CrickMed: find a collaborator
A forum for Crick scientists and external clinicians/clinical academics to identify potential collaborators.
Copy
Each year, the Francis Crick Institute hosts CrickMed: Pitch and Match, an event featuring a series of three‑minute pitches and dedicated networking sessions to help participants identify potential collaborators. The aim is to bring scientists and clinicians together to spark new ideas and partnerships.
We have begun creating a repository of past pitches for anyone who was unable to attend previous events. If any of the projects below are of interest, please do get in touch with the listed contacts. This page will be updated after each event.
CrickMed: Pitch and Match events are open to scientists, clinicians and clinical academics from both at the Crick and external to the Crick.
Dr Idil Ahmed
Dr Idil Ahmed (ICHTB Operations and Partnerships Manager, Imperial College London)
Specialty: Tissue banks
Title of pitch: Your next breakthrough starts with the Imperial College Healthcare Tissue Bank
More info: Imperial College Healthcare Tissue Bank (ICHTB) is a REC approved and HTA licensed tissue bank that supports research by providing access to surgical tissue, bespoke biobanking collection pathways, and subcollections. ICHTB holds around 60,000 samples in the main surgical bank, with a further 500,000 samples held across subcollections and diagnostic archives. The team also provides histological and molecular services, including tissue processing, sectioning, staining, digital scanning, and molecular extractions.
Dr Paolo Gallipoli
Dr Paolo Gallipoli (Clinical Reader in Experimental Haematology, Queen Mary University London & Clinical Academic Haematology Consultant, St Bartholomew’s Hospital)
Specialty: Myeloid Leukaemia
Title of talk: Metabolic targeting in acute myeloid leukaemia: overcoming barriers to successful clinical translation
More info: I am a clinician-scientist specialising in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Despite advances, AML outcomes remain poor, with limited curative options beyond intensive chemotherapy and some novel therapies mostly targeting specific genetic mutations. My research aims to move beyond purely genetic targeting and instead exploit broader biological dependencies, such as metabolic rewiring, which may be shared across different AML subtypes. While metabolic therapies have shown promise, challenges like toxicity, tumour heterogeneity, and environmental influences have limited clinical success. My lab has uncovered promising metabolic targets, but progress requires collaboration to develop better inhibitors and understand how environmental factors – such as tumour microenvironment or specific diets – shape treatment response and metabolic dependencies. In return, we offer deep expertise, patient-derived models, and clinical insight, with potential applications across multiple cancers.
Dr Emily Gaizley
Dr Emily Gaizley (PPRS, The Francis Crick Institute) & Nick Gallagher (PhD student, The Francis Crick Institute)
Specialty: Supramolecular Chemistry and Mass Spec Proteomics
Title of talk: Finding the sweet spot: disease-specific glycan profiling for ultra-precise therapeutics
More info: The cell surface governs how cells interact with their environment, respond to signals, and are targeted by drugs. Critically, most surface proteins are glycosylated – complex sugars that modify protein structure, alter epitope accessibility, and vary between cell types and disease states. The same protein can therefore present entirely different epitopes on tumour versus healthy tissue, offering improved selectivity over protein expression alone. This clinically significant layer of biology remains largely inaccessible because existing enrichment technologies are severely limited by their reliance on biotin-streptavidin pulldown, which introduces background contamination and requires millions of cells. We have developed novel enrichment chemistry that overcomes these limitations, enabling global mapping of the surface glycoproteome – including glycan sites and structures. If you are developing biologics and struggling to identify surface targets, encountering on-target toxicity, or seeing outcomes that transcriptomics cannot explain, we would love to collaborate.
Get in touch with Emily and Nick: emily.gaizley@crick.ac.uk; nick.gallagher@crick.ac.uk
Professor Francesco Saverio Tedesco
Professor Francesco Saverio Tedesco (Senior Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute, Professor of Neuromuscular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, UCL & Honorary Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health & Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children)
Specialty: Stem Cells and Neuromuscular Regeneration
Title of pitch: Advanced in vitro modelling of neuromuscular diseases and therapeutics
More info: The Tedesco laboratory (www.tedescolab.org) harnesses the regenerative potential of muscle stem cells to create innovative models to study and develop therapies for incurable neuromuscular disorders. Their work pioneered engineering and pre-clinical translation of large-cargo gene therapy vectors, as well as generation, differentiation, genetic correction and pre-clinical testing of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with muscular dystrophy. More recently, they developed the first 3D human muscle model containing up to 4 distinct isogenic cell lineages capable to model disease-associated phenotypes with high resolution and fidelity, and to support testing of advanced therapies. The overall goal of the Tedesco laboratory is the translation of regenerative strategies into novel therapies to improve future outcomes for children with neuromuscular disorders.
Prof Robert Wilkinson
Prof Robert Wilkinson (Principal Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute; Honorary Professor, University of Cape Town & Professor of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London)
Specialty: M. tuberculosis
Title of pitch: Protective and pathogenic immune response to M. tuberculosis
More info: We are interested particularly in tissue from patients with tuberculosis. It can be Formalin Fixed and paraffin embedded.
Dr Greg James
Dr Greg James (Consultant Neurosurgeon, Associate Professor & MRC Clinical Academic Research Fellow, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust)
Specialty: Paediatric neurosurgery
Title of pitch: Biology of intracranial vascular malformations in children: a chance to predict and change the future
More info: Greg's main clinical and academic interests are in cerebrovascular and craniofacial conditions in children. He has a large surgical caseload encompassing rare diseases including moyamoya, AVM, cavernoma, craniosynostosis and vein of Galen malformation. He is active in clinical and translational research into these conditions, and is always interested to discuss collaborations
Professor Anna David and Owen Vaughan
Professor Anna David (Professor in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine and Director at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health, University College London & Consultant in Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine, University College London Hospitals)
Owen Vaughan (Lecturer in Fetal Physiology, EGA Institute for Women’s Health, UCL)
Specialty: Pathology of pregnancy complications, placenta and fetal tissues
Title of pitch: Placental insufficiency and fetal growth restriction, the role of trophoblast and fetal stem cells in development
More info: We would be interested in new collaborations to work on placental biology and fetal development. We have ethical approval for access to tissue from the placenta including the fetal membranes, and amniotic, from both normal and abnormal pregnancies.
