news 2023

UCL researchers have uncovered the process in the brain that supports our understanding of ongoing experiences. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, has found that daily experiences require us to process a continuous stream of information. This is shown when watching a movie, as although the film is continuous, our brains break it down into discrete events, such as scenes.

Sea urchin, Asthenosoma varium, entangled with fishing line while camouflaging itself with a plastic bag at 130 m depth in the Philippines. Image credit: Luiz Rocha © California Academy of Sciences. In the most comprehensive survey to date, researchers have revealed the scale of plastic pollution on coral reefs, even at great depths.

A study led by the University of Oxford has brought us one step closer to solving a mystery that has puzzled naturalists since Charles Darwin: when did animals first appear in the history of Earth? The results have been published today in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution . Animals* first occur in the fossil record around 574 million years ago.

Scientists from the Milner Centre for Evolution have uncovered a new quality control system that removes damaged cells from early developing embryos. Scientists studying gene activity data of the early human embryo have discovered an overlooked type of cell which self-destructs within days of forming, as part of a quality control process to protect the developing foetus.

Daytime napping may help to preserve brain health by slowing the rate at which our brains shrink as we age, suggests a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of the Republic in Uruguay. The study, published in the journal Sleep Health , analysed data from people aged 40 to 69 and found a causal link between habitual napping and larger total brain volume - a marker of good brain health linked to a lower risk of dementia and other diseases.

A multi-centre team led by UCL, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo and Imperial College London have shown how targeting the bacterium's protective capsule could help to prevent and treat bloodstream infections. The new study, published in Nature Communications , is the first to map the evolutionary timeline and population distribution of Escherichia coli's protective outer capsule, which is responsible for the bacterium's virulence.

Tropical butterflies with bigger, longer and narrower wings are better able to stay cool when temperatures get too hot. We showed that changes in size and wing shape are important for coping with temperature change. Benita Laird-Hopkins In fact, tropical species- ability to keep cool at higher air temperatures mean they are more able to -thermoregulate- and keep a balanced body temperature compared to their evolutionary cousins in milder climates.

The tiny tubes and thread-like structures that give cells their shape and help determine their function have been artificially re-created using strands of DNA in a study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in Nature Communications , represents a key step towards synthetic "smart cells" that could be used to sense diseases, deliver drugs or repair damaged cells inside the body.

The prospect of a cure for a type of epilepsy could be one step closer following breakthrough research on materials which may help new types of probes be safely implanted in the brain. Bioengineering researchers from the University of Glasgow have investigated new dissolvable coatings which could help safely guide flexible implants into brains to help regulate temporal lobe epilepsy.

Alcohol consumption increases the risks of over 60 diseases in Chinese men, including many diseases not previously linked to alcohol, according to a new study by researchers from Oxford Population Health and Peking University, published in Nature Medicine . Alcohol consumption is estimated to be responsible for about 3 million deaths worldwide each year, and it is increasing in many lowand middle-income countries such as China.

Scientists from across UCL, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the University of Padova have shown how 3D printing can be achieved inside 'mini-organs' growing in hydrogels, which could help better understand how cancer spreads through different tissues. The new technique can help control the shape and activity of the mini-organs, and even force tissue to grow into 'moulds'.

A study of the DNA of more than 55,000 people worldwide has shed light on how we maintain healthy blood sugar levels after we have eaten, with implications for our understanding of how the process goes wrong in type 2 diabetes. What's exciting about this is that it shows how we can go from large scale genetic studies to understanding fundamental mechanisms of how our bodies work Alice Williamson The findings, published today in Nature Genetics , could help inform future treatments of type 2 diabetes, which affects around 4 million people in the UK and over 460 million people worldwide.

Dr Matilda Brindle (UCL Anthropology) shares her new study in The Conversation on the evolutionary origins and advantages of auto sexual behaviour across the animal kingdom. "Spanking the monkey", "petting the poodle" and "pulling the python": all fitting euphemisms for masturbation, and closer to the truth than you might imagine.

Three men who had heart failure caused by the build-up of sticky, toxic proteins are now free of symptoms after their condition spontaneously reversed in an unprecedented case described by a team at UCL and the Royal Free Hospital. The condition, a form of amyloidosis affecting the heart, is progressive and has until now been seen as irreversible, with half of patients dying within four years of diagnosis.

Symptoms of the neurological movement disorder, dystonia, which include muscle spasms, twisting of the body and tremors, arise from an impairment in spinal cord function, finds a new study in mice by UCL researchers. Many neurological conditions that involve involuntary muscle contractions have long been considered as diseases of the brain.

The majority of fish populations in the sea are responding to global warming by relocating towards colder waters nearer the north and south poles, according to the latest research on the impact of climate change on our oceans. Analysing the breadth of current world-wide data on marine fish changes in recent years, researchers from the University of Glasgow have revealed how fish populations across the Earth's oceans are responding to rising sea temperatures.

A new method for tackling insecticide resistance among mosquitoes that spread malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is being developed by a team of scientists at Cardiff University. 'Sugar traps' containing new attractant chemistry will lure mosquitoes away from people and dwellings in towns and villages in the region by mimicking the smell of nearby tree and other plant flowers from which mosquitoes feed before they seek out human blood for reproduction.

A cleft lip or palate arises from the combined effects of genes and inflammatory risk factors experienced during pregnancy, such as smoking or infections, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Nature Communications , has revealed for the first time how genetic and environmental factors come together to form a cleft lip or palate in a developing foetus.

The biology underpinning a rare genetic mutation that allows its carrier to live virtually pain-free, heal more rapidly and experience reduced anxiety and fear, has been uncovered by new research from UCL. The study, published in Brain , follows up the teams' discovery in 2019 of the FAAH-OUT gene and the rare mutations that cause patient, Jo Cameron, to feel virtually no pain and never feel anxious or afraid.

Research led by UCL, in partnership with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) and AstraZeneca, has identified a new compound that can stimulate nerve regeneration after injury, as well as protect cardiac tissue from the sort of damage seen in heart attack. The study, published in Nature , identified a chemical compound, named '1938', that activates the PI3K signalling pathway, and is involved in cell growth.