UKCMRI renamed as The Francis Crick Institute
27 June 2011
The future world-leading biomedical research institute at St Pancras and Somers Town, London, has formally changed its name to The Francis Crick Institute. The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the founders of the Institute,renamed to honour of one of the UK’s greatest scientists.
Together with James Watson, Francis Crick identified the structure of DNA in February 1953, based on the studies of the molecule by Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin and others at King’s College London.
Formerly known as the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI), the Institute is founded by four of the world's leading medical research organisations: the MRC, Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and UCL (University College London).
Construction of the Institute has already begun and the Institute will open in 2015. It will house 1250 staff, initially building on the complementary skills and research interests of two of the founders' research institutes – the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute – together with UCL scientists focusing on physics, computing, engineering, imaging and chemistry.
In addition to funding the cost of building the institute, the founders, including the MRC, will provide ongoing research support.
From today, the website for the Institute will be www.crick.ac.uk, with email addresses now having the suffix @crick.ac.uk
