The CrickConnect team are delighted to be able to invite community members to join us for the institute's regular Crick Lecture.

Crick Lectures provide a broad insight into biomedical research from leading scientists. Not to be missed, the one-hour lectures are the event of the week for the Crick community to come together. The lectures aim to be accessible to scientists across different disciplines, while also offering something for the specialist.

There is also an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends over refreshments after Crick Lectures from 17:00. If you are able to join us in person at the Crick please let us know at connect@crick.ac.uk so we can arrange access.

Principal Group Leader and Assistant Research Director Simon Boulton gives this week's Crick lecture which has a translational theme.

Simon leads the DSB Repair Metabolism Lab at the Crick which is finding out how our cells repair damage to their DNA, and how failures in this process lead to cancer and other diseases. Simon studied molecular biology at the University of Edinburgh and did his PhD at the University of Cambridge with Professor Steve Jackson (Gurdon Institute).

He then conducted EMBO and HFSP funded postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Medical School, Boston, with Prof. Nick Dyson (MGH Cancer Centre) and Prof. Marc Vidal (Dana Farber Cancer Institute).

In 2002, he returned to the UK to establish the DNA Damage Response Laboratory at Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, Clare Hall Laboratories. He is now a principal group leader at the Francis Crick Institute and an honorary Professor at UCL.

As a result of his ground-breaking work, Simon has received a number of prestigious accolades for his work, notably election as a member of EMBO and to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Translational science

In 2016, Simon helped to establish Artios Pharma Ltd, where he is Senior Vice President of Science Strategy alongside his main role at the Crick. In addition to his role as SVP Science Strategy, Simon chairs the SAB for Artios and is a member of the Executive board.