Marco M Candeias is an expert in p53 isoforms and p53 mRNA. Marco discovered the non-coding regulatory functions of p53 mRNA, which was one of the first examples of a bifunctional RNA, and discovered p53's internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and characterized the regulation and function of the second most conserved short isoform of p53, Delta40p53 (D40p53). Importantly, Marco's group could recently explain the 40-year long mystery of why tumour suppressor p53 becomes an oncogene when mutated at certain hotspot residues (EMBO Rep 2016 & unpublished). Marco obtained his PhD in 2007 from the University of Paris under the direction of Robin Fahraeus, who had worked with Sir David Lane (co-discoverer of p53) and who first discovered the human p53 isoform D40p53 (p53/47). During his PhD, Marco discovered D40p53's Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) in the coding region of p53 mRNA and was one of the first to show that an mRNA (p53 mRNA) can possess non-coding trans-acting regulatory capacities. During his post-doc between Paris-INSERM and Kyoto University, Marco first saw that RNAs have the capacity to sequester proteins in the nucleolus in order to inactivate them (Cancer Cell 2012). Marco became a group leader in 2010 in Kyoto University in the Laboratory of Bioimaging and Cell Signaling and established his own laboratories (the Molecular and RNA Cancer Unit) in 2016 at the Medical School of Kyoto University, Japan, and at the National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal. Marco's recent interests focus on elucidating the transforming effects of p53 mutations, clarifying the roles of short p53 isoforms - with special attention on the most conserved, Delta160p53 - and characterizing yet another fascinating regulatory function of p53 mRNA. Marco's efforts to answer big questions in key molecular and cellular events, have granted him publications in top journals such as Nature Cell Biology, Molecular Cell and Cancer Cell. Marco is also well integrated within the p53 community and edited the special issue of the 40 years of p53 research (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/p53_40) and co-organizes the series "p53 workshop in Japan" where he has received names such as Sir David Lane (co-discoverer of p53) and Gerry Melino (editor-in-chief of Cell Death & Differentiation).