News & Updates

Stay informed with the latest developments in global research and academia. Our News and Updates section provides timely articles on breakthrough studies, funding announcements, and significant achievements from our academic community. From cutting-edge discoveries to policy changes affecting research, we deliver insights that keep you ahead in your field.

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University of Exeter: Screening with a multi-cancer blood test reduced the most advanced cancers

A large-scale trial looking into the use of a blood test to see if it can help the NHS detect cancer early has reported a substantial reduction in the most advanced cancers. The NHS Galleri trial aimed to see if using the Galleri® multi-cancer early detection test alongside existing cancer screening can help to find cancer early. The blood test can detect a ‘signal’ shared by many different types of cancer in a sample of a person’s blood. Read more

May 30

University of Manchester: Study of coral surface behaviour offers new tools to understand the physics underlying infertility and ovarian cancer

A study by researchers at The University of Manchester, carried out alongside the Universities of Melbourne and Copenhagen, could hold the key to understanding the causes of long-term health problems, such as infertility and ovarian cancer. The study, published in Physics Review x Life, used a combination of high-resolution imaging, flow measurements, and mathematical modelling to examine fluid flows around corals that are driven by cilia – densely packed tiny hairs on the co

May 27

University of Glasgow: Girls with ADHD from deprived backgrounds may face a higher risk of long-term health conditions

Girls from a deprived background who are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be more likely to experience multiple long-term health conditions, or multimorbidity, in adulthood, according to new research. Girls from a deprived background who are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be more likely to experience multiple long-term health conditions, or multimorbidity, in adulthood, according to new research. The study,

May 26

Harvard University: When stress is a punch to the gut

When stress affects the gut, the stomach tightens, digestion slows. For some, these symptoms resolve quickly. For others — particularly people with constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) and related conditions — they don’t. In a new study, investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) show how stress hormones directly interfere with gut function, slowing digestion through a newly defined pathway. In preclinical models, the findings point tow

May 19

University of Bristol: Breakthrough blood test could detect heart and kidney disease earlier than ever before

Until now, monitoring the health of the vast network of tiny blood vessels that supply vital organs with oxygen and nutrients has remained largely inaccessible to medicine. In this new study, scientists show that damage to the lining of these microscopic blood vessels signals the earliest stages of heart and kidney disease, conditions that together account for one in three deaths worldwide. Previously, detecting this type of vascular damage relied on invasive tissue biopsies

May 12

Imperial College London: Imperial and CDL-London launch healthcare robotics stream to help scale clinical and in-home care

Creative Destruction Lab and Imperial are launching a healthcare robotics stream at CDL-London for founders seeking to commercialise innovations in medical robotics, active sensing, and physical AI. The programme supports the development of hardware-enabled technologies that bring cutting-edge precision and automation into hospitals, homes, and communities to deliver personalised healthcare at scale. CDL-London is hosted at Imperial College London by the Imperial Institute fo

Apr 30

University of Bristol: Nature’s photocopiers caught ‘doodling’ – and scientists say it could revolutionise how DNA is written

The study, led by the University of Bristol and published in Nature Communications, analyses this curious ‘doodling’ activity, showing for the first time that it can be steered and controlled. The findings not only help shed further light on how genetic information emerges, but could also present exciting new ways of writing long DNA sequences. Every time a cell divides, it needs to copy its DNA. This job falls to proteins called DNA polymerases – tiny biological machines tha

Apr 1

University of Manchester: UK cancer scientists uncover genetic clues as to what drives tumour growth

A team of scientists from Manchester and London have, for the first time, decoded the full range of mutations that drive tumour growth, which could pave the way for a new era in precision medicine, offering more effective treatments for thousands of people with cancer. A team of cancer genomics* scientists from The University of Manchester and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, forensically examined the genetic make-up of tumours in 16 different cancers. Their findings

Mar 30

Imperial: First-in-class drug candidate for multiple myeloma shows promise in Phase 1 trial

A multiple myeloma candidate with a new mode of action is now in Phase 2 patient trials following positive Phase 1 results showing it kills cancer cells without toxicity to patients. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of plasma cells, accounting for about 200,000 annual new cases globally. Despite recent therapeutic advances, MM remains incurable and an area of substantial unmet medical need. Professor Guido Franzoso in Imperial College London’s Department of Immunology and I

Feb 23

MIT: Fragile X study uncovers brain wave biomarker bridging humans and mice

Researchers find mice modeling the autism spectrum disorder fragile X syndrome exhibit the same pattern of differences in low-frequency waves as humans — a new marker for treatment studies. Numerous potential treatments for neurological conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, have worked well in mice but then disappointed in humans. What would help is a non-invasive, objective readout of treatment efficacy that is shared in both species. In a new open-access study i

Feb 20

Harvard: What’s next for GLP-1s?

Scientists eye new treatment targets for popular weight-loss drugs, from heart failure to addiction Now that GLP-1 drugs have revolutionized how millions of Americans treat obesity and Type 2 diabetes, scientists are exploring the benefits of using the drugs for a host of other chronic diseases — many with few treatment options — such as heart failure, chronic liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and even substance use disorders. “Their role is now being understood to be m

Feb 18

Cambridge: Tetris gameplay treatment helps reduce traumatic flashbacks for frontline healthcare workers

A simple, digital intervention that includes mentally playing Tetris can dramatically reduce intrusive memories of trauma in a month, even to the point of being symptom-free after six months, new research has found. Using ‘mental rotation,’ the treatment was also very effective at reducing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) more generally. The study, funded by Wellcome, offers potential to implement a highly scalable, low intensity, easily accessible, digit

Feb 18

Queen's University: 3D-printed capsule gives researchers a clearer look at glioblastoma

A global-first innovation, developed by a research team at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC ) and Queen's University, is changing the way scientists will be able to study glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. Neurosurgeon scientists and assistant professors Dr. James Purzner and Dr. Teresa Purzner, along with Queen's Translational Medicine PhD candidate Kaytlin Andrews, have designed and patented a 3D-printed surgical biopsy capsule – a container used t

Nov 12, 2025

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: New nanoparticles stimulate the immune system to attack ovarian tumors

Cancer immunotherapy, which uses drugs that stimulate the body's immune cells to attack tumors, is a promising approach to treating many types of cancer. However, it doesn't work well for some tumors, including ovarian cancer. To elicit a better response, MIT researchers have designed new nanoparticles that can deliver an immune-stimulating molecule called IL-12 directly to ovarian tumors. When given along with immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors, IL-12 helps the

Oct 31, 2025

University of Chicago: New model shows how treating diabetes early makes a difference

Could slightly elevated blood sugar levels lead to serious health problems in the future? A single patient's question sparked nearly a decade of research leading to the development of a landmark model that could shape how clinicians and researchers understand and manage diabetes across the US. When she was a fellow in clinic, Neda Laiteerapong, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine and Chief of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago, had a patient—an experienced nurse

Oct 30, 2025

Imperial College London: Falling asleep follows a brain "tipping point", Imperial-led study shows

Imperial College London and UK Dementia Research Institute researchers have identified a predictable tipping point in the brain as we fall asleep, validating a new way to track the transition to sleep and showing it can be predicted in near real time. The team analysed overnight EEG from more than a thousand people, with findings published in Nature Neuroscience. Mapping the brain's approach to the tipping point in real time could translate into earlier drowsiness warnings fo

Oct 29, 2025

King's College London: The positive impact of art on the body

Viewing art in galleries has an immediate positive impact upon the body according to new research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN ) at King's College London. The research, which hasn't yet been peer-reviewed, was undertaken by King's IoPPN on behalf of the Art Fund and Psychiatry Research Trust, and studied the physiological responses of participants while viewing masterpieces by world-renowned artists including Manet, Van Gogh and Gauguin i

Oct 28, 2025

University of California Los Angeles: How bacteria sense surfaces to form films

The bacterium known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an unwelcome visitor in the human body. Serious infections can result when a bunch of these bugs settle together on a surface to form a biofilm — a community of microbes like the slime on spoiled food, but in this case residing inside a person. The grouped-up bacteria attack the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis and conditions that require the use of ventilators, such as severe COVID-19. Worse still, the World Health Organ

Oct 28, 2025

Johns Hopkins University: AI-Powered Diabetes Prevention Program Shows Similar Benefits to Those Led by People

Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health report that an AI-powered lifestyle intervention app for prediabetes reduced the risk of diabetes similarly to traditional, human-led programs in adults. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in JAMA Oct. 27, the study is believed to be the first phase III randomized controlled clinical trial to demonstrate that an AI-powered diabetes prevention program (DPP ) a

Oct 27, 2025

University of Pennsylvania: Tumor-on-a-chip offers insight into cancer-fighting cells in immunotherapy

Penn engineers and collaborators have developed a transparent, micro-engineered device that houses a living, vascularized model of human lung cancer—a "tumor on a chip"—and show that the diabetes drug vildagliptin helps more CAR T cells break through the tumor's defenses and attack it effectively. For a little over two decades, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR ) T cell therapy has emerged as a powerful new way to treat cancer. By extracting patients' T cells, re-engineering th

Oct 23, 2025