Scientists have discovered eight genes linked to red hair, helping to solve a mystery of how redheads inherit their flaming locks. The study – which also sheds light on blondes and brunettes – is the largest genetic study of hair colour to date.
E. coli, the notorious bug associated with severe food poisoning and usually caught from undercooked meat, is a common concern for anyone cooking over the festive period. While thoroughly cooking meat and washing vegetables and hands after food preparation can prevent E. coli infection, treatment for the severe stomach bug can be difficult, as antibiotics are known to make the disease worse by releasing a potent toxin into the infected person’s gut.
Final preparations are under way for the first UK experiment to take place on the International Space Station. The experiment will see thousands of tiny worms take off from the Kennedy Space Centre on a mission that will help scientists to better understand spaceflight-induced muscle loss.
Growing brain cells in the lab to help study neurological disorders in humans and develop new treatments and therapies is a step closer thanks to a new collaboration and funding from BBSRC. Researchers at the University of Oxford, in a new industry partnership with Axol Bioscience of Cambridge, are collaborating to create human models of the cerebellum with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for studies of neurological disorders.
As temperatures drop and the sniffles start, take hope; research published this summer suggests a new approach to protect ourselves from the common cold. By analysing changes to the make-up and types of cellular fat molecules in cells as they are infected by the cold virus, the research identified three chemicals that point to those that could be developed into a new type of anti-cold drug that could actually stop the infection in its tracks.
The health and balance of the gut microbiota is important in the progression of a bacterial infection, according to new research, supported by BBSRC. A new study, led by the University of Glasgow and published in Nature Communications, found that disease-causing bacteria were taking signals from the host’s gut microbiota in order to spread and progress the infection.
A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed a new technique that could reduce the number of mammalian embryos used in research. The technique, reported today in the journal Nature, allows scientists to create an ‘artificial embryo’ that goes through several important developmental stages like a real embryo.
Research from University of Oxford has found that a special combination of epigenetic modifications - crucial to stem cell growth - evolved in animals much earlier than previously appreciated. The findings imply that our stem cells, and those of simple animals such as planarian worms, have much more in common than previously appreciated.
Scientists hope that a new approach to vaccine development, combined with improved surveillance of potential future threats of outbreak, could help to massively reduce the impact of deadly diseases such as Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever. Ebola and Lassa viruses mutate frequently as they circulate in animal populations.
Thousands of worms are being flown to the International Space Station later this year for scientists to understand more about spaceflight-induced muscle loss. It's part of an important project and the first UK experiment to take place on the International Space Station.
For the first time, scientists at The Pirbright Institute and the European Bioinformatics Institute have been able to generate and build a complete Culicoides biting midge genome. These flies are not only an annoying biting nuisance for those visiting or living in Scotland, but also transmit a range of important animal viruses on UK farms including bluetongue virus.
Research generated by scientists at University of Glasgow and The Pirbright Institute has shown that a targeted vaccination programme against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) could alleviate poverty in eastern Africa. In their study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the team surveyed farming households in Tanzania and examined how the disease passed to livestock, enabling them to understand the economic burden FMD places on local people, and establish the best methods for controlling its spread.
Scientists have shed light on how a major cause of human and animal disease can jump between species, by studying its genes. The findings reveal fresh insights into how new disease-causing strains of the bacteria - called Staphylococcus aureus - emerge. Experts say the research could help improve the use of antibiotics and design better strategies for limiting the spread of disease.
If this surprisingly hot British summer has you fighting off unwelcome armpit aromas, you’ll be pleased to learn that science has just brought us a step closer to blocking body odour (BO). Researchers have unravelled a key part of the molecular process by which armpit bacteria produce the most pungent component of the noxious smell we recognise as BO.
Green tea may hold the key to preventing deaths from heart attacks and strokes caused by atherosclerosis, according to recent research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Scientists from Lancaster University and the University of Leeds have discovered a compound found in green tea, currently being studied for its ability to reduce amyloid plaques in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, also breaks up and dissolves potentially dangerous protein plaques found in the blood vessels.
The UK government has announced that it will be committing over £30 million of funding and continue to lead the global fight against antimicrobial resistance. The funding will be delivered via four new projects as part of the Global AMR Innovation Fund (GAMRIF).
A low-cost, easy-to-use arsenic sensor to test drinking water has been developed by researchers at University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London, with BBSRC funding through the government's modern and ambitious Industrial Strategy. 140 million people worldwide drink water containing unsafe levels of arsenic, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Curapel, a finalist in the BBSRC Innovator of the Year competition in 2014, has recently launched its first product on the UK market, Pellamex, which helps restore the skin protective barrier in dry, sensitive and eczema-prone skin. Curapel is a skin healthcare company that was spun out of The University of Manchester's Dermatology Centre four years ago.
Researchers from the Quadram Institute have identified genes encoding a previously undiscovered version of the botulinum neurotoxin in bacteria from a cow’s gut. This is the first time that an intact cluster of genes for making botulinum neurotoxin have been found outside of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum or its close relatives, and only the second report of a new botulinum toxin in the past 40 years.
An ingredient commonly found in toothpaste could be employed as an anti-malarial drug against strains of malaria parasite that have grown resistant to one of the currently-used drugs. This discovery, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, was aided by Eve, an artificially-intelligent ‘robot scientist’.
