{"entity":{"id":"francis-crick","kind":"institution","name":"The Francis Crick Institute","aka":[],"tldr":"The Francis Crick Institute is Europe's largest biomedical research institute, home of the TRACERx tumour evolution studies (Swanton).","summary":"The Francis Crick Institute in London is Europe's largest biomedical research institute and the home of the TRACERx studies of lung cancer evolution led by Charles Swanton, which is why it appears wherever OnCo discusses tumour heterogeneity. Its cancer work spans clonal evolution, circulating tumour DNA biology, chromosomal instability and immune surveillance, with Erik Sahai, Caetano Reis e Sousa and Paul Nurse also listed, in partnership with Cancer Research UK, UCL, Imperial and King's. OnCo links it to the TRACERx first 100 and TRACERx 421 papers, to Gerlinger's single-biopsy paper, and to ideas such as banking three spatially separate tumour blocks from every resection. Whether evolutionary insight can be turned into treatments, not just prognosis, is the open question. Its TRACERx and ctDNA programmes are the ones to read.","asOf":"2026-09-04","links":[{"label":"Official website","url":"https://www.crick.ac.uk"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["nsclc","lung-cancer"],"sections":[],"technologies":["liquid-biopsy","wes-wgs"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["tracerx"],"people":["caetano-reis-e-sousa","charles-swanton","erik-sahai","paul-nurse"],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"city":"London","country":"GB","lat":51.532,"lng":-0.129,"institutionType":"research-institute","website":"https://www.crick.ac.uk","programs":["TRACERx tumour evolution","ctDNA biology"]},"route":"/institutions/francis-crick/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"lung-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Lung cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/lung-cancer/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"}],"technology":[{"id":"liquid-biopsy","kind":"technology","name":"Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)","route":"/technologies/liquid-biopsy/"},{"id":"wes-wgs","kind":"technology","name":"Whole-exome & whole-genome sequencing","route":"/technologies/wes-wgs/"}],"trial":[{"id":"tracerx","kind":"trial","name":"TRACERx","route":"/trials/tracerx/"}],"person":[{"id":"caetano-reis-e-sousa","kind":"person","name":"Caetano Reis e Sousa","route":"/people/caetano-reis-e-sousa/"},{"id":"charles-swanton","kind":"person","name":"Charles Swanton","route":"/people/charles-swanton/"},{"id":"erik-sahai","kind":"person","name":"Erik Sahai","route":"/people/erik-sahai/"},{"id":"paul-nurse","kind":"person","name":"Paul Nurse","route":"/people/paul-nurse/"},{"id":"tariq-enver","kind":"person","name":"Tariq Enver","route":"/people/tariq-enver/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-gerlinger-intratumour-heterogeneity-nejm-2012","kind":"paper","name":"Gerlinger: a single biopsy misses most of the mutations in a kidney tumour","route":"/key-papers/paper-gerlinger-intratumour-heterogeneity-nejm-2012/"},{"id":"paper-hill-lung-adenocarcinoma-air-pollutants-nature-2023","kind":"paper","name":"Lung adenocarcinoma promotion by air pollutants","route":"/key-papers/paper-hill-lung-adenocarcinoma-air-pollutants-nature-2023/"},{"id":"paper-abbosh-phylogenetic-ctdna-lung-cancer-nature-2017","kind":"paper","name":"Phylogenetic ctDNA analysis depicts early-stage lung cancer evolution","route":"/key-papers/paper-abbosh-phylogenetic-ctdna-lung-cancer-nature-2017/"},{"id":"paper-tracerx-evolution-nature-2023","kind":"paper","name":"TRACERx 421: the full-cohort picture of how lung cancer evolves and which subclones drive relapse","route":"/key-papers/paper-tracerx-evolution-nature-2023/"},{"id":"paper-tracerx-100-nejm-2017","kind":"paper","name":"TRACERx first 100: tracking how lung cancers evolve, and how chromosomal chaos predicts relapse","route":"/key-papers/paper-tracerx-100-nejm-2017/"}],"institution":[{"id":"barts-cancer-institute","kind":"institution","name":"Barts Cancer Institute / Barts Health NHS Trust","route":"/institutions/barts-cancer-institute/"},{"id":"cancer-grand-challenges","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Grand Challenges","route":"/institutions/cancer-grand-challenges/"},{"id":"cruk","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK","route":"/institutions/cruk/"},{"id":"cruk-city-of-london-centre","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK City of London Centre","route":"/institutions/cruk-city-of-london-centre/"},{"id":"cruk-manchester-institute","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute","route":"/institutions/cruk-manchester-institute/"},{"id":"north-central-london-cancer-alliance","kind":"institution","name":"North Central London Cancer Alliance","route":"/institutions/north-central-london-cancer-alliance/"},{"id":"mark-foundation","kind":"institution","name":"The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research","route":"/institutions/mark-foundation/"},{"id":"uclh","kind":"institution","name":"University College London Hospitals / UCL Cancer Institute","route":"/institutions/uclh/"},{"id":"wellcome","kind":"institution","name":"Wellcome","route":"/institutions/wellcome/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-preclinical-models","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Lab models that fail to predict what happens in patients","route":"/bottlenecks/b-preclinical-models/"},{"id":"b-translational-valley","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The valley of death between lab and product","route":"/bottlenecks/b-translational-valley/"},{"id":"b-tumor-heterogeneity","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Tumour heterogeneity and clonal evolution","route":"/bottlenecks/b-tumor-heterogeneity/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-bio1-rapid-autopsy-network","kind":"idea","name":"A national rapid research autopsy network for end-stage cancer","route":"/ideas/idea-bio1-rapid-autopsy-network/"},{"id":"idea-moon-public-phase1-factory","kind":"idea","name":"A public-benefit phase 1 factory that takes academic discoveries into first-in-human trials","route":"/ideas/idea-moon-public-phase1-factory/"},{"id":"idea-fund-precompetitive-undruggable-consortium","kind":"idea","name":"An open-science consortium on the undruggable drivers, open until a candidate","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-precompetitive-undruggable-consortium/"},{"id":"idea-bio1-multiregion-blocks-default","kind":"idea","name":"Bank three spatially separate tumour blocks from every resection","route":"/ideas/idea-bio1-multiregion-blocks-default/"},{"id":"idea-prev-clean-air-never-smoker-endpoints","kind":"idea","name":"Evaluate clean-air policies using lung cancer in never-smokers","route":"/ideas/idea-prev-clean-air-never-smoker-endpoints/"},{"id":"idea-field-interception","kind":"idea","name":"Intercept cancer at the field stage","route":"/ideas/idea-field-interception/"},{"id":"idea-targeting-aneuploidy","kind":"idea","name":"Is aneuploidy itself a druggable vulnerability?","route":"/ideas/idea-targeting-aneuploidy/"},{"id":"idea-bio1-federated-evolution-atlas","kind":"idea","name":"Pool every multi-sample tumour genome into one open evolution atlas","route":"/ideas/idea-bio1-federated-evolution-atlas/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"cancer-metabolism","kind":"pathway","name":"Cancer metabolism","route":"/pathways/cancer-metabolism/"},{"id":"cancer-stem-cells-plasticity","kind":"pathway","name":"Cancer stem cells & phenotypic plasticity","route":"/pathways/cancer-stem-cells-plasticity/"},{"id":"chromosomal-instability","kind":"pathway","name":"Chromosomal instability & aneuploidy","route":"/pathways/chromosomal-instability/"},{"id":"clonal-evolution","kind":"pathway","name":"Clonal evolution & minimal residual disease","route":"/pathways/clonal-evolution/"},{"id":"replication-stress","kind":"pathway","name":"DNA replication stress","route":"/pathways/replication-stress/"},{"id":"field-cancerisation","kind":"pathway","name":"Field cancerisation","route":"/pathways/field-cancerisation/"},{"id":"metastatic-cascade","kind":"pathway","name":"The metastatic cascade","route":"/pathways/metastatic-cascade/"}]}}