Professor Caroline Dive is named as Interim Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute

As many people will now know, we will be very sorry to say goodbye to Richard Marais, who is stepping down after nearly 10 years as the Director of the CRUK Manchester Institute.

Richard has been an incredible Director – under his stewardship the Institute has gone from strength to strength, developing an outstanding research environment. In no small part, this has been driven by Richard’s own exceptional research – he is an international leader in understanding melanoma biology and has been at the forefront of work that translates into new therapies and improved outcomes for melanoma patients. He is passionate about making a difference for patients, an outlook that permeates the whole Institute.

It is true that the Manchester Institute faced one of its greatest challenges during Richard’s tenure – the Paterson Building fire in April 2017. This was, of course, a devastating event, but the strength of Richard’s leadership and ability to galvanize and reassure staff played a major role in rescuing much of the work and allowing the MI to re-establish its important research at Alderley Park with astonishing speed.

We can’t thank Richard enough for his dedication, his hard work and his ability to get the best from his team. We have enormous admiration for him; his enthusiasm, his intellect, his integrity and his huge sense of fun. Although stepping down from the Directorship, Richard will remain at the institute and continue to run his lab. Of course, he will also facilitate a smooth transition to the new Interim Director.

We are delighted to announce that Caroline Dive will lead the institute from 1st January until a new Director is appointed. Richard will work with Caroline on the transition through to March.

Caroline is an outstanding scientist, and has been Deputy Director for the past nine years and leads the Institute’s Cancer Biomarker Centre. We know that she will take on this role with passion and continue to push the outstanding work of the Institute forward.

There are many exciting times ahead for the Institute with a new home being built at the Christie site. Cancer Research UK and the University of Manchester look forward to working with Caroline in our goals to support outstanding research aimed at advancing scientific progress to improve outcomes for people affected by cancer around the world