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A UCL researcher is leading a phase 3 trial involving more than 1,000 people with multiple sclerosis (MS) to investigate whether simvastatin could become a treatment for the condition. The trial will test simvastatin, a cheap cholesterol lowering drug, in people with the secondary progressive form of MS.

Scientists are closer to understanding the genetic causes of type 2 diabetes by identifying 111 new chromosome locations ('loci') on the human genome that indicate susceptibility to the disease, according to a UCL-led study in collaboration with Imperial College London. Type 2 diabetes is the world's most widespread and devastating metabolic disorder and previously only 76 loci were known and studied.

People on the autistic spectrum can take in more sounds at any given moment compared to non-autistic people, according to new research from UCL. Researchers from the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) used two behavioural experiments to examine whether an increased capacity for processing sounds in autism could underlie both difficulties and enhanced auditory abilities that are found in the condition.

The brain responds less to money gained from immoral actions than money earned decently, reveals a new UCL-led study. The research, published and funded by Wellcome, helps explain why most people are reluctant to seek illicit gains by identifying a neural process that dampens the appeal of profiting at other people's expense.

Scientists have found that unstable chromosomes within lung tumours increase the risk of cancer returning after surgery, and have used this new knowledge to detect relapse long before standard testing. These are the first findings from the Cancer Research UK-funded TRACERx lung cancer study, led by UCL researchers and published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature .

A simple eye test could help solve the biggest global cause of irreversible blindness, glaucoma. In clinical trials, the pioneering diagnostic - developed by researchers at UCL and the Western Eye Hospital - allowed doctors to see individual nerve cell death in the back of the eye. Glaucoma affects 60 million people in the world, with 1 in 10 suffering total sight loss in both eyes.

How lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries behave under short-circuit conditions can now be examined using a new approach developed by a UCL-led team to help improve reliability and safety. The use of high energy density Li-ion batteries is ubiquitous - from powering portable electronics to providing grid-scale storage - but defects can lead to overheating and explosions.

Life skills, such as persistence, conscientiousness and control, are as important to wealth and wellbeing in later life as they are when people are much younger, according to new research led by UCL. Five life skills - emotional stability, determination, control, optimism and conscientiousness - play a key role in promoting educational and occupational success in early life but little has been known about their importance in later life.

Multiple artificial intelligence (AI) agents have learned to work together to play StarCraft, a science fiction combat video game, by using two-way communication according to a team from UCL and Alibaba Group. Previously, single AI agents learned to play Go and card games, beating the most accomplished human players, but in this study, multiple AI agents have learned to collaborate to defeat multiple enemies in a real-time strategy game.

The common antibiotic doxycycline can disrupt the formation of negative associations in the brain, according to new research from UCL and the University of Zurich. The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, was a pre-registered, placebo-controlled, double-blind randomised controlled trial in 76 healthy volunteers.

The most common reasons given for the breakdown of marriages or live-in partnerships in Britain are communication problems and growing apart, according to analysis by UCL researchers of the latest National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3). Arguments and unfaithfulness were the next most frequent reasons given by both men and women.

Using a satnav to get to your destination 'switches off' parts of the brain that would otherwise be used to simulate different routes, reveals new UCL research. The study, published and funded by Wellcome, involved 24 volunteers navigating a simulation of Soho in central London while undergoing brain scans.

Flower-rich habitats are key to enhancing the survival of bumblebee families, according to new research involving UCL scientists. The team led by the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology found that increasing flowers provided by spring-flowering trees, hedgerow plants and crops across the landscape - in combination with summer flower resources - can increase the probability of family survival to the next year by up to four times.

Scientists at UCL have developed a way to use MRI scans to help identify when HIV is persisting in the brain despite effective drug treatment. The study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and funded by Wellcome, shows that patients can have HIV in the brain even when the disease is kept under control by treatment.

UCL and language learning app Memrise have announced the winner of the first 'Memprize', a competition to find the world's most efficient and effective vocabulary learning technique. A team from Radboud University in the Netherlands won the prize after over a year of in-depth real-life empirical experiments involving more than 10,000 Memrise users as volunteers.

In flies and mice, diets based on an organism's genome enhance growth and fertility with no costs to lifespan, according to a team of researchers from UCL and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne. A moderate reduction in food intake, known as dietary restriction, protects against multiple ageing-related diseases and extends life span, but can also supress growth and fertility.

A huge mass of glowing stardust in a galaxy seen shortly after the Universe's formation has been detected by a UCL-led team of astronomers, providing new insights into the birth and explosive deaths of the very first stars. The galaxy is the most distant object ever observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and was seen when the Universe was only four percent of its present age, at about 600 million years old, when the first stars and galaxies were forming.

People who feel that they have been discriminated against because of their weight are much less likely to be physically active than people who don't perceive that they have suffered any such stigmatisation, according to new research led by UCL. The research was published in the journal BMJ Open .  It was the first study to examine the relationship between weight discrimination and physical activity in a large population sample.

Breast cancer patients who receive the drug Herceptin for nine weeks as part of their post-surgery chemotherapy regime may enjoy better health outcomes, according to new research led by UCL, compared to those who receive it for 12 months, the period currently recommended in the English NHS. The researchers calculated that switching to the nine-week course of Herceptin could also save the NHS over £100 million a year.

Remains of microorganisms at least 3,770 million years old have been discovered by an international team led by UCL scientists, providing direct evidence of one of the oldest life forms on Earth. Tiny filaments and tubes formed by bacteria that lived on iron were found encased in quartz layers in the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt (NSB), Quebec, Canada.