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The Francis Crick Institute
@crick.ac.uk
11K followers 380 following 410 posts
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
“We need to take on the defence of science for the world.”

In a wide-ranging and frank conversation, Paul Nurse reflects on his years leading the Francis Crick Institute with our new director, Edith Heard.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-12...
Paul Nurse in conversation with Edith Heard
Standing up for science, the art of leadership and cups of tea with the Prime Minister - Paul Nurse reflects on his years as CEO of the Francis Crick Institute with new director Edith Heard.
www.crick.ac.uk
December 17, 2025 at 10:13 AM
crick.ac.uk
Lab-grown embryo models let researchers study foundational processes of development. A new embryo model has helped researchers at the Crick to study the neural tube and somites in detail and confirm two-way communication between them.

Read the full story ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-12...
Uncovering early embryonic communications using new stem cell model
New stem cell-based embryo model reveals previously unknown communication between early tissues that become the spine and muscles in the central part of the body.
www.crick.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 11:27 AM
crick.ac.uk
What is psychosis and how can we treat it?

Crick group leader @kathaschmack.bsky.social explains how her lab is working to uncover new ways to treat psychosis by finding its biological roots.

youtu.be/EUb3_5ecatU
A Crash Course in Psychosis – with Katharina Schmack
YouTube video by The Francis Crick Institute
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December 10, 2025 at 2:14 PM
crick.ac.uk
@petrznam.bsky.social is working to understand how the three-dimensional world is encoded in the brain, in a new project supported by a Consolidator Grant from the @erc.europa.eu

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-12...
Exploring how the 3D world is encoded in the brain
In a new five-year project supported by the European Research Council, researchers are working to understand the brain’s built-in capacity to perceive the world in 3D.
www.crick.ac.uk
December 10, 2025 at 11:28 AM
crick.ac.uk
What does jewellery made by bacteria look like?

Every year, students from the MA Biodesign course at Central Saint Martins, @researchual.bsky.social collaborate with the Making Lab and other teams from the Crick to explore the intersection between art and science.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFPB...
When Art Meets Science
YouTube video by The Francis Crick Institute
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December 5, 2025 at 2:53 PM
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
Reposted by The Francis Crick Institute
pippa-matt.bsky.social
Congratulations to the Bishop group @crick.ac.uk for an inspiring #WorldAIDSDay event this week. Personal stories, #stigma, #treatment, #PrEP, #healthcare, wellbeing, #ageing, #research & partnerships… a mosaic of reflections. We have achieved a lot, but more still to be done.
#HIV #MedSky #IDSky 🧪
Auditorium at the crick institute showing audience and speakers on living with HIV Leaflets from Positive East on HIV testing and PrEP
December 3, 2025 at 8:23 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
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
Researchers at the Crick have developed a technique using light-sensitive metal complexes that could reverse antibiotic resistance in some situations.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...
How phototherapy could reverse antibiotic resistance
Researchers are using phototherapy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a step forward in the new era of ‘antibiotic rescue’.
www.crick.ac.uk
November 28, 2025 at 10:09 AM
crick.ac.uk
Researchers at the Crick, @psich.bsky.social and @esrf.fr have developed a new way to look deeper into brain cell connections by using a particle accelerator and a kind of resin borrowed from the aerospace industry.
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...
From aerospace to neuroscience: new imaging tech captures the brain’s intricate connections
Inspired by technologies used in aerospace engineering, scientists have developed a way to capture the brain’s intricate structures using X-rays without destroying the samples.
www.crick.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 12:10 PM
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
Researchers discovered early signs of domestication by analysing the remains of two wolves who lived in modern-day Sweden 3-5,000 years ago.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...
Ancient wolves on remote Baltic Sea island reveal link to prehistoric humans
Cave discovery of wolf remains tells a tale of an unexpected relationship with humans.
www.crick.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 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
Researchers have identified a signalling feedback loop that may have been vital to the evolution of insect wings and therefore flight.

The signals, called morphogens, act like lighthouses in most developing tissues, guiding nearby cells towards their fate.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...
When evolution took flight
Researchers have revealed how a genetic circuit may have helped the evolution of insect wings.
www.crick.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
crick.ac.uk
Researchers at the Crick have discovered that mice lacking a specific gene responsible for cell structure lose intestinal balance and experience systemic inflammation, mirroring a lethal condition seen in humans.

www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...
How weakness in cell structure affects the host-microbiome relationship
Mice lacking a gene responsible for cell structure lose intestinal balance and experience systemic inflammation, mirroring a lethal condition seen in humans.
www.crick.ac.uk
November 13, 2025 at 7:56 PM
crick.ac.uk
We welcome anyone interested in HIV research to join our free annual event marking World AIDS Day.

We’ll hear from expert speakers including Julie Fox, Kevin McKenna and Robin Shattock as they discuss HIV research, clinical trials, policy and activism.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/world-aids...
World AIDS Day 2025: Living with HIV
Join us Tue 2 Dec for World AIDS Day. A warm welcome to all — public, researchers, clinicians & anyone curious about HIV/AIDS & science.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 9:35 AM
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
Reposted by The Francis Crick Institute
helloeacr.bsky.social
We're pleased to announce that @charlesswanton.bsky.social is the 2026 winner of the Mike Price Gold Medal Award! The award will be presented at the EACR 2026 Congress in Budapest, where Charles will present the Keynote Award Lecture.

Congratulations 🎉 learn more: magazine.eacr.org/charles-swan...
November 12, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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
We each carry around six million variations in our DNA.

Henry Scowcroft explores how scientists like @gregfindlay.bsky.social and @carovinuesa.bsky.social are helping unravel the effects of these variants, where even a small change can have a big impact on our lives.
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-10...
Variants: the typos turning loss into hope
Across the 3 billion ‘letters’ of our DNA, we each carry around 6 million variations. Researchers are unravelling their effects on our lives.
www.crick.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 2:44 PM
crick.ac.uk
How does immunotherapy work, and why do some patients respond while others don’t?

Book our free talk by Samra Turajlic, head of the Cancer Dynamics Lab here at the Crick, Director of @cruk-mi.bsky.social and head of the UK-wide MANIFEST programme.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/crick-cras...
Crick Crash Course: Immunotherapy
Our series of morning lectures sharing science from across the Crick in a simple and accessible way continues.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 9:15 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
Reposted by The Francis Crick Institute
the-node.bsky.social
“I never imagined that tiny fruit flies could reveal so much about the brain and its functions until I spent my summer in @alexgouldlab.bsky.social laboratory…” 🪰

Learn more about Padmapriya Ajith’ studentship experience @crick.ac.uk #RosaBeddingtonFund ⬇️
thenode.biologists.com/role-of-fat-...
Role of fat body lipid transport in Drosophila neurodevelopment - the Node
I never imagined that tiny fruit flies could reveal so much about the brain and its functions until I spent my summer in Alex Gould’s laboratory at the
thenode.biologists.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:04 PM