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A simple blood test could speed up diagnosis and improve outcomes for children with Africa's most common childhood cancer. In a study published in Nature Medicine , researchers from the University of Oxford and the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es salaam, Tanzania, have shown that a minimally invasive "liquid biopsy" test can diagnose Burkitt lymphoma rapidly and accurately in sub-Saharan Africa, where delays in traditional testing often prove fatal.

Research published in Science Advances has uncovered new insights into why the most aggressive oesophageal cancers are so difficult to treat and how the body's own defence systems are helping them to thrive. The study, led by Professor Eileen Parkes and her team in the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford, analysed patient-donated tumour samples and found that the most dangerous types of oesophageal cancers share a key feature: high chromosomal instability.

Two companion studies, published in Cell Genomics , reveal how brain development lays the foundation for both shared and sex-specific circuits, redefining how neural diversity arises. A preview article l'inked to the report highlights the broader significance of these findings and places them in context for the field.

An AI-driven tool that tailors antidepressant treatment to individual patients was shown to improve outcomes for people with depression, compared to standard treatment, in a major international trial. It is the first time ever a mental health clinical prediction tool has been demonstrated as effective.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a "Stroke Cognition Calculator", a new tool designed to estimate a person's chance of having thinking and memory problems six months after a stroke. The study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care research (NIHR), and led by researchers at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences was published in the Lancet Health Longevity .

A new multinational study from the INTERCOVID Consortium, led by researchers from the University of Oxford, has found that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, particularly when combined with a booster dose, significantly reduces the risk of preeclampsia, a serious and potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication.

Some Argentinian penguins are experiencing high levels of predation from pumas recolonising their historical territory. A new study involving Oxford researchers, published today in the Journal for Nature Conservation , has quantified the risk on long-term penguin population survival. Should we protect an emblematic species if it may come at the cost of another one - particularly in ecosystems that are still recovering from human impacts? This is the conservation dilemma facing Monte Leon National Park, on the Patagonian coast in Argentina.

Statins do not cause the majority of the conditions that have been listed in their package leaflets, including memory loss, depression, sleep disturbance, and erectile and sexual dysfunction, according to the most comprehensive review of possible side effects. The study was led by researchers at Oxford Population Health and published in The Lancet .

Researchers find reducing salt in everyday foods could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes A new study led by researchers in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences has found that if the UK food industry had met the government's voluntary 2024 salt reduction targets, substantial improvements could have been made in cardiovascular health, leading to major savings for the NHS - all without the public having to change their eating habits.

New study finds that stopping weight-loss drugs is linked to faster regain than ending diet programmes People tend to regain weight rapidly after stopping weight-loss drugs - and faster than after ending behavioural weight loss programmes - according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis from researchers in Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences , published in The BMJ today.

A new study involving researchers from Oxford University's Department of Biology has found that the exaggerated feather ornaments on the heads of male Chrysolophus pheasants restricts their field of view. The findings have been published in Biology Letters . Many animals try to win a mate by displaying spectacular ornamentation - such as the famous tail of male peacocks.

Infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, and tuberculosis are considered to pose as great a challenge to global health as new or emerging pathogens, according to a major international study led by The Global Health Network at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Medicine and commissioned by Wellcome.

A new study led by the University of Oxford has found evidence that kissing evolved in the common ancestor of humans and other large apes around 21 million years ago, and that Neanderthals likely engaged in kissing too. The findings have been published today  in Evolution and Human Behavior . This is the first time anyone has taken a broad evolutionary lens to examine kissing.

Oxford University and Austrian researchers uncover a previously unknown 'handbrake' mechanism controlling how cells respond to cancer drugs, reshaping global understanding of cell metabolism and drug resistance. A world-first discovery, published in the journal Science , rewrites our understanding of how cells control the production of DNA's building blocks - and how this process affects the response to widely used cancer and autoimmune drugs.

Scientists from Oxford's Radcliffe Department of Medicine have achieved the most detailed view yet of how DNA folds and functions inside living cells, revealing the physical structures that control when and how genes are switched on. Using a new technique called MCC ultra, the team mapped the human genome down to a single base pair, unlocking how genes are controlled, or, how the body decides which genes to turn on or off at the right time, in the right cells.

Oxford research reveals need to support children across entire weight spectrum, not just those with obesity. The NHS incurs an estimated £340 million in additional healthcare costs annually due to weight-related health problems in children, but it is not just obesity driving the costs. New research from the University of Oxford reveals that underweight children need comparable medical support as those who are severely obese, challenging assumptions about childhood health priorities.

Any amount of alcohol consumption may increase risk of dementia, according to the most comprehensive study of alcohol consumption and dementia risk to date. Led by the University of Oxford, Yale University, and the University of Cambridge, the research challenges previous suggestions that light-to-moderate drinking may have a protective effect against dementia.

Teenagers who experience moderate or severe period pain are significantly more likely to develop chronic pain in adulthood, including pain beyond the pelvis, according to a major new study from the University of Oxford, funded by the Medical Research Foundation. As children and young people return to school this week, the findings offer a timely reminder of the urgent need to take adolescent menstrual pain seriously and improve the support available to young people.

A new study published in Nature reveals that the mechanical environment surrounding a tumour can cause cancer cells to change their behaviour, triggering a switch from rapid growth to a more invasive, drug-resistant state. Cancer cells are notoriously flexible, and take on new features as they move around the body.

A new paper published in Nature shows how, in a collaborative project across diverse medical disciplines, Oxford researchers from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN) and the Department of Biochemistry have identified a new genetic link to pain. Chronic pain is life-changing and considered one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, making daily life difficult for millions of people around the world, and exacerbating personal and economic burdens.