The King was given a special memento of his mother as he visited the UK’s flagship biomedical discovery organisation.

Charles was given a photograph of the late Queen as she opened the Francis Crick Institute in King’s Cross, central London, 10 years ago.

On Wednesday, hundreds of staff and scientist paused their work and peered over the steel and glass balconies at the institute as Charles was given an insight into a decade of discovery at Europe’s biggest biomedical research facility under one roof.

Charles visited a lab and politely turned down the offer of using a joystick to help look at pollutant particles through a microscope, saying: “No you do it, it will go haywire if I do it.”

He also saw lung tissue slides on a screen as inside a lab, as clinical director Professor Charles Swanton and Professor Sonia Gandhi, the deputy research director, explained their latest collaboration.

Charles also listened to a presentation, showing 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.

He was shown a new model of a human amniotic sac made from a stem cell by scientists who are looking into regeneration and the question of how we grow from an embryo.

Founded in 2015, the Francis Crick Institute brings together 2,000 scientists and staff to study the biology underlying health and disease, to understand how diseases develop and how illnesses such as cancer and heart disease can be prevented, diagnosed and treated.

The research centre’s achievements include identifying the genetic cause of inflammatory bowel disease and discovering the biological link between air pollution and lung cancer in non-smoking people.

Sir Paul Nurse, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2001, was the driving force behind the institute and is its honorary life president.

He was the first director and chief executive of the institute and appears in the photograph with the late Queen as she officially opened the building almost exactly 10 years to the day that was given to Charles.

After Wednesday’s royal visit, he said his “greatest individual satisfaction” is from his research, but the institute may be his most important “contribution to society.”

Sir Paul said: “This was built completely from scratch, so for the science as a whole I would say this is probably the thing that I’m most proud of.”

He also welcomed the interest from the royal family, adding: “What I think it means is that the UK recognises the importance of high-quality scientific endeavour, which is the basis of all growth development, economic growth, and so on.

“It is not often talked about, because everybody is always thinking about related gizmo or what AI is going to deliver next week, sort of thing.

“But everything is based on the sort of work that goes on here and the recognition from the heads of states, and successive states here, is really important.”

Charles also met two degree apprentices who have just completed their T-level laboratory science studies at a local sixth form, during which they carried out work experience at the institute.

He also unveiled a plaque to mark the visit and spoke briefly to well-wishers outside the building who had gathered to see him as he left.

Edith Heard, director of the institute, later 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 Francis Crick Institute is an independent charity and was founded with the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London.