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The Francis Crick Institute
@crick.ac.uk
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We're the Crick, a biomedical research lab in London working to figure out how life works.

Home to more than 2,000 scientists and a free public exhibition space.

https://www.crick.ac.uk/
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crick.ac.uk
This image was made in Blender to show how the protein spectrin fits into the pocket of an enzyme complex known as PP1/Phactr1 while undergoing dephosphorylation.

Dephosphorylation, and the reverse process phosphorylation, are key mechanisms in cell signalling pathways.
A molecular model of a protein, lit up by different coloured lights, sits inside a shiny globular structure.
December 5, 2025 at 11:25 AM
crick.ac.uk
Could we build a human from scratch?

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about lab grown organs, brain implants and synthetic DNA.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform: lnk.to/AQOSBioengin...
Episode graphic titled “Can We Build A Human?” featuring several speakers and a large question mark background.
December 3, 2025 at 2:31 PM
crick.ac.uk
The award for unsung hero went to Tapoka Mkandawire.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for reducing, refining or replacing the use of animals in research went to Jakson Luk.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for engaging and inspiring the public went to This Is For Me – This Is For Science.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for contributing to an inclusive culture went to Caroline Ransom.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for supporting future leaders went to Adrian Hayday.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for creative collaboration went to the MANIFEST team.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for contributing to our world class science went to the Viral Vector Core team.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The award for supporting our world class science went to Robert Moore.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
The science achievement award winners were Borzo Gharibi, Bishara Marzook, Paola Peinado Fernandez, Marco Stazi, Claudio Ballabio, Carles Bosch Pinol, Christopher Chan Jin Jie, Jake Cornwall Scoones and Samson Glaser.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
Last night we held our annual Crick Awards ceremony, presented by our Director Edith Heard, COO Claire Hook and guest host @bobbyseagull.bsky.social to celebrate the amazing people behind everything we do here.

Follow the posts below to see this year's winners.
November 28, 2025 at 11:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
What can science tell us about consciousness?

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about the nature of consciousness.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform:

lnk.to/AQOSConsciou...
November 26, 2025 at 1:54 PM
crick.ac.uk
Why do bad foods taste so good?

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about nutrition.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform: lnk.to/AQOSNutritio...
Episode graphic titled “Can We Trust Nutrition Science?” featuring several speakers and a large question mark background.
November 19, 2025 at 2:13 PM
crick.ac.uk
Why is it so difficult to understand and treat the diseases that cause dementia?

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about Alzheimer's disease, dementia and the ageing brain.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform: lnk.to/AQOSDementiaBB
Promotional image for 'Can We Repair the Ageing Brain?' with five speakers and microphones.
November 12, 2025 at 2:38 PM
crick.ac.uk
This image shows a mass of human stem cells, collectively known as an ‘organoid’.

We stained the neural crest cells of this organoid to better understand diseases related to defects in their development, such as Hirschsprung's disease and Neuroblastoma.

Image credit: @carmenmorenogon.bsky.social
A circle composed of many oval-shaped dots, mostly coloured blue apart from a few pink ones in the bottom left corner.
November 10, 2025 at 9:27 AM
crick.ac.uk
We had another full house at our Annual Science Meeting this week, which featured over 100 posters and 30 talks by our Crick colleagues.

These yearly events are a great way for us all to get together and discover what teams from every corner of the building have been working on.
A person standing in front of a lectern on a stage speaking to a crowd full of seated people. A large crowd of people mingling between many rows of posters. Two people talking while looking towards a poster, with more posters and people in the background. Three people looking intently at a scientific poster.
November 7, 2025 at 10:28 AM
crick.ac.uk
Egg freezing, fertility tech and why ovulation is like the Hunger Games.

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about the future of fertility.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform:
lnk.to/AQOSFertilit...
Promotional image for 'What's the future of fertility?' with five speakers and microphones.
November 5, 2025 at 3:10 PM
crick.ac.uk
NEW EPISODE: Who owns space?

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about the politics, ethics and law of outer space exploration.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform: www.lnk.to/AQOSSpaceBB
Promotional image for 'Who owns space?' with five speakers and microphones.
October 29, 2025 at 9:07 AM
crick.ac.uk
Crick group leaders work across disciplines, supported by core funding and mentoring to build ambitious, curiosity-driven research.

Apply now to join us ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
October 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
crick.ac.uk
Looking for fun science activities you can do with kids to keep their brains engaged this half term?

We’ve created a website full of activities, videos and quizzes for young people to spark excitement about science.

🔗 kids.crick.ac.uk/experiment

#KidsActivities #ScienceKids
October 24, 2025 at 3:57 PM
crick.ac.uk
NEW EPISODE: Who are our ancestors and why does it matter?

Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about ancient DNA.

Listen on your favourite podcast platform: lnk.to/AQOSAncientD...
Episode graphic titled “Why Does Ancient DNA Matter?” featuring several speakers and a large question mark background.
October 22, 2025 at 8:18 AM
crick.ac.uk
This image shows the flow cell of a Fusion sorter, an instrument used to study and sort individual cells.

The lasers excite any fluorescent tags used to ‘mark’ the cells, while detectors measure the output to determine the properties of each individual cell.
A small, clear device sits on a black base, with different coloured lights shining on it from either side and small tubes coming out the top
October 17, 2025 at 9:24 AM
crick.ac.uk
NEW EPISODE: Will we survive climate change?

Join our expert panellists as they answer your questions about curbing rising global temperatures and what life could be like in a warmer world.

Listen on your favourite podcast platform: www.lnk.to/AQOSClimateBB
Panel of speakers with the title ‘Can We Survive Climate Change?’ from BBC Studios and The Francis Crick Institute.
October 15, 2025 at 7:29 AM
crick.ac.uk
This image shows neurons being grown on a surface with tiny patterns that resemble human tissue to ‘steer’ their growth.

Models like this allow us to learn more about our nervous system and conditions like motor neurone disease.
Image credit: Cathleen Hagemann and @andreaserio.bsky.social
Four large circular bulbs are spread out like a square. Between the colourful bulbs, and in the background, are long, differently-coloured tendrils, which take up most of the rest of the image.
October 10, 2025 at 12:44 PM