Richard Houlston is Professor in Molecular and Population Genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research. His studies on Juvenile Polyposis using a candidate approach led to the identification of mutation of SMAD4 as a predisposing factor. Richard has been the world leader in applying genomewide association studies to cancer predisposition. He has identified regions and genes associated with risk of colon cancer, lung cancer, glioblastoma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) leading to new insights into these diseases. These studies on ALL are some of the first genome wide association studies that functionally link genetic variation to biological processes.