2017 Chief Scientific Officer's Annual Conference
Jim Smith Director of Science, Wellcome and Senior Group Leader, Francis Crick Institute Discovery Without Boundaries
2017 Chief Scientific Officer's Annual Conference
Professor David Roblin FRCP FFPM COO & Director of Scientific Translation The Francis Crick Institute
• World-class multi-disciplinary biomedical research institute open to translation • Director: Paul Nurse, Nobel Laureate and former President of the Royal Society • Partnership between: – Cancer Research UK – Medical Research Council – Wellcome Trust – UCL (University College London) – Imperial College London – King’s College London • 1,350 scientists • Up to 120 research groups Milestones Cooksey report JVA signed published Imperial and CRUK, MRC, Kings join the LRI/NIMR staff Wellcome Trust partnership and UCL DWB transfer to the partnership published Crick established (UKCMRI) 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Construction New building opened 9th November 2016
Land purchased
Planning permission received 5 Discovery Without Boundaries
• Pursue discovery without boundaries • Create future science leaders • Collaborate creatively to advance UK science and innovation • Accelerate translation for health and wealth • Engage and inspire the public Discovery Without Boundaries
• Broad scientific remit — little is off-limits • Good core facilities – 14 STP’s, NMR, BRF • Scientific ‘athletes’ — free to explore without boundaries or themes • Small research teams and no departments or divisions to engender collaboration • Multi-disciplinarity • Interact with King’s, Imperial and UCL to introduce physical, computing and clinical sciences via attachments • Open to translation • Engaging the public Broad science questions
8 Research topics
Model organisms Computational & Systems Biology Genetics & Genomics Cell Biology Biochemistry & Proteomics Infectious disease Developmental Biology Tumour Biology Signaling & Oncogenes Cell Cycle & Chromosomes Structural Biology & Biophysics Immunology Imaging Gene Expression Stem Cells Human Biology & Physiology Chemistry & High-Throughput Technologies Genome Integrity & Repair Neurosciences Ecology, Evolution & Ethology Synthetic Biology Metabolism Microfabrication & Bioengineering
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Number of Groups DNA
Portable, low cost DNA sequencers Watson, Crick and Sanger awarded including DNA chips Wilkins awarded Nobel Prize Nobel Prize Personalised healthcare based on 1953 1962 1977 1980 1987 2003 individuals’ genome sequence DNA double helix Rapid DNA Automated Human discovered sequencing sequencing genome sequenced
Advances in nano- materials, microfluids X-ray crystallography Chain-termination Fluorescent labelling Advances in and other reactions and Capillary informatics to handle minituristation radiocactive labelling electrophoresis large data sets techniques
Chemistry Chemistry Chemistry Computer Science Materials Physics Physics Analytical Science Chemistry University & Hospital engagement
Crick Bench to bedside Technology, Bedside to bench Modelling, Informatics
STEM Bio-discovery Translation Clinical Hospitals Universities University attachments
• Secondment: Relocate a group to the Crick for up to 6 years • Satellite: Small groups (1-3 researchers) embedded in Crick research group for 3 months to 3 years • Sabbatical: Group Leader can spend up to a year in a Crick research group, learning new techniques or hands-on collaboration • 32 awarded in total – 9 secondments, 17 satellites and 6 sabbaticals; ~125 scientists (50% women)
• Multi-disciplinarity Biological sciences
Physical/biophysical Clinical/biological
Computational/mathem atical Translation at the Crick
Close distance translation Improve the pathway to translatable science by spotting potential opportunities earlier
Accelerated technology transfer Acceleration of discoveries for impact on human health & wealth
Clinical Insights More of our science influenced by the clinic The Francis Crick Seminar Programme: Open to external attendees Flagship Seminar series: The Francis Crick Lecture: invited eminent national & international speakers across all biomedical research disciplines Every 2nd Thursday at 4pm, followed by a reception
Interest Group Seminar Series: invited national & international speakers:
• Cell Biology, Cell Motility & Signalling Tuesdays at 4pm • Development & Stem Cells • Neuroscience • Immunology Fridays at 12pm • Infections • Cancer Wednesdays at 4pm • Chromosome Biology Structural Biology Mondays at 4pm • Computational and Physical Biology Mondays at 10.00am • Symposia: across varied disciplines Varied dates & times Crick colleagues here today:
Akhilesh Reddy Biological Rhythms (24 hour body clock) and Sleep Biology. I am also a practising Neurologist
Dimitrios Evangelopoulos Postdoctoral Training Fellow-Laboratory of Mycobacterial Metabolism & Antibiotic Research
Dominique Bonnet Head of Haemotopoietic stem cell
Greg Elgar STP Lead Advanced Sequencing
John McCauley Crick Worldwide Influenza Centre,
Kanagaraj Radhakrishnan Molecular mechanisms of cancer and Ataxia-related neurodegenerative diseases
Matthew Fittall Cancer Genomics
Maximiliano Gutierrez AMR and imaging technologies
Sara Garcia-Gomez Postdoctoral Training Fellow- DSB Repair Metabolism Lab
Peter Parker Laboratory head Protein Phosphorylation Cancer Research, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology
Philippe Riou Project research scientist
Radek Lach Postdoctoral Training Fellow-Biological Clocks & Sleep
Paula Ordonez Suarez Retrovirus-Host Interactions Laboratory
Ying Zhang Structural Biology of Disease processes
15 Thank you