news 2012

A new study indicates that large amounts of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a sweetener found in national food supplies across the world, may be a contributory factor to the rising global epidemic of type 2 diabetes. The study by researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Southern California reports that countries that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 per cent higher prevalence of diabetes than countries that did not use HFCS.

The charity Arthritis Research UK today launches the world's first research centre dedicated to understanding how and why arthritis affects teenagers. Researchers at the £2.5 million Centre, which is a collaboration between UCL, University College Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, aim to understand why rheumatic diseases such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) can be more severe in teenagers and why specific types of arthritis are more likely to occur in this age group.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a computer-based test that could help heavy drinkers reduce their alcohol consumption. Regular heavy drinking can lead to serious health conditions such as liver and heart disease, costing the NHS millions of pounds every year. Methods of restraint Research at Liverpool has shown that the habit of consuming alcohol can be interrupted when people practice methods of restraint whenever they see images of alcoholic drinks.

New research suggests that the molecular mechanism leading to schizophrenia may be different in patients who fail to respond to anti-psychotic medication compared to patients who do respond. The research, from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry may help explain why up to one third of patients with schizophrenia do not respond to traditional anti-psychotic medication.

A research team from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry has received grants amounting to over £400,000 from the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK to investigate why the mechanisms that suppress the growth and multiplication of tumours in the brain and nervous system do not work in some people, and to show how a new drug could be used as an alternative treatment to surgery.

Stroke patients who have difficulty paying attention to part of their visual field may perform better when offered a reward, a study by Imperial College London and Brunel University researchers has found. Between a third and half of stroke patients suffer from spatial neglect - a disorder of visual attention that means they do not notice objects on one side of their field of view.

A pioneering study that aims to investigate if a key protein, which is thought to be responsible for regulating the structure and function of the cells that cause contraction of the heart, can be manipulated to inhibit or reverse the effects of aging and heart failure will begin shortly thanks to funding of £875,000 from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) .

Researchers from The University of Manchester and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) say their findings – published in the British Journal of Dermatology – could be of benefit to patients with skin conditions like eczema. The team tested whether visual cues could generate feelings of itch and provoke a scratch response.

Scientists at the University of Warwick and consumer goods manufacturer Unilever are joining forces to identify whether the nutrients in everyday fruit and vegetables could help to improve people's cardiovascular health and protect them from Type-2 diabetes. The research collaboration has been set up to better understand if the nutrients and bioactives in fruits like grapes, strawberries and olives - in the right combination - could have a greater impact on people's heart and vascular health.

Scientists may have discovered a new way to prevent strokes in high risk patients, according to a new research. The group, from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW), is using ultrasound scanning to look at patients with carotid artery disease, one of the major causes of stroke.

Criminal behaviour is lower in people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when they are on medication for the condition, a Swedish study has found. Oxford University psychiatrist and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow Seena Fazel, a coauthor on the study, says: 'Our findings suggest a consistent, reasonably strong effect on criminality.

We know that unborn babies hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb but new observational research concludes that they also yawn. The 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses, by Durham and Lancaster Universities, also suggest that yawning is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors another index of a fetus' health.

New drugs derived from components of a specific diet used by children with severe, drug-resistant epilepsy could offer a new treatment, according to research published today in the journal Neuropharmacology. Scientists from UCL and Royal Holloway have identified specific fatty acids that have potent antiepileptic effects, which could help control seizures in children and adults.

Animals, including humans, actively select the gut microbes that are the best partners and nurture them with nutritious secretions, a new Oxford University study suggests. The Oxford team created an evolutionary computer model of interactions between gut microbes and the lining (the host epithelial cell layer) of the animal gut.

Our findings are extremely exciting because they show for the first time that transplanting these types of cell into a severely damaged spinal cord can bring about significant improvement." —Robin Franklin In a collaboration between the University's Veterinary School and MRC's Regenerative Medicine Centre, scientists used a unique type of cell to regenerate the damaged part of the dogs' spines.

New technologies for sensing chemicals that people are exposed to and their effects in the body will help scientists work towards a complete picture of how environmental pollutants influence health in a major EU initiative being launched today. Researchers will use smartphones equipped with GPS and environmental sensors to monitor potential hazards that study participants are exposed to.

Caterpillar fungi (Cordyceps) are rare parasites found on hibernating caterpillars in the mountains of Tibet. For centuries they have been highly prized as a traditional Chinese medicine - just a small amount can fetch hundreds of pounds. Scientists at The University of Nottingham have been studying how this fungus could work by studying cordycepin, one of the drugs found in these mushrooms.

Rheumatoid arthritis – which affects more than 400,000 people in the UK and about 1% of the world's population – is a complicated disease: lifestyle and environmental factors, such as smoking, diet, pregnancy and infection are thought to play a role, but it is also known that a person's genetic makeup influences their susceptibility to the condition.

The reorganisation of the NHS in England, which will see new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – led by GPs – take responsibility for spending some £60 billion of public money, has generated much debate and discussion over the last two years. These groups were established during 2012 and have been preparing their organisations and plans ready to take on their new functions from next April.

Imperial's ever-popular Junior Research Fellowship Scheme has just welcomed its fourth cohort of 21 new Fellows to College, taking the total number of scientists supported by the scheme to almost 80. This year's Fellows are working in areas that include neurodegenerative disorders, neglected tropical diseases, algebraic geometry, electromagnetic waves, synchrotron X-rays, optoelectronics, quantum mechanics and general relativity.