What patients can teach us about cancer

2026-10-13T16:35:42+01:0013 October 2026|

Clinician scientist Dr Ayesha Noorani spends her weeks seeing patients, performing complex cancer surgery and connecting the dots through her research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. She shares how working across both sides of medicine shapes the questions she asks, strengthens her curiosity and drives her research.

Six facts about the gut microbiome

2026-09-30T15:00:11+01:0030 September 2026|

Deep inside the body, a hidden world of trillions of microbes is constantly at work. Here, we highlight research led by Dr Trevor Lawley’s group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and explore surprising facts about the gut microbiome, revealing how this unseen ecosystem shapes our health.

What is laser capture microdissection?

2026-09-22T09:13:07+01:0022 September 2026|

We take an inside look into what laser capture microdissection is and how it is enabling scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute to precisely isolate cells and reveal detailed insights into biology and disease.

5 questions on CRISPR-Cas with Sandeep Rajan

2026-09-01T08:46:22+01:001 September 2026|

From bacterial defence to breakthrough therapies, we explore how CRISPR-Cas is transforming research and healthcare, and how experts at the Wellcome Sanger Institute are refining the technology to make genome editing more scalable and effective.

One gene, many outcomes: Understanding variable cancer risk in PTEN hamartoma tumour syndrome

2026-08-24T09:30:48+01:0025 August 2026|

Changes in the PTEN gene, that causes PTEN hamartoma tumour syndrome (PHTS), can lead to a range of different manifestations that vary from person to person, including an increased risk of certain cancers. A new project aims to understand why some tissues in people with PHTS become cancerous, and if there is a way of identifying individuals with PTEN variants who are most at risk.

Six facts about midges and gnats

2026-08-21T20:39:21+01:0020 August 2026|

Small flies, big mysteries. Genomics can help reveal the evolutionary picture of these two-winged wonders.

A living library: Inside our organoid biobank

2026-08-05T16:12:36+01:005 August 2026|

Tiny organs, big story. We explore how our organoid biobank came to life – from building long-lived models to making data openly available to the research community.

Six things you may not know about hair

2026-07-21T12:13:04+01:0021 July 2026|

There may be a series of products for it and even a musical named after it – but what do we actually know about hair? And how are researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute working to uncover what is really going on beneath the surface?

5 questions on cholera with Lia Bote

2026-07-15T12:05:34+01:0014 July 2026|

We are in the seventh global cholera pandemic, which has been going on since the early 1960s. But what is cholera, and why is it still a global issue? Lia Bote, PhD student at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, answers our questions about the past, present, and hopefully the future of cholera research.