Richard Treisman

Sir Richard Treisman FRS, FMedSci, FRSB is Director of Research at the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) and Professor of Molecular Biology. Knighted in 2017 for services to biomedical sciences, he has spent four decades dissecting how cancer-linked signal transduction pathways, notably Ras and Rho, communicate with the actin cytoskeleton and the transcriptional machinery to control gene expression, cell proliferation and metastasis.

Education & Career:

• PhD 1981 – Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF, now Cancer Research UK), with Bob Kamen
• Post-doc 1981-1984 – Harvard University, with Tom Maniatis
• 1984-1988 – Scientific Staff, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
• 1988-2015 – Group leader → Director, ICRF / London Research Institute, London
• 2000-2015 – Director, London Research Institute
• 2015-present – Director of Research, Francis Crick Institute

Research Interests:
His laboratory investigates the molecular circuitry linking extracellular growth signals to gene expression. A central focus is the serum response factor (SRF) and its cofactors (TCF, MRTF families), which integrate Rho-actin dynamics with transcriptional control. By combining cell biology, structural biology, proteomics and genomics, the group has uncovered how aberrations in these pathways drive oncogenic proliferation, metastatic spread and tissue fibrosis.

Scientific Awards & Honours:

• EMBO Medal (1995)
• Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2002)
• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci)
• Knight Bachelor (2017)

Grants, Students & Mentorship:
Sir Richard has trained numerous post-doctoral fellows and graduate students who now hold independent positions worldwide. His research has been continuously supported by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and other major funding bodies.

Laboratories & Facilities:
The Treisman group operates within the Francis Crick Institute’s integrated technology platforms, exploiting Light Microscopy, Genomics, Proteomics, High-Throughput Screening and Structural Biology suites to advance mechanistic understanding of cancer signalling.