The human papilloma virus (HPV) family of DNA tumor viruses includes HPV-16 and HPV-18, which are associated with a large proportion of cervical cancer cases. HPV early proteins E6 and E7 are the major viral oncoproteins that regulate cell proliferation through the inactivation of p53 and Rb1 tumour suppressor proteins respectively. BF7 can be used for detection of HPV in cervical smears and biopsies and analysis of E6 expression in cell transformation studies.