King Charles made a light-hearted remark to the crowd that greeted him during a visit to the Francis Crick Institute in London on Wednesday, telling them: "I want what they had for breakfast."
The 87-year-old monarch was welcomed by hundreds of staff and scientists who paused their work and leaned over the steel-and-glass balconies as he toured Europe's biggest biomedical research facility in King's Cross.
A Mighty Roar from the Crowd
According to lipreader Nicola Hickling, the King reacted to the enthusiastic reception with a cheerful greeting, saying: "Hello! What a mighty roar from your fellows this morning." He then approached a woman in a cream jacket, who bowed as he greeted her.
Amused by the noise, the King apparently joked: "You have the noisiest crowd," and added the seven-word quip about wanting what they had for breakfast.
Tour of the Research Facility
During his visit, Charles was shown lung tissue slides on a screen inside a lab, with clinical director Professor Charles Swanton and deputy research director Professor Sonia Gandhi explaining their latest collaboration. The work combines AI and laboratory research to explore how ageing and environmental inflammation can shape diseases such as cancer and Parkinson's.
The King also saw a presentation covering the breadth of discovery science at the institute, from understanding how the earliest human tissues organise and develop to exploring how rising global temperatures could influence the immune system and human health.
Marking a Decade of Discovery
Charles was presented with a photograph of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who opened the institute 10 years ago, and was given the chance to see a new model of a human amniotic sac made from stem cells by scientists researching regeneration and embryonic development.
Speaking after the visit, institute director Edith Heard said it had been "an honour" to welcome Charles "as we mark 10 years of discovery at the Crick and look ahead to the opportunities and challenges of the next decade." She added: "His Majesty's longstanding interest in the relationship between the environment and human health made this a particularly meaningful opportunity to share our research and our ambition to understand how our environments and life experiences interact with our biology to shape health and disease."
The King and Queen Camilla recently returned from a nine-day tour to the Caribbean.
