chemistry

Richard Marais

Richard Marais is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Marais rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Malcolm Marais a British researcher who was director of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Manchester Institute and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Manchester. Education Marais was educated at University College London where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics and Microbiology in 1985.

Key takeaways

Richard Marais belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Marais to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Marais from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Malcolm Marais a British researcher who was director of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Manchester Institute and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Manchester.

Education Marais was educated at University College London where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics and Microbiology in 1985. He completed his postgraduate study at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and was awarded a PhD in 1989 for research on isotypes of the protein kinase C (PKC) enzyme supervised by Peter Parker.

Career and research Marais's research investigates the biology of melanoma and other cancers in order to deliver better treatment strategies for patients. His studies on B-RAF and cell signalling significantly advanced understanding of melanoma biology and aetiology. He translated his basic research discoveries into clinical implementation, improving patient outcomes, elucidating mechanisms of drug resistance and developing new drugs against BRAF and other cancer targets. His research informs innovative clinical trial designs with signal-seeking biomarkers to monitor therapy responses and optimise patient treatment. His research also highlights the importance of combining sunscreen with other sun avoidance strategies to reduce population melanoma risk. Marais started his career as a postdoctoral researcher with Richard Treisman at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) in London, where he worked on the oncogene known as c-Fos. This was followed by a period in Chris Marshall’s laboratory at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), after which Marais set up his own laboratory in 1998 before moving to Manchester in 2012. In 2019 Marais asked the University of Manchester to investigate research misconduct linked to a former member of his laboratory.

Awards and honours With colleagues, Marais received the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award in 2012 for cancer drug discoveries. He received the Leopold Griffuel Prize in 2016 and the Outstanding Research Award from the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) in 2017. He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2009, a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2008. His citation on election reads: Richard Marais is Professor of Molecular Oncology at 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 directly phosphorylating transcription factors. However his greatest impact has been with the RAF kinase family, where he discovered that individual RAF proteins are regulated differentially and shown how they respond to RAS, which is mutated in a third of all human tumours. He was a key member of the team that demonstrated that B-RAF is encoded by an oncogene, which is a culprit in most human melanomas. He went on to validate B-RAF as a therapeutic target. In collaboration with David Barford, he solved the crystal structure of B-RAF and explained how it is activated by mutations that occur in cancer. He elucidated why C-RAF is 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. Marais was awarded membership of the Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2015.

References

This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Marais

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Marais claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Marais before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Marais ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Marais

In research: Richard Marais appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Marais in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Marais is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academics of the University of Manchester, Alumni of Imperial College London, Alumni of University College London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Marais outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Marais in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Marais means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Marais out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Marais in simple terms?

Richard Malcolm Marais a British researcher who was director of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Manchester Institute and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Manchester. Education Marais was educated at University College London where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Gen…

Why does Richard Marais matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Marais?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Marais.