What is The Crick?
• Interdisciplinary biomedical
research institute
• Partnership between:
Medical Research Council
Cancer Research UK
Wellcome Trust
UCL (University College
London)
Imperial College London
King’s College London
• 1300 scientists, 120 research
groups
• CEO: Paul Nurse
• “Discovery without boundaries”
• Develop future science leaders
• Collaborate creatively to advance
UK science and innovation
• Accelerate translation for health
and wealth
• Engage and inspire the public
Crick’s strategic priorities
• Play a national role in supporting UK science endeavour
• Focus on multidisciplinary approach to 7 big questions
The Crick science programme
4. How does cancer start, spread and respond to therapy?
5. How does the immune system know whether, when and how to react?
6. How do microbes and pathogens function and interact with their
hosts?
7. How does the nervous system detect, store and respond to
information?
1. How does a living organism acquire form and function?
2. How do organisms maintain health and balance throughout life and
as they age?
3. How can we use biological knowledge to better understand,
diagnose and treat human disease?
What’s special about the Crick?
• Size and ambition
Broad research agenda
Size allows for a critical mass spanning biomedical disciplines
Long-term support through core funding
Career structure ensures continuous renewal
• Dynamic partnerships
Increase opportunities for multidisciplinary research
Universities, Hospitals, Sanger Institute, Industry
Researcher and technology exchange
• State-of-the-art research facilities
Building designed to encourage interaction
Close to academic partners and hospitals
No traditional boundaries
• No departments or divisions
- “Interest groups” for day-to-day scientific discourse
- institute-wide activities: seminars, joint lab meetings, retreats
- external networked activities – London (partners), further afield
• Recruitment across very broad research areas
- major focus on developing outstanding young researchers
- scientific “fit” an important determinant
- long-term correction of imbalances in portfolio
• Small research groups to encourage interaction – average PI+9, max 12
• Faculty turnover
• Permeable relationship with our partners
Faculty: built-in renewal
• ~30% of PIs are senior appointments
- rolling contracts
- strategic appointments jointly with the Crick university partners
- reviewed every 5 yr by Crick international panel
• Up to 70% PIs are junior appointments: “6 + 6” career structure
- direct recruitment of outstanding young PIs setting up
- substantial core funding supports strong start and ambition
- review at 6 yr, extension for second 6 yr period
• Secondments from Crick University partners (5-6yr)
- focus on researchers establishing their programme
- interdisciplinary and clinically-oriented
• Satellite groups – short-term, grant funded, up to 3y
- major mechanism for clinical and interdisciplinary interactions
- 1-3 researchers pursuing a project jointly with a Crick group
- initially with Crick University partners
- external Crick satellites at University labs – eg physics, clinical
Permeability
• Strategic longer-term collaborative interactions
- biological making lab – microfabrication – with UCL
- Institute for Biological physics interaction hub
• Jointly supervised postdoc and graduate trainees
- joint labs – eg Crick-KCL-UCL human neuro-development group
• Open science “linklab” interactions with Pharma
• Sabbatical visitor programme
Strong foundations
• London Research Institute (Cancer Research UK)
37 research groups, director Richard Treisman
Cell regulatory mechanisms, Genomic integrity, Tumour biology
• National Institute for Medical Research (MRC)
52 research groups, director Jim Smith
Physiology, Development, Infection/immunity, Structural biology
• Initial recruitment priorities for Crick
clinical research appointments
cross-disciplinary research – computation, engineering, physics, etc
priority on junior investigators – on 6/6 programme
Graduate training
• Work with Crick partner universities
- envisage around 240 students at steady-state
- strong Crick student mentoring and support
• Non-clinical PhD programme
- registration at partner universities
- thesis committees include university members
- joint Crick-partner projects to promote interdisciplinarity
• Clinical PhD training
- with Crick partner universities, hospitals, academic health centres
- funding through NHS BRCs, competitive fellowships
- Crick CRUK clinical PhD programme with partners/CRUK Centres
Science management team
• CEO: Paul Nurse
• COO: David Roblin Translation
• Research Directors:
Steve Gamblin Science Operations
Peter Ratcliffe Clinical research and training
Jim Smith Recruitment, external relationships
Richard Treisman Recruitment, resourcing and review
• Associate Research Directors:
John Diffley Training
Julian Downward Science Technology Platforms
Malcolm Irving Crick University partners
Anne O’Garra Group leader mentoring/development
• Total budget 70% core funding, 30% response mode
• Core funding – not hypothecated
- LRI and NIMR core budgets transferred to Crick
- Wellcome Trust core funding award
- allocation proportionately greater to more junior PIs
• Response-mode funding from UK/international funding agencies:
- grants, personal fellowships to Crick scientists
- university scientists at Crick funded entirely this way
Funding and Institute Review
• Institute Review
- jointly by founders, every 5 years
- will assess progress against Crick strategy, added value
- determines funding envelope for successive quinquennium
• Building links with clinical facilities and industry
• Work with partners - share risk and reward, pool strengths and resources
• Translation team
- Translation Director – David Roblin
- Head of translation – Veronique Birault
- Entrepreneur in residence – Howard Marriage
• Translation Advisory Group – provides guidance on opportunities
• Idea-to-Innovation grants – MRC-supported development fund
• Open-science agreements with pharma
GSK linklab signed, negotiations with other companies progressing
Innovation and translation
• GSK-Crick agreement signed June 2015
• Collaboration to accelerate translation and application
- projects build on Crick biology, GSK technical resource
- researcher exchange between GSK and Crick labs
• Two senior GSK scientists work directly with Crick
- providing advice on specific projects
- scouting/scoping new opportunities.
• Joint Steering Committee oversees project approvals, progress
• 5 projects started, 8 more in the pipeline
Open science – GSK linklab
Lead
IdentificationLate Lead
Optimisation
Early Lead
Optimisation
Assay
Development
Target
Feasibility
Medicinal chemistry
and computational
molecular design
Selectivity
screening
HTS capacity
2 million
compound set
Large scale
protein
production
PK-PD
modelling
Synthetic &
analytical
chemistry
Encoded Library
technology
>109 compounds
Assay
platforms
Biopharm
affinity
maturation
Biopharm
discovery
platforms
Chemo and
expression
proteomics
GSK inputs to the Crick linklab
The laboratory design
• Four lab floors above ground
• Three floor basement:
animal, containment and
imaging facilities
• Lab space for 1300
• Lecture theatre, seminar
suite, meeting facilities
• Ground floor public access –
available to community
• GIFA: 78000 m2
A research floor
200m
70m
The last ten years...
One year on…
APRIL 2012
2007
Initial vision
Site purchased
2008 Science Planning Committee
Building design
2010 Planning permission granted
Legal agreement signed
2011 Paul Nurse appointed CEO
2012 Imperial College and KCL join
Building work starts
2013 Topping out; building fit-out
2015 Crick starts operations
2016 We’ll be in! (handover late July, all in by end November…)
WT /MRC/CRUK/UCL project board established
Who’s in the Crick on day 1?
• 87 Research groups: ex-NIMR and LRI
• 19 Partner attachments - 6 secondments, 10 satellites, 3 sabbaticals
Physical/biophysical
Computational/mathematical
Clinical/biological
Biological sciences
• Second round of attachments now offered
What’s in the Crick on day 1?
Biochemistry & Proteomics
Cell Biology
Cell Cycle & Chromosomes
Chemical Biology
Computational & Systems Biology
Developmental Biology
Ecology, Evolution & Ethology
Gene Expression
Cancer Genetics & Genomics
Genome Integrity & Repair
Human Biology & Physiology
Imaging
Immunology
Infectious disease
Metabolism
Microfabrication & Bioengineering
Model organisms
Neurosciences
Signaling & Oncogenes
Stem Cells
Structural Biology & Biophysics
Synthetic Biology
Tumour Biology
Facilities and Tech Platforms
• MRC Biomedical NMR Centre
• Worldwide Influenza Centre
• Biological Resources Facility
- Rodents
- Aquatics
- Transgenesis
- Intravital imaging
• Biological making lab (UCL)
• Advanced Sequencing
• Cell Services
• Computational Biology
• Electron Microscopy
• Experimental Histopathology
• Flow Cytometry
• Genomics / Equipment Park
• High Throughput Screening
• Light Microscopy
• Mass Spectrometry
• Metabolomics
• Peptide Chemistry
• Instrument prototyping
• Structural Biology
Food for thought….
“The motive that will conquer cancer will not be pity
nor horror; it will be curiosity to know how and
why.…”
….HG Wells
Open science – GSK linklab
Disease
knowledge
Shared
learning
Long term
relationship
Drug discovery
projects
Shared Outputs
Joint
publications
Curiosity-drivenscience
Disease expertise
Disease projects
Drug discovery
Compounds,reagents,biopharms
Discoveryplatforms
Joint inputs
Restaurant
Seminar room suite
Lecture theatre
Loading bay
Ground floor
Entry circulation
Bikes
Translatable
programmeAccelerated application
Research progress
Industrial
insights
Applied
scientists
CRICK
GROUP
Open science: route to application
Develop mechanisms to ease development of translational programmes
• Encourage inter-lab interaction and resource sharing
- open laboratory spaces to encourage interactions
- core facility laboratories scattered through building
- local administrative functions located centrally on each floor
- interaction zones at write-up space and in atrium spaces
• Different primary laboratories share dedicated secondary lab spaces
• Secondary lab spaces adaptable/interchangeable
- “kit of parts”: tissue culture, microscopes, instruments, cold, etc
Principles of the lab layout
Playing a national role
• Catalyse interaction between
biomedical research institutions
and medical schools, industry
• Technology development and
application
• Training of scientists, clinicians
and technical staff
• Health and wealth creation by
investment in medical research
Partner
universities
Other
UK HEIs
Healthcare
industries
National
Health
Service
Medical
Schools
Crick
31
34
Medicine and the Crick
• Bi-directional relationship with clinicians from our university partners
• Interaction with their associated AHSCs and BRCs
• Clinical engagement:
– allows clinical information and insights to inform discovery research
– improves access to human tissue
– enables the development of a culture of experimental medicine within
the Crick in the pursuit of translatable projects.
Benefi
ts f
or
healt
h a
nd w
ealt
h
DevelopmentOpportunity
Idea2Innovation
Discovery
Science
External funding
Crick Internal
fundingTAG*
‘Open Science’ relationships with embedded companies; academic
partners and clinicians
Accelerated Translation Capable
hands Close Distance Translation
Crick owns foreground IP to facilitate open science & accelerated translation
“in
Residence”
*Translation Advisory Group
Management and Delivery of Translational Science Tracking ImpactIdentification of Translation Opportunity
Open Science at the Crick
Close distance translation• Improve the pathway to translatable science by spotting potential
opportunities earlier
• Increase the linkages for PIs to enable CDT
• Over time as CDT becomes part of the Crick culture, the need to drive it
will reduce
Accelerated technology transfer• Acceleration of discoveries towards benefits for human health is the driver,
not value creation
• Collaborate with our academic partners and industry to develop a
multidisciplinary culture
• Projects are initiated from a sharing of scientific goals or specific areas of
endeavour
Management and communication
• Executive Committee
• Science Management Committee
- science strategy, policy, etc
• Operation Management Committee
- Finance, HR, IT, Legal, FM, Comms ….
• Science Resource Allocation Panel
- Lab resource, Tech platforms, budget planning
• Science Resource Allocation Panel
• Faculty Committee – management/group leader discussion forum
- 9 Group Leaders elpected by staff
• Science Leaders’ meeting – All Group Leaders, STP heads
• Extensive links with clinical
facilities and industry to
facilitiate translation
• Application and development
work to be encouraged
• Clinical and commercial
translation to be valued as highly
as discovery research
Innovation and translation
The Crick science programme
• National Insurance Act of 1911 put aside funds for research
(£55,000 in 1914) and TB treatment
• The Medical Research Committee was established and submitted
the first ‘scheme of research’ in 1913
• One of first decisions was to create a research institute in London
in 1914—the precursor of NIMR
• ‘Haldane Principle’ (in which MRC makes scientific decisions
independent of government) proposed in 1918
• Became the Medical Research Council in 1919
The Medical Research Council
• From one institute created in 1914, the MRC now has 54
institutes, centres and units, including units in The Gambia and
Uganda
• The MRC spent £845.3m on research in 2013/14
• MRC supports more than 4,000 people in Units and Institutes
• At any one time, the MRC supports about 390 fellows and 1,440
PhD students
• In 2013 the MRC spent £12m on Centenary Awardsx
The MRC last year
• NIMR’s first premises were in
Hampstead
• The Institute was originally run by a
committee of Directors; Henry Dale
took over as sole Director in 1928
• Construction of the Mill Hill labs began
in 1937 and scientists moved in 1949
• Officially opened in 1950 by George VI
and Queen Elizabeth
NIMR History
Genetics and Development
Neurosciences
Infections and Immunity
Structural Biology
Scientific Areas at the NIMR
• Europe’s largest cancer research organisation
- Funded entirely by public donations, no government funding
- Funds basic, translational, clinical research
- Advises / develops government cancer policy
- Provides objective information to the public
• £350m science spend – £1m every day!
- Institutes – London, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Glasgow
- Grants
- Research infrastructure through Centres programme
Cancer Research UK
• 1902 Imperial Cancer Research Fund
founded, director Ernest Bashford
• 1963 Lincoln’s Inn Fields Laboratory
opens
• 1986 Clare Hall laboratory opens
• 2002 ICRF –CRC merge to form
Cancer Research UK
• 2002 LIF and CH become the London
Research Institute
History of the LRI
Science at the LRI
Hanahan and Weinberg, 2000
Scientific areas at the LRI
• Tumor - host interactions
- tissue invasion and metastasis
- angiogenesis
- stromal cell interaction
- interaction with host immunity
• Control of cell growth
and proliferation
- self-sufficiency in growth signals
- insensitivity to growth inhibitory signals
- evasion of apoptosis
- unlimited replicative potential
• Genome damage and
cancer genomics
- cancer genetics
- tumour evolution
- environmental mutagenic challenges
- endogenous mutagenic challenges
• History of Nobel Prizes:
1936 Henry Dale: role of acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter
1952 Archer Martin: invention of partition chromatography
1972 Rodney Porter: determining structure of immunoglobin
1975 Renato Dulbecco: DNA tumour virus/host interactions
2001 Paul Nurse and Tim Hunt: conservation of the cell cycle
2015 Tomas Lindahl: DNA damage and repair mechanisms
A history of discovery
• Other prizes and awards held by current faculty
- Louis Jeantet (5), EMBO medal (5), BSCB Hooke medal (3), BSDB
Waddington Medal (2)
- 14 Fellows of the Royal Society
- 24 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences
- 32 Members of EMBO
Find out more…
http://www.historyofnimr.org.uk http://blueskiesbenchspace.org