Since the outbreak, doctors, scientists and designers have been working on ideas to stop coronavirus spreading. For accurate and up to date information on coronavirus please go to gov.uk/coronavirus. If you’re outside the UK please see the information on coronavirus from your national and local authorities. Last week we reported on the Covid Emergency Ventilator, … Continue reading Masks, ventilators, and door handles being developed across Wales to tackle coronavirus

Eminent philanthropist and three times cancer survivor Dr James Hull has joined forces with six universities to investigate why cancer returns in some people and not others. Focusing on people who have had successful treatment of advanced cancer and in whom the cancer has not reoccurred for at least five years, Swansea University says its … Continue reading Study looks at why some patients remain cancer free

Scientists have created a new way of speeding up the genome evolution of baker’s yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same yeast used for bread and beer production. The University of Manchester reports this is to develop a synthetic yeast strain that can be transformed on demand, making it particularly attractive for industrial biotechnology applications, such as … Continue reading Faster genome evolution methods to transform yeast

Scientists have created a new way of speeding up the genome evolution of baker’s yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same yeast used for bread and beer production. The University of Manchester reports this is to develop a synthetic yeast strain that can be transformed on demand, making it particularly attractive for industrial biotechnology applications, such as … Continue reading Faster genome evolution methods to transform yeast

A scheme providing fruit and veg vouchers to low income families with young children has brought about significant nutritional improvements in families’ diets, new research has shown. The University of Manchester reports the UK Healthy Start Scheme, in which four hundred and fifty thousand families receive vouchers worth £3.10 per week per child, has increased … Continue reading Voucher scheme helps improve diet of low income families

The way a person walks and their footsteps could be used as a biometric at airport security instead of fingerprinting and eye scanning. Researchers at the University of Manchester and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid have developed a state of the art AI biometric verification system that can measure a person’s individual gait or walking … Continue reading AI footstep recognition could be used for airport security

A new drug could benefit men and women with baldness, according to researchers from the University of Manchester’s Centre for Dermatology Research. The study, from the laboratory of Professor Ralf Paus, is published in PLOS Biology. The University of Manchester reports it shows a drug originally designed as a treatment for osteoporosis has a dramatic … Continue reading Drug side effects could treat baldness

A new study has found a way to identify men with locally advanced prostate cancer who are less likely to respond well to radiotherapy. Led by Professor Catharine West, the University of Manchester team created a method of selecting men with prostate cancer who would benefit from treatments which target oxygen deficient tumours. The study … Continue reading New way to identify men with prostate cancer

Technology from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, where the Higgs Boson was discovered, will be used in hospitals to improve cancer treatments that employ proton beam therapy. The University of Birmingham reports their researchers, who designed and built detectors for ATLAS, are using their knowhow from the Large Hadron Collider to create … Continue reading Large Hadron Collider technology to help treat cancer

A study by University of Manchester researchers has shown for the first time that a bad night’s sleep is associated with suicidal thoughts the next day in people with depression. Researcher Donna Littlewood said her observational study of fifty one people with depression and suicidal thoughts highlights the need for treatment of sleep disorders in … Continue reading A bad night’s sleep can lead to suicidal thoughts