Our Medicine at the Crick event series showcases major advances in biomedical science and raises awareness of the medical implications of major scientific advances amongst the Crick and wider UK biomedical community. Each event comprises a series of talks, followed by in-person networking.

Our 8th event, Innate immune sensing of nucleic acids in medicine, will be hosted by Prof Caetano Reis e Sousa (The Francis Crick Institute). 

Nucleic acids, long known as encoders of genetic information, can play an additional role in triggering innate immune sensors that alert the body to cellular stress or the presence of potential pathogens. Nucleic acid sensing can be beneficial and drive immune reactions that limit infection or promote cancer immunity. However, it can misfire or become dysregulated, contributing to chronic inflammatory reactions and autoimmune disease. In this 8th edition of Medicine at the Crick, we will discuss our current understanding of innate immune sensing of nucleic acids and review its role in immunity to infection, cancer, autoinflammation and autoimmunity.

Speakers include ​​​Prof Andrea Ablasser (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne - EPFL), Prof Jan Rehwinkel (University of Oxford), Dr Vanessa Sancho-Shimizu (Imperial College London), Prof Yanick Crow (The University of Edinburgh & Institute Imagine, Paris) and Prof Ann Marshak-Rothstein (University of Massachusetts Medical School)