news 2009

Scientists from the University of Birmingham's medical school are looking for volunteers to take part in major study investigating the underlying causes of obesity and diabetes. The study will look at the specific role naturally occurring enzymes in the liver may play in raising the risk of developing obesity or Type 2 Diabetes.

PA 23/09 Some of the secrets behind the emergence of new species have been uncovered in a genetic study, conducted in collaboration with bioscientists at The University of Nottingham. Almost all plant species are known to have cross-breeds that sometimes produce infertile offspring. Now for the first time the team, led by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, INRA-Versailles, has identified a simple genetic mechanism that may explain why this happens.

PA 18/09 Genetics experts at The University of Nottingham have been involved in a scientific breakthrough which is helping to explain why some people may be more likely to suffer from the chronic skin condition, psoriasis. The research, which has just been published , shows that people who lack the genes LCE3B and LCE3C are more likely to be affected by psoriasis.

A chemical, commonly used in the manufacture of rubber products, may cause cancer in workers regularly exposed to it, according to research published today ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The researchers from the University of Birmingham's Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found higher than expected rates of diagnosis and death from a number of cancers, amongst men working at a rubber plant in North Wales.

The University of Birmingham's School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences has secured funding of £500,000 for a new Facility for Environmental Nanoparticle Analysis and Characterisation (FENAC). Researchers at the facility will analyse the physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles and will look at whether they have significant adverse effects on human and environmental health.

A collaboration of scientists led by Professor Jane Wardle (Director of Cancer Research UK's Health Behaviour Research Centre in UCL Epidemiology & Public Health) have published today in the 'International Journal of Obesity' new evidence that the tendency to overeat could be genetic. UCL researchers, who were funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, created a new experiment to see if eating when full was linked to a gene called FTO**.