The Crick has published its annual statistics for the number of animals used in research in 2024, reflecting the Institute's commitment to openness in animal research.
Every year, we publish the number of animals used in research at the Crick, including a breakdown of the number of animals in each procedure category. Read more about our reporting and figures from 2024 and previous years.
The latest numbers are reported in the Home Office’s statistics of scientific procedures on living animals in 2024 and show that 200,055 procedures were carried out at the Crick last year.
The vast majority of procedures involved mice, with a smaller fraction involving fish, frogs, ferrets and opossums, and contributed towards a huge range of biomedical research in areas such as cancer, neuroscience and infectious disease.
We also submit our statistics to Understanding Animal Research’s yearly summary of animal research in universities and institutes across the UK.
Sarah Hart-Johnson, Director of the Biological Research Facility at the Francis Crick Institute, said: “The Crick remains committed to openness in animal research, and these statistics give an insight into our scientific activity each year. Our numbers are consistent with an increase in research into the complex biological systems that lead to debilitating human diseases, such as infections, cancer progression and organ development.
"All research programmes involving animals begin with the use of non-animal methods, and only when a scientific question cannot be answered by an alternative technology do we use animal models. We uphold the 3Rs principles to replace animal research wherever we can, reduce the number of animals needed for meaningful results and refine experiments to enhance wellbeing."
Read more about Julian's work.
Julian Downward, head of the Oncogene Biology Laboratory, works on a major cancer-driving gene called RAS, which is mutated in around one in five cancers and was once referred to as ‘undruggable’. His lab have been focusing on a particular enzyme that RAS targets, called PI3K, hoping to stop uncontrolled cancer growth while maintaining the function of RAS in healthy cells.
As reported in a paper in Science, Julian worked with biotechnology company Vividion Therapeutics, who first used chemical screening to find a series of small compounds that might stop the RAS-PI3K interaction without blocking PI3K's other functions. Julian's team then tested the compounds developed by Vividion in mice with RAS-mutated lung tumours, finding that the treatment effectively halted tumour growth, with no evidence of hyperglycaemia, which is a problem for current drugs on the market. It also slowed tumour growth in mice with HER2 mutations, a cancer-driving gene commonly overexpressed in breast cancer.
The candidate drug has now entered the first clinical trial in humans to test for safety and side effects in people with RAS and HER2 mutations, which wouldn't have been possible without years of discovery research in the lab.
