science wire

Improving health facilities and access to drugs could mean 60,000 fewer maternal deaths in Africa per year from post-partum bleeding and sepsis, according to a UCL study.

Goals set to alleviate extreme poverty will not be met unless we address the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss, warn UCL scientists in a paper published in the latest issue of Science .

Links: UCL Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine UCL iPSC working group members 2009 Stem Cell Awareness Day UCL podcasts: Stem cell research - the science, the methods and the applications UCL will this week mark Stem Cell Awareness Day (23 September) in a tradition honoured within research universities across the world.

Failure to agree radical reductions in carbon dioxide emissions at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December would spell a global health catastrophe, warn Professor Sir Michael Marmot (Dir

UCL scientists have helped to identify the master gene that causes blood stem cells to turn into disease-fighting 'Natural Killer? (NK) immune cells. The discovery could one day help scientists boost the body's production of these frontline tumour-killing cells, creating new ways to treat cancer. The researchers have 'knocked out? the gene in question, known as E4bp4, in a mouse model, creating the world's first animal model entirely lacking NK cells, but with all other blood cells and immune cells intact.

A team of UCL experts led by Ka Man Lai (UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering) is investigating how revolutionising the design and building of our living spaces could dramatically reduce the spread of swine flu and other infectious diseases.

The 11th UCL Institute for Global Health (IGH) Symposium, 'Coming of age for adolescent health', was held on 9 September 2009.

A study of global death rates for young people aged 10?24 years shows that the vast majority of deaths in this age group (97%) occur in low- and middle-income countries.

UCLH and UCL will showcase their research work during an open event in London on September 17. The event will present some of the pioneering research work ahead of the second anniversary of the UCLH/UCL National Institute for Health Research Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (CBRC). The centre has been at the forefront of research into some of the major causes of illness and disease-related deaths since it was established in 2007.

A team of researchers led by Professor Ann Blandford from the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC) has been awarded a £5.8m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to improve the usability and safety of interactive medical devices.

Press Release Links: Financial imprudence is linked to other impulsive behaviour such as overeating, smoking and infidelity, according to a new study led by UCL researchers, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences . The study, conducted through the BBC website with over 40,000 participants, measured people's financial impulsivity by asking whether they would they prefer to receive £45 in three days or £70 in three months.

An artist wants to recruit an army of researchers to investigate a mystery object as part of a unique mass participatory event in UCL's main quad.

Press Release Links: The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe, not in more northern groups as was previously thought, finds a new stud

UCL has been awarded four prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants, worth a total of '4.8 million to the university.

A professor from UCL has attempted to unravel the 200-year-old mystery surrounding the premature death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The great composer was at the height of his creative powers in the months before his death in Vienna in 1791. Over the years a host of theories have emerged to account for his demise at the age of just 35 - including murder by a rival and suicide.

Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, UCL scientists announced today.

A team of researchers from UCL has won a £500,000 grant to develop a synthetic artery that mimics a natural artery - and could revolutionise the treatment of coronary heart disease.

Professor Lyn Chitty (UCL Institute of Child Health) is leading a five-year research project to evaluate and, if appropriate, develop a plan to implement tests which could significantly reduce the number of women undergoing invasive tests during pregnancy such as amniocentesis. Invasive tests carry around a one per cent risk of miscarriage, so each thousand invasive tests avoided would potentially save ten healthy babies.

Melissa Terras, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Communication in UCL Information Studies, not only runs a blog about her work - she also researches how blogs are used in academic life.

A study led by Sudhin Thayyil from the UCL Institute of Child Health published today in The Lancet today has shown that a less invasive approach to post-mortem is effective in the diagnostic study of small human foetuses.

Despina Eleftheriou (UCL Institute of Child Health) is leading a new study that aims to develop a blood test to help identify children who are at risk of multiple strokes, and will also investigate the role of inflammation or injury to blood vessels in causing stroke.

It takes an average 66 days to form a new habit, according to new research by Phillippa Lally and colleagues from the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre based at UCL Epidemiology and Public Health. The team has completed a groundbreaking investigation into how people form habits, published last month in the European Journal of Social Psychology .

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation (Gatsby) and the Wellcome Trust (Wellcome) are collaborating for the purpose of developing a new research centre in neural circuits and behaviour, to be called the Sa

UCL scientists are part of a team that has located a region of DNA which - when altered - can increase the risk of ovarian cancer, according to research published today . An international research group involving UCL, the Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology Unit, and the University of Cambridge searched through the genomes of 1,810 women with ovarian cancer and 2,535 women without the disease from across the UK.

UCL researchers have undertaken a study, published in The Lancet of 11 July, to ascertain whether the treatment of severe acute malnutrition could be improved through the use of new types of therapeutic foods.

UCL has appointed a new Clinical Senior Lecturer to lead the development of clinical trials relating to head and neck cancer, which account for six per cent of all cancers in the UK.

Scientists from UCL have created light-activated antimicrobial surfaces that could help fight the spread of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

Should we take creativity seriously at a time of global financial and environmental crises? Not if we want to find solutions, argues Professor Julian Evans (UCL Chemistry).

Attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females, according to a new paper on the evolution of ejaculation strategies.

UCL formally launched its Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities ' a programme to rally the university's breadth of expertise in service of urban sustainability ' at an evening event on 8 July 2009.

A neuroscience laboratory based within UCL's Institute of Ophthalmology has developed the first audio-based game for the iPhone.

Who lived in Bloomsbury in the 19th century? A packed room of academics and enthusiasts learned all about the people of Bloomsbury in the second conference of the Bloomsbury Project in June 2009.

A UCL study has revealed a new laser technique that could lead to earlier diagnosis of bone disorders.