news 2025

Chimpanzees bear genetic adaptations that help them thrive in their different forest and savannah habitats, some of which may protect against malaria, according to a study by an international team led by UCL researchers. Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing over 98% of their DNA with humans, and the scientists say that their findings, published in Science , can not only teach us about our own evolutionary history, but also about the biology of malaria infection in humans.

A new study has found that the composition of your gut microbiome helps predict how likely you are to succumb to potentially life-threatening infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae, E.coli and other bugs - and it may be altered by changing your diet. Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria.

Genetic differences that contribute to how long a person will live and their risk of Alzheimer's disease have been identified by researchers at UCL and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI). The study, published in Brain , found that genetic variations in brain cells, particularly the immune cells in the brain (microglia) and the cells that support nerve cells (oligodendrocytes), are linked to both ageing and Alzheimer's.

Researchers from Oxford's Institute of Population Ageing and the University of Manchester, and Tufts University have found that head injuries, such as those induced in sports and the military, may re-awaken dormant viruses in the brain, triggering the onset of conditions including Alzheimer's Disease and dementia.

The genetic cause for the most common type of hearing loss in children with Down syndrome has been identified in mice by researchers at UCL, the Francis Crick Institute and MRC Harwell Institute. Down syndrome affects around one in 800 new births and is caused by an extra third copy of chromosome 21.

Bath researchers create new material for treating central nervous system injuries and neurodegenerative diseases, offering hope of new therapies Researchers at the University of Bath and Keele University have invented a new composite material that can help neural stem cells to grow The material has potential for use in new treatments for central nervous system injuries and neurodegenerative diseases Made from cellulose and piezo-ceramic particle

Interactions with friends and family may keep us healthy because they boost our immune system and reduce our risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, new research suggests. More and more people of all'ages are reporting feeling lonely. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy Barbara Sahakian Researchers from the UK and China drew this conclusion after studying proteins from blood samples taken from over 42,000 adults recruited to the UK Biobank.

Waves of human migration across Europe during the first millennium AD have been revealed using a more precise method of analysing ancestry with ancient DNA, in research co-led by a UCL and Francis Crick Institute researcher. Researchers can bring together a picture of how people moved across the world by looking at changes in their DNA, but this becomes a lot harder when historical groups of people are genetically very similar.

Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans - including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis. The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill.