Tonia Vincent studied medicine at UCL, qualifying in 1993. She trained as a junior doctor in London, later specialising in Rheumatology. She continued at the Kennedy Institute as a Wellcome Trust clinician scientist and subsequently as an Arthritis Research UK Senior Fellow. In 2012 the Kennedy Institute moved to the University of Oxford and she was appointed Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology.

She directs the Centre for OA Pathogenesis funded by Versus Arthritis. Her research interests include pathways that drive mechanosensitive responses in cartilage, the role of the pericellular matrix in determining these responses and how they modulate osteoarthritis in vivo. Her work is funded by Versus Arthritis, MRC, ERC and the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research. She continues to be clinically active, running both osteoarthritis clinics and the multidisciplinary Marfan Syndrome clinic.