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From new surgical techniques and treatments to studies on neurodegenerative disease, here are five of the top brain science stories from this year. Liraglutide slowing Alzheimer's Liraglutide, popularly known as Ozempic, has been trending as the latest weight loss drug in Hollywood, but researchers at Imperial have discovered a new possible use for it.

Researchers develop a way to test the ability of red blood cells to deliver oxygen by measuring their shape Scientists have developed a way of assessing the ability of red blood cells to deliver oxygen by measuring their shape. This test could improve specialist transplant and transfusion practice as well as blood banking.

A team of scientists has discovered that an ancient medicinal clay known as Lemnian Earth (LE) could inspire new understanding of how to support present-day gut health. The team also think that that LE was probably the prototype for the modern medicinal pill as far back as the 1st millennium, before the Common Era (BCE), since it was shaped into a small pellet, stamped with a seal and taken with liquids such as wine.

A new review by researchers from Oxford Population Health and the University of Iceland, published in Nature Aging , reveals how your DNA shapes reproductive health, fertility, and even life expectancy. Led by researchers from the University of Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and the University of Iceland, the review explores how genetic variations can explain differences in reproductive health and longevity.

From hard-working newspaper reporter to world-saving superhero, Clark Kent makes the transition to Superman in just a few seconds. Now, scientists have discovered that human cells are home to their own hidden superheroes, secretly helping us to fight off a range of viruses. The latest study, led by the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in collaboration with the Rosalind Franklin Institute, has uncovered intriguing new insights into how our cells respond to viral infection.

Genetic variants that determine the shape of your teeth - including a gene inherited from Neanderthals - have been identified by a team co-led by UCL researchers. In a new paper published in Current Biology , scientists found substantial tooth differences between ethnicities, potentially due in part to a gene inherited from Neanderthals that was only found in study participants of European origin.

Scientists reveal how coffee wilt fungi gained genes to better infect arabica and robusta crops. A new study reveals how genetic interactions between fungal pathogens contributed to the repeated outbreaks of coffee wilt disease threatening arabica and robusta coffee. Coffee wilt disease is caused by Fusarium xylarioides , a soil-borne fungus that invades coffee plants through the roots, eventually blocking water uptake and causing the plants to wilt.

Specialist macrophages play a key role in the control of muscle and movement Researchers at Imperial College London have discovered that specialist macrophages - a type of white blood cell -play a key role in the control of muscle contraction and locomotion. The discovery overturns previous assumptions that muscle contraction and movement is controlled solely by the nervous system - including the brain and spinal cord.

Researchers uncover a 'chemical metronome' in the brain, which helps to synchronise the master clock telling us when it's time to sleeep. In a study of brain cells from mice and humans, researchers have found that star-shaped cells called astrocytes rhythmically produce a chemical pulse that helps the brain's master clock to keep time, influencing our circadian rhythm and sleep-wake cycle.

Large language models, a type of AI that analyses text, can predict the results of proposed neuroscience studies more accurately than human experts, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour , demonstrate that large language models (LLMs) trained on vast datasets of text can distil patterns from scientific literature, enabling them to forecast scientific outcomes with superhuman accuracy.

A study led by the University of Glasgow has revealed differences in the brains of paediatric and adult patients' that might explain the sometimes catastrophic outcomes seen in children following a traumatic brain injury. In findings published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the researchers found first pathological evidence that the pattern of damage to blood vessels after a severe brain injury appears to be age-dependant.

An Imperial-led study has highlighted how rare variants of a gene regulating the gut lining may increase the risk of MIS-C by up to four times. Scientists have uncovered genetic variants which help to explain why some children with mild COVID-19 go on to develop a severe inflammatory condition weeks after their infection.

Researchers from our top-rated Psychology department have discovered that social bonding behaviours in chimpanzees, like grooming and play, can spread through groups much like contagious yawns or laughter in humans. Observing chimpanzees at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, scientists found that individuals were more likely to start grooming or playing after seeing others engage in the same behaviour.

A potentially life-changing heart condition, dilated cardiomyopathy, can be caused by the cumulative influence of hundreds or thousands of genes and not just by a single "aberrant" genetic variant, as was previously thought, finds a new study co-led by researchers at UCL. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a condition in which the heart becomes progressively enlarged and weakened, reducing its ability to pump blood efficiently.

Fighting bowel cancer with the bacteria Salmonella could be a step closer thanks to a new discovery by researchers at the University of Glasgow and the University of Birmingham. The new study, funded by Cancer Research UK and published today in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, studied the response of T cells to a specially engineered safe form of Salmonella in mice with colorectal cancer.

People with a high mammographic density (HMD) are more likely to develop breast cancer. Dr Isobel Taylor-Hearn is investigating why. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in UK women aged between 35 and 49. Routine breast screening doesn't start until women are 50. Overall, around 12% of the female population will get breast cancer at some point during their lifetime.

Two conflicting memories can both be activated in a worm's brain, even if only one memory actively drives the animal's behaviour, finds a new study by UCL researchers. In the paper published in Current Biology , the researchers showed how an animal's sex drive can at times outweigh the need to eat when determining behaviour, as they investigated what happens when a worm smells an odour that has been linked to both good experiences (mating) and bad experiences (starvation).

The ageing and failure of cells that occurs when the liver is damaged can spread to other organs, suggests a new study in mice and humans from researchers at UCL, the University of Edinburgh and the CRUK Scotland Institute. In the study, published in Nature Cell Biology , scientists demonstrate for the first time that the deterioration of cells in a damaged liver can activate a process associated with ageing and impaired function, which then transmits to otherwise healthy organs elsewhere in the body.

An international team of researchers, including Dr Peter Etchells from our Department of Biosciences, have published new research which brings to light new discoveries in the development and understanding of stem cells. The new study, published by the journal Science, saw researchers from Durham, University of Helsinki and Utrecht University collaborate to identify the key components required to control the balance of stem cells in plants.

Neuroscientists at UCL have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us "where we are" in a sequence of behaviours, in a new study in mice. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can be configured to play different sequences of tones.