We were delighted to learn in November that Ludwig Oxford’s Richard White had been awarded an Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) Professorship, one of three researchers so honored last year. Part of a broader effort to attract top scientific talent to the U.K., the award provides up to £500,000 over five years in flexible research funding to outstanding biomedical researchers who have recently taken up a full professor position in the country. Richard models cancer using zebrafish and human stem cells to investigate, among other things, how gene expression programs involved in embryonic development are co-opted in cancer, with a focus on melanoma. He is especially interested in how processes beyond mutation—such as a cell’s anatomical zip code, developmental antecedents and cellular neighbors—contribute to the plasticity of cancer cells and the genesis and progression of tumors. Richard has developed the concept of “oncogenic competence” as a framework for understanding these factors and their possible targeting for cancer therapy. His group has lately taken a keen interest in where biophysical factors, like thermal and mechanical stress, slot into that framework. Richard plans to apply his AMS award to explore how the thermoregulatory properties of melanin, the pigment produced by both benign and malignant melanocytes, influence the fitness and function of melanoma cells. Our congratulations to Richard on this well-deserved recognition.
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