Sanger Science
9 April 2026Discover how the Wellcome Sanger Institute has been at the forefront of spatial research, exploring how trillions of cells organise, communicate and work together to form a human being. For more than 15 years, Sanger scientists have pushed the boundaries of modern genomics, helping to map the human body in greater detail – cell by cell.
10 March 202610.5 min readSepsis is a killer, responsible for 20 per cent of all deaths around the world. Yet the condition is notoriously difficult to study. Dr Emma Davenport and her team are using genomics to uncover the biological mechanisms at work.
13 February 20267.7 min readFrom sponges to the human gut, partnerships in nature are everywhere. In this blog, we caught up with Sanger scientists who use genomics to study species that love living together.
3 February 20268.4 min readAs temperatures plummet this winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we found ourselves wondering what are the weirdest and quirkiest things currently stored in the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s freezers?
27 January 202622 min readImagine being able to pinpoint exactly where in an aggressive brain tumour certain genes are turned on – like mapping a city’s most active neighbourhoods at rush hour. That is the promise of spatial transcriptomics, breakthrough technologies that are changing how scientists understand tissues, health and disease, and development.
15 January 202611.3 min readWhen most people think about genetic changes, or mutations, they imagine inherited conditions that are passed on from parents to offspring. However, the vast majority of mutations in our DNA are not inherited at all. Instead, they arise quietly, cell-by-cell throughout our lifetime. These are somatic mutations, and they are one of the most important – yet least understood – forces acting inside our bodies.
23 December 20259.5 min readFor many, flu season has come earlier this year with hospitalisations rising by more than 50 per cent in one week in the UK. The so-called ‘super flu’ is causing a media frenzy – but what actually is it? Why are we seeing it earlier than usual? And how can we be better prepared in the future?
