Karen P Steel is a British scientist, currently Principal Investigator at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Steel is a leader in research into the genetics of hearing and deafness.Together with Professor Christine Petit, Steel won the Royal Society Brain Prize 2012, for pioneering work on the genetics of hearing and deafness.The asteroid 24734 Kareness was named after Steel by its discoverer, Steel's brother, Duncan Steel.He received Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize in 2012.