Sites and facilities

The Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (LRI) is spread over two sites - the Lincoln's Inn Fields laboratories and the Clare Hall laboratories. The Director of the Institute is Dr Richard Treisman.

There are currently 46 research groups within the LRI - 35 at Lincoln's Inn Fields and 11 at Clare Hall. Within the Institute an interactive, inter-disciplinary faculty is fostered through common research tools, approaches and model organisms in addition to the major themes. Research 'interest groups', rather than strict divisions, promote an informal and dynamic network of scientific discourse between LRI scientists. The research portfolio is focused around the two themes of signal transduction and genome integrity.

Lincoln's Inn Fields laboratories

The Lincoln's Inn Fields laboratories are located in a 10-storey research facility in central London. Situated just north of the Thames at the western edge of the old City of London, the laboratories' neighbours include the London School of Economics, the Law Courts and Covent Garden. The Lincoln's Inn Fields site also houses several of Cancer Research UK's administrative departments in a building across the square.

Research here has signal transduction as an underlying theme, and focuses on a number of different model systems and processes. The laboratories also house a number of the Institute's specialist support services including Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS), bioinformatics, mass spectrometry and proteomics, electron and light microscopy, peptide synthesis, DNA sequence analysis and histopathology. The comprehensive library houses a substantial portfolio of research journals in both paper and electronic formats. A lively programme of seminars by Institute staff is complemented by guest seminars from eminent local and international speakers.

The laboratories are associated with a number of major scientific discoveries, including the discovery of the p53 gene, the link between growth factors and oncogenes; the identification of mammalian homologues of the cell cycle regulator cdc2; and the identification of the sex-determining gene SRY.

In 1975 Dr Renato Dulbecco, then Deputy Research Director of the Laboratories shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the interactions between DNA tumour viruses and cells. In 2001, the Nobel Committee again honoured the Lincoln's Inn Fields Laboratories with the award of a share of the Prize to Dr Paul Nurse, then Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK and a group leader at the Lincoln's Inn Fields laboratories for his work on the cell cycle.

Clare Hall laboratories

The Scientific Director of the Clare Hall laboratories is Dr John Diffley. The laboratories are housed on a purpose-built research campus adjoining Clare Hall Manor (a Grade II listed building) located approximately 15 miles to the north of central London in the Hertfordshire greenbelt.

The Clare Hall laboratories were officially opened in 1986. Under the guidance of Director Tomas Lindahl, Clare Hall became, and remains today, a leading centre for studies of DNA repair, recombination and replication, cell cycle control and transcription. In addition, the site has provided scientific support services of increasing sophistication over the years.

Dr Tim Hunt, a Clare Hall Group Leader, shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his Lincoln's Inn Fields colleague, Dr Paul Nurse.