The content on this page is for clinicians interested in undertaking a PhD or those already doing so. For academics interested in hosting a Doctoral Clinical Fellow, submitting a project proposal and/or undertaking supervision duties, please visit the Supervision section of this site.

For prospective fellows

Doctoral Clinical Fellows

When: Applications for the doctoral clinical fellow programme will open in early October, with interviews in January.

Who: This call is open to talented and motivated clinicians who are passionate about research, have a strong academic track record and have the potential to pursue a career as an academic clinician.

Apply: Applications are made through the Crick’s website.

More information: Clinical PhD trainees at the Crick thrive in an academic environment underpinned by world-class technical expertise in areas ranging from computational biology and genomics to cell and structural biology and imaging. This provides a firm foundation for clinicians with future academic career paths in mind. They follow, or have access to, a three-year version of the Crick's PhD programme, which provides extensive scientific and general skills training and clinical mentoring, and are linked to a partner university of their choice. As the fellows are enrolled in a full time PhD programme, there is limited participation in clinical activities. You can read about the experiences of current fellows on the Crick’s website. 

Our Doctoral Clinical Fellows: The following individuals have been awarded Doctoral Clinical Fellowships featuring second supervisors from Imperial College London.

  • Lesley Sheach, Oncolytic vaccine treatment of ovarian cancer: finding targets for combination therapies, with Michael Way (Crick) and Hani Gabra (Department of Surgery and Cancer), 2016.
  • Robert Gray, Mechanisms and impact of plasma membrane polar head recycling in M. tuberculosis, with Luiz de Carvalho (Crick),  (Department of Chemistry) and Robert Wilkinson (Crick), 2019.
  • Maddalena Cerrone, Elucidating protective mechanisms of T-cell responses against tuberculosis in human cohorts, with Robert Wilkinson (Crick) and Xiao-Ning Xu (Department of Infectious Disease), 2019.
  • Stefania Drymiotou, Oncolytic Vaccinia virus therapy of ovarian cancer: finding novel targets for combination therapies, with Michael Way (Crick) and Iain McNeish (Department of Surgery and Cancer), 2020.
  • Shuli Svetitsky, Discovering the genetic mechanisms of type I interferon production and increased risk of autoimmunity in plasmacytoid dendritic cells, with James Lee (Crick) and  (Department of Infectious Disease), 2021.
  • Timesh Pillay, Structural and biochemical analysis of Salmonella effector functions and their interaction with host proteins, with Katrin Rittinger (Crick), Theresa Thurston (Department of Infectious Disease) and Philippa Matthews (Crick), 2021.
  • Rebecca Hulbert, Analysis of congenital heart defects in down syndrome using induced pluripotent stem cells, with Victor Tybulewicz (Crick), Andreia Bernardo (National Heart and Lung Institute) and Kuberan Pushparajah (King’s College London), 2022.
  • James Barnacle, Multiomic approaches to understand the pathogenesis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, with Robert Wilkinson (Crick) and Brian Robertson (Department of Infectious Disease), 2022.

Selected profiles of some of the Crick Doctoral Clinical Fellows can be viewed on the Crick website.

For current Fellows

Clinical Research Fellows Meeting

When: A whole day in person networking event held annually in Spring at the Francis Crick Institute.

Who: This event will bring together fellows based at the Crick with other clinical fellows from across the UK. The event is predominantly aimed at doctoral clinical fellows and MB-PhD students however, post doctoral clinical fellows are also very welcome to attend. Attendees will include fellows who are part of the 4ward North Clinical PhD Academy, fellows at CRUK centres nationwide and fellows based at Crick’s five clinical programme partner institutions: Imperial College London, King's College London, UCL, The Institute of Cancer Research, Bart's Cancer Institute/Queen Mary University of London. Please note clinicians studying for a PhD or undertaking a post doc at any institution in the UK are welcome to attend this event.

Apply: To submit an abstract for a poster or short talk, please do so before Monday 15 May 2023 via the Crick’s Eventbrite page. To register to attend, please do so before Tuesday 6 June 2023 using the same Eventbrite page.

Registration: Details of the event, including how to submit an abstract for a short talk will be circulated once registration opens early in the year. If you have any questions in the meantime, please email crf-admin@crick.ac.uk.

More information: The Crick pitches this event as a great opportunity for fellows from a range of clinical backgrounds to share research interests, discuss challenges to developing a clinical/academic career, hear clinician scientists speak about their career progression, and participate in talks about interesting science. 

Information on events open to both clinical and non-clinical students is available on the PhD programme page under existing students.