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UCL is releasing its animal research statistics today in collaboration with Understanding Animal Research - a non-profit that promotes open communications about animal research. UCL and nine other institutions together conducted over half of all'animal procedures - those used in medical, veterinary, and scientific research - in the UK in 2023.

Heatwaves can worsen abnormal excitability of the brain in people with epilepsy, finds a new small-scale patient study by clinical scientists at UCL. The research, published in Brain Communications , used intracranial electroencephalography (icEEG) tests - where small electrodes are inserted into the substance of the brain to measure electrical impulses - to track the brain activity of nine patients being evaluated for surgical treatment of medication-resistant epilepsy at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, in the summer months (May-August) of 2015 - 2022.

Newborn babies are born with a type of bacterium in their gut that could be used to develop new personalised infant therapeutic probiotics, finds a new study involving UCL researchers. In the largest study of UK baby microbiomes to date, published in Nature Microbiology , researchers from UCL, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Birmingham, used whole genome sequencing to analyse stool samples from 1,288 healthy infants, all'under one month old from the UK Baby Biome Study.

The first crystal structure of an alternative DNA shape from the insulin gene has been revealed by a UCL-led research team. DNA is widely accepted to be formed of two strands that wind around one another, known as a double helix, but it is possible for DNA to change shape and structure. The new study, published in Nature Communications , reveals the detail in the structure of a type of DNA called i-motif, by crystallising it for the first time.

People with dementia are more likely to have suicidal thoughts but are not necessarily more likely to attempt or die by suicide than the general population, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Ageing Research Reviews , analysed 54 studies that investigated various aspects of mental health - including the prevalence and risk of suicide - in people with dementia, between 1991 and 2023.

The language used in many healthcare settings to describe pregnancy loss exacerbates the grief and trauma experienced by some individuals and can be a critical factor in determining psychological well-being following the loss, according to a new report led by a UCL researcher. In the first study of its kind, social scientists from UCL, led by Dr Beth Malory (UCL English Language & Literature), gathered data from a total of 339 participants from across the UK - 290 people with lived experience of pregnancy loss and 49 healthcare professionals, including 42 focus group participants.

A drug known as a "gene silencer" has shown promise in reducing hospitalisation and deaths from a devastating condition known as transthyretin (ATTR) cardiac amyloidosis, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.

Political posts on social media that most frequently referenced ancient history tended to be more extreme, hostile and overwhelmingly negative in tone than average, finds a new study by researchers from UCL and the University of Edinburgh. Their study, published in PLOS One , scrutinised nearly 1.5 million posts using a combination of AI, computational and manual techniques and used a range of sentiment analysis tools to evaluate the attitudes behind those posts that reference Britain's distant past.

People from diverse backgrounds must be included in the development of healthcare policies to ensure all groups' needs are met, finds a new study led by UCL researchers into palliative care for the Muslim community. The study, published in BMJ Open , investigated the experience of British Muslim people and their families who were accessing palliative care services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Neuroscientists at UCL have shown how an animal's brain implements responses to unexpected events. The researchers discovered how two brain areas, the neocortex and the thalamus, work together to detect discrepancies between what animals expect from their environment and actual events. The brain areas selectively boost, or prioritise, any unexpected sensory information.

More people in the UK are at risk of a hereditary form of cardiac amyloidosis, a potentially fatal heart condition, than previously thought, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL and Queen Mary University of London. The study, published in JAMA Cardiology , used data from the UK Biobank to analyse the genes of 469,789 people in the UK and found that one in 1,000 possessed genetic variants with a likely link to cardiac transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis.

The anti-obesity medication semaglutide may help to prevent heart attacks and other major adverse cardiac events among overweight people who have cardiovascular disease, whether or not they also have heart failure, according to a new study led by UCL's Professor John Deanfield. The results follow previous research* from the same international team finding that weekly injections of semaglutide were linked to a 20% reduction in major adverse cardiac events (MACE) such as heart attacks and strokes for people with obesity or who were overweight and had cardiovascular disease.

A higher incidence of mental illnesses persists for up to a year following severe Covid-19 in unvaccinated people, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. The study, looking at health data from 18 million people and published in JAMA Psychiatry , investigated associations of Covid-19 with mental illnesses according to time since diagnosis and vaccination status.

The dry tropical forests of Africa are great at absorbing and storing carbon, explains Professor Mat Disney in The Conversation. Understanding how they do so is crucial for understanding climate change. Dry, tropical forests are often overshadowed in popular and scientific perception by wet and tall rainforests.

On average, social segregation of students has increased in neighbourhoods where mainstream primary free schools opened, and neighbouring schools have lost students, finds a report by UCL researchers. The association between primary free schools and social segregation was relating to ethnicity, in that pupils in some areas were less likely to meet peers from other ethnic backgrounds at school than before the primary free school opened.

Writing in The Conversation, Research Fellow Dr Sandra Álvarez-Carretero (UCL Biosciences) explains how her research offers new insights into the origin of life on Earth. Understanding how life began and evolved on Earth is a question that has fascinated humans for a long time, and modern scientists have  made great advances  when it comes to finding some answers.

The largest "bluestone" at the heart of Stonehenge came from northern Scotland, not Wales, according to new research. Published in the journal Nature , the study analysed the age and chemistry of minerals from fragments of the Altar Stone. The findings show a remarkable similarity between the Old Red Sandstone of the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland and the Stonehenge Altar Stone.

Multiple biological pathways involving organs and the brain play a key part in physical and mental health, according to a new study from UCL, the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge. The study, published in Nature Mental Health , analysed UK Biobank data from more than 18,000 individuals.

Weight loss surgery may reduce the risk of developing heart failure for people living with obesity by improving blood flow through their heart muscle, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. People living with obesity are at increased risk of heart failure. It's thought that this may be due, in part, to reduced blood flow through the small vessels in their hearts.

Scientists at UCL have discovered a novel role played by ribosomes during the folding of new proteins in cells, described in their paper in Nature. Ribosomes, the cell's dedicated molecular machines for protein synthesis, make all proteins in life and do so by piecing together one amino acid building block at a time.