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Oxford University scientists researching PAD4, a protein that plays a role in the development of inflammatory diseases like arthritis and which is regularly found in cancers have uncovered the protein's role in cancer development. Their results are published online by the journal Science Advances . Peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 (PAD4) is an enzyme that plays a role in genetic expression - turning our genetic code into functional products in the body.

Human-induced climate change increased the risk of severe storms like those that hit the south of England in the winter of 2013/14, causing devastating flooding and costing several people their lives. That's according to new analysis from an international team of climate scientists led by researchers at Oxford University.

It has long been observed that some volcanoes erupt with little prior warning. Now, scientists have come up with an explanation behind these sudden eruptions that could change the way observers monitor active or dormant volcanoes. Previously, it was thought eruptions were triggered by a build-up of pressure caused by the slow accumulation of bubbly, gas-saturated magma beneath volcanoes over tens to hundreds of years.

Orbit Discovery - a new spinout from the University of Oxford - has raised seed funding to commercialise technology which will help to identify targeted, affordable therapeutic drugs known as peptides. Oxford Sciences Innovation, the £320m investment company established to provide capital and scaling expertise to Oxford spinouts, is the lead investor in the new company.

An illustration showing atherosclerosis - blockage of the artery caused by a buildup of cholesterol-rich plaque. When plaque breaks off and enters the brain, it can cause a clot leading to stroke Scientists at the University of Oxford will investigate a new way to identify people who might be at high risk of stroke. Dr Luca Biasiolli at the university has been backed by the British Heart Foundation to study whether a new MRI scanning technique could be used to spot the potentially dangerous plaques that cause stroke.

While traditional economic and evolutionary theory predicts that people will typically seek to maximise their own success, the results of economic games have shown people to be much more altruistic than expected. But a series of experiments carried out by evolutionary biologists at Oxford found that people are just as generous towards computers, which cannot benefit materially from cooperation, and that simply misunderstanding the game may lead to altruism in many cases.

While research has already established that B vitamin supplements can help slow mental decline in older people with memory problems, an international team have now found that having higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in your body could boost the B vitamins' effect. The team, from the Universities of Cape Town, Oslo, Oxford and the UAE, studied more than 250 people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Oxford.

An international team of scientists has shed new light on the earthquake that devastated Nepal in April 2015, killing more than 8,000 people. A study published shows that a kink in the regional fault line below Nepal explains why the highest mountains in the Himalayas are seen to grow between earthquakes.

A new technique that monitors the movement of chickens can be used to predict which flocks are at risk of becoming infected with Campylobacter - the most common bacterial source of food poisoning in humans in the UK. Research by scientists at Oxford University has found that by using a camera system to analyse the 'optical flow' of chickens, at-risk flocks can be detected when the birds are only seven to 10 days old - much earlier than is usually possible with conventional on-farm sampling methods.

Surgery is getting safer thanks to research by an Oxford University team that has brought together two previously competing theories about how best to protect patients. Previous attempts to improve patient safety in surgery used one of two approaches. Some investigators tried to improve teamwork and communication by training team members to interact better, using principles developed in the aviation industry.

A new study led by the University of Oxford suggests that more insecticide-treated malaria nets (ITNs) and improved efficiency in net delivery are needed to achieve universal coverage and make serious headway on the path to the elimination of the disease. Currently, malaria net coverage remains well below the 100% universal coverage target.

Oxford University researchers across the globe are working to beat Malaria. Now, a team of Oxford scientists in the UK and Kenya, working with colleagues in three Swiss institutes, have found two people who could reveal a new approach to targeting the malaria parasite. Malaria still claims over 400,000 lives every year, mostly due to infection by a single species of malaria parasite called Plasmodium falciparum .

What binds military fighters or terrorists together so tightly that they are willing to sacrifice their own lives for their causes?  Previous research has shown that such extreme behaviour can be driven by 'identity fusion', a strong sense of 'oneness' with their group. Oxford University researchers have now shed new light on the role that shared emotional experiences plays in this fusion between people's personal and group identities.

An Oxford University study says children's centres across England have successfully reached out to support vulnerable families in disadvantaged communities, especially in supporting parenting skills and confidence Organised activities, such as 'Stay and Play' sessions where parents and their children played and learned songs, were linked to small but significant reductions in parenting stress, improvements in mothers' health, and better learning environments in the children's own homes.

Private equity firms have charged hidden fees amounting to $20 billion to companies, while some of the firms' partners have sat on the companies' board of directors, according to a new study. Dr Ludovic Phalippou, Associate Professor of Finance at the Saïd Business School, and his coauthors Dr Christian Rauch and Professor Dr Mark Umber examined the portfolio fees of 592 US companies worth $1.1 trillion in total.

Mariners have long spoken of 'walls of water' appearing from nowhere in the open seas. But oceanographers have generally disregarded such stories and suggested that rogue waves - enormous surface waves that have attained a near-mythical status over the centuries - build up gradually and have relatively narrow crests.

Scientists have found a marker that can indicate your likelihood of suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) even sixteen years before the condition takes effect. A team from the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Oxford University found that a blood test that looks for antibodies that recognize the protein tenascin-C could reliably show those who will contract the condition.

A study of a million UK women, published today in  The Lancet ,  has shown that happiness itself has no direct effect on mortality, and that the widespread but mistaken belief that unhappiness and stress directly cause ill health came from studies that had simply confused cause and effect. Life-threatening poor health can cause unhappiness, and for this reason unhappiness is associated with increased mortality.

A drug destined for the scrap heap has been rescued by Oxford scientists, who may have found it a new role in treating bipolar disorder. A team from Oxford University, led by Dr Grant Churchill and Dr Sridhar Vasudevan of the Department of Pharmacology, in collaboration with Professor Phil Cowen of the Department of Psychiatry, used a database of 'failed' drugs, found to be safe but ineffective for their proposed use, to identify ebselen as a possible alternative to lithium, the main treatment for people who are bipolar.

Whole Genome Sequencing is a faster, cheaper and more effective way of diagnosing tuberculosis says a new study published in the journal  Lancet Respiratory Medicine . Dr Louise Pankhurst of the University of Oxford and a team of worldwide collaborators including Public Health England utilised innovative DNA technology to diagnose cases of tuberculosis (TB) up to eight times faster than traditional methods.