news 2018

There is an increasing need to prevent obesity because of the consequences for mental as well as physical health, new research by academics at the University of Bristol has found. The study, published today [Wednesday 26 September] in the BMJ , explored the impact of aspects of physical health, such as body weight, heart health and blood pressure, to see whether a wide age range of individuals with poorer physical health went on to be less happy and less satisfied with their lives.

New tests can diagnose 'hidden' heart diseases caused by problems with the small blood vessels supplying the heart, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference today in San Diego. The new tests are not yet standard in the NHS because, before now, there has not been enough evidence gathered about whether they would benefit patients.

The ears of male mosquitoes amplify the sound of an approaching female using a self-generated phantom tone that mimics the female's wingbeats, which increases the ear's acoustic input by a factor of up to 45,000, finds a new UCL-led study. The researchers were studying disease-carrying mosquitoes, and hope their findings, published , could help design acoustic lures to control the spread of deadly diseases.

Scientists hope that a new approach to vaccine development, combined with improved surveillance of potential future threats of outbreak, could help to massively reduce the impact of deadly diseases such as Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever. "This has the potential to have an enormous positive impact on global public health" Jonathan Heeney Researchers from the University of Cambridge will shortly begin clinical trials of a new vaccine that builds on almost two decades of research to protect against diseases caused by RNA viruses.

New research from an international team led by Oxford University's Department of Zoology and the National-Kapodistrian University of Athens shows that an ancient retrovirus - HK2 - is more frequently found in drug addicts and thus is significantly associated with addiction. The human genome is "littered" with remnants of ancient retrovirus infections that invaded the germline of our primate ancestors.

Researchers have developed a new way to target the toxic particles that destroy healthy brain cells in Alzheimer's disease. This is the first time that a systematic method to go after the pathogens - the cause of Alzheimer's disease - has been proposed. Michele Vendruscolo Academics at the University of Cambridge and at Lund University in Sweden have devised the first strategy to 'go after' the cause of the devastating disease, which could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to treat dementia.

Children, like adults, can improve their response to difficult tasks by the power of group work, new research led by the University of Bristol has found. The 'Wisdom of Crowds' is well documented in adults, but previously children were thought to lack the social and cognitive skills to make effective group decisions together.

Researchers have developed a genome-editing tool for the potential treatment of mitochondrial diseases: serious and often fatal conditions which affect 1 in 5,000 people. Mitochondrial replacement therapy is a promising approach to prevent transmission of mitochondrial diseases, however, as the vast majority of mitochondrial diseases have no family history, this approach might not actually reduce the proportion of mitochondrial disease in the population.

Hillary Clinton may have lost out to Donald Trump in the battle for the US Presidency because the Democrats were too willing to welcome others with differing views to theirs into their political party, a new study reveals. Research suggests that, with their tightly-knit sense of belonging and core values based around security, Republicans viewed Trump as strongly representing what they stand for - creating party unity and success in the 2016 election.

A Star Trek- inspired handheld device based on a silicon chip could help make rapid, sophisticated medical diagnostics more accessible to people around the world, scientists say. In a new paper published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics , researchers from the Universities of Glasgow describe the latest development in their 'multicorder' project, inspired by Star Trek's famous tricorder device, which the show's medics use to make quick and accurate diagnoses.

Depression during pregnancy is unlikely to directly impact babies in the womb and lead to emotional or behavioural problems after birth, according to a new study by King's College London researchers published in The Lancet Psychiatry . Up to 1 in 5 expectant mothers will experience depression during pregnancy, with such episodes being associated with the development of emotional and behavioural problems in childhood.

Dr Jessica Eccles , NIHR Clinical Lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), has been awarded a $100,000 grant by Dysautonomia International to develop her research on postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). POTS, an under-studied disorder, is characterised by clinical symptoms such as lightheadedness, fatigue, shortness of breath, tremors, heart palpitations and fainting or near-fainting upon moving from a prone to upright position.

A new outbreak of a rare but preventable eye infection that can cause blindness, has been identified in contact lens wearers in a new study led by UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital researchers. The research team found a threefold increase in Acanthamoeba keratitis since 2011 in South-East England. Reusable contact lens wearers with the eye infection are more likely to have used an ineffective contact lens solution, have contaminated their lenses with water or reported poor contact lens hygiene, according to the findings published today in the British Journal of Ophthalmology .

Land-based bird populations are becoming confined to nature reserves in some parts of the world - raising the risk of global extinction - due to the loss of suitable habitat, according to a report led by UCL. Researchers analysed biodiversity in the area known as Sundaland, which covers the peninsula of Thailand, Borneo, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and Bali, one of the world's most biologically degraded regions.

A change in culture within the NHS is needed to ensure that managers are less resistant to hearing, and acting upon, bad news, research led by the University of Birmingham has found. Research led by the University's Health Services Management Centre found that any future whistleblowing policies must deal with the 'deaf effect' amongst NHS managers, where entrenched status and power differences between different professional and occupational groups can limit open reporting cultures.

Researchers from the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology have demonstrated pre-clinical success for a universal flu vaccine. Influenza is thought to be a highly variable virus, able to mutate and escape immunity built up in the population due to its circulation in previous seasons. However, influenza seasons tend to be dominated by a limited number of antigenically and genetically distinct influenza viruses.

The findings of a study led by the University of Birmingham suggests that exercise during the first few months of diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes could delay the progression of the condition. Study participants who continued an active exercise regime after Type 1 diagnosis extended their partial remission, also known as the 'honeymoon' period, by five fold compared to those who didn't exercise.

Removing displays of tobacco products from shops may have reduced the proportion of children buying cigarettes by 17 per cent. These are the findings of a new study from Imperial College London. The research, the first analysis of the impact of the 2015 tobacco display ban in England, assessed survey responses from 18,000 11-15 year olds from across England between 2010 and 2016.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford have discovered a new molecule that plays a key role in the immune response that is triggered by influenza infections. The molecule, a so-called mini viral RNA, is capable of inducing inflammation and cell death, and was produced at high levels by the 1918 pandemic influenza virus.

Using some of the most advanced neuroimaging equipment in the world, researchers at Cardiff University's Brain Imaging Research Centre (CUBRIC) are set to study the brain function and structure of 170 healthy volunteers as part of a research project to uncover the mysteries that still surround our most complex organ.