The Crick magazine

Issue 1, Autumn 2025

An illustration of a DNA being transcribed
Feature

Hello from the dark genome

Long dismissed as genetic junk, the dark genome is stepping into the spotlight, revealing how ancient viral remnants and rogue DNA elements impact evolution and disease.

Feature

Africa: a new lens on global health

Scientists in South Africa are working with the Crick to pioneer imaging technologies that will redefine how they detect and study diseases affecting their local communities – reshaping Africa’s research landscape and accelerating the hunt for better treatments. 

News

Drugging the undruggable

At the frontier of drug discovery, a new approach to targeting the toughest diseases using cyclic peptides. 

News

The genetic key that fast-tracks gut repair

Researchers have identified a key regulator of intestinal repair, shedding light on how the body maintains gut health, and what goes wrong in conditions like IBD.  

Profile

Edith Heard's life lessons

The Crick’s new Director and CEO shares ten lessons from a life in science, spanning curiosity, courage, coffee and the secrets of our genetic code.

Perspective

An ‘accidental genomicist’

Fifty years after his first paper appeared in Nature, Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse reflects on how a quest to understand yeast cell division led him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the genomics revolution. 

Feature

Variants: the typos turning loss into hope

Across the three billion ‘letters’ of our DNA, we each carry around six million variations. Researchers are unravelling their effects on our lives. 

Feature

Protein origami and the cell’s folding masters

Uncovering the elegant choreography of chaperones, the molecular guides that help proteins fold correctly, and what this means for understanding disease. 

Profile

Bright sparks in cancer research

Leanne Li’s unconventional idea, that cancer cells might interact with neurons, was once dismissed. Now her lab is merging cancer biology with neuroscience, and revealing a previously hidden layer of tumour complexity, with electrifying implications. 

In focus

Hijacked healing

Genetic timelines: determining cancer’s path

Ancient viruses

Biological navigation – how to build a human

Profile

Inside the genome revolution: five discoveries rewriting modern biology

As head of the Genomics Science Technology Platform at the Crick, I have had a front-row seat to the decade’s most powerful genetic discoveries.

Feature

Biological enigma: encrypted messages to deliver gene therapies

Borrowing from wartime cryptography, a new gene therapy uses cellular ‘passwords’ to unlock treatment only where it’s needed.

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About The Crick magazine

The Crick is published twice a year by the Communications and Public Engagement team at the Francis Crick Institute. 

Editorial team      Scientific advisors

Ali Bailey

Georgie Bevan

Roger Highfield

Kathryn Ingham

Halle McCarthy

Tristan Quinn

Henry Scowcroft

 

     Adrian Bird

     James Briscoe

     Gerard Evan

     Vivian Li

     Philippa Matthews

     Brigitta Stockinger

     Kathy Weston