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Primary healthcare service outreach (PHSO) interventions, where patients are attended to in their own environment, could be key to improving health in the homeless population, finds a new UCL study. The life expectancy of people experiencing homelessness in the UK is currently 30 years shorter than that of the general population, and previous research has shown that a quarter of these deaths could have been prevented if a doctor had been seen in time.

An artificial intelligence tool developed by researchers at UCL and Queen Mary University of London could help governments decide whether or not to bail out a bank in crisis by predicting if the intervention will save money for taxpayers in the long term. The AI tool, described in a new paper in Nature Communications , assesses not only if a bailout is the best strategy for taxpayers, but also suggests how much should be invested in the bank, and which bank or banks should be bailed out at any given time.

A small increase in the number of people having two vaccines against Covid-19 was more effective in controlling the virus during Europe's fourth wave - when the Omicron variant appeared - than the rapid uptake of booster vaccines, finds a new UCL-led study. Published in the International Journal of Public Health , the study found that a 4.2% increase in the number of people having two doses (full vaccination) led to a 54% reduction in case rates across Europe - despite the detection of the highly infectious Omicron.

Patients with advanced ankle osteoarthritis who undergo surgery see equally good outcomes from the two main surgical treatments for the condition, a new study led by UCL researchers has shown. The TARVA randomised clinical trial compared total ankle joint replacement with ankle fusion (when the ankle joint is pinned to prevent movement).

Offering a booster dose or changing the vaccination schedule available to infants in sub-Saharan Africa could greatly reduce the risk of them contracting potentially fatal diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis, a UCL-led study has found.

Two treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), containing the first new drug to have been discovered for the disease in 40 years, are more effective than a previously recommended treatment, according to results from a global trial led by UCL researchers. The study, published by The Lancet , found that a six-month treatment regimen including injections and a nine-month regimen taken only in tablets, both of which used the new drug bedaquiline, were more effective than a nine-month regimen that until two years ago was regarded as the best standard of care.

A first-of-its-kind gene-editing therapy for people with a disorder that causes heart failure is safe in the short term and may stop disease progression, according to early results of a UCL-led trial. Transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis is characterised by a build up in the heart of misfolded transthyretin (TTR) protein.

Revolutionary X-ray technology co-developed by UCL has been used to identify a link between the damage that severe Covid-19 can inflict on lungs and pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that causes severe scarring of lung tissue. The high-energy X-ray technique, Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT), scans whole organs down to cellular level, allowing clinicians to view blood vessels about a tenth of the diameter of a human hair.

A first-of-its-kind gene-editing therapy for people with a disorder that causes heart failure is safe in the short term and may stop disease progression, according to early results of a UCL-led trial. Transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis is characterised by a build up in the heart of misfolded transthyretin (TTR) protein.

Tailoring the analysis of whole genome sequencing to individual patients could double the diagnostic rates of rare diseases, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. In 2018, the UK's department of health announced an NHS Genomic Medicine Service, which allows patients with rare diseases to have their entire genetic code read in the hope of providing a much-needed diagnosis.

Problematic alcohol use is associated with increased odds of suicide or self-harm, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in BJPsych Open , did not identify a clear association with levels of alcohol consumption and risk of suicide or self-harm, other than among those with 'probable dependence' (the highest consumption level); rather, they identified signs of alcohol negatively impacting people's lives as risk factors.

A signature in the X-ray light emitted by a highly magnetised dead star known as a magnetar suggests the star has a solid surface with no atmosphere, according to a new study by an international collaboration co-led by UCL researchers. The study, published in the journal Science , uses data from a NASA satellite, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), which was launched last December.

Chronic pain is widespread among those in their mid-40s in Britain, with those who experience it more likely to report pain, poor health - including COVID-19 infection - and joblessness later in life, according to a new study by researchers at UCL and Dartmouth College, US. Published today in the journal PLOS ONE , the research follows more than 12,000 people born in a single week in March 1958 in Britain through to age 62.

The Congo peatlands turned from a major store of carbon to a source of carbon dioxide emissions thousands of years ago due to a drying climate, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. , the study highlights the potential of the Congo peatlands - the largest tropical peatland in the world - to again release billions of tonnes of stored carbon into the atmosphere in a future warmer world.

Regularly monitoring women with BRCA gene alterations associated with cancer can benefit their future health, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene alterations are known to greatly increase a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer. Preventative surgery to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes is currently the only way to avoid the disease.

A large-scale comparison of direct oral anticoagulants (blood thinners), commonly prescribed for irregular heartbeats, has identified the drug with the lowest risk of bleeding, in a new study led by UCL researchers. In the paper published in Annals of Internal Medicine , the researchers report that one of the two most common direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), apixaban, has the lowest risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, with similar performance on stroke prevention and other side effects.

An artificial intelligence (AI) tool, developed by scientists at UCL, UCLH and UCL-spinout Odin Vision, has been further refined to identify hard to spot 'flat' polyps, that - when left untreated - can become highly aggressive and are a major cause of colorectal (bowel) cancer. For the study, published last year in Digestive Endoscopy, the research team trained the AI in Odin Vision's CADDIE system on these flat polyps.

Researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) have engineered donor T-cells to try and treat seriously ill children with resistant leukaemia, who had otherwise exhausted all available therapies. The Phase I trial, published in Science Translational Medicine, is the first use of "universal" CRISPR-edited cells in humans and represents a significant step forward in the use of gene-edited cells for cancer treatment.

A fault in cells that form a key part of the immune system can be repaired with a pioneering gene editing technique, finds new research demonstrated in human cells and mice, led by UCL scientists. Researchers say the study, published in  Science Translational Medicine , could lead to new treatments for a rare disease of the white blood cells that normally help to control the immune system - known as regulatory T cells - and those that protect the body from repeat infections and cancer - known as effector T cells.

A fossil discovery from Scotland has provided new information on the early evolution of lizards, during the time of the dinosaurs, reports a study involving UCL researchers. The tiny skeleton discovered on the Isle of Skye, called Bellairsia gracilis , is only 6 cm long and dates from the Middle Jurassic, 166 million years ago.