a punk band with Jimmy Cauty, who later went on to found KLF. She spent more than 20 years in a relationship with Cauty.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s KLF had hit songs with Justified and Ancient, Last Train to Trancentral and 3am Eternal.
She said: “I always loved science at school and wanted to pursue it as a career – but I found myself being seduced by punk rock.
“I probably would have gone on to university and to have studied science when I was younger had it not been for the lure of punk rock.
“I never envisaged being a student again at this stage of my life but I do really enjoy it and especially the work I’m doing.
“There’s no prospect of a band reunion and I certainly don’t have any ambitions to go back to that life.
“I got the t-shirt at the time and that was enough for me.”
Professor Adrian Bone, professor of cell and molecular biology at Brighton Univerity, said: “Cressida has proved herself to be an extremely talented researcher and her work on liver cancer is opening up exciting new avenues for the potential treatment of a range of human cancer conditions.
“She is an example of how people can change careers at any time of their life.”
