news

By estimating people's brain age from MRI scans using machine learning, a team led by UCL researchers has identified multiple risk factors for a prematurely ageing brain. They found that worse cardiovascular health at age 36 predicted a higher brain age later in life, while men also tended to have older brains than women of the same age, as they report in The Lancet Healthy Longevity .

A projected shortage of sulfuric acid, a crucial chemical in our modern industrial society, could stifle green technology advancement and threaten global food security, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) journal The Geographical Journal , highlights that global demand for sulfuric acid is set to rise significantly from '246 to 400 million tonnes' by 2040 - a result of more intensive agriculture and the world moving away from fossil fuels.

A national study led by UCL researchers is investigating whether a readily available anti-sickness drug could treat dementia-related hallucinations. The Trial of Ondansetron as a Parkinson's HAllucinations Treatment, or TOP HAT study, is now recruiting volunteers across England, Scotland and Wales to evaluate whether ondansetron, an anti-sickness drug used in the NHS for cancer patients, could also be used for treating hallucinations in people with Lewy body dementia or Parkinson's disease.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Sophie Adler (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health) and Dr Konrad Wagstyl (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) discuss a new algorithm, which can help find subtle brain abnormalities, known as focal cortical dysplasia. Around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy.

An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that can detect subtle brain abnormalities which cause epileptic seizures has been developed by a UCL-led team of international researchers. The Multicentre Epilepsy Lesion Detection project (MELD) used over 1,000 patient MRI scans from 22 global epilepsy centres to develop the algorithm, which provides reports of where abnormalities are in cases of drug-resistant focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) - a leading cause of epilepsy.

Dr Charlie Arber (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) has been named the winner of Alzheimer's Society's first ever research image competition, with a picture of brain cells grown from the skin of people with dementia. The Spotlight on Dementia contest aimed to shine a light on crucial dementia research done by academics who are funded by the charity, and challenged them to showcase their work through creative images and video.

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Alex Bryson (UCL Social Research Institute), Dr John Forth (City University) and Dr Nikolaos Theodoropoulos (University of Cyprus) report on their new research into wage disparities found between ethnic minorities and white counterparts. Ethnic minorities make up an ever larger share of the UK workforce.

Significant differences exist in the earnings between white and ethnic minority workers who are colleagues in the same workplace, according to a new study co-led by UCL, Bayes Business School and the University of Cyprus. Published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations , the research explores the scale of ethnic wage gaps among full-time employees, after accounting for the segregation of white and ethnic minority employees into different types of workplaces.

People in England continued to experience high levels of psychological distress even after all legal Covid restrictions ended in February 2022, finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and King's College London. The findings, part of the Covid-19 Rapid Survey of Adherence to Interventions and Responses (CORSAIR) study, were published in Journal of Psychiatric Research and examined data collected from online surveys of over 41,000 participants over the age of 16 years between April 2020 until April 2022.

Using hand signals can help overcome the psychological issues linked to online meetings and increase social connection, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The team conducted a randomised control trial with more than 100 students, training one group to use hand signals including gestures such as waving to take a turn to speak, and raising a hand to show empathy.

Using digital devices, such as smartphones, could help improve memory skills rather than causing people to become lazy or forgetful, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , showed that digital devices help people to store and remember very important information.

Ancient genomes from the herpes virus that commonly causes lip sores - and currently infects some 3.7 billion people globally - have been uncovered and sequenced for the first time by an international team involving UCL scientists.

An advanced form of cardiac MRI, developed by academics at UCL in collaboration with the Royal Free Hospital, has for the first-time enabled clinicians to measure the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with the life-limiting condition 'stiff heart syndrome'. Researchers say the breakthrough, published in the  European Heart Journal , means doctors will now be able to better guide treatment strategies and, by doing so, improve patients' prognosis.

The hidden archaeological potential of nationally important heritage site Seaford Head has been uncovered through a project involving the UCL Institute of Archaeology. The pilot study involving researchers from Archaeology South-East (ASE), part of UCL Institute of Archaeology, aimed to investigate how an archaeological site at risk from climate change accelerated coastal erosion can be rapidly recorded and communicated to the public before it is lost.

Recent acute hepatitis cases of unknown origin in children have been linked to the common adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) in two new studies led by researchers at UCL, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the University of Glasgow. The research also found no evidence of a direct link between the spike in hepatitis cases and SARS-CoV-2 infection, the cause of Covid-19.

Prehistoric people in Europe were consuming milk thousands of years before humans evolved the genetic trait allowing us to digest the milk sugar lactose as adults, finds a new study led by UCL and University of Bristol researchers. The research, published in Nature , mapped pre-historic patterns of milk use over the last 9,000 years, offering new insights into milk consumption and the evolution of lactose tolerance.

Self-reflection is positively associated with cognition late in life as well as glucose metabolism, a marker of brain health, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The authors of the new study, published in Neurology , say that older adults who engage in self-reflection may have a reduced risk of dementia.

After decades of study, there remains no clear evidence that serotonin levels or serotonin activity are responsible for depression, according to a major review of prior research led by UCL scientists. The new umbrella review - an overview of existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews - published in Molecular Psychiatry , suggests that depression is not likely caused by a chemical imbalance, and calls into question what antidepressants do.

Medications such as buprenorphine and methadone should be used to help treat patients with opioid use disorder who come to hospital with injecting-related infections, finds new research from UCL and UNSW, Sydney. Injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections are an increasingly common causes of pain, disability, and death among people who inject drugs.

Adults over the age of 52 appear to be twice as likely to develop mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, alongside suffering from financial difficulties after contracting Covid-19, finds a new UCL-led study. The study, published in  PNAS , used data from 5,146 adults between the ages of 52 and 74 who participated in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, to examine the immediate and longer-term impact of Covid-19 infection on the mental health, wellbeing, social interactions, and financial outcomes of older adults.