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The Francis Crick Institute

The Francis Crick Institute is an independent charity, established to be a UK flagship for discovery research in biomedicine.

About The Francis Crick Institute


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The Crick’s mission is discovery without boundaries. We don’t limit the direction our research takes. We want to understand more about how living things work to help improve treatment, diagnosis and prevention of human disease, and generate economic opportunities for the UK.

In our institute more than 2,000 staff and students use their wide-ranging knowledge and expertise to work across disciplines and explore biology at all levels, from molecules through cells to entire organisms.

The Crick is the outcome of a merger between the MRC's National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and CRUK's London Research Institute (LRI). The new institute was named after the UK scientist Francis Crick in recognition of his contributions to understanding the genetic code, the key to understanding how living things work.

We were established by our six founding partner organisations: the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London.

We began operating in our new, purpose-built institute in early 2017 and now have more than 100 research groups. Research groups from NIMR and LRI have been joined by groups seconded from each of our three partner universities, and we have recruited a significant number of newly recruited group leaders.

Many of our scientists have set aside their research programmes to focus on finding answers to fundamental questions about SARS-CoV-2, from why it’s deadly in some people but causes no symptoms in others, to how it affects people who are living with cancer. We are also studying how the virus is evolving and the effects of emerging variants.

This work is guiding the development of new tests, vaccines, treatments and clinical strategies to help bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

Scientific research will ultimately lead us out of this crisis. With our focus on scientific excellence and with multidisciplinary collaboration at our core, here at the Crick we’re ideally placed to drive progress in tackling diseases like COVID-19.

By donating to the Crick, you will ensure we have the necessary resources and agility to respond to the areas of greatest need as we protect our research programmes and tackle the spread of COVID-19. All donations, no matter what size, will enable us to continue this vital work.