news

A research team led by UCL and Erasmus University has found a missing piece to the puzzle of why the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles can remain dormant for decades in human cells. Described in a recent paper , researchers discovered there is an RNA transcript in the varicella zoster virus (VZV), that continues to remain active after a person has recovered from chickenpox.

 North Atlantic circulation is weaker today than it has been for over a thousand years, and leading climate change models could be overestimating its stability, according to a team of scientists led by UCL and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, US. In the first comprehensive study of ocean-based records scientists have observed a marked weakening of Atlantic circulation over the past 150 years.

Entering menopause at a later age may be associated with a small benefit to your memory years later, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The paper, published today in Neurology and funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) suggests a possible link between entering the menopause late and memory retention.

Kidney cancer follows multiple distinct evolutionary paths, finds new research by a team involving UCL. The research will enable the scientists to detect whether a tumour will be aggressive and reveals that the first seeds of kidney cancer are sown as early as childhood.

The complex properties of water and ice are not well understood but a team from UCL and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source have revealed new information about a phase of ice called 'ice II'. Given that water makes up 60% of our bodies and is one of the most abundant molecules in the universe, it's no wonder that water is known as the "matrix of life".

Antarctica's great ice sheet is losing ground as it is eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new UCL and University of Leeds study has found. Research by the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) has produced the first complete map of how the ice sheet's submarine edge, or "grounding line", is shifting.

MRI scans could be used to detect prostate cancer more accurately, according to researchers at UCL, King's College London and Imperial College London who are launching a new clinical study. The current prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test is considered too unreliable for population screening, and the researchers will test for the first time if MRI scans could be used to screen men to pick up cancers earlier and more reliably, and help save lives.

Rare genetic mutations associated with impairment of the breathing muscles are more common in children who have died from sudden infant death syndrome, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in The Lancet , suggests a possible genetic element of the disorder, which is also known as 'cot death'.

UCL academics will lead a five-year study of childhood arthritis and its linked eye inflammation called uveitis, with the aim of better understanding how to treat the complex condition. The CLUSTER consortium has been awarded £5 million from the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) with partnership funding from Arthritis Research UK.

A troublesome gene that is resistant to an antibiotic often used as a last resort has been tracked from its origins on Chinese pig farms to hospital patients worldwide in a new study led by UCL and Peking University People's Hospital. The study, published , found that the mcr-1 gene, now present across the globe, can be tracked to a single event around 2005 when it moved from pigs into pathogens that affect humans.

A new generation of brain scanner, that can be worn like a helmet allowing patients to move naturally whilst being scanned, has been developed by researchers at UCL and the University of Nottingham as a Wellcome-funded project. In a Nature paper published today, the researchers demonstrate that they can measure brain activity while people make natural movements, including nodding, stretching, drinking tea and even playing ping pong.

Macaques appear to select stone tools to crack open oil palm nuts based on the size and strength of their own body, rather than the optimum weight and size of the stone, to make the process more efficient, according to new research led by UCL.

Disadvantaged children born at the start of the 21st century weighed up to 5kg more in their childhood and early teenage years than those from more privileged backgrounds, a new UCL study has found. However, in previous generations lower social class was associated with lower childhood and adolescent weight.

The world's first continuous room-temperature solid-state maser has been developed by UCL and Imperial College London scientists. The breakthrough, made using a diamond held in a ring of sapphire, opens up the possibility for masers (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) being used in a wide variety of applications such as medical imaging and airport security scanning.

The largest-ever survey of care home staff in England, led by UCL researchers, has found that neglectful behaviours are widespread. For the study, published today in PLOS ONE , care home staff were asked anonymously about positive and negative behaviours they had done or had witnessed colleagues doing.

The first patients to receive a new treatment derived from stem cells for people with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have regained reading vision according to a new study involving UCL. The results of this small but ground-breaking clinical study described the implantation of a specially engineered patch of retinal pigment epithelium cells derived from stem cells to treat people with sudden severe sight loss from wet AMD.

A large international study led by UCL and UCLH researchers, has found that an MRI scan and targeted prostate biopsies, are significantly better at making a positive prostate cancer diagnosis than standard biopsies. The PRECISION Trial randomly allocated 500 men with suspected prostate cancer from 23 international centres and found that using MRI to perform prostate biopsies leads to more of the harmful prostate cancers, and fewer harmless cancers being diagnosed, than the standard way of performing biopsies.

One-in-three adults in England and Northern Ireland (NI) cannot work out the correct change from a shopping trip, according to new research from UCL and University of Cambridge. The findings show that adults in England and NI perform worse on everyday financial numeracy tasks than adults in many other developed countries - even when using a calculator.

The human brain can take advantage of brain resources originally devoted to the hand to represent a prosthetic limb, a new UCL-led study concludes. Among people with only one hand, the brain area that enables us to recognise hands can also recognise a prosthetic hand, particularly among those who use a prosthesis regularly, according to the new Brain paper.

Major advances into how to protect and preserve a huge haul of cannonballs found on Henry VIII's flagship vessel The Mary Rose, have been made through a ground-breaking partnership between UCL, The Mary Rose and Diamond Light Source. The Mary Rose is a famous Tudor ship that sank in 1545 and was raised from the sea in 1982, when 1,200 cannonballs were discovered.