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Richard Marais
FRSFMedSciMAE
Richard Marais at theRoyal Societyadmissions day in London, July 2018
Born
Richard Malcolm Marais
Alma materUniversity College London(BSc)
Imperial College London(PhD)[5]
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisComparative studies on protein kinase C isotypes(1989)
Doctoral advisorPeter Parker[5][6]
Other academic advisorsRichard Treisman
Chris Marshall[6]
Websitewww.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/Our-Research/Molecular-Oncology

Richard Malcolm MaraisFRSFMedSciMAE[2][7][8]is Director of theCancer Research UK(CRUK) Manchester Institute andProfessorofMolecular Oncologyat theUniversity of Manchester.[2][9]

Education

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Marais was educated atUniversity College Londonwhere he was awarded aBachelor of Sciencedegree inGeneticsandMicrobiologyin 1985.[10]He completed his postgraduate study at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and was awarded aPhDin 1989 for research onisotypesof theprotein kinase C(PKC)enzymesupervised by Peter Parker.[5]

Career and research

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Marais's research investigates the biology ofmelanomaand othercancersin order to deliver better treatment strategies for patients.[2][9][4][3]His studies onB-RAF[3]andcell signallingsignificantly advanced understanding of melanomabiologyandaetiology.[2][11]He translated his basic research discoveries into clinical implementation, improving patient outcomes, elucidating mechanisms ofdrug resistanceand developing new drugs against BRAF and othercancer targets.[2]His research informs innovative clinical trial designs with signal-seekingbiomarkersto monitor therapy responses and optimise patient treatment.[2]His research also highlights the importance of combiningsunscreenwith other sun avoidance strategies to reduce population melanoma risk.[2]

Marais started his career as apostdoctoral researcherwithRichard Treisman[6]at theImperial Cancer Research Fund(ICRF) in London, where he worked on theoncogeneknown asc-Fos.[8]This was followed by a period inChris Marshall’s laboratory at theInstitute of Cancer Research(ICR), after which Marais set up his own laboratory in 1998 before moving toManchesterin 2012.[6]

University of Manchester launched in 2019 an investigation into research misconduct from the Marais laboratory[12]

Awards and honours

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With colleagues, Marais received theAmerican Association for Cancer Research(AACR) Team Science Award in 2012 for cancer drug discoveries.[2]He received theLeopold Griffuel Prizein 2016[2]and the Outstanding Research Award from theSociety for Melanoma Research(SMR) in 2017.[2]He was elected a member of theEuropean Molecular Biology Organization(EMBO) in 2009,[1]aFellow of the Royal Society(FRS) in 2018,[2]and aFellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences(FMedSci) in 2008.[7]His citation on election reads:

Richard Marais is Professor of MolecularOncologyat Cancer Research UK and has made important contributions to the understanding of cell signalling pathways, particularly in cancer. He was amongst the first to show that mitogen activated protein kinases regulate gene expression by directlyphosphorylatingtranscription factors.However his greatest impact has been with theRAF kinasefamily, where he discovered that individual RAF proteins are regulated differentially and shown how they respond toRAS,which ismutatedin a third of all human tumours. He was a key member of the team that demonstrated that B-RAF is encoded by anoncogene,which is a culprit in most human melanomas. He went on to validate B-RAF as atherapeutic target.In collaboration withDavid Barford,he solved the crystal structure of B-RAF and explained how it is activated by mutations that occur in cancer. He elucidated whyC-RAFis not mutated in cancer, showing that mutant forms of B-RAF can activate C-RAF through a novel mechanism, establishing a new paradigm of RAF signaling. He is now translating these studies to the clinic by leading a large effort to design and synthesize new anti-B-RAF drugs that will be used to treat melanoma.[7]

Marais was awarded membership of theAcademia Europaea(MAE) in 2015.[8]

References

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  1. ^abc"Find people in the EMBO Communities".People.embo.org.Retrieved26 May2018.
  2. ^abcdefghijklmn"Professor Richard Marais FRS".royalsociety.org.London:Royal Society.2018. Archived fromthe originalon 2018-05-21.One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available underCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.”--Royal Society Terms, conditions and policiesat theWayback Machine(archived 2016-11-11)
  3. ^abcDavies, Helen; Bignell, Graham R.; Cox, Charles; et al. (2002)."Mutations of the BRAF gene in human cancer"(PDF).Nature.417(6892): 949–954.doi:10.1038/nature00766.ISSN0028-0836.PMID12068308.S2CID3071547.Closed access icon
  4. ^abWan, Paul T.C; Garnett, Mathew J; Roe, S.Mark; et al. (2004)."Mechanism of Activation of the RAF-ERK Signaling Pathway by Oncogenic Mutations of B-RAF".Cell.116(6): 855–867.doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(04)00215-6.ISSN0092-8674.PMID15035987.S2CID126161.Closed access icon
  5. ^abcMarais, Richard Malcolm (1989).Comparative studies on protein kinase C isotypes.london.ac.uk(PhD thesis).University of London.hdl:10044/1/47556.OCLC940321860.EThOSuk.bl.ethos.717709.Free access icon
  6. ^abcdLarue, Lionel (2010)."Richard Marais".Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.23(3): 448.doi:10.1111/j.1755-148X.2010.00708.x.ISSN1755-1471.PMID20518862.
  7. ^abc"Richard Marais FMedSdi".acmedsci.ac.uk.
  8. ^abcHoffmann, Ilire Hasani, Robert."Academy of Europe: Marais Richard".Ae-info.org.Retrieved26 May2018.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^abRichard Maraispublications fromEurope PubMed Central
  10. ^"Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute > Our Research > Molecular Oncology".cruk.manchester.ac.uk.Retrieved26 May2018.
  11. ^Gray-Schopfer, Vanessa; Wellbrock, Claudia; Marais, Richard (2007). "Melanoma biology and new targeted therapy".Nature.445(7130): 851–857.Bibcode:2007Natur.445..851G.doi:10.1038/nature05661.ISSN1476-4687.PMID17314971.S2CID4421616.Closed access icon
  12. ^"Research misconduct statement".manchester.ac.uk.Archivedfrom the original on 28 June 2019.Retrieved12 January2022.

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