Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 01 Dec 2014 Research led by a University of Manchester academic on the BRCA gene mutation in the Jewish population shows that the current process of identifying people which relies on assessing someone's family history, misses half the people who have the mutation and are at risk of developing cancer.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 01 Dec 2014 Each year, some 22,000 personnel leave the UK regular forces. Many leave before completing their service and are classed as 'early leavers'. New research from The University of Manchester shows that early leavers are more likely to have mental health problems than non-early leavers, and that these are likely to respond to specialist psychological treatment services.

Muslim communities may not be as victimised by violent crime, or as dissatisfied with the police as is widely suggested and believed, according to new research by a Cambridge academic. The findings suggest a growing need to move beyond misleading and potentially damaging generalisations which seek to cast British Muslim communities only as the victims of violent crime and police discrimination.

The way that tetanus neurotoxin enters nerve cells has been discovered by UCL scientists, who showed that this process can be blocked, offering a potential therapeutic intervention for tetanus. This newly-discovered pathway could be exploited to deliver therapies to the nervous system, opening up a whole new way to treat neurological disorders such as motor neuron disease and peripheral neuropathies.

Girls better than boys at making story-based computer games, study finds Teenage boys are perhaps more known for playing computer games but girls are better at making them, a University of Sussex study has found. Researchers in the University's Informatics department asked pupils at a secondary school to design and program their own computer game using a new visual programming language that shows pupils the computer programs they have written in plain English.

The introduction of neutral umpires in Test cricket led to a drop in the number of LBW decisions going in favour of home teams, a study has revealed. The findings from research by economists, published by the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society , come amidst renewed debate on whether neutral umpiring is still required in Test matches following the introduction of the Decision Review System (DRS).

A report, published today by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), highlights a correlation between the occurrence of certain football matches and increased reports of domestic abuse. The report, which was commissioned by the Scottish Government and carried out by academics at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University, found an increase in recorded domestic violence incidents on the day that football matches were played.

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London's Barts Cancer Institute have made a breakthrough in developing a new therapy for advanced bladder cancer - for which there have been no major treatment advances in the past 30 years. Published today in Nature, the study examined an antibody (MPDL3280A) which blocks a protein (PD-L1) thought to help cancer cells evade immune detection.

Dogs listen to our words, not just our voices, says Sussex study Dog owners often claim their pets understand everything they say. Now a new University of Sussex study shows that our canine friends do actually process human speech in a similar way to us. Mammal communication researchers in the School of Psychology tested more than 250 dogs to see how they responded to a set of spoken commands, and found that, like humans, dogs use different parts of the brain to process the verbal components of a familiar sentence and the emotion or intonation of the speaker.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 26 Nov 2014 A new study has pulled together research into the most diverse place on earth to demonstrate how the organisms below-ground could hold the key to understanding how the worlds ecosystems function and how they are responding to climate change.

Researchers have discovered a mechanism linked to the brain damage often suffered by stroke victims-and are now searching for drugs to block it. Strokes happen when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off but much of the harm to survivors’ memory and other cognitive function is often actually caused by “oxidative stress” in the hours and days after the blood supply resumes.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 26 Nov 2014 Graphene, impermeable to all gases and liquids, can easily allow protons to pass through it, University of Manchester researchers have found. Published in the journal Nature , the discovery could revolutionise fuel cells and other hydrogen-based technologies as they require a barrier that only allow protons – hydrogen atoms stripped off their electrons – to pass through.

Online volunteers are being asked to spot tiny explosions that could be evidence for new particles that will require new models of physics. Higgs Hunters [ www.higgshunters.org ], a project launched today by UK and US scientists working on the ATLAS experiment, enables members of the public to view 25,000 images recorded at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

New biological methods used to trace the evolutionary history of kinship patterns shed new light on how societies developed as farming spread across the globe during the Neolithic, according to new research by a UCL-led international team. Kinship is the web of social relationships that underlie human society, with lines of descent determining how wealth, land and position are inherited across the generations.

The team already knew that some people with autism were deficient in a gene called neurexin-II. To investigate whether the gene was associated with autism symptoms, the Leeds team studied mice with the same defect. They found behavioural features that were similar to autism symptoms, including a lack of sociability or interest in other mice.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 25 Nov 2014 Scientists at the University of Manchester have discovered a potential weakness in cancer's ability to return or become resistant to treatment, by targeting the 'fuel' part of stem cells which allows tumours to grow. Cancer stem cells are particularly difficult to eradicate and are at the heart of why it is so hard to more effectively treat cancer patients, as the post-treatment survival of cancer stem cells drives tumour recurrence, the systemic spread of cancer and, ultimately, treatment failure.

Oxford University researchers have found a network of brain regions that appears to be more vulnerable to unhealthy ageing - such as Alzheimer's disease - and also seems susceptible to disorders that emerge in young people, such as schizophrenia. The team showed that, in healthy people, these parts of the brain are the last to develop and the first to show signs of neurodegeneration.

The structure of pores found in cell nuclei has been uncovered by a UCL-led team of scientists, revealing how they selectively block certain molecules from entering, protecting genetic material and normal cell functions. The discovery could lead to the development of new drugs against viruses that target the cell nucleus and new ways of delivering gene therapies, say the scientists behind the study.

A new test for measuring histamine release from certain white blood cells could help doctors monitor the effectiveness of immunotherapy for hay fever. Immunotherapy involves exposing patients to gradually increasing doses of allergen by injection or through tablets or drops placed under the tongue to 'desensitise' their immune systems.

Public health researchers have discovered new clues about which children under five years old are the most at risk from broken bones in childhood accidents. A study by experts from The University of Nottingham has highlighted specific risk factors for fractures, a common and largely preventable type of injury.