news

New research led by the University of Birmingham has revealed for the first time the extent to which frailty increases the risk of mortality in COVID-19 patients. The clinical observational study , involving 5,711 patients with COVID-19 at 55 hospitals across 12 countries, found that very severely frail individuals with COVID-19 are three times more likely to die than those who were not frail, even taking into account their age.

Scientists have broadened our understanding of how 'weak' cells bond with their more mature cellular counterparts to boost the body's production of insulin - improving our knowledge of the processes leading to type 2 diabetes - a significant global health problem. Type 2 diabetes mellitus occurs when β-cells cannot release enough insulin - a tightly controlled process requiring hundreds of such cells clustered together to co-ordinate their response to signals from food, such as sugar, fat and gut hormones.

The inner ear of a 400 million-year-old 'platypus fish' has yielded new insights into early vertebrate evolution, suggesting this ancient creature may be more closely related to modern-day sharks and bony fish than previously thought. A team of scientists from the University of Birmingham in the UK, and institutions in China, Australia and Sweden, used 'virtual anatomy' techniques, including MicroCT scanning (using x-rays to look inside the fossil) and digital reconstruction to examine previously unseen areas within the braincase of these mysterious fossils.

Patients' chances of survival after cancer surgery is strongly linked with the standard of post-operation hospital care, a major international study suggests. Patients in low-and lower-middle-income countries were up to six times more likely to die from complications within 30 days of surgery compared with those in high-income countries, the report said.

Mental health and emotional wellbeing among young people could be better understood by findings in a recently published pape r from the Universities of Birmingham and Oxford, which reveal that teenagers catch moods from friends and bad moods are more contagious than good ones. The authors, Dr Stephanie Burnett Heyes , of the University of Birmingham's School of Psychology and Dr Per Block , of Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science , hope the ground-breaking study could lead to improved understanding of emotional wellbeing.

Researchers in the UK and the United States have succeeded in 'fine tuning' a new thermoplastic biomaterial to enable both the rate at which it degrades in the body and its mechanical properties to be controlled independently. The material, a type of polyester, has been designed for use in soft tissue repair or flexible bioelectronics by a team at the University of Birmingham in the UK and Duke University in the US.

Hospital healthcare workers reported higher rates of clinically significant mental health symptoms following the initial Covid-19 pandemic peak in the UK, new research led by the University of Birmingham has revealed. A study , published in BJPsych Open, found around a third of hospital healthcare workers reported clinically significant symptoms of anxiety (34.3%) and depression (31.2%), while almost a quarter (24.5%) reported clinically significant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted stark inequalities in healthy life expectancy, according to a report into healthy ageing published today. The report into health ageing has been published by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee , following an in-depth inquiry for which the University of Birmingham's Professor Janet Lord was special adviser.

Research led by the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust has revealed new insight into the biological mechanisms of the long-term positive health effects of breastfeeding in preventing disorders of the immune system in later life. Breastfeeding is known to be associated with better health outcomes in infancy and throughout adulthood, and previous research has shown that babies receiving breastmilk are less likely to develop asthma, obesity, and autoimmune diseases later in life compared to those who are exclusively formula fed.

Leading cancer experts at the University of Birmingham have solved a long-standing question of how various types of mutations in just one gene cause different types of diseases. A team of scientists at the University's Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences , led by Professor Constanze Bonifer, studied a gene known as RUNX1, which is responsible for providing instructions for the development of all blood cells and is frequently mutated in blood cancers.

The first COVID-19 lockdowns led to significant changes in urban air pollution levels in major cities around the world, but the changes were smaller than expected - a new study reveals. After developing new corrections for the impact of weather and seasonal trends, such as reduced NO2 emissions from winter to summer, the researchers evaluated changes in ambient NO2, O3 and fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations arising from lockdown emission changes in 11 global cities: Beijing, Wuhan, Milan, Rome, Madrid, London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Delhi.

An imbalance of the body's oxygen producing free radicals and its antioxidant cells could be the reason why gum disease and chronic kidney disease affect each other, a new study led by the University of Birmingham has found. Periodontitis - or gum disease - is a common, inflammatory disease which causes bleeding gums, wobbly or drifting teeth and can eventually result in tooth loss.

Assessing the ability of unresponsive patients with severe brain injury to understand what is being said to them could yield important insights into how they might recover, according to new research. A team at the University of Birmingham has shown that responses to speech can be measured using electroencephalography, a non-invasive technique used to record electrical signals in the brain.

A new COVID-19 test that reduces testing time from 30 minutes to less than five and delivers accurate results has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham. The researchers believe their method could deliver a test that is not only fast but also sufficiently sensitive. The test does not require samples to be treated at high temperatures, and it can be performed using standard laboratory equipment, making it readily deployable.

How the immune system adapts to pregnancies has puzzled scientists for decades. Now, findings from an international group of researchers, led by experts at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, reveal important changes that occur in the thymus to prevent miscarriages and gestational diabetes. The thymus is a central organ of the immune system where specialised immune cells called T lymphocytes mature.

A study of more than 23,000 samples carried out by teams across the UK shows Oxford Nanopore's COVID-19 test, LamPORE, is highly accurate for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, in both symptomatic and asymptomatic population settings. The study was performed on both swab and saliva samples across four NHS sites, showing very high LamPORE test accuracy, as follows: These data support the use of LamPORE for testing of both symptomatic people, and those without symptoms.

A single bright star in the constellation of Indus, visible from the southern hemisphere, has revealed new insights on an ancient collision that our galaxy the Milky Way underwent with another smaller galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus early in its history. An international team of scientists led by the University of Birmingham adopted the novel approach of applying the forensic characterisation of a single ancient, bright star called ν Indi as a probe of the history of the Milky Way.

BAME babies at highest risk of Vitamin D deficiency, highlighting need for improvements to UK antenatal supplementation programme, new study suggests A third of all babies and half of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) babies are vitamin D deficient, a large study of 3000 newborn's in the West Midlands has shown, highlighting potential shortfalls in the current UK antenatal supplementation programme.

Prolonged exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of the weedkiller Roundup causes significant harm to keystone species according to new research at the University of Birmingham. A team in the University's School of Biosciences used waterfleas, or Daphnia, to test the effects prolonged exposure to concentrations of Roundup deemed safe by regulatory agencies.

Radars are being installed at the top of an engineering building at the University of Birmingham as part of a demonstration intended to test and prove the precision of quantum-enabled radar detection capabilities. A key part of keeping everyday life secure is being able to detect dangerous or unsafe situations before they occur.