news

An international study involving UCL has made advances in understanding the ways in which genetic risk factors alter gene function in schizophrenia. The study, published today in Genome Biology and funded by the Medical Research Council , combined genetic sequence information with measures of gene regulation in schizophrenia patients and matched controls.

The greatest threat to sustainable groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic Basin is contamination and not depletion, according to a study co-authored by UCL researchers and published this week . Using groundwater measurements from across the region, the study reveals that over 60% of accessible groundwater is no longer safe to drink or usable for irrigation due to high concentrations of arsenic or salinity.

Extensive systems of fossilised riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about four billion years ago, according to UCL-led research. The study, published in Geology and funded by the Science & Technology Facilities Council and the UK Space Agency, identified over 17,000km of former river channels on a northern plain called Arabia Terra, providing further evidence of water once flowing on Mars.

Making an assistive robot partner expressive and communicative is likely to make it more satisfying to work with and lead to users trusting it more, even if it makes mistakes, a new UCL-led study suggests. But the research also shows that giving robots human-like traits could have a flip side - users may even lie to the robot in order to avoid hurting its feelings.

A new low-cost and non-invasive eye test could detect Parkinson's disease before symptoms including tremors and muscle stiffness develop, according to new research in rats led by scientists at UCL. Researchers at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have discovered a new method of observing changes in the retina which can be seen in Parkinson's before changes in the brain occur and the first symptoms become evident.

Mice are likely to freeze at the sight of small slow-moving shapes and flee from fast approaching ones, finds new UCL research. This provides the first evidence that mice make instinctive behavioural choices based on vision alone, and could help inform future studies of behaviour and brain function in mice.

A new rapid fluorescent 3-D imaging system developed by UCL and Imperial College London scientists offers a non-invasive approach to accurately monitor tumour development in adult zebrafish. Animal testing is an essential step in developing new drugs for diseases; however, the process usually involves invasive procedures with animals that must be euthanized.

The effects of family upbringing on people's food preferences disappear as they start to make their own meal choices, to the point where they have no detectable impact by late adolescence, according to research carried out among a large group of older teenage twins by UCL and King's College London. Understanding the factors behind food preferences has important implications for politicians and clinicians.

A quick method for making accurate, virtual universes to help understand the effects of dark matter and dark energy has been developed by UCL and CEFCA scientists. Making up 95% of our universe, these substances have profound effects on the birth and lives of galaxies and stars and yet almost nothing is known about their physical nature.

Venus has an 'electric wind' strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping the planet of its oceans, according to a new study by NASA and UCL researchers. "It's amazing and shocking," said Dr Glyn Collinson, previously at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory and now a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers at UCL and Queen's University Belfast have discovered that a drug originally developed to treat cardiovascular disease has the potential to reduce diabetes related blindness. According to recent WHO global estimates, 422 million people have diabetes. One of the most common complications of this disease is vision loss.

Drugs currently being trialled in cancer patients have been used to successfully target an autoimmune condition in mice at UCL and King's College London. The study, published in Cell Reports, involved giving cancer drugs to mice and inducing uveitis, an incurable autoimmune eye condition responsible for 1 in every 10 cases of visual impairment in the UK*.

Older people are less willing to take risks for potential rewards and this may be due to declining levels of dopamine in the brain, finds a new UCL study of over 25,000 people funded by Wellcome. The study, published in Current Biology , found that older people were less likely to choose risky gambles to win more points in a smartphone app called The Great Brain Experiment.

A region of the brain that responds to bad experiences has the opposite reaction to expectations of aversive events in people with depression compared to healthy adults, finds a new UCL study funded by the Medical Research Council. The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, found that the habenula, a pea-sized region of the brain, functions abnormally in depression.

The discovery of early changes in the cells of the Fallopian tubes of women carrying the BRCA genetic mutation could open the way for new preventative strategies for ovarian cancer, reducing the need for invasive surgery, according to research published today in science journal Nature. The research, undertaken by the Department of Women's Cancer at UCL led by Professor Martin Widschwendter and funded by The Eve Appeal, sought to understand why women with the BRCA1/2 mutations develop ovarian cancers and what happens in the cells where the cancers originate to trigger them.

Genes that drive the shape of human noses have been identified by a UCL-led study. The four genes mainly affect the width and 'pointiness' of noses which vary greatly between different populations. The new information adds to our understanding of how the human face evolved and may help contribute to forensic DNA technologies that build visual profiles based on an individual's genetic makeup.

Injecting mice with a UCL-discovered bacterium can reduce stress and inflammation, preventing them from developing PTSD-like conditions, finds a new international study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that mice injected with the bacterium were more resilient to stress, showing less fear and anxiety in stressful situations.

Approximately two children in each Year 1 class will experience a clinically significant language disorder that impacts learning, according to a UCL-led study on language impairment at school entry age. The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , found that children with unexplained language disorders have higher social, emotional and behavioural problems, with 88% failing to achieve early curriculum targets.

Around 33,000 deaths could have been avoided if heart attack aftercare guidelines outlining when to give treatment were followed, according to a study funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) looking at the frequency of missed opportunities to treat people after a heart attack.

The Alzheimer's Research UK UCL Drug Discovery Institute was launched at an event last Wednesday 4 May as part of the Alzheimer's Research UK Drug Discovery Alliance. Part of a network of three Institutes, the UCL Drug Discovery Institute will work with its counterparts at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to support the translation of cutting-edge academic science towards new treatments for dementia.