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Cancer Research UK is planning to invest nearly £9m over the next five years into research at the Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre. The announcement is part of a £45 million investment into Cancer Research UK's network of clinical trials units across the UK, one of the charity's largest investments in clinical research to date.

Amyloid beta pathology - protein deposits in the brain - might have been transmitted by contaminated neurosurgical instruments, suggests a new UCL-led study. For the paper, published today in Acta Neuropathologica , researchers studied the medical records of four people who had brain bleeds caused by amyloid beta build-up in the blood vessels of the brain.

Cells that form facial features need surrounding embryonic tissues to stiffen so they can move and develop, according to new UCL-led research. The discovery has important implications for understanding the causes of facial defects which account for a third of all birth defects globally (3.2 million each year) and are the primary cause of infant mortality.

Citrus fruit was being cultivated in India in the Late Neolithic period and in southern Thailand in the Iron Age, according to new findings by archaeologists at UCL and Peking University, Beijing. Citrus fruit are widespread and well known nearly everywhere today, but very little is known about how they were domesticated and diversified.

The prescription of opioid drugs by GPs in England is steadily rising, especially in more deprived communities, even though they can cause complications and adverse effects and do not work for chronic pain, a UCL study has revealed. The study, led by Dr Luke Mordecai, a pain research fellow at University College London Hospital (UCLH) found that over a 43 month period between 2010 and 2014 there was a rise in opioid prescribing.

Severe nerve damage has been successfully repaired in the laboratory using a new living artificial nerve tissue developed by UCL, ReNeuron and Sartorius Stedim Biotech. It opens up the possibility of a new 'off the shelf', universal therapy to improve the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries by removing the need for nerve grafts which cause additional damage and personalised stem cell therapies which take weeks to prepare.

The face of 'Cheddar Man', Britain's oldest nearly complete skeleton at 10,000 years old, is revealed for the first time and with unprecedented accuracy by UCL and Natural History Museum researchers. The results indicate that Cheddar Man had blue eyes, dark coloured curly hair and 'dark to black' skin pigmentation.

Up to 16% of all species on Earth could qualify as potential alien species and if they invade new regions, impacts will be difficult to predict, according to new research involving UCL. The study shows that the number of newly emerging alien species - those never before encountered as aliens - continues to rise, posing a significant challenge to biosecurity interventions worldwide.

Flowering plants likely originated between 149 and 256 million years ago according to new UCL-led research. The study, published today in New Phytologist by researchers from the UK and China, shows that flowering plants are neither as old as suggested by previous molecular studies, nor as young as a literal interpretation of their fossil record.

A UCL-led team has developed a cognitive test to detect subtle memory deficits years before Alzheimer's disease symptoms develop, set out in a new paper published in The Lancet Neurology. The study involved 21 people who carry the mutation for early onset Alzheimer's disease who have not shown any symptoms based on standard cognitive tests, alongside 14 controls.

Adolescents who have experienced some form of racism between the ages of 11 and 23 are more likely to take up smoking than those who have not, according to a new study led by King's College London involving UCL. The study, analysed questionnaire and interview data from the Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) study, the UK's largest longitudinal study of ethnically diverse young people.

A synthetic 'virus' that kills bacteria on first contact has been developed by UCL and National Physical Laboratory researchers (NPL). The study, published , shows how newly designed proteins can be used to build tiny hollow shells that emulate the outer structures of naturally occurring viruses. The synthetic virus 'drones' recognise bacterial cells before targeting and destroying their most vulnerable part - their membrane.

By identifying why skin immunity declines in old age, a UCL-led research team has found that an anti-inflammatory pill could help make vaccines more effective for elderly people. The study, published today in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology , found that an excessive inflammation reaction in older people can obstruct the immune system.

A type of onion could help the fight against antibiotic resistance in cases of tuberculosis, a UCL and Birkbeck-led study suggests. Researchers believe the antibacterial properties extracted from the Persian shallot could increase the effects of existing antibiotic treatment. The study, published in Scientific Reports , was led by Dr Sanjib Bhakta of Birkbeck, University of London and UCL's Professor Simon Gibbons , who worked with a team of scientists from Birkbeck, UCL, the University of Greenwich, the University of East London and Royal Free Hospital.

Epilepsy is associated with thickness and volume differences in the grey matter of several brain regions, according to new research led by UCL and the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The largest-ever neuroimaging study of people with epilepsy, published today in Brain , shows that epilepsy involves more widespread physical differences than previously assumed, even in types of epilepsy that are typically considered to be more benign if seizures are under control.

Whitehall is failing to fully exploit the expertise of non-executive directors (NEDs) to improve the way departments' policies and plans are devised and implemented despite their high calibre, commitment and experience, a study by UCL's Constitution Unit has found. The study, which was led by Professor Robert Hazell, found civil servants "greatly valued" the advice and expertise of NEDs but that the non-executive directors themselves found the role frustrating and felt they could be much more effective if the system only allowed.

Statins are safe for children living with genetically high cholesterol, according to new research from UCL, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology. The charity says the findings will 'reassure' parents of children with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) - an inherited condition that significantly increases the risk of a heart attack in their 40s, 30s or even 20s.

A promising new approach to detect immunity to Ebola virus infection has been developed by researchers from i-sense in a collaboration between UCL and Imperial College London. Published in ACS Nano , the new approach uses lateral flow technology, similar to that of a pregnancy test, coupled with smartphones to provide a promising alternative to lab-based testing.

Girls are more than twice as likely to experience emotional difficulties as boys, while boys are significantly more likely to experience behavioural problems, UCL research has revealed. In the first survey of its kind of more than 30,000 young people aged 11 to 14, UCL's Evidence Based Practice Unit and Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families found 25% of girls said they had experienced emotional problems compared with 11% of boys.

Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey (DES), which includes UCL researchers, announce their first three years of data including information on about 400 million astronomical objects such as distant galaxies billions of light years away as well as stars in our own galaxy. DES scientists are using this data to learn more about dark energy, the mysterious force believed to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.