New vaccine effective against coronaviruses that haven’t even emerged yet

This is a new approach to vaccine development called ‘proactive vaccinology’, where scientists build a vaccine before the disease-causing pathogen even emerges.The new vaccine works by training the body’s immune system to recognise specific regions of eight different coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and several that are currently circulating in bats…

Ice shelves fracture under weight of meltwater lakes

When air temperatures in Antarctica rise and glacier ice melts, water can pool on the surface of floating ice shelves, weighing them down and causing the ice to bend. Now, for the first time in the field, researchers have shown that ice shelves don’t just buckle under the weight of…

Robotic nerve ‘cuffs’ could help treat a range of neurological conditions

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, combined flexible electronics and soft robotics techniques to develop the devices, which could be used for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of disorders, including epilepsy and chronic pain, or the control of prosthetic limbs.Current tools for interfacing with the peripheral nerves…

A simple ‘twist’ improves the engine of clean fuel generation

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, are developing low-cost light-harvesting semiconductors that power devices for converting water into clean hydrogen fuel, using just the power of the sun. These semiconducting materials, known as copper oxides, are cheap, abundant and non-toxic, but their performance does not come close to…

Rare disease research at Cambridge receives major boost with launch of two new centres

The virtual centres, supported by the charity LifeArc, will focus on areas where there are significant unmet needs. They will tackle barriers that ordinarily prevent new tests and treatments reaching patients with rare diseases and speed up the delivery of rare disease treatment trials.The centres will bring together leading scientists…

Training AI models to answer ‘what if?’ questions could improve medical treatments

Artificial intelligence techniques can be helpful for multiple medical applications, such as radiology or oncology, where the ability to recognise patterns in large volumes of data is vital. For these types of applications, the AI compares information against learned examples, draws conclusions, and makes extrapolations.Now, an international team led by…

Mess is best: disordered structure of battery-like devices improves performance

Researchers led by the University of Cambridge used experimental and computer modelling techniques to study the porous carbon electrodes used in supercapacitors. They found that electrodes with a more disordered chemical structure stored far more energy than electrodes with a highly ordered structure.Supercapacitors are a key technology for the energy…

Steven Barrett appointed Regius Professor of Engineering

Professor Steven Barrett has been appointed Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, effective 1 June. He joins the University from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro).Barrett’s appointment marks his return to Cambridge, where he was…

Artificial intelligence beats doctors in accurately assessing eye problems

The clinical knowledge and reasoning skills of GPT-4 are approaching the level of specialist eye doctors, a study led by the University of Cambridge has found.GPT-4 - a ‘large language model’ - was tested against doctors at different stages in their careers, including unspecialised junior doctors, and trainee and expert…

AI speeds up drug design for Parkinson’s ten-fold

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, designed and used an AI-based strategy to identify compounds that block the clumping, or aggregation, of alpha-synuclein, the protein that characterises Parkinson’s.The team used machine learning techniques to quickly screen a chemical library containing millions of entries, and identified five highly potent compounds…

Interspecies competition led to even more forms of ancient human – defying evolutionary trends in vertebrates

Climate has long been held responsible for the emergence and extinction of hominin species. In most vertebrates, however, interspecies competition is known to play an important role.Now, research shows for the first time that competition was fundamental to 'speciation' – the rate at which new species emerge – across five…

Study unpicks why childhood maltreatment continues to impact on mental and physical health into adulthood

Individuals who experienced maltreatment in childhood – such as emotional, physical and sexual abuse, or emotional and physical neglect – are more likely to develop mental illness throughout their entire life, but it is not yet well understood why this risk persists many decades after maltreatment first took place.In a…

Four Cambridge researchers awarded prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grants

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced today the award of 255 Advanced Grants to outstanding research leaders across Europe, as part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. Four University of Cambridge researchers are amongst those to receive this prestigious and competitive funding.The University of Cambridge’s grant awardees are: Dr…

Collections-based research and innovation receives vital investment from Research England

The University cares for the country’s highest concentration of internationally important collections outside London, with more than five million works of art, artefacts and specimens. Together, these collections play a fundamental role in delivering the University mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at…

£9.2m boost for next generation of Cambridge cancer experts

The charity is to award the funding over the next five years to train early-career clinician scientists – doctors who also carry out medical research - as part of its Clinical Academic Training Programme. The Clinical Academic Training Programme will invest £58.7m at nine research centres including the Cancer Research UK…

Partha Dasgupta wins BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Economics

The 16th edition of the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economics, Finance and Management honours Professor Dasgupta for his work in defining the field of environmental economics by incorporating and quantifying the social value of nature.The award also takes into account Professor Dasgupta's leadership of an…

UK-wide trials to begin on blood tests for diagnosing dementia

Professor James Rowe from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge will co-lead a team that will test multiple existing and novel blood tests, looking at a range of types of dementia.The trials will capitalise on recent breakthroughs in potential dementia blood tests, and generate the evidence needed for them…

Last chance to record archaic Greek language ‘heading for extinction’

The initiative, led by Professor Ioanna Sitaridou (Queens' College and Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics), contributes to the UN’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-32), which aims ‘to draw global attention on the critical situation of many indigenous languages and to mobilise stakeholders and resources for their preservation,…

UK’s only research institute dedicated to understanding early cancer receives £11 million donation

Located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – the largest bioscience ecosystem in Europe – the Institute brings together world-leading expertise from across diverse fields including biology, physics, mathematics, epidemiology, medicine, and computer science under one roof with one goal: to predict and prevent cancer.The donation will support the redevelopment of…

Cambridge do the double in 2024 Boat Race

Despite both the Cambridge Men and Women’s Blue Boats starting as underdogs, Cambridge emerged victorious in both races.In the 78th Women’s Race, despite Oxford taking an early lead, Cambridge caught up and then overtook Oxford. Oxford cox Joe Gellett raised an appeal at the end of the race, arguing that…

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects

The source of pollutants in rivers and freshwater lakes can now be identified using a comprehensive new water quality analysis, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge and Trent University, Canada.Microparticles from car tyres, pesticides from farmers’ fields, and toxins from harmful algal blooms are just some of the…

TB vaccine may enable elimination of the disease in cattle by reducing its spread

The research, led by the University of Cambridge and Penn State University, improves prospects for the elimination and control of bovine tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease of cattle that results in large economic costs and health impacts across the world.  This is the first study to show that BCG-vaccinated cattle…

Reclaim ‘wellness’ from the rich and famous, and restore its political radicalism, new book argues

Today’s wellness industry generates trillions of dollars in revenue, but in a new book, Dr James Riley (Faculty of English & Girton College), shows that 1970s wellness pioneers imagined something radically different to today’s culture of celebrity endorsements and exclusive health retreats. “Wellness was never about elite experiences and glossy, high-value…

Clinical trial underway to treat ultra-rare genetic disease with possible link to leader of mutiny on the Bounty

A clinical trial to look at repurposing the UK-licensed medicine deferiprone for patients with the ultra-rare genetic disease neuroferritinopathy has launched today at the University of Cambridge.Neuroferritinopathy is a progressive and incurable brain disorder caused by changes in a gene that produces a specific protein - ferritin light chain protein.…

Fish fed to farmed salmon should be part of our diet, too, study suggests

Scientists found that farmed salmon production leads to an overall loss of essential dietary nutrients. They say that eating more wild ‘feed’ species directly could benefit our health while reducing aquaculture demand for finite marine resources.Researchers analysed the flow of nutrients from the edible species of wild fish used as…

Three Cambridge researchers awarded Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies

From atomically thin semiconductors for more energy-efficient electronics, to harnessing the power of the sun by upcycling biomass and plastic waste into sustainable chemicals, their research encompasses a variety of technological advances with the potential to deliver wide-ranging benefits.Funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Academy’s Chair…

Major investment in doctoral training announced

The 65 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) will support leading research in areas of national importance, including net zero, AI, defence and security, healthcare and quantum technologies. The £1 billion in funding – from government, universities and industry – represents the UK’s biggest-ever…

Astronomers spot oldest ‘dead’ galaxy yet observed

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge have spotted a ‘dead’ galaxy when the universe was just 700 million years old, the oldest such galaxy ever observed.This galaxy appears to have lived fast and died young: star formation happened quickly…

Neon sign identified by JWST gives clue to planet formation

Planetary systems like our Solar System seem to contain more rocky objects than gas-rich ones. Around our sun, these include the inner planets, the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. But scientists have known for a long time that planet-forming discs start with 100 times more mass in gas than…

AI-driven techniques reveal new targets for drug discovery

The research team, led by the University of Cambridge, presented an approach to identify therapeutic targets for human diseases associated with a phenomenon known as protein phase separation, a recently discovered phenomenon widely present in cells that drives a variety of important biological functions. Protein phase separation at the wrong…

Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all, study suggests

Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit trained 120 volunteers worldwide to suppress thoughts about negative events that worried them, and found that not only did these become less vivid, but that the participants’ mental health also improved. “We’re all familiar with the Freudian idea…

How new model boosts supply and lowers prices for generic drugs

Cyprus CEO summary: Civica Rx, a nonprofit drug manufacturer formed by US health systems and philanthropic groups, has significantly improved drug supply security and reduced costs for 20 medications, according to a study in NEJM Catalyst. Civica's unique structural approach prioritizes access over profit and has proven effective in addressing…

Healthy lifestyle can help prevent depression – and new research may explain why

In research published today in Nature Mental Health, an international team of researchers, including from the University of Cambridge and Fudan University, looked at a combination of factors including lifestyle factors, genetics, brain structure and our immune and metabolic systems to identify the underlying mechanisms that might explain this link.…

US climate deniers have no faith in universities

Based on a survey of thousands of U.S. voters, co-authors Cambridge Zero Fellow and Assistant Professor Ramit Debnath, Professor R. Michael Alvarez and Mr. Danny Ebanks from Caltech, found that Americans who expressed negative and distrustful opinions about universities and academics were also the most likely to believe climate change…

Robots cause company profits to fall – at least at first

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, studied industry data from the UK and 24 other European countries between 1995 and 2017, and found that at low levels of adoption, robots have a negative effect on profit margins. But at higher levels of adoption, robots can help increase profits. According…