news

Health - Life Sciences - 26.02.2021

Cancer: a new killer lymphocyte enters the ring
A team from SCCL has discovered that CD4 T lymphocytes, which usually play a supporting role in fighting cancer cells, also have the power to destroy them. Treatments for beating tumours are mainly based on CD8 T lymphocytes, which specialise in detecting and eliminating intracellular infections and in killing cancer cells.

Health - Pharmacology - 26.02.2021

Single dose of vaccine acts as ’booster’ in those with prior COVID-19 infection
People who have previously had COVID-19 have an enhanced antibody response with a single dose of RNA vaccine, finds new research co-led by UCL researchers. These are the findings of a study, published as a research letter* in the Lancet , of 51 UK healthcare workers, around half of whom had a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Health - Life Sciences - 26.02.2021

SARS-CoV-2 mutations in competition
How dangerous are new mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus? An international team involving researchers from the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI) of the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office BLV and the University of Bern (Switzerland), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA), and the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute (Germany), has developed an approach that can accurately assess the transmissibility of new virus mutants.

Health - Pharmacology - 26.02.2021

Embed Germ Defence behaviours at home to reduce virus spread now and in the future
As COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out, a roadmap for unlocking Britain is announced, new research which looked at data from over 28,000 users of the website 'Germ Defence' since May 2020 highlights the continued, critical importance of breaking chains of virus transmission within our homes.

Life Sciences - Health - 26.02.2021

TOPMed: Analyzing human genomes to understand mutations, human evolution
What kind of questions would you ask if you had access to the full DNA makeup of tens of thousands of people? Would you look for disease-causing mutations? Would you be curious about how modern humans are related? Those are some of the issues that researchers are studying as part of a project called TOPMed, the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program.

Health - 26.02.2021

Menthol cigarettes linked to 10 million extra smokers, hundreds of thousands of premature deaths
Menthol cigarettes contributed to 378,000 premature deaths in the United States between 1980 to 2018, according to a new University of Michigan study. The research shows that about 10 million smokers were attributable to menthol cigarettes, which researchers estimate accounted for about 3 million life years lost.

Health - Pharmacology - 25.02.2021

Opioid agonist treatment could substantially reduce drug related deaths if used more widely
New evidence that opioid agonists such as methadone and buprenorphine could substantially reduce drug related deaths if more widely used in the community and prison, and for longer, has been published in Lancet Psychiatry today [25 February]. Treatment of people addicted to opioids with methadone or buprenorphine also known as 'opioid agonist treatment' (OAT) reduces many of the harms associated with injecting drug use including death by overdose, suicide, injury, or other causes.

Health - Life Sciences - 25.02.2021

New Coronavirus Toolkit allows for ’open access’ of antibodies and genetic tools to further global research into COVID-19 variants
An international consortium, led by scientists in Scotland, have devised a Coronavirus Toolkit which gives researchers from across the world open access to materials, including antibodies and genetic tools, which can be easily and immediately ordered via an online portal - to further research into COVID-19.

Life Sciences - Health - 25.02.2021

Genetic treatment extends fruit fly lifespan and prevents Alzheimer’s damage
Modifying brain cell activity can extend the lifespan of fruit flies while also preventing the damage characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers found that by modifying the levels of two different proteins that are active in two different types of brain cells, they could extend fruit fly lifespans by around 7-9% (close to an extra week), they report in PNAS.

Health - 25.02.2021

Smartphones could help to prevent glaucoma blindness - study
Smartphones could be used to scan people's eyes for early-warning signs of glaucoma - helping to prevent severe ocular diseases and blindness, a new study reveals. Some of the most common eye-related diseases are avoidable and display strong risk factors before onset, but it is much harder to pinpoint a group of people at risk from glaucoma.

Pharmacology - Health - 25.02.2021

Prioritizing oldest for COVID-19 vaccines saves more lives, years of life
On Dec. 8 in Coventry, England, Margaret Keenan, 90, became the first patient in the U.K. to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. (AP photo by Jacob King) Challenging the idea that older people with shorter life expectancies should rank lower in coronavirus immunization efforts, new UC Berkeley research shows that giving vaccine priority to those most at risk of dying from COVID-19 will save the maximum number of lives, and their potential or future years of life.

Health - 24.02.2021

Governments face dilemma in making COVID lockdown decisions - study
Governments face a dilemma in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic - impose an early lockdown to slow the virus' spread and encourage good health practice or delay to protect jobs and learn more about how the virus behaves, a new study reveals. Early lockdown encourages people to adopt certain habits, such as hand washing and wearing masks, which they continue even when restrictions are lifted.

Health - Pharmacology - 24.02.2021

Scientists model a peculiar type of breast cancer
Scientists led by EPFL have developed a breakthrough in vivo model for invasive lobular carcinoma, a serious yet understudied type of breast cancer. The work will open up previously inaccessible study of the tumor's biology and help discover new therapies. Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is a type of breast cancer that begins in the milk-producing glands (lobules) of the breast.

Health - Physics - 24.02.2021

Identification of ’violent’ processes that cause wheezing could lead to better diagnosis and treatment for lung disease
A team of engineers has identified the 'violent' physical processes at work inside the lungs which cause wheezing, a condition that affects up to a quarter of the world's population. Since wheezing is associated with so many conditions, it is difficult to be sure of what is wrong with a patient just based on the wheeze Anurag Agarwal The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used modelling and high-speed video techniques to show what causes wheezing and how to predict it.

Life Sciences - Health - 24.02.2021

Reactivating Aging Stem Cells in the Brain
As people get older, their neural stem cells lose the ability to proliferate and produce new neurons, leading to a decline in memory function. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered a mechanism linked to stem cell aging - and how the production of neurons can be reactivated. The stem cells in our brain generate new neurons throughout life, for example in the hippocampus.

Health - Pharmacology - 24.02.2021

Some men with testicular cancer may benefit from fewer CT scans
Patients who have had treatment for early-stage testicular cancer could benefit from fewer monitoring scans, reducing the harmful radiation they are exposed to from computerized tomography (CT) imaging, according to the results of a new clinical trial involving UCL researchers. Funded by Cancer Research UK and led by researchers at UCL, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Leeds/Huddersfield, the study found that using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instead of CT scans was as effective at picking up signs of cancer relapse.

Physics - Health - 24.02.2021

UChicago, Argonne scientists zero in on molecules that could fight COVID-19
A unique partnership among biologists, chemists and X-ray scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory has zeroed in on several molecules that could be used to create drugs to fight COVID-19. Their results, published in  Nature Communications ,  help scientists understand the shape and structure of the virus and how it works-and how it can be blocked.

Health - Life Sciences - 23.02.2021

Global travellers vulnerable to drug-resistant bacteria - study
International travellers are particularly vulnerable to virulent strains of drug-resistant bacteria - often picking up several different types during a trip through spending time in the company of other tourists, a new study reveals. The global spread of intestinal multidrug resistant gram-negative (MDR-GN) bacteria poses a serious threat to human health worldwide, with MDR clones of E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae threatening more antibiotic resistant infections around the world.

Health - Pharmacology - 23.02.2021

Scientists launch a pre-emptive strike on deadly post-transplant infection
A potential new treatment to protect  immunosuppressed  patients from human  cytomegalovirus  ( HCMV ) has been discovered by scientists at the University of Cambridge. Their study shows that certain epigenetic inhibitors expose and help to destroy dormant  HCMV  infections, which often reactivate to cause serious illness and death in these vulnerable groups.

Health - 23.02.2021

Reddit shows people with kidney stones have been less likely to seek treatment during pandemic
FINDINGS According to an examination of posts on Reddit, the pandemic has had a significant effect on the management of kidney stone disease. Researchers from the department of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA used computational analysis and other techniques to explore unfiltered discussions related to kidney stones in real time on the website's discussion forums.