We Go Way Back, an exhibition exploring how ancient DNA is revealing new insights into human evolution, migration, culture and disease, is now open at the Francis Crick Institute.
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Ancient DNA is the genetic material from our ancestors long gone. These fragments of DNA are extracted from bones and teeth, before being processed in an ultra-clean laboratory and sequenced to reveal the underlying genetic code.
Guided by the expertise of researchers in the Crick’s Ancient Genomics Laboratory, visitors to the exhibition can journey into the past, travelling back to the earliest encounters with our Neanderthal and Denisovan cousins and embarking on a whistle-stop tour of changing British populations through the metal ages and the Roman period. History enthusiasts can marvel at how cutting-edge science can add context to known historical events, or surprise us with new ones.
Since early extractions of ancient DNA in the 1980s, the field has expanded and matured, even more so after the boom in genetic sequencing in the 2010s. Still, it’s a relatively new discipline on the cusp of making big discoveries.
Sitting within Europe’s largest biomedical research facility under one roof, the Ancient Genomics Laboratory is well-placed to support our understanding of ancient and modern disease. Senior Group Leader Pontus Skoglund and his team work at the forefront of the field, deploying robotics to process hundreds of samples a month and developing new computer models to make sense of the growing number of human and pathogen genomes the lab has identified.
From the identification of a key gene behind inflammatory bowel disease that was present in our ancient ancestors, to understanding how bacteria and viruses have evolved alongside us, visitors to We Go Way Back can experience first-hand how ancient DNA gives insight into medicine today. They can search for pathogen DNA from model teeth, to learn more about how a given disease has evolved, and watch discoveries played out with shadow puppetry.
Working with over 100 museums and heritage sites in the UK, Pontus and his team have built a bank of 1,000 ancient genomes from people who lived in Britain during the past 4,500 years. The exhibition dives deeper into some of these stories from people who lived thousands of years ago. Visitors can untangle clues from two studies to piece together personal stories, such as a person who had travelled from thousands of miles away to Cambridge in the Roman period.
A holographic artwork, ‘Portals: Windows into Human Heritage’, by Sheffield-based artist Grace Lee, produced in collaboration with a participatory group and researchers from the Ancient Genomics Laboratory, concludes the exhibition and invites visitors to give their own reflections.
Pontus Skoglund, Senior Group Leader of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Crick, said: “The field of ancient DNA has surged in technical capability over the last two decades, now giving us answers to questions that were previously inaccessible without genetic data. Our lab is expanding the record of our shared history, one ancient sample at a time, and we’re excited to bring visitors to the Crick along with us.”
Mary Beard, classicist and broadcaster, and member of the exhibition steering group said: “Ancient DNA promises to transform some important parts of our understanding of the past, potentially rewriting what we used to consider fact and adding surprising twists to our ancestors’ stories. It's been so exciting to be involved in the exhibition and also to learn a lot along the way.”
Kat Nilsson, Curator of We Go Way Back, said: “As visitors move through the exhibition, they’ll put together the puzzle of a family tree, unscramble the identities of diseases which plagued our ancestors and piece together evidence revealing two ancient people's stories. I’m keen for them to appreciate that Pontus and his team are adding new puzzle pieces to our shared story all the time, tracing how we’ve migrated, picked up new genetic changes and lived alongside with bacteria and viruses over hundreds of thousands of years.”
We Go Way Back is a free exhibition open Wednesday to Saturday from 16 July 2026 to 2 July 2027. An events programme runs alongside the exhibition, featuring panel discussions and talks with Mary Beard, Pontus Skoglund and other leaders in historical and scientific research, Lates and more.
To ensure accessibility, the exhibition team and an access consultant worked with a panel of individuals who are blind or visually impaired to ensure a good experience for this often-excluded audience. There is also British Sign Language and captions accompanying films and animations. Easy Read, Braille and large print guides are available along with sensory packs.
We Go Way Back follows the success of the Crick’s previous exhibition, Hello Brain!, which explored the brain’s intricate connections and welcomed nearly 80,000 visitors.
