news 2020

This year, Ghent University has no less than 25 researchers with Highly Cited status. This is another fine recognition of the quality of its publications and their scientific impact.

COVID-19 infection rates in the UK, France and Belgium are much higher than reported and up to 17 times higher in Italy, new data shows. Analysis also shows Australia had the best level of detection among 15 countries at the end of April but the rate of infection may still have been five times higher than what was officially reported at the end of August.

COVID-19 infection rates in the UK, France and Belgium are much higher than reported and up to 17 times higher in Italy, new data shows. Analysis also shows Australia had the best level of detection among 15 countries at the end of April but the rate of infection may still have been five times higher than what was officially reported at the end of August.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the point-of-care testing industry was investing millions of pounds to develop rapid tests to tell us the cause of respiratory infections. The pandemic has accelerated this process. In an editorial published in the British Journal of General Practice today [17 November], researchers from the University of Bristol's Centre for Academic Primary Care ask if we know enough about these tests to merit their widespread use in primary care.

Methods used to help robots walk and autonomous cars drive can also help epidemiologists predict the spread of the pandemic When the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns brought an abrupt halt to their research this spring, robotics engineers at Caltech and the University of Michigan took tools that were originally created to help robots to walk and autonomous cars to drive safely and applied them to the development of an epidemiological methodology that accounts for human interventions (like mask mandates and stay-at-home orders).

Novel deep learning method enables clinic-ready automated screening for diabetes-related eye disease Researchers created a novel deep learning method that makes automated screenings for eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy more efficient. Reducing the amount of expensive annotated image data that is required for the training of the algorithm, the method is attractive for clinics.

Microscopic images of human stem cell-derived airway tissue models with cell nuclei (blue) and SARS-CoV-2-infected cells (green); tissue exposed to cigarette smoke (right) had 2 to 3 times more infected cells than non-exposed tissue (left). Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center/Cell Stem Cell Microscopic images of human stem cell-derived airway tissue models with cell nuclei (blue) and SARS-CoV-2-infected cells (green); tissue exposed to cigarette smoke (right) had 2 to 3 times more infected cells than non-exposed tissue (left).

A team led by researchers at UCL and Imperial College London have discovered how to engineer bacteria that normally attack human cells so that they kill other pathogens instead. Many pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria use specific proteins to punch holes in the cell membranes of their hosts, killing them.

New insights into the mechanisms behind how cancer-causing agents in the environment activate genetic recombination in DNA could help to explain some of the effects of exposure as well as predicting which individuals may be more susceptible to developing the disease, a new UK study has suggested. Everyone is exposed to low levels of carcinogens (substances or radiation that promote the formation of cancer) in the environment.

With a vision to develop new treatments and cures for seriously ill children, the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, is celebrating its first year of work and achievements. Run jointly by UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) the purpose-built Zayed Centre for Research (ZCR) brings together pioneering research and clinical care under one roof - a world first for paediatric medicine.

The University of Bern and the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, are founding a "Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine" (CAIM) that combines cutting-edge research, engineering and digitalization.

New research has shown that the antidepressant sertraline helps to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. The substance acts on a metabolic addiction that allows different types of cancer to grow. This is shown by a study on cell cultures and lab animals performed by various research labs of KU Leuven.

Significantly higher numbers of Generation Z boys and girls in the UK are dieting to lose weight, and are likely to overestimate their own weight, finds a new UCL-led study. The research, published in JAMA Pediatrics , found that girls who are trying to lose weight are also more likely to experience depressive symptoms than in previous years.

A gene that cured a man of HIV a decade ago has been successfully added to developing monkey embryos in an effort to study more potential treatments for the disease. Timothy Brown, known for years as "the Berlin Patient," received a transplant of bone marrow stem cells in 2007 to treat leukemia. The cells came from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that left the surfaces of their white blood cells without a protein called CCR5.

American Indians and Alaska Natives are often underrepresented in health research because of narrow definitions for race and ethnicity in national and state surveys. grandriver/Canva American Indians and Alaska Natives are often underrepresented in health research because of narrow definitions for race and ethnicity in national and state surveys.

Scientists are beginning to unravel one of the biggest challenges with immunotherapy: why some people with cancer respond to the treatment, while others may not respond at all. In a new study, researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found patients with a particular type of human leukocyte antigen (HLA), a protein scaffold involved in presenting pieces of proteins described as peptides to the immune system, were particularly likely to benefit from immunotherapy.

Resilience is the ability to adjust readily to traumatic events and to reorganise one's life positively. Greater flexibility, adaptation to difficulties and control of one's emotions become even more relevant in times of crisis, such as that triggered by the coronavirus to avoid depression, anxiety and stress.

Swiss and Italian scientists prove a correlation between gut microbiota and the appearance of amyloid plaques in the brain, typical of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Still incurable, it directly affects nearly one million people in Europe, and indirectly millions of family members as well as society as a whole.

A team of interdisciplinary researchers has demonstrated that convex optimization is an effective mathematical and numerical tool for a daily estimate of the evolution of the reproductive number for Covid-19, over time and across regions. Monitoring the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the major challenges of the global health crisis.

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have furthered the understanding of how novel diabetes drugs can improve prognosis for patients with heart failure. The results of the SUGAR-DM-HF trial - published in Circulation and presented to the American Heart Association - showed that the drug empagliflozin, originally a treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, was able to significantly reduce the size of abnormally large hearts, which helps explain how they reduce the risk of hospitalisation and cardiovascular death in patients with heart failure.