news 2026

Diabetes drugs that may soon be prescribed more widely in England could save thousands of lives each year, suggests a new study by researchers at UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Last August the UK diabetes guideline committee at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) proposed SGLT-2 inhibitors alongside another drug, metformin, as a first-line treatment for people with type 2 diabetes.

A major study by UCL and Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan (INT) researchers has for the first time shown in detail how far children's cancer has spread at diagnosis in a way that can be compared between countries. While poorer survival following late-stage diagnosis is well recognised, the study is the first to show that differences in tumour stage at diagnosis may explain why childhood cancer survival varies between some European regions and tumour types.

In an article for the Institute of Alcohol Studies, Dr Sharon Cox (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) reports on new analysis finding that one in eight people who drink at increasing or higher-risk levels felt guilt or remorse after drinking in the past six months. Many people recognise the feeling.

A team led by UCL researchers with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and Moorfields Eye Hospital, found B cells-alongside T cells-play a key role in arthritis-related eye disease (JIA uveitis), a condition that can cause long-term vision loss in children. The study, funded by the Medical Research Foundation, Moorfields Eye Charity, Arthritis UK and Fight for Sight challenges how the disease has been previously understood, and could open the door to new treatments that help protect children's sight.

New study, funded by Tommy's, finds care for pregnancy loss in the second trimester varies across the UK Care, including medication, bereavement support and interventions during subsequent pregnancies varies across the UK and Ireland 'A clear care pathway needs to be established' to ensure equitable appropriate care is provided across all'healthcare providers The care that women receive following a miscarriage during the second trimester of pregnancy varies according to where in the UK and Ireland the woman is treated, new research shows.

Some Argentinian penguins are experiencing high levels of predation from pumas recolonising their historical territory. A new study involving Oxford researchers, published today in the Journal for Nature Conservation , has quantified the risk on long-term penguin population survival. Should we protect an emblematic species if it may come at the cost of another one - particularly in ecosystems that are still recovering from human impacts? This is the conservation dilemma facing Monte Leon National Park, on the Patagonian coast in Argentina.

Dr Darío Moreno Agostino (UCL Institute of Education) outlines his research into the mental health of baby boomers and generation X throughout their adulthoods, revealing persistent gender and socioeconomic inequalities and increased distress levels during the pandemic. It's been almost five years since the end of the COVID lockdowns.

Statins do not cause the majority of the conditions that have been listed in their package leaflets, including memory loss, depression, sleep disturbance, and erectile and sexual dysfunction, according to the most comprehensive review of possible side effects. The study was led by researchers at Oxford Population Health and published in The Lancet .

Removing sheep and other livestock entirely from upland grasslands - a strategy often promoted as a way to boost carbon storage and tackle climate change - may actually reduce the most stable forms of soil carbon, according to new research. The study, led by The University of Manchester, suggests that while removing livestock from upland grasslands can increase fast-cycling carbon stored in plants and dead vegetation, it can also lead to losses of a more stable form of soil carbon.

New research may have solved an American mystery which has baffled geologists for a century and a half: how did a river carve a path through a mountain in one of the country's most iconic landscapes? Scientists have long sought an answer to the question of how the Green River, the largest tributary of the Colorado River, managed to create a 700-metre-deep canyon through Utah's 4km-high Uinta Mountains instead of simply flowing around them.

High levels of testosterone in the blood have been linked to a greater risk of coronary artery disease in men, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Memory dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease may be linked to impairment in how the brain replays our recent experiences while we are resting, according to a new study in mice by UCL scientists. The researchers say their findings, published in Current Biology , could help scientists develop drug treatments targeting this impaired brain function, or help design new tests for early diagnosis.

Cambridge researchers have revealed a detailed picture of how the human brain grows from mid-pregnancy through the first weeks after birth and identified that sex differences in brain growth are apparent from mid-pregnancy onwards. This study addresses the age-old question of whether nature plays a role in shaping sex differences in the brain Alex Tsompanidis There has long been debate over exactly how early in human brain development sex differences first emerge, and what causes them.

Astronomers at The University of Manchester have played a leading role in the discovery of a new cosmic object that is much larger than anything astronomers have seen before in the distant universe. This new discovery captures the cosmic moment when a galaxy cluster - among the largest structures in the universe - started to assemble only about a billion years after the big bang, one or two billion years earlier than previously thought possible.

New research reveals how Parkinson's spreads from the gut to the brain, with the help of immune cells - offering a new potential therapeutic strategy - in a study in mice led by scientists at the UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL. Scientists have long theorised that Parkinson's may start in the gut.

A photograph of a second Jamoytius specimen, again with a zinc X-ray map overlain at top, where the eye structure is visible but less well preserved. In this specimen the body scales were also preserved and when mapped for the elements calcium (bottom left) and phosphorous (bottom right) the scales are shown to have the same chemistry as bone.

Researchers find reducing salt in everyday foods could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes A new study led by researchers in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences has found that if the UK food industry had met the government's voluntary 2024 salt reduction targets, substantial improvements could have been made in cardiovascular health, leading to major savings for the NHS - all without the public having to change their eating habits.

Gentrifying neighbourhoods across London are undergoing rapid change, with rising numbers of newcomers arriving from less deprived areas and from further afield than ever before, according to new research from the Geographic Data Service led by a UCL researcher. The study, published by the charity Trust for London, shows that these areas are now driving a growing share of the capital's population churn, with far-reaching implications for housing pressures and who is able to live in the city.

Scientists using data from the James Webb Space Telescope have made one of the most detailed high-resolution maps of dark matter ever produced. It shows how the invisible, ghostly material overlaps and intertwines with 'regular' matter, the stuff that makes up stars, galaxies, and everything we can see.

Researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) have developed the first-ever lab-grown mini-stomach that contains the key components of the full-sized human organ. Known as a multi-regional assembloid, the pea-sized mini-stomach is the first to contain the fundic region (the upper portion of the stomach), the body (the central region where food is mixed with acid and enzymes), and the antrum (the lower part of the stomach that breaks down food before entering the small intestine).