David Marais received his undergraduate training at the University of Cape Town whereafter he specialised in internal medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital. He received a MRC scholarship for further studies in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Cape Town, in lipoprotein metabolism. Through contract research and some support from the MRC, the lipid clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital developed a diagnostic and investigative laboratory with special interests in familial hypercholesterolaemia, dysbetalipoproteinaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia and lately also sterol biosynthetic errors. He has been involved in national guidelines for dyslipidaemia and international collaborations on various dyslipidaemias as well as in the Lipid and Atherosclerosis Society of Southern Africa.