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Researchers at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit in Oxford's Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences have discovered a new neuronal mechanism in the hippocampus, that prevents new 'flexible' memories from being formed due to a past 'robust' memory. Memories inform our everyday actions and guide our behaviours.

Researchers at Oxford Population Health have found that proteins carried in the blood offer new insights into ageing and how it influences our risk of developing age-related diseases such as dementia, heart disease, and liver disease later in life. The study is published in Nature Medicine . Chronological age is the most important factor determining risk of disease and death in adults.

New research finds outsourcing care homes in England disproportionately disadvantages poorer areas Outsourcing care homes has compromised the accessibility and quality of care for the most vulnerable, particularly in areas of greatest deprivation, according to new research led by the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at Oxford University and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Increasing serotonin can change how people learn from negative information, as well as improving how they respond to it, according to a new study published in the leading journal Nature Communications .

In a new study, published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology , endocrinologists and researchers from the Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health (NDWRH) at the University of Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) at Queen Mary University of London and the National University of Singapore have emphasised the critical need for further research into the effects of heat exposure on the endocrine system.

Many people who were hospitalised with COVID-19 continue to have cognitive and psychiatric problems even two to three years post-infection, according to a new study published in Lancet Psychiatry . Conducted by a group of researchers across the UK led by the University of Oxford and the University of Leicester, and published in Lancet Psychiatry , the research highlights the persistent and significant nature of these symptoms as well as the emergence of new symptoms years after COVID-19 was first present.

A new state of the art review, published in The Lancet , highlights the scale and impact of Long COVID. It explains biological mechanisms behind the condition and suggests priority areas for future research. In a new review paper , researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Leeds and Arizona, analysed dozens of previous studies into Long COVID to examine the number and range of people affected, the underlying mechanisms of disease, the many symptoms that patients develop, and current and future treatments.

The new recombinant shingles vaccine 'Shingrix' is associated with a reduced risk of dementia compared to an earlier shingles vaccine, according to a major new study published in Nature Medicine . It is also more protective than vaccines against other infections.

A new paper published in Science Advances finds that life expectancy in India was 2.6 years lower in 2020 than 2019, with women and marginalised social groups suffering the greatest declines. The international study, co-authored by the Department of Sociology and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science 's Dr Aashish Gupta and Professor Ridhi Kashyap , reveals that life expectancy in India suffered large and unequal declines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers analysing data from mobile phone apps used during the COVID-19 pandemic found that digital contact tracing provides rich insights into epidemic dynamics with unprecedented resolution and speed, revealing how transmission varied by day of the week, gatherings during the 2021 Christmas period, and the UEFA Euro football tournament in July 2021.

Major UK Study Reveals Shifting Trends and Persistent Challenges in Heart Disease Over the Last 20 Years A new study has shed light on how the landscape of heart disease has evolved in the UK over the past two decades. Researchers analysed electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD and Aurum), encompassing a representative cohort of 22 million individuals.

Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) have published a new study of the effectiveness of AI tools like ChatGPT in targeting specific demographics with tailored political messaging. Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have raised the prospect of scalable, automated, and fine-grained political microtargeting on a scale previously unseen.

People with poor metabolic health are more likely to have memory and thinking problems and worse brain health, according to a new study by researchers at Oxford Population Health. The study is published in Diabetes Care , and is the largest study into metabolic and brain health to date. Poor metabolic health, also known as "metabolic syndrome", is defined as having three or more of the following: a large waist circumference, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, sometimes known as 'good' cholesterol.

Scientists have discovered the key features of immune B cells which make them successful at targeting tumours - including when cancer has spread to a different part of the body. Published in Nature Immunology , the researchers have developed a computational tool to identify these anti-cancer immune cells which could lead to improved, personalised immunotherapies.

Collaborative research, led from the University of Oxford and published today in Nature Medicine , has developed a new tool called QR4 that more accurately predicts an individual's 10-year risk of cardiovascular diseases, like heart disease and stroke, particularly identifying high-risk patients that current prediction tools miss.

In response to the escalating fire crises in the Amazon, a timely study has revealed alarming shortcomings in the emergency fire bans implemented by the Brazilian Government. Initially seen as a promising solution in 2019, these bans have consistently fallen short in subsequent years, revealing a pressing need for strategies that address the underlying causes of each type of fire.

In a new study, researchers from Oxford's Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health have found that pregnant mothers' exposure to air pollution from indoor stoves did not affect the development of their babies in any statistically significant way, challenging conventional wisdom regarding the impact of household air pollution on fetal growth.

A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford has found that birds that are more social are more likely to use novel sources of food. The findings have been published in iScience . The findings suggest that highly social birds may alleviate the costs of competition for food by foraging more broadly and exploiting novel food sources, but future research could explore whether there are additional reasons which explain why more social individuals are more likely to tolerate new foods.

Researchers from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford have used data from UK Biobank participants to reveal that diabetes, traffic-related air pollution and alcohol intake are the most harmful out of 15 modifiable risk factors for dementia. The researchers had previously identified a 'weak spot' in the brain, which is a specific network of higher-order regions that not only develop later during adolescence, but also show earlier degeneration in old age.

A new study by researchers at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS) and Princeton University reveals that US working-age adults are dying at higher rates than their peers in high-income countries; the UK is also falling behind. The study is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology .