news

Only a select group of the world's top global health organisations have placed gender equality at the centre of their operations, according to a new report involving UCL researchers. The findings come from the new research and accountability initiative, Global Health 50/50, part funded by Wellcome and co-led by Professor Sarah Hawkes of UCL's Centre for Gender and Global Health and Dr Kent Buse of UNAIDS.

People are willing to travel 75 minutes longer for specialist cancer surgery if it reduces their risk of complications by 1%, according to new UCL-led research. The study, published today in the British Journal of Surgery, and funded by the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research Programme, analysed patients' and health professionals' preferences for centralising specialist cancer surgery services.

Animals living in volatile habitats can gain major evolutionary benefits by shielding their families from the changing environment, suggests research from UCL, the University of Bristol and University of Exeter. In a study , biologists investigated an overlooked reason for widespread cooperation amongst animals and found that when their environment is prone to fluctuate unexpectedly, staying at home to help raise relatives can be much better than going solo.

A dying worm experiences rigor mortis early in the death process, rather than after the main event as it is for humans, according to a new study by an international team of scientists at UCL and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study, published in the journal Cell Reports , is the first discovery of rigor mortis in worms and provides new insight into the process of 'organismal' death.

Scientists at UCL have explained for the first time the mystery of why adhesive tape is so useful for graphene production. The study, published in Advanced Materials , used supercomputers to model the process through which graphene sheets are exfoliated from graphite, the material in pencils. Graphene is known for being the strongest material in the world, lightweight and with extraordinary electrical, thermal and optical properties.

Beaker pottery and culture spread through large-scale migration of people and through the exchange of new ideas, according to new research by an international team involving UCL scientists. The study involved analysis of ancient-DNA data from 400 prehistoric skeletons drawn from sites across Europe. It is the largest study of ancient human DNA ever conducted.

Clocking up just a few minutes at a time of any level of physical activity, including of light intensity, is linked to a lower risk of death in older men, suggests UCL-led research. The study, which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine , found that although there were greater benefits from doing moderate or more intense activity, even light intensity physical activity lowered the risk of death.

A UCL-led research team has identified the pattern of brain tissue loss in multiple sclerosis, enabling improved prediction of disability progression. The study, published in Annals of Neurology , was one of the largest brain imaging studies ever conducted investigating multiple sclerosis (MS). "It's well known that brain atrophy occurs in people with MS and varies by region, but we typically only measure the shrinkage of the whole brain.

New laser scanning technology is being used by UCL scientists to provide fresh and unprecedented insights into the structure and mass of trees, a development that will help plot how much carbon they absorb and how they might respond to climate change. Two studies, published today (Friday) by the Royal Society, by researchers at UCL and the universities of Oxford, Sonoma State, Ghent and Wageningen, reveal the technology has captured the 3D structure of individual trees in ways they have never been seen before.

Cancer Research UK is planning to invest nearly £9m over the next five years into research at the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre. The announcement is part of a £45 million investment into Cancer Research UK's network of clinical trials units across the UK, one of the charity's largest investments in clinical research to date.

Amyloid beta pathology - protein deposits in the brain - might have been transmitted by contaminated neurosurgical instruments, suggests a new UCL-led study. For the paper, published today in Acta Neuropathologica , researchers studied the medical records of four people who had brain bleeds caused by amyloid beta build-up in the blood vessels of the brain.

Cells that form facial features need surrounding embryonic tissues to stiffen so they can move and develop, according to new UCL-led research. The discovery has important implications for understanding the causes of facial defects which account for a third of all birth defects globally (3.2 million each year) and are the primary cause of infant mortality.

Citrus fruit was being cultivated in India in the Late Neolithic period and in southern Thailand in the Iron Age, according to new findings by archaeologists at UCL and Peking University, Beijing. Citrus fruit are widespread and well known nearly everywhere today, but very little is known about how they were domesticated and diversified.

The prescription of opioid drugs by GPs in England is steadily rising, especially in more deprived communities, even though they can cause complications and adverse effects and do not work for chronic pain, a UCL study has revealed. The study, led by Dr Luke Mordecai, a pain research fellow at University College London Hospital (UCLH) found that over a 43 month period between 2010 and 2014 there was a rise in opioid prescribing.

Severe nerve damage has been successfully repaired in the laboratory using a new living artificial nerve tissue developed by UCL, ReNeuron and Sartorius Stedim Biotech. It opens up the possibility of a new 'off the shelf', universal therapy to improve the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries by removing the need for nerve grafts which cause additional damage and personalised stem cell therapies which take weeks to prepare.

The face of 'Cheddar Man', Britain's oldest nearly complete skeleton at 10,000 years old, is revealed for the first time and with unprecedented accuracy by UCL and Natural History Museum researchers. The results indicate that Cheddar Man had blue eyes, dark coloured curly hair and 'dark to black' skin pigmentation.

Up to 16% of all species on Earth could qualify as potential alien species and if they invade new regions, impacts will be difficult to predict, according to new research involving UCL. The study shows that the number of newly emerging alien species - those never before encountered as aliens - continues to rise, posing a significant challenge to biosecurity interventions worldwide.

Flowering plants likely originated between 149 and 256 million years ago according to new UCL-led research. The study, published today in New Phytologist by researchers from the UK and China, shows that flowering plants are neither as old as suggested by previous molecular studies, nor as young as a literal interpretation of their fossil record.

A UCL-led team has developed a cognitive test to detect subtle memory deficits years before Alzheimer's disease symptoms develop, set out in a new paper published in The Lancet Neurology. The study involved 21 people who carry the mutation for early onset Alzheimer's disease who have not shown any symptoms based on standard cognitive tests, alongside 14 controls.

Adolescents who have experienced some form of racism between the ages of 11 and 23 are more likely to take up smoking than those who have not, according to a new study led by King's College London involving UCL. The study, analysed questionnaire and interview data from the Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) study, the UK's largest longitudinal study of ethnically diverse young people.