The Francis Crick Institute

Making an impact

The Crick is our flagship research institute in London, a place where exciting, disruptive research is the norm. It brings together thousands of scientists from a multitude of disciplines, and its network extends far beyond the building - with over 13,000 scientists at over 2,000 research institutions in 84 countries working with them. 

In the last six years, Crick scientists have published nearly 2,000 research papers with impact in many fields. And they’ve embedded an entrepreneurial culture, successfully launching 12 spinouts that have raised over £1bn.

Rapid COVID-19 response

We’re committed to helping the country be better prepared for future pandemics. We’re using everything we know so far for next-generation vaccine design.

- Dr Emma Wall, Crick Senior Clinical Research Fellow

When the pandemic hit, the Crick adapted at speed to become a rapid testing hub for 10 local hospitals and 150 care homes to help them remain open and safe. And then they became a community vaccine centre, vaccinating up to 1,000 people a day, seven days a week.

Crick scientists worked to answer urgent questions, publishing landmark studies on the structure of the COVID-19 virus, on its interaction with the immune system, and on prognosis and treatment. 

And they haven’t stopped there.

New immunotherapy approach 

Thanks to years of discovery research, the Crick are now harnessing a type of immune cell, called gamma delta T cells, to develop a potential cancer treatment.

Gamma delta T cells have a different way of recognising cancer, so this could transform the way we do cancer therapy. These unique cells could provide an immune boost for patients with leukaemia, but also other types of cancer and auto-inflammatory diseases.

Image by Dave Guttridge, thephotounit.co.uk (modified by Cancer Research UK)

Invest in research  

We’re seeing a revolution in the scale and speed of what’s achievable in biomedical research, diagnostics and drug development.

The extraordinary is being made possible through advances in: 

• AI

• imaging

• gene editing

• technologies to analyse all the molecules in cells and organisms – the ‘-omics’ revolution

This allows the Crick to tackle the biggest biomedical challenges – in cancer, as well as neurodegenerative illnesses, infectious disease, and the epidemic of chronic health problems – as well as the unknown challenges that will arise in the future.

You can help us be ambitious and fund world-leading science at the scale that is needed to enhance and extend people’s lives.

Tackling a global health challenge

Cryptosporidium infection causes severe diarrhoea, malnutrition and tens of thousands of deaths per year. There are no effective treatments or vaccines, in part because it’s difficult to study the parasite in the lab.

Doctors Adam Sateriale and Vivian Li are combining their expertise to tackle this problem. “Together, we’ve developed a new way to research this parasite in the lab. Now, we can target one of the primary causes of diarrheal disease, a leading cause of death in children worldwide.” explains Adam. 

Harnessing AI 

The number of people diagnosed with kidney cancer has increased by almost 90% in the last 30 years. Kidney cancers are very diverse, so Professor Samra Turajlic’s team is working with the Crick’s artificial intelligence science technology platform to discover better ways of predicting patient outcomes and personalising treatments. Samra hopes that this will inform a precision medicine approach to “improve survival and quality of life for many patients.”

Challenging cancer paradigms 

Tumours can exploit our nervous system to communicate with the rest of the body, allowing cancers to grow and spread. This research area is largely unexplored, but Dr Leanne Li is seeking to change this.

“Previously, improving our understanding of the immune system led to revolutionary new cancer immunotherapies,” Leanne highlights. “Learning how we can manipulate interactions between cancer and the nervous system could be even more powerful.”

Image by David Vintiner

Your support will make a difference

The Crick has been purpose-built for discovery without boundaries. And its researchers are selected to work at the frontiers of possibility. 

You can help them cross those frontiers faster – accelerating progress beyond areas of biomedical science, including those that will improve the outlook for people affected by cancer. 

Image by John Cairns

There is something inspirational about the ambition of the Francis Crick Institute: in terms of its leaderships, scale, way of operating and - above all - the quality of its research. That research will help understand cancer and other diseases, and all to the benefit of patients. We are delighted to be involved.

- Paul Ramsbottom OBE, Chief Executive at The Wolfson Foundation

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