A study published in The Lancet Global Health has revealed stark global inequalities in survival after emergency abdominal surgery for traumatic injuries. The research found that patients in the world’s least developed countries face a substantially higher risk of dying within 30 days of surgery than those in the most developed nations, as ranked by the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI).

Although overall mortality rates appeared similar across settings at 11%, risk-adjusted analysis showed that patients in the lowest-HDI countries faced more than three times the risk of death compared with those in the highest-HDI group, while the risk in middle-HDI countries was nearly double.

The Global Outcomes After Laparotomy for Trauma (GOAL-Trauma) study was led by the University of Cambridge and carried out by a global network of collaborators. It analysed data from 1,769 patients treated in 187 hospitals across 51 countries, ranging from conflict-affected areas such as the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ukraine, and Sudan to well-resourced trauma centres in Europe and the United States. All patients had undergone a trauma laparotomy — emergency surgery to repair internal abdominal injuries – as a result of incidents such as road traffic accidents, stabbings, or gunshot wounds.

Among patients who underwent surgery, those in low-HDI countries typically had less severe injuries than those in higher-ranked countries. This suggests that the most critically injured may die before reaching hospital, or that some life-threatening injuries are missed on arrival.

“Our findings point to a survival gap that begins before patients even reach the operating theatre,” said lead author Dr Michael Bath from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “This may be because the most seriously injured die before they can access life-saving care, or because limitations in diagnosis mean their injuries go undetected.”

The researchers also found wide disparities in hospital care. For example, access to CT scans before surgery — a critical tool for diagnosing internal injuries — was available in over three-quarters of patients in the more developed settings, but in fewer than one-quarter in the lowest-ranked group.

The researchers say that addressing this survival gap will take more than simply faster transport or greater access to diagnostic tools such as CT scans. They call for coordinated improvements across the entire trauma pathway – from the moment of injury to full recovery – to ensure critically injured patients receive the care they need.

“The GOAL-Trauma study provides for the first time comparable global data on laparotomy for trauma, revealing that similar mortality rates can mask profound inequalities in care pathways,” said co-author Dr Daniel U. Baderhabusha of Hôpital de Kyeshero in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “This information will help design more equitable trauma systems that are better adapted to local realities. It paves the way for strategies that can offer every patient, wherever they live, the best chance of survival and recovery.”

“The GOAL-Trauma study is one of the biggest global studies of trauma care yet published,” said senior author Dr Tom Bashford from the Cambridge’s Department of Engineering and Cambridge University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust. “It represents a huge effort by a team of partners from across the world, some of whom are practising in the most extreme conditions imaginable and yet still recognise the importance of contributing to international research.”

Reference:
Michael F. Bath et al. ‘Global variation in patient factors, interventions, and post-operative outcomes for those undergoing trauma laparotomy: an international prospective observational cohort study.’ The Lancet Global Health (2025). DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00303-1

Mortality after emergency abdominal surgery is more than three times higher in the least developed countries compared to the most developed. Yet among those who undergo surgery, injuries tend to be less severe – raising concerns that those most critically injured are not even reaching the operating theatre.

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Cambridge researchers Dr Claudia Bonfio, Dr Akshay Deshmukh and Dr Elizabeth Radford have been awarded UKRI Future Leader Fellowships, which provides up to seven years of support to enable them to tackle ambitious programmes or multidisciplinary questions, and new or emerging research and innovation areas and partnerships.

Dr Claudia Bonfio’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry studies how life emerges from non-living matter and tries to answer this question by designing and building active primitive cells. Her Future Leader Fellowship project addresses this evolutionary question through an approach that bridges chemistry and biophysics, by investigating how the synergy between primitive lipids and peptides led to the emergence of membrane proteins – a hallmark of living cells.

Dr Akshay Deshmukh is returning to Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from MIT to take up his Future Leader Fellowship. To reach net zero by 2050, we will require seven times more critical metals than we produce today. Current extraction methods use large amounts of energy, water, chemicals, and land. During his Fellowship, Deshmukh will develop new processes to recover metals from sources like brines and recycling streams. His research combines experiments, spectroscopy, and mechanistic studies to create a framework for designing next-generation membranes, and aims to speed up the development of cheaper, more sustainable separation technologies.

Dr Elizabeth Radford is a paediatric neurologist whose Fellowship will be based in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Her research is working to accelerate diagnosis and expand the treatment options for children affected by neurodevelopmental genetic conditions. Everyone carries small genetic changes, and while most are harmless, some disrupt how the proteins in our cells work and can affect a child’s development. However, it isn’t always clear which changes cause problems, making diagnosis slow and uncertain. During her Fellowship, Radford will study thousands of genetic changes by recreating them in human cells grown in the lab. This will show which changes damage proteins, helping doctors interpret genetic tests and provide earlier diagnoses, and paving the way for future treatments.

UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowships fund allows universities and businesses to develop talented early career researchers and innovators and attract new people to their organisations, including from overseas.

Out of the successful applications, thirteen projects are led by businesses and funded by Innovate UK.

To support excellent research and innovation wherever it arises and to facilitate movement of people and projects between sectors, FLF fellows are based in the most appropriate environment for their projects, be that universities, businesses, charities, or other independent research organisations.

The Fellowship allows the individual to devote their time to tackle challenging research and innovation problems and to develop their careers as they become the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders.

The Fellowship also allows recipients access to the FLF Development Network, which provides specialised leadership training, access to networks, workshops, mentors, one-to-one coaching, and opportunities for additional seed-funding for collaborative projects.

“UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships provide researchers and innovators with long-term support and training to embark on large and complex research programmes, to address key national and global challenges,” said Frances Burstow, Director of Talent and Skills at UKRI. “The programme supports the research and innovation leaders of the future to transcend disciplinary and sector boundaries, bridging the gap between academia and business. UKRI supports excellence across the entire breadth of its remit, supporting early-career researchers to lessen the distance from discovery to real world impact.”

“UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships offer long-term support to outstanding researchers, helping them turn bold ideas into innovations that improve lives and livelihoods in the UK and beyond,” said UKRI Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman. “These fellowships continue to drive excellence and accelerate the journey from discovery to public benefit. I wish them every success.”

Three Cambridge researchers are among 77 early-career researchers who have been awarded a total of £120 million to lead vital research, collaborate with innovators and develop their careers as the research and innovation leaders of the future.

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Rita joins the University from the University of London, where she has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Finance and Operations) since 2020 and has led a major transformation programme across its finance, digital, estates and HR services.

She has more than 30 years of experience in financial leadership across higher education, infrastructure investment, housing, and the charity sector. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

In parallel with her career in university leadership, Rita serves as Chair of the Audit Committee and Non-Executive Director at HICL Infrastructure plc, a FTSE 250-listed £3bn investment fund with over 100 infrastructure assets across the UK, Europe, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, supporting education, health, utilities, communication and transport.

Rita will report to the Vice-Chancellor and provide strategic oversight of the University’s financial activities.

She will also lead and manage the University’s Finance Division, and be the sponsor for the Finance Transformation Programme, which is modernising ways of working through new processes, technology and governance.

Anthony Odgers, the University’s current Chief Financial Officer, will step down from his role on 31 December 2025.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor, said: "I am delighted to welcome Rita as our new Chief Financial Officer. Rita impressed the interview panel with her vast experience, particularly in finance transformation, her passion for higher education and her commitment to inclusive leadership."

Rita said: "Joining the University of Cambridge is a tremendous honour. I am inspired by the opportunity to lead a transformative finance agenda that supports the University's long-term strategic ambitions. I look forward to working collaboratively across the University to build a finance function that is modern, transparent, and aligned with Cambridge’s world-leading mission."

Rita Akushie has been appointed as the University’s new Chief Financial Officer. She will take up the role in December 2025.

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Autistic people experience poorer mental and physical health and live shorter lives than the general population. They are significantly more likely than non-autistic people to die by suicide. Recent estimates suggest that one in three autistic people has experienced suicidal ideation and nearly one in four has attempted suicide.

In a study published today in Autism, researchers from the University of Cambridge and Bournemouth University found that of more than 1,000 autistic adults surveyed, only one in four reached out to the NHS the last time they experienced suicidal thoughts or behaviours.

Among those who did not seek NHS support, the most common reasons were that they believed the NHS could not help them (48%), that they tried to cope alone (54%), or that they felt there was “no point” due to long waiting lists for mental health services (43%). Many participants commented that the NHS’s limited range of mental health services was not suitable for “people like us”.

Just over a third (36%) of participants who did not seek NHS support reported previous negative experiences with the NHS, while a similar number (34%) said they had had bad experiences specifically when seeking help for suicidality – and more than one in 10 (12%) said they had been turned away or had a referral rejected.

One in four participants (25%) said they feared consequences such as being sectioned. Others highlighted practical barriers, suggesting they could not face trying to get an appointment with their GP (34%). No participants said they didn’t want to be stopped.

This study also corroborates findings that certain gender groups may experience even greater barriers to accessing NHS support. Analysis by the team at Bournemouth and Cambridge showed that among the participants, cisgender women and those who were transgender or gender-divergent were more likely to have had negative experiences, while transgender and gender-divergent autistic people were especially likely to fear that they would not be believed by NHS staff.

Co-lead author Dr Tanya Procyshyn from the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge said: “Our findings make it clear that autistic people do want support when they are struggling with suicidality, but many have been let down by a system that they experience as inaccessible, unhelpful, or even harmful. Without urgent reform to make services trustworthy and better suited to autistic people’s needs, preventable deaths will continue.”

This study offers new insights on significantly higher suicide rates among the autistic population, a stark reality recognised by the Government’s inclusion of autistic people as a priority group in the 2023 Suicide Prevention Strategy. The authors note that policy commitments must lead to meaningful service changes, such as autism-informed training for healthcare professionals, alternatives to phone-based appointment booking, and flexible, autism-adapted mental health services. They stress that these changes must be co-designed with autistic people to ensure acceptability and rebuild trust.

Co-lead author, Dr Rachel Moseley from the Department of Psychology at Bournemouth University, said: “We know from other research that healthcare professionals don’t receive sufficient training to help them work effectively with autistic people. Our work shows that when faced with autistic people in crisis, clinicians often overlook these signs, or react in a way that causes further damage. For these reasons, it’s imperative that the government takes steps to address inequalities that prevent autistic people from accessing healthcare that could save their lives.”

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge and the senior author on the team, added: “There is a mental health crisis in the autism community, with one in four autistic adults planning or attempting suicide. This is unacceptably high. Although the UK Government has finally now recognised autistic people as a high-risk group in relation to suicide, the essential changes that could prevent these unnecessary deaths are not materialising fast enough.

“We are glad that Autism Action, the charity that funds a number of our suicide prevention studies, is translating the research into policy and practice, but we need to see a massive injection of funding into support services to avert multiple future tragedies.”

The research was instigated by the charity Autism Action as part of its mission to reduce the number of autistic people who think about, attempt and die by suicide.

Tom Purser, CEO of Autism Action, said: “It is unacceptable that our health service fails autistic people at the time of their greatest need. Autistic people want help but barriers in the form of inaccessible systems, poor attitudes and lack of training are preventing this, and in one in ten cases people are being turned away or rejected.

“The recently published Learning from Lives and Deaths report, focused on people with a learning disability and autistic people, highlighted that a lack of access to the right support is a massive factor that leads to premature deaths. We know a better system is possible – the Government must now lead the way to save lives.”

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. Alternatively, you can contact PAPYRUS (Prevention of Young Suicide) HOPELINE247 on 0800 068 4141 or by texting 88247.

Reference
‘I did not think they could help me’: Autistic adults’ reasons for not seeking public healthcare when they last experienced suicidality. Autism; 15 Sept 2025

Life-saving opportunities to prevent suicide among autistic people are being missed because systemic barriers make it difficult for them to access NHS support during times of mental health crisis, according to new research.

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Now in its 11th year, the Award invites young people aged 14-18 from across the UK to submit stories of up to 1,000 words. It was created to discover and inspire the next generation of writers and is a cross-network collaboration between BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4.

This year’s shortlist features five young female writers whose stories explore contemporary themes ranging from toxic masculinity and inter-generational relations to climate change, power and responsibility. Praised as ‘beautifully subversive,’ ‘nuanced’ and ‘mature,’ the shortlisted works range from a dark tale told from the perspective of a black cat to a mythological retelling of the climate crisis, a lyrical portrait of three generations of women cooking together, a supernatural ‘housewife’s revenge’ story, and a sharp look at peer pressure and toxic masculinity

Dr Elizabeth Rawlinson-Mills, University Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Fellow of Robinson College, said:

“It's a pleasure once again to read these remarkable and often startling stories. We have become accustomed to the shortlisted stories for the YWA offering us reassuring evidence of young writers' skill and ambition. This year's shortlist, with work that experiments with voice and violence, bodies and gender, things unspoken and unspeakable, feels especially timely. These are stories that look both outwards and inwards, and which confront the reader powerfully. The University of Cambridge is extremely proud to support the Young Writers Award.”

The shortlisted stories are:

• ‘Wildfolk Report 2025’ by Holly Dye, 17, from Tunbridge Wells
• ‘Adu, Lasun and Marcha’ by Anoushka Patel, 18, from Leicester
• ‘Roast Beef’ by Edith Taussig, 17, from New Malden, Greater London
• ‘The Omen’ by Anna Tuchinda, 17, from Thailand, an international student in Edinburgh
• ‘Scouse’s Run’ by Rebecca Smith, 17, from Sheffield

The five stories will be available to listen to on BBC Sounds, read by actors including Amit Shah, Maggie Service, Priya Kansara, Sam Pitcher and Andy Clark. Interviews with the writers are also available to listen to, and can be read on the BBC Radio 1 website. 

The winner will be announced at the BBC Short Story Awards ceremony at Broadcasting House on Tuesday 30 September, broadcast live on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, with the winning writer also appearing on Radio 1’s Life Hacks.

Cambridge involvement

The University’s support for the Award in 2025 generously comes from the School of Arts and Humanities, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculties of English and Education, Downing and Robinson Colleges, the University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Professional and Continuing Education (PACE).

The partnership also offers unique professional development opportunities for Cambridge PhD students, who take part in a BBC shadowing scheme, gaining experience in cultural engagement and public communication.

Cambridge's long-term partnership with both the BBC National Short Story Award and the BBC Young Writers’ Award, is led by Dr Bonnie Lander Johnson (Fellow and Associate Professor in English at Downing and Newnham Colleges) and Dr Elizabeth Rawlinson-Mills (University Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Fellow of Robinson College).

Dr Lander Johnson said:

“The National Short Story Awards continue to be the largest and most prestigious awards of their kind in the UK. I am proud to represent the University on this partnership; I believe we have a role to play in supporting the production of literary excellence in Britain. Storytelling is an essential human impulse through which we reflect on our changing world, inspire younger generations, and make sense of our collective and individual lives. It is essential that Cambridge University remains part of such crucial cultural work. Who are we if we cannot tell our stories?”

About the Award

Since its launch in 2015, the BBC Young Writers’ Award has highlighted some of the most talented young voices in the country. Previous winners include Lottie Mills, Tabitha Rubens, Elena Barham, Atlas Weyland Eden and Lulu Frisson, with many going on to secure further prizes, publications and acclaim.

The 2025 judging panel is chaired by Radio 1 presenter Lauren Layfield, joined by poet and former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, novelist Jessica Moor, poet Matt Goodfellow, and 2020 Young Writers’ Award winner Lottie Mills.

For more information, visit www.bbc.co.uk/ywa.

The shortlist for the 2025 BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University was announced Sunday 14 September, live on BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks.

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Now, in a first-of-a-kind study, researchers at the University of Cambridge have trialled an unusual solution: a series of regular chats with a humanoid robot.

In work published in the International Journal of Social Robotics, the researchers found that when carers talked regularly to a robot programmed to interact with them, it produced significant positive benefits. These included the carers feeling less lonely and overwhelmed, and being more in touch with their own emotions.  

“In other words, these conversations with a social robot gave caregivers something that they sorely lack – a space to talk about themselves,” said first author Dr Guy Laban from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology.

He and an international team of colleagues set up a five-week intervention with a group of informal caregivers – those who care for friends or family members without being paid or formally trained to do so.

While many carers find the experience rewarding, supporting those who have significant physical and mental health conditions can also cause them physical and emotional strain.

The researchers found that increased care and family responsibilities, along with shrinking personal space and reduced social engagement, are reasons why informal caregivers often report a tremendous sense of loneliness.

One coping strategy often used by people in emotional distress is self-disclosure and social sharing – for example, talking to friends. But this is not always possible for carers who often face a lack of social support and in-person interaction.

Interested in seeing how the rapidly developing field of social robotics could help address this issue, the researchers set up an intervention for a group of carers.

Those who took part, ranging from parents looking after children with disabilities to older adults caring for a partner with dementia, were able to chat to the humanoid robot Pepper twice a week throughout the five weeks.

The research team wanted to see how carers’ perceptions of the robot evolved over time and whether they saw it as comforting. They were also looking to see how that in turn affected their moods, their feelings of loneliness and stress levels and what the impact was on their emotion regulation.

After discussing everyday topics with Pepper, the carers’ moods improved and they viewed the robot as increasingly comforting, the researchers found. The participants also reported feeling progressively less lonely and stressed.

“Over those five weeks, carers gradually opened up more,” said Laban. “They spoke to Pepper more freely, for longer than they had done at the start, and they also reflected more deeply on their own experiences.

“They told us that chatting to the robot helped them to open up, feel less lonely and overwhelmed, and reconnect with their own emotional needs.”

The research also showed that being able to talk to a social robot could help carers translate their unspoken emotions into meaningful, shared understanding.

For example, after the five-week intervention, carers reported a greater acceptance of their caregiving role, reappraising it more positively and with reduced feelings of blame towards others.

These results highlight the potential of social robots to provide emotional support for individuals coping with emotional distress.

“Informal carers are often overwhelmed by emotional burdens and isolation,” said co-author Professor Emily Cross from ETH Zürich. “This study is – to the best of our knowledge – the first to show that a series of conversations with a robot about themselves can significantly reduce carers’ loneliness and stress.

“The intervention also promoted acceptance of their caregiving role and strengthened their ability to regulate their emotions. This highlights ways in which assistive social robots can offer emotional support when human connection is often scarce.”

Reference:
Guy Laban, Val Morrison, Arvid Kappas, Emily S. Cross. ‘Coping with Emotional Distress via Self-Disclosure to Robots: An Intervention with Caregivers.’ International Journal of Social Robotics (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s12369-024-01207-0

People who care informally for sick or disabled friends and relatives often become invisible in their own lives. Focusing on the needs of those they care for, they rarely get the chance to talk about their own emotions or challenges, and this can lead to them feeling increasingly stressed and isolated.  

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The University of Cambridge is proud to support the Award, recognised as one of the UK’s most significant literary prizes for a single short story. The prize aims to expand opportunities for British writers, readers and publishers of the short form, and to honour the country’s finest exponents of the genre. Cambridge staff, students and researchers contribute to the partnership, which also offers unique professional development opportunities for PhD students through a BBC shadowing scheme.

The 2025 shortlist

This year’s shortlist has been praised for its ‘intimate,’ ‘elegant’ and ‘nuanced’ explorations of relationships, community and the specificities of place:

• ‘Yair’ by Emily Abdeni-Holman
• ‘You Cannot Thread a Moving Needle’ by Colwill Brown
• ‘Little Green Man’ by Edward Hogan
• ‘Two Hands’ by Caoilinn Hughes
• ‘Rain, a History’ by Andrew Miller

Set in locations from Derbyshire and Doncaster to Jerusalem and County Kildare, the stories explore ‘self-contained’ worlds often inspired by personal memories and experiences, from the complexities of marriage, to the mysteries of survival in crisis; from newly formed inter-generational bonds, to the quiet tension between people and place, each reveals the short story’s ‘unparalleled’ power to reflect ‘the times we are living through.’  

The five shortlisted stories will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 15 - 19 September and made available on BBC Sounds. They will also appear in an anthology published by Comma Press.

The winner will receive £15,000, with £600 awarded to each of the other shortlisted writers. The announcement will be made live on Front Row on Tuesday 30 September 2025.

A BBC and Cambridge partnership

Cambridge's long-term partnership with both the BBC National Short Story Award and the BBC Young Writers’ Award, is led by Dr Bonnie Lander Johnson (Fellow and Associate Professor in English at Downing and Newnham Colleges) and Dr Elizabeth Rawlinson-Mills (University Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Fellow of Robinson College).

Dr Lander Johnson said:

“The National Short Story Awards continue to be the largest and most prestigious awards of their kind in the UK. I am proud to represent the University on this partnership; I believe we have a role to play in supporting the production of literary excellence in Britain. Storytelling is an essential human impulse through which we reflect on our changing world, inspire younger generations, and make sense of our collective and individual lives. It is essential that Cambridge University remains part of such crucial cultural work. Who are we if we cannot tell our stories?”

Dr Rawlinson-Mills added:

“The short story as a form is intense. Compact, powerful, challenging – for the writer and, often, for the reader. Each year the National Short Story Award brings us into contact with some of the most exciting voices in English writing, and over the past twenty years it’s been a privilege to see the ways in which winning this prize has boosted writers’ profiles and brought their work to new audiences through the broadcasts on R4. Every year there are new reasons to feel that we need stories more than ever. I am very proud of the part the University of Cambridge continues to play in supporting the prize and therefore supporting new writing.”

In 2025, the Award is generously supported by the School of Arts and Humanities, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculties of English and Education, Downing and Robinson Colleges, the University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Professional and Continuing Education (PACE).

Cambridge PhD students are also benefitting from the BBC Partnership Shadowing Scheme, which allows arts and social sciences researchers at Cambridge to work with BBC teams on programming around the Awards, developing valuable skills in cultural engagement and public communication.

About the Award

First presented in 2006, the BBC National Short Story Award has honoured leading and emerging voices including Sarah Hall, Cynan Jones, Ingrid Persaud, and Saba Sams. Alumni of the shortlist include Zadie Smith, Hilary Mantel, Tessa Hadley and Caleb Azumah Nelson.

The 2025 judging panel is chaired by Di Speirs MBE, joined by William Boyd, Lucy Caldwell, Ross Raisin and Kamila Shamsie.

The BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University, now in its 11th year, also continues to inspire writers aged 14 - 18. The shortlist will be announced on Sunday 14 September, with the winner also revealed on 30 September.

For more information, visit www.bbc.co.uk/nssa.

The shortlist for the 2025 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University was announced last night, Thursday 11 September, on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, as the prestigious prize celebrates its 20th anniversary.

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Despite changes to the HM Treasury Green Book to encourage forms of valuation other than economic, local authorities are struggling to capture social, environmental and cultural value in a way that feeds into their systems and processes. The Public Map Platform project aims to make this easy by spatialising data so that it can be used as a basis for targeted hyperlocal action for a green transition.

Professor Flora Samuel said: “Climate change cannot be addressed without revealing and tackling the inequalities within society and where they are happening. Only when we know what is happening where, and how people are adapting to climate change can we make well informed decisions.”

“The aim of this pragmatic project is to create a Public Map Platform that will bring together multiple layers of spatial information to give a social, environmental, cultural and economic picture of what is happening in a neighbourhood, area, local authority, region or nation.”

In 2023, the project was awarded one of four new £4.625 million Green Transition Ecosystem grants. The second phase funding will enable to project to build on its impacts and benefits.

The project features at the Venice Architecture Biennale (until 28 Sept 2025) and at the Design Museum’s 'Future Observatory: Tools for Transition' display, in London, of work by all four Green Transition Ecosystem projects (12 Sept 2025 – Aug 2026). The Public Map Platform’s Rural Roaming Room structure will be on show outside the museum.

Flora Samuel’s team is presenting to the Welsh Government at the Sennedd in Cardiff on 30 September 2025. They have engaged with hundreds of children on the Isle of Anglesey and will be bringing the Public Map Platform to Cambridge working with the team in The Cambridge Room.

Green Transition Ecosystems (GTEs) are large-scale projects that focus on translating the best design-led research into real-world benefits. Capitalising on clusters of design excellence, GTEs address distinct challenges posed by the climate crisis including, but not limited to, realising net zero goals.

GTEs are the flagship funding strand of the £25m Future Observatory: Design the Green Transition programme, funded by the AHRC and delivered in partnership with the Design Museum.

The Public Map Platform is addressing the following overarching aims of the Green Transitions Ecosystem call: measurable, green transition-supportive behavioural change across sectors and publics; design that fosters positive behavioural change in support of green transition goals, including strategy and policy; region-focused solutions for example the infrastructure supporting rural communities and, lastly, designing for diversity.

To meet these aims the project will deliver a baseline model mapping platform for decision making with communities for use by Local Authorities (LoAs) across the UK and beyond. To do this a pilot platform will be made for the Isle of Anglesey to help the LoA measure its progress towards a green transition and fulfilment of the Future Generations Wales Act in a transparent and inclusive way.

The Isle of Anglesey/Ynys Môn in North Wales was chosen as the case study for this project largely because it is a discrete geographical place that is rural, disconnected and in decline, with a local authority that has high ambitions to reinvent itself as a centre of sustainable innovation, to be an 'Energy Island’ at the centre of low-carbon energy research and development. The bilingual context of Anglesey provides a particular opportunity to explore issues around multilingual engagement, inclusion and culture – a UK-wide challenge.

The project, a collaboration with the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (Wiserd) at Cardiff University and Wrexham Glyndwr University as well as several other partners is supported by the Welsh Government and the Future Generations Commission in Wales who are investigating ways to measure, and spatialise, attainment against the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act (2015), a world-leading piece of sustainability legislation.

The Public Map Platform will offer a range of well designed and accessible information to communities, local authorities and policy makers alike, as well as opportunities to contribute to the maps. The map layers will constantly grow with information and sophistication, reconfigured according to local policy and boundaries. And crucially, they will be developed and monitored with and by a representative cross section of the local community.

An accessible website will be designed as a data repository tailored to a range of audiences, scalable for use across the UK. Social, cultural and environmental map layers will be co-created with children and young people to show, for instance, where people connect, engage with cultural activities and do small things to adapt to climate change.

The community-made data will be overlaid onto existing census and administrative data sets to build a baseline Future Generations map of the Isle of Anglesey. The layers can be clustered together to measure the island’s progress against the Act but can also be reconfigured to other kinds of measurement schema. In this way the project will offer a model for inclusive, transparent and evidence based planning, offering lessons for the rest of the UK and beyond.

This award is part of the Future Observatory: Design the Green Transition programme, the largest publicly funded design research and innovation programme in the UK. Funded by AHRC in partnership with Future Observatory at the Design Museum, this £25m multimodal investment aims to bring design researchers, universities, and businesses together to catalyse the transition to net zero and a green economy.

Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council said:

“Design is a critical bridge between research and innovation. Placing the individual act of production or consumption within the context of a wider system of social and economic behaviour is critical to productivity, development and sustainability.

"That’s why design is the essential tool for us to confront and chart a path through our current global and local predicaments, and that’s why AHRC has placed design at the heart of its strategy for collaboration within UKRI.

"From health systems to energy efficiency to sustainability, these four Green Transition Ecosystem projects the UK are at the cutting edge of design, offering models for problem solving, and will touch on lives right across the UK.”

A team led by Professor Flora Samuel from Cambridge’s Department of Architecture has been awarded a further Green Transition Ecosystem grant of £3.12 million by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to create a Public Map Platform to chart the green transition on the Isle of Anglesey/Ynys Môn.

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Cytora’s platform helps insurers digitise their risk data at scale, turning complex documents and unstructured information into structured, decision-ready formats. The acquisition brings together Cytora’s AI-enabled risk digitisation platform with Applied Systems' suite of insurance solutions, enabling greater intelligent automation, connectivity and efficiency across the insurance lifecycle. This combination is expected to unlock increased growth and productivity across the sector.

Cytora was founded in 2012 as a University startup with early support from Cambridge Enterprise, which first invested in the company in 2014. Recognising the potential of its technology to transform risk analytics and insurance workflows, Cambridge Enterprise continued to support Cytora through two subsequent investment rounds, backing its evolution from a geopolitical risk analytics start-up into a global provider of AI-powered solutions for risk digitisation.

Amanda Wooding, Deputy Head of Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, said: “We are delighted to see Cytora reach this exciting milestone. The acquisition by Applied Systems is a strong endorsement of the transformative impact of their technology on the insurance industry. Supporting Cytora from its early stages has been a privilege and we are proud to have played a part in their journey from a Cambridge startup to the leading risk digitisation platform in the insurance industry.”

This acquisition marks a significant milestone for Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and its mission to support the commercialisation of University research. It reflects the long-term value of investing in early-stage ventures and the potential of Cambridge-founded companies to shape global industries.

Read more about the acquisition from Cambridge Enterprise and Applied Systems.

Applied Systems, a global provider of insurance software solutions, has acquired Cytora, a University of Cambridge AI spinout that has become the leading digital risk-processing platform for the insurance industry.

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The Romans have long been credited with bringing industry to Britain involving large-scale lead and iron production. But it has been unclear what happened once the Romans left around 400 AD. It was generally assumed that industrial-scale production declined, as no written evidence for lead exploitation after the 3rd century exists.

To test this assumption, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham examined a five-metre-long sediment core from Aldborough in Yorkshire, the Roman tribal town of the Brigantes and an important centre of metal production. Their findings, published in the journal Antiquity, confirm that metal production did not collapse immediately after the Romans left Britain.

Professor Martin Millett, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Classics and Fitzwilliam College, said: “This collaborative work which forms part of a long-term project at Aldborough adds a new dimension to our understanding of the history of this important Roman town in the immediately post-Roman period. It has significant implications for our wider understanding of the end of Roman Britain.”

The study’s findings indicate that metal production in Britain continued long after the end of the Roman period and did not decline until a sudden crash around 550-600 AD.

The researchers found low levels of lead and iron production in the 4th to the early 5th centuries AD, but a large continuous rise in iron – and to a lesser extent, lead smelting through the 5th to mid-6th centuries – with the same ore sources and use of coal as in the Roman period. This undermines the popular belief that post-Roman Britain was a ‘Dark Age’ in which industrial production regressed to pre-Roman levels.

The cause of the sudden crash remains uncertain, but textual evidence from the Mediterranean and modern-day France (from the mid-late 6th century) shows that this period saw multiple waves of bubonic plague, and perhaps smallpox. These findings combined with DNA evidence from Edix Hill cemetery in Cambridgeshire show that bubonic plague was killing people in eastern England from the 540s, and this period marked the point of transformation at Aldborough.

Lead author, Professor Christopher Loveluck from Nottingham’s Department of Classics and Archaeology, says the Aldborough sediment core “has provided the first unbroken continuous record and timeline of metal pollution and metal economic history in Britain, from the 5th century to the present day.”

The cylinder of slowly accumulated silts was extracted from a paleochannel of the River Ure. Previous metal pollution records have been extracted far from their sources – for instance upland peat cores or mountain and polar glaciers – but this data comes from the very epicentre of production.

The researchers analysed the core alongside excavation evidence and knowledge of landscape changes at Aldborough over the last two millennia. The study benefited from the expertise of Charles French, Emeritus Professor of Geoarchaeology at Cambridge, who applies archaeological techniques and micromorphological analytical techniques to the interpretation of buried landscapes.

The study indicates that lead and iron production was very active again before the Vikings arrived and expanded under their control. Textual and archaeological sources already suggest that there was a growing focus on domestic economies rather than international trade by that time. It has been difficult to prove this at a macro-scale, but the new results show a boom in raw metal production between the end of the 8th century and through to the 10th century, revealing regional-level economic growth, which has never been measured beyond single sites before.

The study goes on to show a decline in metal production through the 11th century with renewed large-scale growth in lead and iron production reflected again from the mid-12th to early 13th centuries. Results corroborate annual-written sources for increased Yorkshire and wider British lead production from the 1160s–1220, and comparable pollution increases attributed to Britain for these decades recovered previously from Swedish lakes and Alpine ice-core research from Switzerland.

Following a decline in the 14th century, the researchers found evidence of another recovery in production which was cut short by Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries from 1536-38.

“It became uneconomical to make fresh metal because it was ripped off all the monasteries, abbeys and religious houses,” Professor Loveluck explains. “Large-scale production resumed in the later 16th century to resource Elizabeth I’s Spanish and French wars.”

The Aldborough Roman Town Project, directed by Dr Rose Ferraby – an author of the new study – and Professor Martin Millett, from Cambridge’s Faculty of Classics, has carried out nearly 120 hectares of magnetometry inside the town and beyond, to establish a landscape scale view of the sub-surface archaeological remains of the town, its defences, road system and extra-mural areas. It has also used Ground Penetrating Radar more selectively within the town to reveal details and depths of the Roman buildings. Since 2016, a number of excavations have been carried out, re-examining earlier trenches.

Funding

The research was funded by The British Academy and the University of Cambridge.

Reference

CP Loveluck, MJ Millett, S Chenery, C Chenery, R Ferraby, C French, ‘Aldborough and the metals economy of northern England, c. AD 345–1700: a new post-Roman narrative’. Antiquity (2025). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.10175 

Britain’s industrial economy did not collapse when the Romans left and went on to enjoy a Viking-age industrial boom, a new study finds, undermining a stubborn ‘Dark Ages’ narrative.

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In a study in mice, researchers have identified genes associated with the dramatic transformation of the mammary gland in pregnancy, breastfeeding, and after breastfeeding as it returns to its resting state.

Their results form the most detailed atlas of genetic expression ever produced for the adult developmental cycle of the mammary gland. They are published today in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.

The mammary gland is made up of different cell types, each with a different function - such as fat cells that provide structural support, and basal cells that are crucial for milk ejection.

The team analysed the cellular composition of the mammary gland at ten different time-points from before the first pregnancy, during pregnancy, during breastfeeding, and during a process called involution when the breast tissue is remodelled to its resting state. The mix of cell types changes dramatically through this cycle.

By measuring gene expression in the mammary gland over the same time-points, the researchers were able to link specific genes to their functions at different stages of the developmental cycle.

“Our atlas is the most detailed to date, allowing us to see which genes are expressed in which cell types at each stage of the adult mammary gland cycle,” said Dr Geula Hanin, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics, first author of the report. 

The team found that genes associated with breastfeeding disorders such as insufficient milk supply are active not only in the breast cells that produce milk, but also in other cells such as basal cells - which squeeze out the milk as the infant is suckling. This suggests that in some instances, a mechanical problem - rather than a milk production problem - could be the cause and provides a new cell target for investigation.

The study also found that genes associated with postpartum breast cancer become active immediately after weaning in various cell types - including in fat cells, which have previously been overlooked as contributors to breast cancer linked to childbirth. This offers a future potential target for early detection or prevention strategies.

Hanin said: “We’ve found that genes associated with problems in milk production, often experienced by breastfeeding mothers, are acting in breast cells that weren’t previously considered relevant for milk production. We’ve found genes associated with postpartum breast cancer acting in cells that have been similarly overlooked.

“This work provides many potential new ways of transforming maternal and infant health, by using genetic information to both predict problems with breastfeeding and breast cancer, and to tackle them further down the line.”

Breastfeeding affects lifelong health, for example breast-fed babies are less likely to become obese and diabetic. Yet one in twenty women have breastfeeding difficulties, and despite its importance this is a greatly understudied area of women’s health.

Postpartum breast cancer occurs within five to ten years of giving birth and is linked to hormonal fluctuations, natural tissue remodelling, and the changing environment of the mammary gland during involution that makes it more susceptible to malignancy.

The researchers also focused on ‘imprinted genes’- that is, genes that are switched on or off depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father. Imprinted genes in the placenta are known to regulate growth and development of the baby in the womb.

The team identified 25 imprinted genes that are active in the adult mammary gland at precise times during the development cycle. These appear to orchestrate a tightly controlled system for managing milk production and breast tissue changes during motherhood.

Some functions of the genes themselves have been identified in previous studies. This new work provides a detailed understanding of when, and where, the genes become active to cause changes in mammary gland function during its adult development cycle.

“Breastfeeding is a fundamental process that’s common to all mammals; we wouldn’t have survived without it. I hope this work will lead to new ways to support mothers who have issues with breastfeeding, so they have a better chance of succeeding,” said Hanin.

The research was funded primarily by the Medical Research Council.

Hanin co-leads the Cambridge Lactation Network and is a member of Cambridge Reproduction. 

Reference: Hanin, G et al: ‘Dynamic Allelic Expression in Mouse Mammary Gland Across the Adult Developmental Cycle.’ Nucleic Acids Research, September 2025. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaf804

Learn more about the University's research into Women's Health.

A University of Cambridge study of adult mammary gland development has revealed new genes involved in breastfeeding, and provided insights into how genetic changes may be associated with breastfeeding disorders and postpartum breast cancers.

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The £42.8 million Generation New Era birth cohort study will create a comprehensive picture of early childhood development in all four nations of the UK.

Funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), this is the first new UK-wide longitudinal birth cohort study in 25 years and comes as the government publishes its Giving every child the best start in life policy paper.

Generation New Era will collect data at two key developmental stages – between 9-11 months and again at 3-4 years – providing crucial insights before children enter formal education. The research will examine physical, mental and social development, and explore how technological, environmental and social changes affect early childhood experiences. The intention is that the initiative will track these children and their families throughout their lives.

Generation New Era will be led jointly by Co-Directors Professor Pasco Fearon of the University of Cambridge and Professors Alissa Goodman and Lisa Calderwood of UCL.

Professor Fearon, Director of the Centre for Child, Adolescent and Family Research at Cambridge, said: “Children’s lives have changed dramatically since the last UK birth cohort study was launched at the turn of the century. In the past decade, unprecedented social, technological, political and economic events have taken place that have changed the landscape for families raising children dramatically.

“New UK-wide data are needed urgently to help us understand how these changes impact children as they grow up, and there will be new opportunities and challenges for families coming down the line, like AI, that a study like this can help us to better understand.”

As a four-nations cohort study, the study team will benefit from the expertise of senior academics based at the universities of Swansea, Ulster, and Edinburgh, who will serve as the study's leads in their countries.

It will invite over 60,000 children and their families from across the UK with the aim of recruiting 30,000 to participate in the project. There will be a particular focus on recruiting fathers as well as mothers and including groups previously underrepresented in population research, giving a voice to as many communities in UK society as possible

This comprehensive approach will ensure the findings are representative of the diverse experiences of families across the country and that comparisons can be made to help all areas of the UK to learn what works best to improve lives and livelihoods.

The findings generated by the study will directly inform policy development across government departments, helping to ensure services and support for families are based on robust evidence.

Professor Alissa Goodman from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies said: “Generation New Era is a landmark scientific endeavour which will improve the lives of children and benefit science and society for many years to come.  

“As the government works to give every child the best start in life, the study can help shape vital policies and services for babies and parents across the UK. Thanks to the commitment of our participants, we can support the health and development of this generation - and help future generations thrive.”

Generation New Era is part of a long tradition of research council-funded UK longitudinal birth cohort studies which have followed the lives of tens of thousands of people over the past eight decades.

ESRC executive chair Stian Westlake said: “I am excited to see what Generation New Era will discover about the lives of children born next year and how they differ across the UK. The evidence this study produces can underpin policy that makes the UK a happier, healthier and fairer place, improving lives and livelihoods. It is an investment in the future that we are proud to make.”

The study will begin inviting families to take part in the study from summer 2026.

Adapted from a press release from the ESRC

Cambridge is to co-lead a new UK-wide scientific study that will follow the lives of 30,000 children born in 2026, helping provide evidence to improve the lives of future generations.

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The squishy material can be loaded with anti-inflammatory drugs that are released in response to small changes in pH in the body. During an arthritis flare-up, a joint becomes inflamed and slightly more acidic than the surrounding tissue.

The material, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, has been designed to respond to this natural change in pH. As acidity increases, the material becomes softer and more jelly-like, triggering the release of drug molecules that can be encapsulated within its structure.

Since the material is designed to respond only within a narrow pH range, the team say that drugs could be released precisely where and when they are needed, potentially reducing side effects.

If used as an artificial cartilage in arthritic joints, this approach could allow for the continuous treatment of arthritis, improving the efficacy of drugs to relieve pain and fight inflammation. Arthritis affects more than 10 million people in the UK, costing the NHS an estimated £10.2 billion annually. Worldwide, it is estimated to affect over 600 million people.

While extensive clinical trials are needed before the material can be used in patients, the researchers say their approach could improve outcomes for people with arthritis, and for those with other conditions including cancer. Their results are reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The material developed by the Cambridge team uses specially engineered and reversible crosslinks within a polymer network. The sensitivity of these links to changes in acidity levels gives the material highly responsive mechanical properties.

The material was developed in Professor Oren Scherman’s research group in Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. The group specialises in designing and building these unique materials for a range of potential applications.

“For a while now, we’ve been interested in using these materials in joints, since their properties can mimic those of cartilage,” said Scherman, who is Professor of Supramolecular and Polymer Chemistry and Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis. “But to combine that with highly targeted drug delivery is a really exciting prospect.”

“These materials can ‘sense’ when something is wrong in the body and respond by delivering treatment right where it’s needed,” said first author Dr Stephen O’Neill. “This could reduce the need for repeated doses of drugs, while improving patient quality of life.”

Unlike many drug delivery systems that require external triggers such as heat or light, this one is powered by the body’s own chemistry. The researchers say this could pave the way for longer-lasting, targeted arthritis treatments that automatically respond to flare-ups, boosting effectiveness while reducing harmful side effects.

In laboratory tests, researchers loaded the material with a fluorescent dye to mimic how a real drug might behave. They found that at acidity levels typical of an arthritic joint, the material released substantially more drug cargo compared with normal, healthy pH levels.

“By tuning the chemistry of these gels, we can make them highly sensitive to the subtle shifts in acidity that occur in inflamed tissue,” said co-author Dr Jade McCune. “That means drugs are released when and where they are needed most.”

The researchers say the approach could be tailored to a range of medical conditions, by fine-tuning the chemistry of the material. “It’s a highly flexible approach, so we could in theory incorporate both fast-acting and slow-acting drugs, and have a single treatment that lasts for days, weeks or even months,” said O’Neill.

The team’s next steps will involve testing the materials in living systems to evaluate their performance and safety in a physiological environment. The team say that if successful, their approach could open the door to a new generation of responsive biomaterials capable of treating chronic diseases with greater precision.

The research was supported by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The research is being commercialised with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm. Oren Scherman is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Stephen J.K. O’Neill et al. ‘Kinetic locking of pH-sensitive complexes for mechanically responsive polymer networks.’ Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c09897

Researchers have developed a material that can sense tiny changes within the body, such as during an arthritis flare-up, and release drugs exactly where and when they are needed.

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When we feel socially isolated, our brain motivates us to seek rewards. Current theory holds that this is a beneficial evolutionary adaptation to help us reconnect with others.

The University of Cambridge-led study found that people in their late teens are very sensitive to the experience of loneliness. After just a few hours without any social interaction, adolescents make significantly more effort to get rewards.  

This increased motivation to seek rewards can help with social reconnection. But when connecting with others is not possible, the behaviour change might be problematic – for example, by making some people more prone to seek out rewards such as alcohol or recreational drugs.

The study found that the effect was stronger in adolescents who reported feeling lonelier while in isolation. When study participants were allowed to interact with others on social media during isolation, they reported feeling less lonely – and their reward-seeking behaviour changed less dramatically as a result.

The report is published in the journal Communications Psychology.

“Our study demonstrates just how sensitive young people are to very short periods of isolation,” said Dr Livia Tomova, first author of the report, who conducted the study while in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

“We found that loneliness significantly increases adolescents’ motivation to seek out rewards – whether that’s more social contact, money, or something else,” added Tomova, who is now based at the University of Cardiff.

Studies suggest that adolescent loneliness has doubled worldwide over the past decade. Social media has been suggested as the culprit, but the researchers say many other changes in society could also be to blame.

“Social media can lead to loneliness in some adolescents, but our study suggests that this relationship is complex,” said Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, senior author of the report.

She added: “Virtual interaction with others seems to make isolated teens less driven to seek external rewards, compared to when they are isolated without access to social media. That suggests social media might reduce some of the negative effects of isolation – but of course we don’t know what potentially harmful effects it might have at the same time.”

While study participants got less bored and lonely in isolation if they had access to social media, they still experienced the same decrease in positive mood as those without access.

Social interaction is a basic human need, and lack of it leads to loneliness. Until now there has been very limited understanding of how loneliness affects adolescent behaviour, with most scientific experiments carried out in animal models.

How was the study done?

Researchers recruited young people from the local area in Cambridge, conducting extensive screening to gather a group of 40 adolescents aged 16-19 who had good social connections, no history of mental health problems, and average levels of loneliness for their age group.

Participants were given initial tests to establish their baseline score for each task. Then on two different days, they were asked to spend between three and four hours alone in a room before completing the same computer-based tasks again.

On one of the isolation days participants had no social interaction at all, but on the other they had access to virtual social interactions through their phone or laptop.

The study found that when virtual interactions were available, almost half the participants spent over half their time online – predominantly using Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp to message their friends.

Overall, the study found that participants became more motivated to look at images of positive social interactions, and to play games where they could win money, after being in isolation for around four hours. They were also better at learning how to get these rewards in ‘fruit machine’-type games.

If they could interact virtually with others while in isolation, they reported feeling less lonely. They were also less inclined to make an effort in the tasks than when they didn’t have virtual social interaction during their isolation.

This research was funded by a Henslow Research Fellowship from the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Wellcome, Jacobs Foundation, and Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference: Tomova, L et al: ‘Acute isolation is associated with increased reward seeking and reward learning in human adolescents.’ Communications Psychology, September 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s44271-025-00306-6

A study has found that adolescents become highly motivated to seek rewards after just a few hours of social isolation. This may be beneficial in driving them towards social interaction, but when opportunities for connection are limited could lead them to pursue less healthy rewards like alcohol or drugs.

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The finding could pave the way for a new type of treatment for glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, although extensive testing will be required before it can be trialled in patients. Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain cancer, with a five-year survival rate of just 5%.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, found that cancer cells rely on the flexibility of hyaluronic acid (HA) — a sugar-like polymer that makes up much of the brain’s supporting structure — to latch onto receptors on the surface of cancer cells to trigger their spread throughout the brain.

By locking HA molecules in place so that they lose this flexibility, the researchers were able to ‘reprogramme’ glioblastoma cells so they stopped moving and were unable to invade surrounding tissue. Their results are reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

“Fundamentally, hyaluronic acid molecules need to be flexible to bind to cancer cell receptors,” said Professor Melinda Duer from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, who led the research. “If you can stop hyaluronic acid being flexible, you can stop cancer cells from spreading. The remarkable thing is that we didn’t have to kill the cells — we simply changed their environment, and they gave up trying to escape and invade neighbouring tissue.”

Glioblastoma, like all brain cancers, is difficult to treat. Even when tumours are surgically removed, cancer cells that have already infiltrated the brain often cause regrowth within months. Current drug treatments struggle to penetrate the tumour mass, and radiotherapy can only delay, not prevent, recurrence of the cancer.

However, the approach developed by the Cambridge team does not target tumour cells directly, but instead attempts to change the tumour’s surrounding environment – the extracellular matrix – to stop its spread.

“Nobody has ever tried to change cancer outcomes by changing the matrix around the tumour,” said Duer. “This is the first example where a matrix-based therapy could be used to reprogramme cancer cells.”

Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the team showed that HA molecules twist into shapes that allow them to bind strongly to CD44 — a receptor on cancer cells that drives invasion. When HA was cross-linked and ‘frozen’ into place, those signals were shut down.

The effect was seen even at low concentrations of HA, suggesting the cells were not being physically trapped but instead reprogrammed into a dormant state.

The study may also explain why glioblastoma often returns at the site of surgery. A build-up of fluid, or oedema, at the surgical site dilutes HA, making it more flexible and potentially encouraging cell invasion. By freezing HA in place, it could be possible to prevent recurrence.

“This could be a real opportunity to slow glioblastoma progression,” said Duer. “And because our approach doesn’t require drugs to enter every single cancer cell, it could in principle work for many solid tumours where the surrounding matrix drives invasion.

“Cancer cells behave the way they do in part because of their environment. If you change their environment, you can change the cells.”

The researchers are hoping to conduct further testing in animal models, which could lead to clinical trials in patients.

The research was supported in part by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Melinda Duer is a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge.

Melinda Duer will be discussing her research on Saturday 27 September, as part of the Cambridge Alumni Festival 2025. 

Reference:
Uliana Bashtanova, Agne Kuraite, Rakesh Rajan, Melinda J Duer. ‘Molecular flexibility of hyaluronic acid has a profound effect on invasion of cancer cells.’ Royal Society Open Science (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.251036

Scientists have found a way to stop brain cancer cells spreading by essentially ‘freezing’ a key molecule in the brain.

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The visit brought together fundamental plant science research with crop and Agri-Tech researchers from across the University for a series of research demonstrations and a roundtable discussion.

Mr Zeichner toured the award-winning facility, meeting researchers in the open-plan office and lab spaces, which foster collaboration and advances in multi-disciplinary research.

The Minister saw exciting examples of foundational research, which have the potential to transform agriculture and ensure long term sustainability.  

The first demonstration was led by Dr Sebastian Schornack and PhD student Nicolas Garcia Hernandez, who are investigating the plant developmental processes. The Minister saw through the microscope how they are using beetroot pigments to enable us to see how fungi is colonising living plant roots. This research allows us to track and measure in real time how chemicals, soil tillage and environmental conditions impact this beneficial plant-microbe relationship.  

Mr Zeichner then visited the Lab’s microscopy room, and met with Dr Madelaine Bartlett and her colleague Terice Kelly. Dr Madelaine Bartlett's team researches the development of maize flowers (among other grass and cereal species) with a particular focus on the genetics behind these specialised flowers and future crop improvement. The team demonstrated how they image a maize flower on the Lab’s desktop scanning electron microscope. 

The Sainsbury Laboratory boasts its own Bee Room, where Dr Edwige Moyroud demonstrated how bumble bees are helping to reveal the characteristics of petal patterns that are most important for attracting pollinators. Dr Moyroud and her team are identifying the genes that plants use to produce patterns that attract pollinators by combining various research techniques, including experiments, modelling, microscopy and bee behaviour. 

Finally, overlooking Cambridge Botanic Gardens, academics from the Department of Plant Sciences and the Crop Science Centre presented on research into regenerative agriculture and using AI to measure and prevent crop disease.

Professor Lynn Dicks presented on the latest findings of the H3 research on regenerative agriculture. Professor Dicks and colleagues, during this ongoing five-year project, have worked collaboratively with farming clusters in the UK to study the impacts of a transition to regenerative agriculture, which has so far has been shown to improve soil health and reduce the use of chemicals. 

Professor Eves-van Den Akker and his team, based at the University’s Crop Science Centre, have combined low-cost 3D printing of custom imaging machines with state-of-the-art deep-learning algorithms to make millions of measurements, of tens of thousands of parasites across hundreds of genotypes. They are now working with companies to translate this fundamental research, with the aim of accelerating their breeding programs for crop resistance to pests and disease. 

The visit concluded with a discussion of the UK’s leading strengths in Agri-Tech and crop science, and how the UK and Cambridge are an attractive place for researchers from around the world to work, and make exciting advances, with global impact. 

The University of Cambridge hosted a visit from local MP, and Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner MP at the Sainsbury Laboratory.

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The discovery – found in a study in mice – sheds light on the role that inflammation can play in mood disorders and could help in the search for new treatments, in particular for those individuals for whom current treatments are ineffective.

Around 1 billion people will be diagnosed with a mood disorder such as depression or anxiety at some point in their life. While there may be many underlying causes, chronic inflammation – when the body’s immune system stays active for a long time, even when there is no infection or injury to fight – has been linked to depression. This suggests that the immune system may play an important role in the development of mood disorders.

Previous studies have highlighted how high levels of an immune cell known as a neutrophil, a type of white blood cell, are linked to the severity of depression. But how neutrophils contribute to symptoms of depression is currently unclear.

In research published today in Nature Communications, a team led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the National Institute of Mental Health, USA, tested a hypothesis that chronic stress can lead to the release of neutrophils from bone marrow in the skull. These cells then collect in the meninges – membranes that cover and protect your brain and spinal cord – and contribute to symptoms of depression.

As it is not possible to test this hypothesis in humans, the team used mice exposed to chronic social stress. In this experiment, an ‘intruder’ mouse is introduced into the home cage of an aggressive resident mouse. The two have brief daily physical interactions and can otherwise see, smell, and hear each other.

The researchers found that prolonged exposure to this stressful environment led to a noticeable increase in levels of neutrophils in the meninges, and that this was linked to signs of depressive behaviour in the mice. Even after the stress ended, the neutrophils lasted longer in the meninges than they did in the blood. Analysis confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that the meningeal neutrophils – which appeared subtly different from those found in the blood – originated in the skull.

Further analysis suggested that long-term stress triggered a type of immune system ‘alarm warning’ known as type I interferon signalling in the neutrophils. Blocking this pathway – in effect, switching off the alarm – reduced the number of neutrophils in the meninges and improved behaviour in the depressed mice. This pathway has previously been linked to depression – type 1 interferons are used to treat patients with hepatitis C, for example, but a known side effect of the medication is that it can cause severe depression during treatment.

Dr Stacey Kigar from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge said: “Our work helps explain how chronic stress can lead to lasting changes in the brain’s immune environment, potentially contributing to depression. It also opens the door to possible new treatments that target the immune system rather than just brain chemistry.

“There’s a significant proportion of people for whom antidepressants don’t work, possibly as many as one in three patients. If we can figure out what's happening with the immune system, we may be able to alleviate or reduce depressive symptoms.”

The reason why there are high levels of neutrophils in the meninges is unclear. One explanation could be that they are recruited by microglia, a type of immune cell unique to the brain. Another possible explanation is that chronic stress may cause microhaemorrhages, tiny leaks in brain blood vessels, and that neutrophils – the body’s ‘first responders’ – arrive to fix the damage and prevent any further damage. These neutrophils then become more rigid, possibly getting stuck in brain capillaries and causing further inflammation in the brain.

Dr Mary-Ellen Lynall from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said: “We’ve long known that something is different about how neutrophils behave after stressful events, or during depression, but we didn’t know what these neutrophils were doing, where they were going, or how they might be affecting the brain and mind. Our findings show that these ‘first responder’ immune cells leave the skull bone marrow and travel to the brain, where they can influence mood and behaviour.

“Most people will have experienced how our immune systems can drive short-lived depression-like symptoms. When we are sick, for example with a cold or flu, we often lack energy and appetite, sleep more and withdraw from social contact. If the immune system is always in a heightened, pro-inflammatory state, it shouldn’t be too surprising if we experience longer-term problems with our mood.”

The findings could provide a useful signature, or ‘biomarker’, to help identify those patients whose mood disorders are related to inflammation. This could help in the search for better treatments. For example, a clinical trial of a potential new drug that targets inflammation of the brain in depression might appear to fail if trialled on a general cohort of people with depression, whereas using the biomarker to identify individuals whose depression is linked to inflammation could increase the likelihood of the trial succeeding.

The findings may also help explain why depression is a symptom common in other neurological disorders such as stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, as it may be the case that neutrophils are being released in response to the damage to the brain seen in these conditions. But it may also explain why depression is itself a risk factor for dementia in later life, if neutrophils can themselves trigger damage to brain cells.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Kigar, SL et al. Chronic social defeat stress induces meningeal neutrophilia via type I interferon signaling in male mice. Nat Comms; 1 Sept 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62840-5

Immune cells released from bone marrow in the skull in response to chronic stress and adversity could play a key role in symptoms of depression and anxiety, say researchers.

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While previous research shows outrage and division drive engagement on social media, a new study of digital behaviour during the 2024 US election finds that this effect flips during a major crisis – when ‘ingroup solidarity’ becomes the engine of online virality.

Psychologists say the findings show positive emotions such as unity can cut through the hostility on social media, but it takes a shock to the system that threatens a community.

In a little over a week during the summer of 2024, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally (13 July) and Joe Biden’s suspension of his re-election campaign (21 July) completely reshaped the presidential race.

The University of Cambridge’s Social Decision-Making Lab collected over 62,000 public posts from the Facebook accounts of hundreds of US politicians, commentators and media outlets before and after these events to see how they affected online behaviour.*

“We wanted to understand the kinds of content that went viral among Republicans and Democrats during this period of high tension for both groups,” said Malia Marks, PhD candidate in Cambridge’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Negative emotions such as anger and outrage along with hostility towards opposing political groups are usually rocket fuel for social media engagement. You might expect this to go into hyperdrive during times of crisis and external threat.”

“However, we found the opposite. It appears that political crises evoke not so much outgroup hate but rather ingroup love,” said Marks.

Just after the Trump assassination attempt, Republican-aligned posts signalling unity and shared identity received 53% more engagement than those that did not – an increase of 17 percentage points compared to just before the shooting.

These included posts such as evangelist Franklin Graham thanking God that Donald Trump is alive, and Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham posting: ‘Bleeding and unbowed, Trump faces relentless attacks yet stands strong for America. This is why his followers remain passionately loyal.’

At the same time, engagement levels for Republican posts attacking the Democrats saw a decrease of 23 percentage points from just a few days earlier.

After Biden suspended his re-election campaign, Democrat-aligned posts expressing solidarity received 91% more engagement than those that did not – a major increase of 71 percentage points over the period shortly before his withdrawal.

Posts included former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich calling Biden “one of our most pro-worker presidents”, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi posting that Biden’s “legacy of vision, values and leadership make him one of the most consequential Presidents in American history.”

Biden’s withdrawal saw the continuation of a gradual rise in engagement for Democrat posts attacking Republicans – although over the 25 July days covered by the analysis almost a quarter of all conservative posts displayed “outgroup hostility” compared to just 5% of liberal posts.

Research led by the same Cambridge Lab, published in 2021, showed how social media posts criticizing or mocking those on the rival side of an ideological divide typically receive twice as many shares as posts that champion one’s own side.

“Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are increasingly seen as creating toxic information environments that intensify social and political divisions, and there is plenty of research now to support this,” said Yara Kyrychenko, study co-author and PhD candidate in Cambridge’s Social Decision-Making Lab.

“Yet we see that social media can produce a rally-round-the-flag effect at moments of crisis, when the emotional and psychological preference for one’s own group takes over as the dominant driver of online behaviour.”

Last year, the Cambridge team (led by Kyrychenko) published a study of 1.6 million Ukrainian social media posts in the months before and after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of 2022.

Following the invasion they found a similar spike for ‘ingroup solidarity’ posts, which got 92% more engagement on Facebook and 68% more on Twitter, while posts hostile to Russia received little extra engagement. 

Researchers argue that the findings from the latest study are even more surprising, given the gravity of the threat to Ukraine and the nature of its population.

“We didn’t know whether moments of political rather than existential crisis would trigger solidarity in a country as deeply polarised as the United States. But even here, group unity surged when leadership was threatened,” said Dr Jon Roozenbeek, Lecturer in Psychology at Cambridge University and senior author of the study.

“In times of crisis, ingroup love may matter more to us than outgroup hate on social media.”

* The study used 62,118 public posts from 484 Facebook accounts run by US politicians and partisan commentators or media sources from 5-29 July 2024.

Research reveals how political crises cause a shift in the force behind viral online content ‘from outgroup hate to ingroup love’.

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The findings, published today in Nature Neuroscience, have implications for the treatment of ‘phantom limb’ pain, but also suggest that controlling robotic replacement limbs via neural interfaces may be more straightforward than previously thought.

Studies have previously shown that within an area of the brain known as the somatosensory cortex there exists a map of the body, with different regions corresponding to different body parts. These maps are responsible for processing sensory information, such as touch, temperature and pain, as well as body position. For example, if you touch something hot with your hand, this will activate a particular region of the brain; if you stub your toe, a different region activates.

For decades now, the commonly-accepted view among neuroscientists has been that following amputation of a limb, neighbouring regions rearrange and essentially take over the area previously assigned to the now missing limb. This has relied on evidence from studies carried out after amputation, without comparing activity in the brain maps beforehand.

But this has presented a conundrum. Most amputees report phantom sensations, a feeling that the limb is still in place – this can also lead to sensations such as itching or pain in the missing limb. Also, brain imaging studies where amputees have been asked to ‘move’ their missing fingers have shown brain patterns resembling those of able-bodied individuals.

To investigate this contradiction, a team led by Professor Tamar Makin from the University of Cambridge and Dr Hunter Schone from the University of Pittsburgh followed three individuals due to undergo amputation of one of their hands. This is the first time a study has looked at the hand and face maps of individuals both before and after amputation. Most of the work was carried out while Professor Makin and Dr Schone were at UCL.

Prior to amputation, all three individuals were able to move all five digits of their hands. While lying in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner – which measures activity in the brain – the participants were asked to move their individual fingers and to purse their lips. The researchers used the brain scans to construct maps of the hand and lips for each individual. In these maps, the lips sit near to the hand.

The participants repeated the activity three months and again six months after amputation, this time asked to purse their lips and to imagine moving individual fingers. One participant was scanned again 18 months after amputation and a second participant five years after amputation.

The researchers examined the signals from the pre-amputation finger maps and compared them against the maps post-amputation. Analysis of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ images revealed a remarkable consistency: even with their hand now missing, the corresponding brain region activated in an almost identical manner.

Professor Makin, from the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Science Unit at the University of Cambridge, the study’s senior author, said: “Because of our previous work, we suspected that the brain maps would be largely unchanged, but the extent to which the map of the missing limb remained intact was jaw-dropping.

“Bearing in mind that the somatosensory cortex is responsible for interpreting what’s going on within the body, it seems astonishing that it doesn’t seem to know that the hand is no longer there.”

As previous studies had suggested that the body map reorganises such that neighbouring regions take over, the researchers looked at the region corresponding to the lips to see if it had moved or spread. They found that it remained unchanged and had not taken over the region representing the missing hand.

The study’s first author, Dr Schone from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, said: “We didn’t see any signs of the reorganisation that is supposed to happen according to the classical way of thinking. The brain maps remained static and unchanged.”

To complement their findings, the researchers compared their case studies to 26 participants who had had upper limbs amputated, on average 23.5 years beforehand. These individuals showed similar brain representations of the hand and lips to those in their three case studies, suggesting long-term evidence for the stability of hand and lip representations despite amputation.

illustration1.jpg

The researchers offer an explanation for the previous misunderstanding of what happens within the brain following amputation. They say that the boundaries within the brain maps are not clear cut – while the brain does have a map of the body, each part of the map doesn’t support one body part exclusively. So while inputs from the middle finger may largely activate one region, they also show some activity in the region representing the forefinger, for example. Previous studies that argue for massive reorganisation determined the layout of the maps by applying a ‘winner takes all’ strategy – stimulating the remaining body parts and noting which area of the brain shows most activity; because the missing limb is no longer there to be stimulated, activity from neighbouring limbs has been misinterpreted as taking over.

The findings have implications for the treatment of phantom limb pain, a phenomenon that can plague amputees. Current approaches focus on trying to restore representation of the limb in the brain’s map, but randomised controlled trials to test this approach have shown limited success – today’s study suggests this is because these approaches are focused on the wrong problem.

Dr Schone said: “The remaining parts of the nerves — still inside the residual limb — are no longer connected to their end-targets. They are dramatically cut off from the sensory receptors that have delivered them consistent signals. Without an end-target, the nerves can continue to grow to form a thickening of the nerve tissue and send noisy signals back to the brain.

“The most promising therapies involve rethinking how the amputation surgery is actually performed, for instance grafting the nerves into a new muscle or skin, so they have a new home to attach to.”

Of the three participants, one had substantial limb pain prior to amputation but received a complex procedure to graft the nerves to new muscle or skin; she no longer experiences pain. The other two participants, however, received the standard treatment and continue to experience phantom limb pain.

The University of Pittsburgh is one of a number of institutions that is researching whether movement and sensation can be restored to paralysed limbs or whether amputated limbs might be replaced by artificial, robotic limbs controlled by a brain interface. Today’s study suggests that because the brain maps are preserved, it should – in theory – be possible to restore movement to a paralysed limb or for the brain to control a prosthetic.

Dr Chris Baker from the Laboratory of Brain & Cognition, National Institutes of Mental Health, said: “If the brain rewired itself after amputation, these technologies would fail. If the area that had been responsible for controlling your hand was now responsible for your face, these implants just wouldn’t work. Our findings provide a real opportunity to develop these technologies now.”

Dr Schone added: “Now that we’ve shown these maps are stable, brain-computer interface technologies can operate under the assumption that the body map remains consistent over time. This allows us to move into the next frontier: accessing finer details of the hand map — like distinguishing the tip of the finger from the base — and restoring the rich, qualitative aspects of sensation, such as texture, shape, and temperature. This study is a powerful reminder that even after limb loss, the brain holds onto the body, waiting for us to reconnect.”

The research was supported by Wellcome, the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health and Medical Research Council.

Reference

Schone, HR et al. Stable Cortical Body Maps Before and After Arm Amputation. Nature Neuroscience; 21 Aug 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-02037-7

The brain holds a ‘map’ of the body that remains unchanged even after a limb has been amputated, contrary to the prevailing view that it rearranges itself to compensate for the loss, according to new research from scientists in the UK and US.

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A research team, led by the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, demonstrated that the polymer material used to make the artificial heart valve is safe following a six-month test in sheep.

Currently, the 1.5 million patients who need heart valve replacements each year face trade-offs. Mechanical heart valves are durable but require lifelong blood thinners due to a high risk of blood clots, whereas biological valves, made from animal tissue, typically last between eight to 10 years before needing replacement.

The artificial heart valve developed by the researchers is made from SEBS (styrene-block-ethylene/butyleneblock-styrene) – a type of plastic that has excellent durability but does not require blood thinners – and potentially offers the best of both worlds. However, further testing is required before it can be tested in humans.

In their study, published in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, the researchers tested a prototype SEBS heart valve in a preclinical sheep model that mimicked how these valves might perform in humans.

The animals were monitored over six months to examine potential long-term safety issues associated with the plastic material. At the end of the study, the researchers found no evidence of harmful calcification (mineral buildup) or material deterioration, blood clotting or signs of cell toxicity. Animal health, wellbeing, blood tests and weight were all stable and normal, and the prototype valve functioned well throughout the testing period, with no need for blood thinners.

“More than 35 million patients’ heart valves are permanently damaged by rheumatic fever, and with an ageing population, this figure is predicted to increase four to five times by 2050,” said Professor Raimondo Ascione from the University of Bristol, the study’s clinical lead. “Our findings could mark the beginning of a new era for artificial heart valves: one that may offer safer, more durable and more patient-friendly options for patients of all ages, with fewer compromises.”

“We are pleased that the new plastic material has been shown to be safe after six months of testing in vivo,” said Professor Geoff Moggridge from Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, biomaterial lead on the project. “Confirming the safety of the material has been an essential and reassuring step for us, and a green light to progress the new heart valve replacement toward bedside testing.”

The results suggest that artificial heart valves made from SEBS are both durable and do not require the lifelong use of blood thinners.

While the research is still early-stage, the findings help clear a path to future human testing. The next step will be to develop a clinical-grade version of the SEBS polymer heart valve and test it in a larger preclinical trial before seeking approval for a pilot human clinical trial.

The study was funded by a British Heart Foundation (BHF) grant and supported by a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme Product Development Awards (PDA) award. Geoff Moggridge is a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. 

Reference:
Raimondo Ascione et al. ‘Material safety of styrene-block-ethylene/butylene-block-styrene copolymers used for cardiac valves: 6-month in-vivo results from a juvenile sheep model’. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (2025). DOI: 10.1093/ejcts/ezaf266/ejcts-2025-100426

Adapted from a University of Bristol media release. 

An artificial heart valve made from a new type of plastic could be a step closer to use in humans, following a successful long-term safety test in animals.

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Created by King's E-Lab, in partnership with Founders at the University of Cambridge, SPARK will act as an entrepreneurial launchpad. This programme will offer hands-on support, world-class mentorship and practical training to enable world-changing ventures covering challenges such as disease prevention and treatment, fertility support and climate resilience. The combined networks of successful entrepreneurs, investor alumni and venture-building expertise brought by King’s E-Lab and Founders at the University of Cambridge will address a critical gap to drive innovation.

More than 180 applications were received for SPARK 1.0, reflecting strong demand for early incubation support. Of the selected companies, focused on AI, machine learning, biotechnology and impact, 42% of the companies are at idea stage, 40% have an early-stage product, and 17% have early users. Around half of the selected companies are led by women.

• Ashgold Africa - An edtech business building solar projects to provide sustainable energy in rural Kenya.
• Aizen Software - Credit referencing fintech working on financial inclusion.
• Atera Analytics - Optimising resources around the EV energy infrastructure ecosystem.
• Cambridge Mobilytics - Harnessing data from UK EV charging stations to aid decision-making in the e-mobility sector.  
• Dielectrix - Building next-gen semiconductor dielectric materials for electronics using 2D materials.
• Dulce Cerebrum - Building AI models to detect psychosis from blood tests.
• GreenHarvest - Data-driven agritech firm using satellite and climate data to predict changing crop yield migration.
• Heartly - Offering affordable, personalised guidance on preventing cardiovascular disease.
• Human Experience Dynamics - Combining patient experiences and physiological measures to create holistic insight in psychiatric trials.
• iFlame - Agentic AI system to help build creative product action plans.
• IntolerSense - Uncovering undiscovered food intolerances using an AI-powered app.
• Med Arcade - AI-powered co-pilot to help GPs interact with patient data.
• MENRVA - AI-powered matchmaking engine for the art world, connecting galleries, buyers and art businesses.
• Myta Bio - leverages biomimetic science to create superior industrial chemicals from natural ingredients.
• Neela Biotech - Creating carbon-negative jet fuel.
• Egg Advisor - Digital platform offering expert advice to women seeking to freeze their eggs.
• Polytecks - Wearable tech firm building e-textiles capable of detecting valvular heart diseases.
• RetroAnalytica - Using AI to decarbonise buildings by predicting energy inefficiencies.
• SafeTide - Using ‘supramolecular’ technology to keep delicate medicines stable at room temperature for longer periods.
• The Surpluss - Climate tech company identifying unused resources in businesses and redistributing them.
• Yacson Therapeutics - Using ML to find plant-based therapeutics to help combat inflammatory bowel disease.
• Zenithon AI - Using AI and ML to help advance the development of nuclear fusion energy.

The intensive incubator will run for four weeks from the end of August. Each participant will receive specialised support from Founders at the University of Cambridge and King’s E-Lab mentors and entrepreneurs-in-residence to turn their concepts into companies that can attract both investment and ultimately grow into startups capable of driving economic growth.

Following the program, the founders will emerge with:

A validated business model and a clear pathway to product development

Access to expert mentorship and masterclasses with global entrepreneurs and investors

The opportunity to pitch for £20,000 investment and chance to pitch for further investment from established Angel Investors at Demo Day

A chance to join a thriving community of innovators and change-makers

Kamiar Mohaddes, co-founder and Director of King’s Entrepreneurship Lab, said: “Cambridge has been responsible for many world-changing discoveries, but entrepreneurship isn't the first thought of most people studying here. Driving economic growth requires inspiring the next generation to think boldly about how their ideas can shape industries and society. We want SPARK to be a catalyst, showing students the reality of founding a company. We look forward to seeing this cohort turn their ambitions into ventures that contribute meaningfully to the economy.”

Gerard Grech, Managing Director at Founders at the University of Cambridge, said: “Cambridge is aiming to double its tech and science output in the next decade – matching what it achieved in the past 20 years. That ambition starts at the grassroots. The energy from the students, postgraduates and alumni is clear, and with tech contributing £159 billion to the UK economy and 3 million jobs, building transformative businesses is one of the most powerful ways to make an impact. This SPARK 1.0 cohort is beginning that journey, and we’re pleased to partner with King’s Entrepreneurship Lab to support them.”

Gillian Tett, Provost of King’s College, said: “Cambridge colleges have more talent in AI, life sciences and technology, including quantum computing, than ever. Through SPARK, we can support even more students, researchers and alumni to turn their ambition into an investable idea and make the leap from the lab to the marketplace. This isn’t just a game-changer for King’s, but for every college in Cambridge whose students join this programme and journey with us to make an impact from Cambridge, on the world.”

Jim Glasheen, Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, said: “The SPARK 1.0 cohort highlights the breadth and depth of innovation within collegiate Cambridge. SPARK, and the partnership between King’s College and Founders at the University of Cambridge, is a testament to our shared commitment to nurture and empower Cambridge innovators who will tackle global challenges and contribute to economic growth.”

The programme is free for students graduating in Summer 2025, postgraduates, post-docs, researchers, and alumni who have graduated within the last two years. This is made possible through the University of Cambridge, as well as a generous personal donation from Malcolm McKenzie, King’s alumnus and Chair of the E-Lab’s Senior Advisory Board.

King’s Entrepeneurship Lab (King’s E-Lab) and Founders at the University of Cambridge have revealed the 24 startups that will join King’s College’s first-ever incubator programme designed to turn research-backed ideas from University of Cambridge students and alumni into investable companies.

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The scanner, funded through a £5.5m investment from the UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC), will form part of the National PET Imaging Platform (NPIP), the UK’s first-of-its-kind national total-body PET imaging platform for drug discovery and clinical research.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful technology for imaging living tissues and organs down to the molecular level in humans. It can be used to investigate how diseases arise and progress and to detect and diagnose diseases at an early stage.

Total-body PET scanners are more sensitive than existing technology and so can provide new insights into anatomy that have never been seen before, improving detection, diagnosis and treatment of complex, multi-organ diseases.

Current PET technology is less sensitive and requires the patient to be repositioned multiple times to achieve a full-body field of view. Total-body PET scans can achieve this in one session and are quicker, exposing patients to considerably lower doses of radiation. This means more patients, including children, can participate in clinical research and trials to improve our understanding of diseases.

ANGLIA network of universities and NHS trusts

Supplied by Siemens Healthineers, the scanner will also be the focus of the ANGLIA network, comprising three universities, each paired with one or more local NHS trusts: the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; UCL and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and the University of Sheffield with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The network, supported by UKRI, is partnered with biotech company Altos Labs and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, both with R&D headquarters in Cambridge, and Alliance Medical, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging.

Franklin Aigbirhio, Professor of Molecular Imaging Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, will lead the ANGLIA network. He said: “This is an exciting new technology that will transform our ability to answer important questions about how diseases arise and to search for and develop new treatments that will ultimately benefit not just our patients, but those across the UK and beyond.

“But this is more than just a research tool. It will also help us diagnose and treat diseases at an even earlier stage, particularly in children, for whom repeated investigations using standard PET scanners were not an option.”

The scanner will be located in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, ensuring that the discoveries and breakthroughs it enables can be turned rapidly into benefits to patients. It will expand NHS access to PET services, particularly in underserved areas across the East of England, and support more inclusive trial participation.

Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: “The ANGLIA network, centred on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and with collaborations across the wider University and its partners, will drive innovations in many areas of this key imaging technology, such as new radiopharmaceuticals and application of AI to data analysis, that will bring benefits to patients far beyond its immediate reach. Its expertise will help build the next generation of PET scientists, as well as enabling partners in industry to use PET to speed up the development of new drugs.”

Roland Sinker, Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s Hospital, said: “I am pleased that our patients will be some of the first to benefit from this groundbreaking technology. Harnessing the latest technologies and enabling more people to benefit from the latest research is a vital part of our work at CUH and is crucial to the future of the NHS.

“By locating this scanner at Addenbrooke’s we are ensuring that it can be uniquely used to deliver wide ranging scientific advances across academia and industry, as well as improving the lives of patients.”

It is anticipated that the scanner will be installed by autumn 2026.

Professor Franklin Aigbirhio

Professor Franklin Aigbirhio

Enhancing training and research capacity

The co-location of the total-body PET scanner with existing facilities and integration with systems at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital will also enhance training and research capacity, particularly for early-career researchers and underrepresented groups.

The ANGLIA network will provide opportunities to support and train more by people from Black and other minority ethnic backgrounds to participate in PET chemistry and imaging. The University of Cambridge will support a dedicated fellowship scheme, capacity and capability training in key areas, and strengthen the network partnership with joint projects and exchange visits.

Professor Aigbirhio, who is also co-chair of the UKRI MRC’s Black in Biomedical Research Advisory Group, added: “Traditionally, scientists from Black and other minority ethnic backgrounds are under-represented in the field of medical imaging. We aim to use our network to change this, providing fellowship opportunities and training targeted at members of these communities.”

The National PET Imaging Platform

Funded by UKRI’s Infrastructure Fund, and delivered by a partnership between Medicines Discovery Catapult, MRC and Innovate UK, NPIP provides a critical clinical infrastructure of scanners, creating a nationwide network for data sharing, discovery and innovation. It allows clinicians, industry and researchers to collaborate on an international scale to accelerate patient diagnosis, treatment and clinical trials. The MRC funding for the Cambridge scanner will support the existing UKRI Infrastructure Fund investment for NPIP and enables the University to establish a total-body PET facility.

Dr Ceri Williams, Executive Director of Challenge-Led Themes at MRC said: “MRC is delighted to augment the funding for NPIP to provide an additional scanner for Cambridge in line with the original recommendations of the funding panel. This additional machine will broaden the geographic reach of the platform, providing better access for patients from East Anglia and the Midlands, and enable research to drive innovation in imaging, detection, and diagnosis, alongside supporting partnership with industry to drive improvements and efficiency for the NHS.”

Dr Juliana Maynard, Director of Operations and Engagement for the National PET Imaging Platform, said: “We are delighted to welcome the University of Cambridge as the latest partner of NPIP, expanding our game-changing national imaging infrastructure to benefit even more researchers, clinicians, industry partners and, importantly, patients.

“Once operational, the scanner will contribute to NPIP’s connected network of data, which will improve diagnosis and aid researchers’ understanding of diseases, unlocking more opportunities for drug discovery and development. By fostering collaboration on this scale, NPIP helps accelerate disease diagnosis, treatment, and clinical trials, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for patients."

A new total-body PET scanner to be hosted in Cambridge – one of only a handful in the country – will transform our ability to diagnose and treat a range of conditions in patients and to carry out cutting-edge research and drug development.

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In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of British and German scientists revealed the structure of the extracellular matrix in Volvox carteri, a type of green algae that is often used to study how multicellular organisms evolved from single-celled ancestors.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a scaffold-like material that surrounds cells, providing physical support, influencing shape, and playing an important role in development and signalling. Found in animals, plants, fungi and algae, it also played a vital part in the transition from unicellular to multicellular life.

Because the ECM exists outside the cells that produce it, scientists believe it forms through self-assembly: a process still not fully understood, even in the simplest organisms.

To investigate, researchers at the University of Bielefeld genetically engineered a strain of Volvox in which a key ECM protein called pherophorin II was made fluorescent so the matrix’s structure could be clearly seen under a microscope.

What they saw was an intricate foam-like network of rounded compartments that wrapped around each of Volvox’s roughly 2,000 somatic, or non-reproductive, cells.

Working with mathematicians at the University of Cambridge, the team used machine learning to quantify the geometry of these compartments. The data revealed a stochastic, or randomly influenced, growth pattern that shares similarities with the way foams expand when hydrated.

These shapes followed a statistical pattern that also appears in materials like grains and emulsions, and in biological tissues. The findings suggest that while individual cells produce ECM proteins at uneven rates, the overall organism maintains a regular, spherical form.

That coexistence – between noisy behaviour at the level of single cells and precise geometry at the level of the whole organism – raises new questions about how multicellular life manages to build reliable forms from unreliable parts.

“Our results provide quantitative information relating to a fundamental question in developmental biology: how do cells make structures external to themselves in a robust and accurate manner,” said Professor Raymond E Goldstein from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who co-led the research. “It also shows the exciting results we can achieve when biologists, physicists and mathematicians work together on understanding the mysteries of life.”

“By tracking a single structural protein, we gained insight into the principles behind the self-organisation of the extracellular matrix,” said Professor Armin Hallmann from the University of Bielefeld, who co-led the research. “Its geometry gives us a meaningful readout of how the organism develops as it grows.”

The research was carried out by postdoctoral researchers Dr Benjamin von der Heyde and Dr Eva Laura von der Heyde and Hallmann in Bielefeld, working with Cambridge PhD student Anand Srinivasan, postdoctoral researcher Dr Sumit Kumar Birwa, Senior Research Associate Dr Steph Höhn and Goldstein, the Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems in Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

The project was supported in part by Wellcome and the John Templeton Foundation. Raymond Goldstein is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Reference:
B von der Heyde, A Srinivasan et al. ‘Spatiotemporal distribution of the glycoprotein pherophorin II reveals stochastic geometry of the growing ECM of Volvox carteri,’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2425759122

Researchers have captured the first clear view of the hidden architecture that helps shape a simple multicellular organism, showing how cells work together to build complex life forms.

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High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the top risk factor for premature death, associated with heart disease, strokes and heart attacks. However, inaccuracies in the most common form of blood pressure measurement mean that as many as 30% of cases of high blood pressure could be missed.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, built an experimental model that explained the physics behind these inaccuracies and provided a better understanding of the mechanics of cuff-based blood pressure readings.

The researchers say that some straightforward changes, which don’t necessarily involve replacing standard cuff-based measurement, could lead to more accurate blood pressure readings and better results for patients. Their results are reported in the journal PNAS Nexus.

Anyone who has ever had their blood pressure taken will be familiar with the cuff-based method. This type of measurement, also known as the auscultatory method, relies on inflating a cuff around the upper arm to the point where it cuts off blood flow to the lower arm, and then a clinician listens for tapping sounds in the arm through a stethoscope while the cuff is slowly deflated.

Blood pressure is inferred from readings taken from a pressure gauge attached to the deflating cuff. Blood pressure is given as two separate numbers: a maximum (systolic) and a minimum (diastolic) pressure. A blood pressure reading of 120/80 is considered ‘ideal’.

“The auscultatory method is the gold standard, but it overestimates diastolic pressure, while systolic pressure is underestimated,” said co-author Kate Bassil from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “We have a good understanding of why diastolic pressure is overestimated, but why systolic pressure is underestimated has been a bit of a mystery.”

“Pretty much every clinician knows blood pressure readings are sometimes wrong, but no one could explain why they are being underestimated — there’s a real gap in understanding,” said co-author Professor Anurag Agarwal, also from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering.

Previous non-clinical studies into measurement inaccuracy used rubber tubes that did not fully replicate how arteries collapse under cuff pressure, which masked the underestimation effect.

The researchers built a simplified physical model to isolate and study the effects of downstream blood pressure — the blood pressure in the part of the arm below the cuff. When the cuff is inflated and blood flow to the lower arm is cut off, it creates a very low downstream pressure. By reproducing this condition in their experimental rig, they determined this pressure difference causes the artery to stay closed for longer while the cuff deflates, delaying the reopening and leading to an underestimation of blood pressure.

This physical mechanism — the delayed reopening due to low downstream pressure — is the likely cause of underestimation, a previously unidentified factor. “We are currently not adjusting for this error when diagnosing or prescribing treatments, which has been estimated to lead to as many as 30% of cases of systolic hypertension being missed,” said Bassil.

Instead of the rubber tubes used in earlier physical models of arteries, the Cambridge researchers used tubes that lay flat when deflated and fully close when the cuff pressure is inflated, the key condition for reproducing the low downstream pressure observed in the body.

The researchers say that there are a range of potential solutions to this underestimation, which include raising the arm in advance of measurement, potentially producing a predictable downstream pressure and therefore predictable underestimation. This change doesn’t require new devices, just a modified protocol.

“You might not even need new devices, just changing how the measurement is done could make it more accurate,” said Agarwal.

However, if new devices for monitoring blood pressure are developed, they might ask for additional inputs which correlate with downstream pressure, to adjust what the ‘ideal’ readings might be for each individual. These may include age, BMI, or tissue characteristics.

The researchers hope to secure funding for clinical trials to test their findings in patients, and are looking for industrial or research partners to help refine their calibration models and validate the effect in diverse populations. Collaboration with clinicians will also be essential to implement changes to clinical practice.

The research was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Anurag Agarwal is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 

Reference:
Kate Bassil and Anurag Agarwal. ‘Underestimation of systolic pressure in cuff-based blood pressure measurement.’ PNAS Nexus (2025). DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf222.

Researchers have found why common cuff-based blood pressure readings are inaccurate and how they might be improved, which could improve health outcomes for patients.

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With over 70 drop-in and bookable events, Open Cambridge encourages people to discover more about their local history and communities. Taking place over 10 days, here is a preview of some of the events taking place. 

Experience 2 iconic Cambridge sites this September by booking on to guided tours of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) and the University of Cambridge’s Senate House. At MRAO, discover more about mysterious dishes which are dotted over the Cambridgeshire countryside. You’ll get up close to the One-Mile Telescope, 5-km Ryle Telescope, and the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager as well as see inside some of the control rooms and learn about the unique history of the site and some of the important discoveries made here. In the tours of Senate House, led by the University’s Ceremonial Officer, find out what goes on in this Grade 1 listed building during graduations as well as some of the incredible history to which the building has played host.  

Learn about the experiences of over 2000 Cambridgeshire soldiers who were sent last minute by Churchill to the failed defence of Singapore in WWII in a special talk by Lewis Herbert, former Leader of Cambridge City Council. On the 80th anniversary of the release from Japanese Army slavery of our Far East Prisoners of War (FEPOWs) in September 1945, this talk will pay tribute to them and their families, particularly over 800 locally who never made in home – over 4 in every 10.

This year marks 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen and to celebrate, King’s College Library and Archives are hosting an exhibition showcasing first and early editions of the author’s much-loved novels, alongside the autograph manuscript of her unfinished novel Sanditon and treasures highlighting the Austen family’s connection with the College. This one-day event is a rare opportunity to look inside the College’s beautiful early nineteenth-century library designed by the architect William Wilkins.

Back in May, The Sainsbury Laboratory here in Cambridge were part of a team winning a silver-gilt medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. For Open Cambridge, enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of the lab, see some of the award-winning display and have a go at some of the interactive activities the team took to Chelsea.

Try your hand at the world’s fastest growing sport, Padel, in a free 55-minute taster session at the Cambridge University Sports Centre. A fun, sociable mix of tennis and squash, each session is led by a qualified coach and great for beginners, so you’ll learn the rules, try out some shots, and experience what makes padel so popular.

Cambridge Samaritans will be joining Open Cambridge for the first time this year. For over 60 years, they have been there – day or night – for anyone struggling to cope or in distress, offering a safe space to talk without judgement or pressure. Join a special online event to find out more about the work the charity is doing on the helplines and in the local community and discover Samaritans’ unique approach to supporting those in emotional distress and our work in reducing the number of suicides.

Also, in the programme for the first time, are 2 tours of the Biomedical Campus. The first, delivered by Sociologists and residents David Skinner and Will Brown, considers the past, present, and future of the Campus from the perspective of the people who live around it. 

The second tour will explore landmark institutions like Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth Hospitals, the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and AstraZeneca’s global HQ as well as give visitors the opportunity to learn about the upcoming Cancer and Children’s Hospitals, world-first surgeries, and the collaborative spirit that drives breakthroughs from bench to bedside. 

Zoe Smith, Open Cambridge Manager, said: “Each year we’re blessed with such an incredible and unique programme of events. From garden and walking tours, to learning more about some of the amazing work our local community organisations undertake, this year’s programme is opening doors to the residents of Cambridge”. 

Jo McPhee, Civic Engagement Manager at the University of Cambridge, said: “Open Cambridge is a great way for our University and local communities to come together and celebrate our shared history and incredible stories behind our spaces, places and people. This year’s programme is full of exciting events that bring those stories to life, showcasing the the depth and diversity of our collective heritage.” 

You can view the full Open Cambridge programme on our website.

Open Cambridge is part of the national Heritage Open Days. It is designed to offer special access to places that are normally closed to the public or charge admission. The initiative provides an annual opportunity for people to discover the local history and heritage of their community. Open Cambridge is run by the Public Engagement team at the University of Cambridge, who also deliver the Cambridge Festival, which takes place each spring. 

Bookings are now open for Open Cambridge 2025 (12-21 September). This September the public can enjoy tours of College gardens, exhibitions from hidden archives, tours of University sites not usually open to the public as well as open sites across the city, all free of charge.

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Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) affects around 2,500 people in the United Kingdom.  It causes rapidly progressive loss of vision in both eyes. Within weeks of onset, an affected individual reaches the legal threshold to be considered as severely sight impaired (blind).

The condition tends to affect young men, with a peak age of onset between the ages of 15 and 35 years old, but women can also be affected and the loss of vision can occur at any age.  The prognosis is poor, with only around one in 10 affected individuals experiencing some spontaneous visual improvement, which is invariably partial.

LHON is caused by the loss of retinal ganglion cells, specialised nerve cells in the innermost layer of the retina. The projections, or ‘axons’, from these cells converge to form the optic nerve, the cable that transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Once these retinal ganglion cells are lost, the damage becomes irreversible. LHON is primarily caused by genetic defects within the mitochondrial genome, which is transmitted down the maternal line. 

In 2011, the journal Brain published the results of a landmark randomised placebo-controlled trial of the drug idebenone to treat LHON. The RHODOS trial was led by Patrick Chinnery, at the time a researcher at Newcastle University and now Professor of Neurology at the University of Cambridge. It found some potential benefit in a subgroup of patients. However, treatment with idebenone was only given for six months, and it was not clear whether there was any benefit in treating individuals who had been affected for more than one year.

“At the time, we had only anecdotal evidence that idebenone would work for patients with LHON,” said Professor Chinnery. “Our clinical trial was the first strong evidence that it could help stabilise vision in some patients. It was an important step towards providing a new treatment.”

One of Professor Chinnery’s collaborators on the RHODOS trial was Patrick Yu-Wai-Man, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cambridge, who led the follow-up LEROS trial. This assessed the efficacy and safety of idebenone treatment in patients with LHON up to five years after symptom onset and over a treatment period of 24 months. This second trial found that the drug can help stabilise vision in some patients and, in certain cases, may even lead to improvement when treatment is provided within five years of vision being affected.

These studies provided crucial evidence to support the use of idebenone to treat LHON patients. The drug was licensed for limited use by patients in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and it has now been approved by NICE for use in patients aged 12 years and over in England.

Professor Yu-Wai-Man said: “LHON causes devastating visual loss and it is a life-changing diagnosis for the affected individual and their family. England is now in line with the rest of the United Kingdom with idebenone now available through the NHS. This will come as a great relief to the LHON community in this country bringing hope to those who have experienced significant visual loss from this mitochondrial genetic disorder.”

The development has been welcomed by charities that have been arguing for idebenone to be made available across the UK. A LHON Society spokesperson said: “This is a critical step towards full access to idebenone for patients, that may alleviate some of the impacts of LHON.”

Katie Waller, Head of Patient Programmes at The Lily Foundation, a charity that supports patients affected by mitochondrial diseases, said: “This is a huge win for the mito community and we’re proud to have been a key stakeholder throughout the process. While it isn’t a cure, this treatment offers real potential for patients to preserve or improve vision, giving the chance to regain independence, confidence and a better quality of life.”

Idebenone will not work for everyone, and responses vary from person to person. LHON patients are encouraged to speak with the healthcare professional responsible for their care to understand whether idebenone is the right treatment for them.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has today announced the approval of a new treatment for a form of hereditary blindness for use on the NHS in England. Cambridge researchers played a pivotal role in providing the evidence that led to this important development.

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Visible only from the Southern hemisphere, the system is made up of the binary Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, both Sun-like stars, and the faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky.

While there are three confirmed planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the presence of other worlds surrounding Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B has proved difficult to confirm, because the stars are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly.

Now, observations from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. The results, from an international team including researchers from the University of Cambridge, have been accepted for publication in two papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.

Several rounds of observations by Webb, analysis by the research team, and computer modelling helped determine that the source seen in Webb’s image is likely to be a planet, and not a background object (like a galaxy), a foreground object (a passing asteroid), or another image artefact.

“Webb was designed and optimised to find the most distant galaxies in the universe. The team had to come up with a custom observing sequence just for this target, and their extra effort paid off spectacularly,” said Charles Beichman, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech, co-first author on the new papers.

The first observations of the system took place in August 2024. While extra brightness from the nearby companion star Alpha Centauri B complicated the analysis, the team was able to subtract out the light from both stars to reveal an object over 10,000 times fainter than Alpha Centauri A, separated from the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth.

While the initial detection was exciting, the research team needed more data to come to a firm conclusion. However, additional observations of the system in February 2025 and April 2025 did not reveal any objects like the one identified in August 2024.

“We were faced with the case of a disappearing planet! To investigate this mystery, we used computer models to simulate millions of potential orbits, incorporating the knowledge gained when we saw the planet, as well as when we did not,” said co-first author Aniket Sanghi of the California Institute of Technology.

In these simulations, the team took into account both the 2019 sighting of a potential exoplanet candidate by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the new data from Webb, and considered orbits that would be gravitationally stable in the presence of Alpha Centauri B, meaning the planet wouldn’t get flung out of the system.

The researchers say a non-detection in the second and third round of observations with Webb wasn’t surprising.

“We found that in half of the possible orbits simulated, the planet moved too close to the star and wouldn’t have been visible to Webb in both February and April 2025,” said Sanghi.

In addition to these simulations, the Cambridge members of the research team analysed the Webb data to search for any signs of a type of cosmic dust, known as exozodiacal dust, around Alpha Centauri A. This cloud of dust, produced by objects such as comets and asteroids breaking apart, forms a faint, glowing disc around a star.

“Exozodiacal dust helps us learn about the architecture and evolution of planetary systems,” said co-author Professor Mark Wyatt from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “But it’s also important when searching for rocky planets, since dust in the habitable zone of a star can obscure or mimic planetary signals.”

No dust was detected in these observations, however, the team showed they were sensitive to dust levels an order of magnitude lower than any previous measurement, which could be valuable for future planet searches around this star.

“This observation shows how deeply Webb can probe the dust environment of the nearest Sun-like stars,” said co-author Dr Max Sommer, also from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “We can now explore exozodiacal dust at levels not much higher than those in our own Solar System, tapping into a whole new way of looking at other star systems.”

Based on the brightness of the planet in the mid-infrared observations and the orbit simulations, the researchers say it could be a gas giant approximately the mass of Saturn orbiting Alpha Centauri A in an elliptical path varying between one to two times the distance between Sun and Earth.

If confirmed, the potential planet seen in the Webb image of Alpha Centauri A would mark a new milestone for exoplanet imaging efforts. Of all the directly imaged exoplanets, this would be the closest to its star seen so far. It’s also the most similar in temperature and age to the giant planets in our solar system, and the nearest to Earth.

“Its very existence in a system of two closely separated stars would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive, and evolve in chaotic environments,” said Sanghi.

The James Webb Space Telescope is an international programme led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Reference:
Charles Beichman, Aniket Sanghi et al. ‘Worlds Next Door: A Candidate Giant Planet Imaged in the Habitable Zone of α Cen A. I. Observations, Orbital and Physical Properties, and Exozodi Upper Limits’. The Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press). arXiv:2508.03812v1

Aniket Sanghi, Charles Beichman et al. ‘Worlds Next Door: A Candidate Giant Planet Imaged in the Habitable Zone of  α Cen A. II. Binary Star Modeling, Planet and Exozodi Search, and Sensitivity Analysis’. The Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press). arXiv:2508.03812

Adapted from a NASA press release.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just four light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.

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In a study published in the journal Physical Review E, researchers have found that these insects begin their loud daily serenades when the sun is precisely 3.8 degrees below the horizon: a consistent marker of early morning light known as civil twilight.

The research, carried out by scientists from India, the UK and Israel, analysed several weeks of field recordings taken at two locations near Bangalore in India. Using tools from physics typically applied to the study of phase transitions in materials, the team uncovered a regularity in how cicadas respond to subtle changes in light.

“We’ve long known that animals respond to sunrise and seasonal light changes,” said co-author Professor Raymond Goldstein, from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “But this is the first time we’ve been able to quantify how precisely cicadas tune in to a very specific light intensity — and it’s astonishing.”

The crescendo of cicada song — familiar to anyone who has woken up early on a spring or summer morning — takes only about 60 seconds to build, the researchers found. Each day, the midpoint of that build-up occurs at nearly the same solar angle, regardless of the exact time of sunrise.

In practical terms, that means cicadas begin singing when the light on the ground has reached a specific threshold, varying by just 25% during that brief transition.

To explain this level of precision, the team developed a mathematical model inspired by magnetic materials, in which individual units, or spins, align with an external field and with each other. Similarly, their model proposes that cicadas make decisions based both on ambient light and the sounds of nearby insects, like individuals in an audience who start clapping when others do.

“This kind of collective decision-making shows how local interactions between individuals can produce surprisingly coordinated group behaviour,” said co-author Professor Nir Gov from the Weizmann Institute, who is currently on sabbatical in Cambridge.

The field recordings were made by Bangalore-based engineer Rakesh Khanna, who carries out cicada research as a passion project. Khanna collaborated with Goldstein and Dr Adriana Pesci at Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

“Rakesh’s observations have paved the way to a quantitative understanding of this fascinating type of collective behaviour,” said Goldstein. “There’s still much to learn, but this study offers key insights into how groups make decisions based on shared environmental cues.”

The study was partly supported by the Complex Systems Fund at the University of Cambridge. Raymond Goldstein is the Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Khanna, RA, Goldstein, RE, Pesci, AI, and Gov, NS. ‘Photometric Decision-Making During the Dawn Choruses of Cicadas.’ Physical Review E (2025). DOI: 10.1103/4y4d-p32q

Cicadas coordinate their early morning choruses with remarkable precision, timing their singing to a specific level of light during the pre-dawn hours.

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In a study published in npj Digital Medicine, the researchers found that while activity levels then slowly declined over time, even after 30 months those users who were still using the app were more active than they had been beforehand.

Lack of physical activity is linked to poor health, including higher rates of heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancers, dementia, depression and early death. Almost 4 million premature deaths per year – and healthcare costs of US$27 billion (more than £20 billion) – are attributable to physical inactivity.

In England, more than one in three (37%) adults do not reach the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity – which can include brisk walking – and around one in four (26%) adults does less than 30 minutes per week.

Recently, mobile health apps have grown in popularity, allowing users to track their physical activity, offering tailored feedback, goal setting opportunities and activity reminders throughout the day. One such app is NHS Active 10, launched in 2017 to increase brisk walking levels, as walking is the most common form of activity reported by English adults. The app has been downloaded over 1.5 million times since its introduction.

In the first formal evaluation of its effectiveness, researchers from the University of Cambridge examined anonymised data from more than 200,000 users of the app – those who used the app for at least a month – collected between July 2021 and January 2024. These users had agreed for their anonymised data to be collected and shared for research purposes.

Three quarters of those users who provided demographic information were women, and the average age of users was 51 years. One in three users (32%) was aged 60 years or over.

Following download, the app requested permission from users to access their historical walking data. This revealed that prior to using the app, individuals spent on average 12.3 minutes per day in brisk walking and 30.4 minutes per day in non-brisk walking.

On the first day the app was downloaded, users walked on average an additional 9.0 minutes per day briskly. Their non-brisk walking increased by 2.6 minutes per day.

Over time, the amount of brisk walking done by users declined, falling on average 0.15 minutes per day for each month that passed. The amount of non-brisk walking also fell, by 0.06 minutes per day for each month that passed.

Over a third of users (35%) were still using the app after six months and a fifth (21%) after a year. This is much higher than the average for health and fitness apps worldwide, where typically fewer than three in 100 users (2.8%) are still using the app after 30 days.

At the end of 30 months, users were still walking an average of 4.5 minutes more per day briskly and 0.8 minutes per day more non-briskly than before they began using the app.

First author Dr Dharani Yerrakalva, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, said: “Even though activity levels fell over time, people still using the app after more than two years were doing more physical activity than before they started using it.

“At the population level, other research has suggested that we would see significant health benefits from even modest increases in activity such as this. Previous work by colleagues at Cambridge suggests that just 11 minutes a day of brisk walking could prevent one in 10 premature deaths.”

Senior author Professor Simon Griffin, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care and  the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: “Active 10 appears to have a been a success, in that it encouraged 200,000 people to increase their levels of moderate physical activity. We should now consider whether apps such as this can be integrated into NHS practice, for example providing data to GPs so they can monitor their patients’ progress and provide tailored advice, to help us move towards a more personalised approach to medicine.”         

Simon Willcock, aged 71, said: “I am a big fan of Active 10. Following a successful cardiac ablation in January 2023, I set out to get fit and start looking after my heart. Active 10 has enabled me to change my behaviour especially when walking my two dogs twice a day. I now consciously walk faster and rarely amble.

“I set myself a minimum of three Active 10s a day and usually manage four or five. My measured ‘brisk minutes’ recorded usually average 40 to 55% of my total walking. I have lost over a stone [6kg], feel fitter and are rarely out of breath when walking the Surrey Hills near where I live. Much cheaper than going to the gym!”

The research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Medical Research Council, with support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference

Yerrakalva, D et al. Evaluation of the NHS Active 10 Walking App Intervention through time-series analysis in 201,688 individuals. npj Digital Medicine; 6 Aug 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41746-025-01785-x

Users of the NHS Active 10 app, designed to encourage people to become more active, immediately increased their amount of brisk and non-brisk walking upon using the app, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge.

Sonali Shukla is a careers consultant at the University of Cambridge. Living in Cambridge, she was used to cycling to work, but when her daughter was born, she found that a combination of looking after her and the recent Covid lockdowns meant she had become less active.

“I started using the NHS Active 10 app around six months after my daughter was born,” she says. “I was looking for ways to get a bit more active. I was intrigued because I've used the step counter on my phone, but what was interesting about this one is that it tracks your brisk walking.”

Sonali initially downloaded the app out of curiosity so see whether or not she walked briskly, but then found herself hooked, motivated by the trophies and celebrations it gave when she completed 10 minutes of brisk walking.

She found the results illuminating as it highlighted the impact her daughter had on her physical activity levels, even when she thought she was getting enough exercise. “I might go for an hour long walk, but when I've got small children in tow, it's too leisurely to really count as proper exercise.”

Even now, three years later, she still uses the app. “The version that I have on my phone has a little tracker that you don't have to log into the app to see. It tracks your brisk walking on the face of your phone. So it's right there in my face if I've been lazy!”

Sonali has managed to keep active, and although the app isn’t the only reason why, she says it certainly helps.

“When the weather's bad and it's not as easy to just go for a walk, I might notice that it's been a couple of days before I've really moved. It encourages me to go outside and get moving.”

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Nat Riches, who studies Natural Sciences at Trinity College, and Natasha Atkinson, who graduated from Downing College with a Law degree in 2024, were intrigued by the ‘haunted summer’ of 1816, when tumultuous weather confined writers including Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin (later Mary Shelley) to a villa beside Lake Geneva.

1816: The Year Without A Summer is one of 2 Cambridge student productions selected by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society for the Camden and Edinburgh Fringe festivals this summer.

The musical brings to life the literary characters and Byron’s personal doctor John Polidori and his lover Claire Clairmont, who were cooped up in Villa Diodati by the terrible weather wrought by the huge volcanic eruption of 1815 in the then Dutch East Indies.

As rain lashes down, the wind gets up and it’s dark by the afternoon, Byron sets the assembled guests a challenge: write the most chilling ghost story. The challenge led to the conception of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John Polidori’s The Vampyre, 2 of the greatest horror stories of the last 2 centuries.

1816: The Year Without A Summer premieres at the Camden Fringe Festival on 6 and 7 August.

Read more about the musical on Trinity College's website.

Cambridge students – one a researcher in the electrical currents of heart tissue – have created a new musical partly inspired by the genesis of Mary Shelley's monster, which was brought to life by electricity.

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Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), the VC firm investing in the UK’s highest-potential deep tech and life sciences companies, is committing at least £100m to invest in spinouts from the University of Cambridge.

The funding will seek to take advantage of the vast commercial potential in science and technology innovation developed by Cambridge researchers and follows a series of recent initiatives from the university designed to support entrepreneurial academics. These include plans for four million sq. ft of high-tech development at Cambridge West and a new Innovation Hub in central Cambridge to host spinouts, startups, and entrepreneurs.

Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge, welcomed the investment that will help build on current success: “In 2024, the University of Cambridge created more spinout companies than any other university. It has also produced the most unicorns of any European ecosystem and generates £23 billion in economic interest linked to research and commercialisation each year.”

To coincide with the funding commitment, CIC is launching a new Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) programme, in partnership with the university, to identify IP with the potential for commercialisation and support academic founders as they begin to build a company. By matching experienced deep tech and life sciences executives, many of whom have achieved significant exits with their previous businesses, with academics and high-potential IP, the EIR programme will increase the number of quality spinouts and accelerate the path towards viable commercialisation of the technology. The EIR programme, will maintain a rolling cohort of up to six EIRs.

This is the latest initiative to support spinouts from the university. The University of Cambridge, through its innovation business, Cambridge Enterprise, has also launched the Founders programme to support new company creation; the Technology Investment Fund (TIF), a new proof of concept fund to de-risk world class research and enable faster commercialisation; and invested an additional £30m of new capital into the £100m AUM Cambridge Enterprise Ventures (CEV) fund to support increasing University investment in spinouts.

“We are determined to do even more, and faster, through initiatives such as the new EIR programme and by attracting investment into our spinout companies working with partners like Cambridge Innovation Capital” added Dr O’Brien.

CIC is committing at least £100m as part of the launch of Fund III, its latest £250 million early-stage venture fund focused on the Cambridge ecosystem, to invest in University of Cambridge spinouts. Companies created within the EIR programme can access the new funding to support development from inception through proof-of-concept to early-stage growth.

Andrew Williamson, Managing Partner, CIC, explained the reasons for focusing on Cambridge University spinouts: “Cambridge is at the forefront of innovation in deep tech and life sciences. Our new EIR programme will provide academics and researchers with access to the £100m we are committing to University of Cambridge spinouts as they continue to develop breakthrough technologies. This expansion of CIC’s long-standing partnership with the University of Cambridge, which provides unique access to the university’s academics and research, will help support the UK’s economic growth by developing the next generation of world-class companies.”

New Entrepreneur in Residence programme builds on work by Cambridge Enterprise and will match serial entrepreneurs with academics to develop world-leading ideas and IP.

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As many as one in four people will have a stroke during their lifetime. This is when a blood clot prevents oxygen from reaching a part of the brain. The first few hours following a stroke are crucial – the blood clot needs to be removed quickly so that the oxygen supply to the brain can be restored; otherwise, the brain tissue begins to die.

Currently, the outcome for stroke patients receiving even the best available treatment, known as mechanical thrombectomy, is still poor, with fewer than one in 10 patients leaving hospital with no neurological impairment.

Professor Thomas Krieg from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge said: “Stroke is a devastating disease. Even for those who survive, there is a significant risk of damage to the brain that can lead to disabilities and a huge impact on an individual’s life. But in terms of treatment, once the stroke is happening, we have only limited options.”

Mechanical thrombectomy is a minimally invasive medical procedure involving the insertion of a thin tube, known as a catheter, into a blood vessel, often through the groin or arm. This is guided to the blood clot, where it is removed by a tiny device, restoring normal blood flow.

Restoring blood flow too suddenly can make things worse, however. This is called ischaemia-reperfusion injury. When blood rushes back into the oxygen-starved tissue (a process known as reperfusion), the damaged cells struggle to cope, leading to the production of harmful molecules called free radicals that can damage cells, proteins, and DNA. This triggers further damage and can cause an inflammatory response.

The Cambridge team has previously shown that when the brain is starved of oxygen, a build-up occurs of a chemical called succinate. When blood flow is restored, the succinate is rapidly oxidised to drive free radical production within mitochondria, the ‘batteries’ that power our cells, initiating the extra damage. This occurs within the first few minutes of reperfusion, but the researchers showed that the oxidation of succinate can be blocked by the molecule malonate.

Professor Mike Murphy from the Medical Research Council Mitochondrial Biology Unit said: “All of this happens very rapidly, but if we can get malonate in quickly at the start of reperfusion, we can prevent this oxidation and burst of free radicals.

“We discovered in our labs that we can get malonate into cells very quickly by lowering the pH a little, making it a bit more acidic, so that it can cross the blood-brain barrier better. If we inject it into the brain just as we’re ready to reperfuse, then we can potentially prevent further damage.”

In a study published in Cardiovascular Research, the team has shown that treating the brain with a form of the chemical known as acidified disodium malonate (aDSM) alongside mechanical thrombectomy greatly decreased the amount of brain damage that occurs from ischaemia-reperfusion injury by as much as 60%.

Dr Jordan Lee, a postdoctoral researcher in the group, developed a mouse model that mimics mechanical thrombectomy, allowing the team to test the effectiveness of aDSM against ischaemia-reperfusion injury.

Dr Lee said: “This approach reduces the amount of dead brain tissue resulting from a stroke. This is incredibly important because the amount of dead brain tissue is directly correlated to the patient’s recovery – to their disability, whether they can still use all their limbs, speak and understand language, for example.”

Mechanical thrombectomy is increasingly used in the NHS, and the researchers hope that with the addition of aDSM as a treatment alongside this intervention, they will be able to improve outcomes significantly when the procedure is more widely adopted.

The team has launched Camoxis Therapeutics, a spin-out company, with support from Cambridge Enterprise, the innovation arm of the University of Cambridge. It is now seeking seed funding to develop the drug further and take it to early-stage clinical trials.

Professor Murphy added: “If it’s successful, this same drug could have much wider applications for other instances of ischemia-reperfusion injuries, such as heart attack, resuscitation, organ transplantation, and so on, which have similar underlying mechanisms.”

The research was supported by the British Heart Foundation, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference

Lee, JJ et al. Local arterial administration of acidified malonate as an adjunct therapy to mechanical thrombectomy in ischemic stroke. Cardiovascular Research; 27 Jun 2025; DOI: 10.1093/cvr/cvaf118

Cambridge scientists have developed and tested a new drug in mice that has the potential to reduce damage to the brain when blood flow is restored following a stroke.

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The Girls Enjoy Maths Summer School – a partnership between Cambridge Maths School, the University of Cambridge, and Raspberry Pi – saw 45 students get hands-on learning and real-world insight into the mathematical sciences.

Over three days, the students were offered a unique blend of academic exploration, including interactive workshops on maths in biology, chemistry, and physics at Cambridge Maths School, where they also had the opportunity to speak with current students and staff about A-level maths and further maths.

They also spent a day at the University, including sessions at St John’s and Queens’ Colleges, a punting trip along the River Cam, and a walk across the iconic Mathematical Bridge. They heard from the University’s Dr Zoe Wyatt and Professor Julia Gog OBE, who shared their experiences as female mathematicians and discussed the impact of mathematics in research and society.

During a visit to Raspberry Pi, the students also explored the creative side of coding and artificial intelligence.

Founded in association with the University of Cambridge, the new Cambridge Maths School welcomed its first-ever students in 2023. The specialist sixth form, led by multi-academy trust the Eastern Learning Alliance, focuses on pioneering learning and increasing diversity in the field of maths. It works to encourage more students from underrepresented groups, including girls, to study maths post-16. 

“The GEM Summer School was a celebration of curiosity, creativity, and community,” said a spokesperson from Cambridge Maths School. “Thanks to the dedication of our inspiring staff and the invaluable support of our partners, we were able to create a truly empowering experience that sparked curiosity, built confidence, and celebrated the joy of mathematics.”

The programme was free to attend, with lunch provided and financial support available for travel. Priority was given to students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the mathematical sciences.

Year 10 students from around the Cambridge region took part in a special programme designed to inspire the next generation of female mathematicians.

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The research, published in the journal Gut, could help in the development of a blood test and points towards a potential new treatment.

When we eat, the liver releases bile acid to break down fats so that they can be absorbed into the body. Bile acid is released into the top end of the small intestine and then absorbed back into the body at the lower end.

However, around one person in every 100 is affected by a condition known as bile acid diarrhoea (also known as bile acid malabsorption), whereby the bile acid is not properly re-absorbed and makes its way into the large intestine (colon). It can trigger urgent and watery diarrhoea, and patients can risk episodes of incontinence.

Bile acid diarrhoea can be difficult to diagnose as there are currently no routine clinical blood tests. Many individuals are given a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), an umbrella term for a range of conditions. As many as one in 20 people is thought to have IBS, of which an estimated one in three patients with diarrhoea as their main symptom have undiagnosed bile acid diarrhoea.

Studies in mice have previously suggested that the gut hormone known as Insulin-Like Peptide 5 (INSL5) – present in cells at the far end of the colon and rectum – may play a role in chronic diarrhoea. INSL5 is released by these cells when irritated by bile acid.

Researchers at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, have been exploring whether this hormone might also underlie chronic diarrhoea in humans. This has been possible thanks to a new antibody test developed by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, with whom the team is collaborating, which allows them to measure tiny amounts of INSL5.

A study at the University of Adelaide looking at ways to trigger release of the gut hormone GLP-1 – the hormone upon which weight-loss drugs are based – previously found that giving a bile acid enema to healthy volunteers triggered release of GLP-1, but had the unintended consequence of causing diarrhoea. When the Cambridge team analysed samples from this study, they found that the bile acid enema caused levels of INSL5 to shoot up temporarily – and the higher the INSL5 levels, the faster the volunteers needed to use the toilet. This confirmed that INSL5 is likely to play a role in chronic cases of diarrhoea.

When the team analysed samples obtained from Professor Julian Walters at Imperial College London, which include samples from patients with bile acid diarrhoea, they found that while levels of INSL5 were almost undetectable in healthy volunteers, they were much higher in patients with bile acid diarrhoea. In addition, the higher the INSL5 level, the more watery their stool samples.

Dr Chris Bannon from the University of Cambridge, the study’s first author, said: “This was a very exciting finding because it showed us that this hormone could be playing a big part in symptoms of this misunderstood condition. It also meant it might allow us to develop a blood test to help diagnose bile acid diarrhoea if INSL5 levels are only high in these individuals.

“When you go to the doctor with chronic diarrhoea, it’s likely they’ll test for food intolerances, rule out an infection or look for signs of inflammation. There has been significant research interest in the microbiome, but gut hormones have been neglected. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that gut hormones play an important role in things like gut health and weight management.”

INSL5 also provides a potential target for treatment. Dr Bannon and colleagues obtained further samples from Professor Robin Spiller at the University of Nottingham, who had given the anti-sickness medication ondansetron – known to block the action of INSL5 in mice – to patients with IBS. Analysis of these samples by the Cambridge team showed that around 40% of these patients had raised levels of INSL5, even though they had had bile acid malabsorption ruled out, and these patients responded best to ondansetron.

Exactly why ondansetron is effective is currently unclear, though a known side effect of the drug is constipation. The team will now be investigating this further, hopeful that it will allow them either to repurpose the drug or to develop even better treatments. Bile acid diarrhoea is usually treated with so-called bile acid sequestrants, but these are only effective in around two-thirds of patients.

Dr Bannon added: “I often get asked why we would have a hormone that gives you diarrhoea. I think of it as a kind of poison sensor. Bile acids aren't meant to be in the colon – they're an irritant to the colon and they're toxic to the microbiome. It makes sense that you would have something that detects toxins and helps the body rid itself of them. But a problem develops if it’s always being triggered by bile acid, causing very dramatic symptoms.”

Dr Bannon is a clinical fellow in the group led by Professors Fiona Gribble and Frank Reimann at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge.

The research was supported by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome, with additional support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference

Bannon, CA et al. Insulin like peptide 5 is released in response to bile acid in the rectum and is associated with diarrhoea severity in patients with bile acid diarrhoea. Gut; 23 July 2025; DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2025-335393

High levels of a hormone found in cells in the gut could underlie many cases of chronic diarrhoea and help explain up to 40% of cases of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea, according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Cambridge.

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Dementias such as Alzheimer's disease are estimated to affect more than 57.4 million people worldwide, a number that is expected to almost triple to 152.8 million cases by 2050. The impacts on the individuals, families and caregivers and society at large are immense.

While there are some indications that the prevalence of dementia is decreasing in Europe and North America, suggesting that it may be possible to reduce the risk of the disease at a population level, elsewhere the picture is less promising.

Air pollution has recently been identified as a risk factor for dementia, with several studies pointing the finger at a number of pollutants. However, the strength of evidence and ability to determine a causal effect has been varied.

In a paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health, a team led by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing scientific literature to examine this link further. This approach allowed them to bring together studies that on their own may not provide sufficient evidence, and which sometimes disagree with each other, to provide more robust overarching conclusions.

In total, the researchers included 51 studies, including data from more than 29 million participants who had been exposed to air pollutants for at least one year, mostly from high-income countries. Of these, 34 papers were included in the meta-analysis: 15 originated in North America, 10 in Europe, seven in Asia, and two in Australia.

The researchers found a positive and statistically-significant association between 3 types of air pollutant and dementia. These were:

• Particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM_2.5), a pollutant made up of tiny particles small enough that they can be inhaled deep into the lungs. These particles come from several sources, including vehicle emissions, power plants, industrial processes, wood burning stoves and fireplaces, and construction dust. They also form in the atmosphere because of complex chemical reactions involving other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The particles can stay in the air for a long time and travel a long way from where they were produced.
• Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), one of the key pollutants that arise from burning fossil fuels. It is found in vehicle exhaust, especially diesel exhaust, and industrial emissions, as well as those from gas stoves and heaters. Exposure to high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide can irritate the respiratory system, worsening and inducing conditions like asthma and reducing lung function.
• Soot from sources such as vehicle exhaust emissions and burning wood. It can trap heat and affect the climate. When inhaled, it can penetrate deep into the lungs, aggravating respiratory diseases and increasing the risk of heart problems.

According to the researchers, for every 10 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m³) of PM_2.5, an individual’s relative risk of dementia would increase by 17%. The average roadside measurement for PM_2.5 in Central London in 2023 was 10 μg/m³.

For every 10 μg/m3 of NO2, the relative risk increased by 3%. The average roadside measurement for NO₂ in Central London in 2023 was 33 µg/m³.

For each 1 μg/m³ of soot as found in PM_2.5, the relative risk increased by 13%. Across the UK, annual mean soot concentrations measured at select roadside locations in 2023 were 0.93 μg/m³ in London, 1.51 μg/m³ in Birmingham and 0.65 μg/m³ in Glasgow.

Senior author Dr Haneen Khreis from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: “Epidemiological evidence plays a crucial role in allowing us to determine whether or not air pollution increases the risk of dementia and by how much. Our work provides further evidence to support the observation that long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution is a risk factor for the onset of dementia in previously healthy adults.

“Tackling air pollution can deliver long-term health, social, climate, and economic benefits. It can reduce the immense burden on patients, families, and caregivers, while easing pressure on overstretched healthcare systems.”

Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how air pollution may cause dementia, primarily involving inflammation in the brain and oxidative stress (a chemical process in the body that can cause damage to cells, proteins, and DNA). Both oxidative stress and inflammation play a well-established role in the onset and progression of dementia. Air pollution is thought to trigger these processes through direct entry to the brain or via the same mechanisms underlying lung and cardiovascular diseases. Air pollution can also enter circulation from the lungs and travel to solid organs, initiating local and wide-spread inflammation.

The researchers point out that the majority of people included in the published studies were white and living in high-income countries, even though marginalised groups tend to have a higher exposure to air pollution. Given that studies have suggested that reducing air pollution exposure appears to be more beneficial at reducing the risk of early death for marginalised groups, they call for future work to urgently ensure better and more adequate representation across ethnicities and low- and middle-income countries and communities.

Joint first author Clare Rogowski, also from the MRC Epidemiology Unit, said: “Efforts to reduce exposure to these key pollutants are likely to help reduce the burden of dementia on society. Stricter limits for several pollutants are likely to be necessary targeting major contributors such as the transport and industry sectors. Given the extent of air pollution, there is an urgent need for regional, national, and international policy interventions to combat air pollution equitably.”

Further analysis revealed that while exposure to these pollutants increased the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the effect seemed stronger for vascular dementia, a type of dementia caused by reduced blood flow to the brain. Around 180,000 people in the UK are thought to be affected by this type of dementia. However, as there were only a small number of studies that examined this difference, the researchers did not class it as statistically significant.

Joint first author Dr Christiaan Bredell from the University of Cambridge and North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust said: “These findings underscore the need for an interdisciplinary approach to dementia prevention. Preventing dementia is not just the responsibility of healthcare: this study strengthens the case that urban planning, transport policy, and environmental regulation all have a significant role to play.”

The research was funded by the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme.

Reference

Best Rogowski, CB, & Bredell, C et al. Long-term Air Pollution Exposure and Incident Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Lancet Planetary Health; 24 July 2025; DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(25)00118-4

An analysis of studies incorporating data from almost 30 million people has highlighted the role that air pollution – including that coming from car exhaust emissions – plays in increased risk of dementia.

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Lord Smith, the outgoing Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, becomes the 109th Chancellor and will hold the office for ten years.

He said: “To be elected as Chancellor of the University I love is a huge honour. I’m thrilled. I look forward to being the best possible ambassador for Cambridge, to being a strong voice for higher education more generally, and to working closely together with the Vice-Chancellor and her team.”

Lord Smith’s election follows a process which attracted ten candidates. For the first time the election was opened to online voting and more than 23,000 alumni and staff participated. In addition, almost 2,000 chose to vote in person at the University's Senate House.

Professor Deborah Prentice, the Vice-Chancellor, said: "On behalf of everyone at the University, I offer my warm congratulations to Chris on his election. I very much look forward to working with him and building on the strong relationship that we have developed since I became Vice-Chancellor. Chris has had a long involvement with the University and brings a wealth of relevant experience to this important role.”

“I would like to thank the other nine candidates for standing for the role and their willingness to serve Cambridge.”

Lord Smith has been the Master of Pembroke since 2015 and steps down at the end of July. He is a former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and later Chairman of the Environment Agency.

Born in 1951, Lord Smith was educated in Edinburgh and then Pembroke College, Cambridge, achieving a double first in English (and later a PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge) and was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.

He began his political career as a Labour Councillor for the London Borough of Islington, becoming MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983. In 1992 he joined the Shadow Cabinet and held a number of front bench posts before Labour came to power in 1997. He served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport until 2001 when he returned to the back benches, standing down from the Commons in 2005.  Immediately afterwards he was made a life peer.

In July 2008 he became Chairman of the Environment Agency. He chaired the Environment Agency from 2008 to 2014; from 2007 to 2017 he was also Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority.

The position of Chancellor stretches back more than 800 years to the foundation of the University. Although the role is primarily ceremonial and without executive responsibilities, the Chancellor has an important part to play in acting as a sounding board for senior figures within the University, in supporting fundraising and in acting as an ambassador for Cambridge. The most significant commitment for the Chancellor is to advocate and support the University’s aims and strategic interests.

The election was held between 9 and 18 July. It was conducted under the single transferable vote system and administered on behalf of the University by Civica Election Services. The results, based on the final numbers of votes allocated to each candidate, were as follows:  

1. Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury
2. Dr Mohamed El-Erian
3. Ms Sandi Toksvig
4. John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley
5. Professor Wyn Evans
6. Mrs Gina Miller
7. Mr Tony Booth
8. Dr Mark Mann
9. Dr Ayham Ammora
10. Mr Ali Azeem

Read the full results

Lord Chris Smith has been elected as the new Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

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On 3 April 2024, a magnitude 7.4 quake—Taiwan’s strongest in 25 years—shook the country's eastern coast. Stringent building codes spared most structures, but mountainous and remote villages were devastated by landslides.

When disasters affect large and inaccessible areas, responders often turn to satellite images to pinpoint affected areas and prioritise relief efforts.

But mapping landslides from satellite imagery by eye can be time-intensive, said Lorenzo Nava, who is jointly based at Cambridge’s Departments of Earth Sciences and Geography. “In the aftermath of a disaster, time really matters,” he said. Using AI, he identified 7,000 landslides after the Taiwan earthquake, and within three hours of the satellite imagery being acquired.

Since the Taiwan earthquake, Nava has been developing his AI method alongside an international team. By employing a suite of satellite technologies—including satellites that can see through clouds and at night—the researchers hope to enhance AI’s landslide detection capabilities.

Multiplying hazards

Triggered by major earthquakes or intense rainfall, landslides are often worsened by human activities such as deforestation and construction on unstable slopes. In certain environments, they can trigger additional hazards such as fast-moving debris flows or severe flooding, compounding their destructive impact.

Nava’s work fits into a larger effort at Cambridge to understand how landslides and other hazards can set off cascading ‘multihazard’ chains. The CoMHaz group, led by Maximillian Van Wyk de Vries, Professor of Natural Hazards in the Departments of Geography and Earth Sciences, draws on information from satellite imagery, computer modelling and fieldwork to locate landslides, understand why they happen and ultimately predict their occurrence.

They’re also working with communities to raise landslide awareness. In Nepal, Nava and Van Wyk de Vries teamed up with local scientists and the Climate and Disaster Resilience in Nepal (CDRIN) consortium to pilot an early warning system for Butwal, which sits beneath a massive unstable slope.

Improved AI-detection

Nava is training AI to identify landslides in two types of satellite images—optical images of the ground surface and radar data, the latter of which can penetrate cloud cover and even acquire images at night.

Radar images can, however, be difficult to interpret, as they use greyscale to depict contrasting surface properties and landscape features can also appear distorted. These challenges make radar data well-suited for AI-assisted analysis, helping extract features that may otherwise go unnoticed.

By combining the cloud-penetrating capabilities of radar with the fidelity of optical images, Nava hopes to build an AI-powered model that can accurately spot landslides even in poor weather conditions.

His trial following the 2024 Taiwan earthquake showed promise, detecting thousands of landslides that would otherwise go unnoticed beneath cloud cover. But Nava acknowledges that there is still more work needed, both to improve the model’s accuracy and its transparency.

He wants to build trust in the model and ensure its outputs are interpretable and actionable by decision-makers. “Very often, the decision-makers are not the ones who developed the algorithm,” said Nava. “AI can feel like a black box. Its internal logic is not always transparent, and that can make people hesitant to act on its outputs.

“It’s important to make it easier for end users to evaluate the quality of AI-generated information before incorporating it into important decisions.” 

This is something he is now addressing as part of a broader partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Telecommunication Union’s AI for Good Foundation and Global Initiative on Resilience to Natural Hazards through AI Solutions.

At a recent working group meeting at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation in Italy, the researchers launched a data-science challenge to crowdsource efforts to improve the model. “We’re opening this up and looking for help from the wider coding community,” said Nava.

Beyond improving the model’s functionality, Nava says the goal is to incorporate features that explain its reasoning—potentially using visualisations such as maps that show the likelihood of an image containing landslides to help end users understand the outputs.

“In high-stakes scenarios like disaster response, trust in AI-generated results is crucial. Through this challenge, we aim to bring transparency to the model’s decision-making process, empowering decision-makers on the ground to act with confidence and speed.”

Reference: 
Lorenzo Nava, Alessandro Novellino et al. 'Brief Communication: AI-driven rapid landslides mapping following the 2024 Hualien City Earthquake in Taiwan.' Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.5194/nhess-25-2371-2025

Researchers from the University of Cambridge are using AI to speed up landslide detection following major earthquakes and extreme rainfall events—buying valuable time to coordinate relief efforts and reduce humanitarian impacts.

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Researchers have conducted the world’s biggest ever bird survey, recording 971 different species living in forests and cattle pastures across the South American country of Colombia. This represents almost 10% of the world’s birds.

They combined the results, gathered over a decade, with information on each species’ sensitivity to habitat conversion to find that the biodiversity loss caused by clearing rainforest for cattle pasture is on average 60% worse than previously thought.

Until now, understanding the biodiversity impact of land-use change has generally involved small-scale, local surveys. The researchers say that this approach does not represent the larger-scale damage caused to nature.

When forests are converted to pasture, some species win and others lose. Measuring the biodiversity loss at local scale does not capture the larger-scale effect of forest conversion, which is occurring across the ranges of many different species. While the same species usually survive on pastureland, a wide range of other species don’t, so overall biodiversity is more severely reduced at large scale.

The results are published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Professor David Edwards in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, senior author of the report, said: “This is a really surprising result. We found that the biodiversity loss caused by clearing rainforest for pastureland is being massively underestimated.”

He added: “When people want to understand the wider impact of deforestation on biodiversity, they tend to do a local survey and extrapolate the results. But the problem is that tree clearance is occurring at massive spatial scales, across all sorts of different habitats and elevations.

“When we looked the biodiversity impact of deforestation across thirteen different eco-regions in Colombia, we found a 62% greater biodiversity loss than local survey results would indicate.”

The study also showed that at least six different eco-regions – that is, regions containing distinct types of plants and animals - must be considered for an accurate assessment of overall biodiversity impact. This is because the species in different eco-regions have different sensitivities to habitat conversion.

Biodiversity offsetting schemes, which aim to compensate for species losses caused by developments in one place by boosting biodiversity in another, rely on accurate measures of biodiversity.

Trees are also being cleared at huge scales in Colombia and other tropical regions to create growing space for major agricultural crops including rubber, oil palm, sugar cane and coffee.

Edwards said: “The food we eat comes with a much great environmental cost than we thought. We need policy makers to think much more about the larger scale biodiversity impact of deforestation.”

Tropical birdsong recordings

The team studied Columbia’s birdlife across its diverse landscapes for over seven years, recording the song of hundreds of bird species to help them identify the species present in landscapes across the country, from pasture to mountain forest. In about 80% of cases the birds were heard but not seen, requiring the team to make identifications from the sounds alone.

With information about the birds, including their size and diet, the team could predict which other species were likely to be living in the same regions and how they too would respond to deforestation.

A highly biodiverse country

Colombia is home to some of the most beautiful and exotic animal and plant life in the world, with almost one third made up of rainforest.

Particularly biodiverse areas, including the Caqueta moist forests and the Napo moist forests, can have 500-600 different bird species within an area of ten square kilometres – but many of these species have very specific habitat requirements. The study showed that if trees are cleared across their range these species are likely to die out.

Land-use change, particularly in the highly biodiverse tropics, is one of the main causes of the global biodiversity crisis.

This research was funded by the Research Council of Norway and the Natural Environment Research Council.

Reference

Socolar, J B et al: ‘Tropical biodiversity loss from land-use change is severely underestimated by local-scale assessments.’ Nature Ecology and Evolution, July 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-025-02779-4

In the largest ever survey of rainforest birdlife, scientists have discovered that deforestation to create pastureland in Colombia is causing around 60% more damage to biodiversity than previously estimated.

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They are among 92 distinguished scholars to be elected to the fellowship in recognition of their work in fields ranging from medieval history to international relations.

The Cambridge academics made Fellows of the Academy this year are:

Professor Jeremy Adelman (Faculty of History; Global History Lab; Darwin College)

Professor Anthony Bale (Faculty of English; Girton College)

Professor Annabel Brett (Faculty of History; Gonville and Caius College)

Professor Hasok Chang (Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science; Clare Hall)

Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville (Cambridge Judge Business School; Trinity Hall)

Professor Barak Kushner (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Corpus Christi College)

Professor Marta Mirazón Lahr (Dept. of Archaeology, Clare College)

Professor Yael Navaro (Dept. of Social Anthropology; Newnham College)

Professor Joanna Page (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics; Centre of Latin American Studies; Robinson College)

Professor Clare Pettitt (Faculty of English; Emmanuel College)

Professor Diane Reay (Faculty of Education)

Professor John Robb (Dept. of Archaeology; Peterhouse)

Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It is a Fellowship consisting of over 1700 of the leading minds in these subjects from the UK and overseas.

Current Fellows include the classicist Professor Dame Mary Beard, the historian Professor Sir Simon Schama and philosopher Professor Baroness Onora O’Neill, while previous Fellows include Dame Frances Yates, Sir Winston Churchill, Seamus Heaney and Beatrice Webb. The Academy is also a funder of both national and international research, as well as a forum for debate and public engagement.

In 2025, a total of 58 UK Fellows, 30 International Fellows and four Honorary Fellows have been elected to the British Academy Fellowship.

Professor Marta Mirazón Lahr said: “I am honoured and delighted to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy. As a native of South America who has been welcomed and encouraged throughout my career in the UK, I feel particularly privileged to join the academy. My work spans anthropology and archaeology and it is pleasing to see inter-disciplinarity recognised. Research in human origins is very dependent upon official and community support across many countries, and I am deeply grateful to the people of Brazil, India, Libya, Melanesia and specially Kenya who have made my work possible (and so enjoyable!), and I look forward to contributing to the Academy’s global mission.”

Professor Joanna Page said: “I am deeply honoured to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy, and I look forward to supporting its mission. It is more important than ever to uphold the value of the humanities and interdisciplinary approaches in forging more just and sustainable futures. Learning from the perspectives and experiences of other regions, including Latin America, is essential to that work. I would particularly like to thank the vibrant community of Latin Americanists at Cambridge – staff and students, past and present – who have made this such a stimulating place to do research.”

Professor Barak Kushner said: “It is an honour to be recognised by the British Academy, though also a bit daunting to be put on par with scholars I have looked up to for years. Recognition of this kind brings more attention to the importance of transnational history when researching East Asia and the need to look beyond national borders.”

Professor Yael Navaro said: “I feel truly honoured to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy. It couldn't be a more important time to mobilise the social sciences and humanities to address some of the most critical issues of our era."

Welcoming the Fellows, Professor Susan J. Smith PBA, new President of the British Academy, said: “One of my first acts as the incoming President of the British Academy is to welcome this year’s newly elected Fellows. What a line-up! With specialisms ranging from the neuroscience of memory to the power of music and the structural causes of poverty, they represent the very best of the humanities and social sciences. They bring years of experience, evidence-based arguments and innovative thinking to the profound challenges of our age: managing the economy, enabling democracy, and securing the quality of human life.

“This year, we have increased the number of new Fellows by nearly ten per cent to cover some spaces between disciplines. Champions of research excellence, every new Fellow enlarges our capacity to interpret the past, understand the present, and shape resilient, sustainable futures. It is a privilege to extend my warmest congratulations to them all.”

Twelve academics from the University of Cambridge have been made Fellows of the prestigious British Academy for the humanities and social science

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Because of its track record in recruiting and supporting top international researchers, the University will get a share of the new £54 million Global Talent Fund, along with 12 of the UK’s leading universities and research institutions.

From AI to medicine, the Fund is designed to attract a total of 60-80 top researchers (both lead researchers and their teams) to the UK, working in the eight high priority sectors critical to the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

By bringing the very best minds in fields that will be critical to the future of life and work to the UK, the Government aims to pave the way for the products, jobs and even industries that define tomorrow’s economy, to be made and grow in Britain.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, said: "The University is grateful for this award of funding. It will bolster emerging and accelerating research areas, in line with the goals of the Government's Industrial Strategy. This investment will be pivotal in securing and supporting international academic expertise and strengthening the strategic opportunities the University is seeking to catalyse for both the University and the UK more widely.  We look forward to the opportunities this will unlock."

From Argentine – and former Cambridge scientist – César Milstein’s work on antibodies, to Hong Kong-born Sir Charles Kao who led the development of fibre optics, through to the efforts of German Ernst Chain – another former Cambridge scientist – to make penicillin usable in medicine, there is a long pedigree of overseas researchers making great breakthroughs whilst working in the UK.

The Government says that driving new tech innovations and scientific breakthroughs will fire up the UK economy and put rocket boosters on the Government’s Plan for Change. The IMF estimates that breakthroughs in AI alone could boost productivity by as much as 1.5 percentage points a year, which could be worth up to an average £47 billion to the UK each year over a decade. Other technologies could be gamechangers too: quantum computing could add over £11 billion to the UK’s GDP by 2045, while engineering biology could drive anywhere between £1.6-£3.1 trillion in global impact by 2040. 

The Global Talent Fund, administered by UKRI, is just one part of over £115 million funding that is being dedicated to attracting the very best scientific and research talent to the UK. Work to cultivate top AI research talent in the UK is further bolstered through the Spärck AI scholarships, founded in partnership with Cambridge, which will provide full funding for master’s degrees at nine leading UK universities specialising in artificial intelligence and STEM subjects. 

Science Minister Lord Vallance said: "Genius is not bound by geography. But the UK is one of the few places blessed with the infrastructure, skills base, world-class institutions and international ties needed to incubate brilliant ideas, and turn them into new medicines that save lives, new products that make our lives easier, and even entirely new jobs and industries. Bringing these innovations to life, here in Britain, will be critical to delivering this Government’s Plan for Change.

"My message to the bold and the brave who are advancing new ideas, wherever they are, is: our doors are open to you. We want to work with you, support you, and give you a home where you can make your ideas a reality we all benefit from."   

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: "The UK is home to some of the world’s best universities which are vital for attracting international top talent. Supported by our new Global Talent Taskforce, the Global Talent Fund will cement our position as a leading choice for the world’s top researchers to make their home here, supercharging growth and delivering on our Plan for Change."

Cambridge University has been selected as a partner in a key Government initiative to attract more of the world’s best research talent to the UK.

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Scientists have used an AI model to reassess the results of a completed clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s disease drug. They found the drug slowed cognitive decline by 46% in a group of patients with early stage, slow-progressing mild cognitive impairment – a condition that can progress to Alzheimer’s.

Using AI allowed the team to split trial participants into two groups: either slowly or rapidly progressing towards Alzheimer’s disease. They could then look at the effects of the drug on each group.

More precise selection of trial participants in this way could help select patients most likely to benefit from treatment, with the potential to reduce the cost of developing new medicines by streamlining clinical trials.

The AI model developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge predicts whether, and how quickly, people at early stages of cognitive decline will progress to full-blown Alzheimer’s. It gives predictions for patients that are three times more accurate than standard clinical assessments based on memory tests, MRI scans and blood tests.  

Using this patient stratification model, data from a completed clinical trial - which did not demonstrate efficacy in the total population studied - was re-analysed. The researchers found that the drug cleared a protein called beta amyloid in both patient groups as intended - but only the early stage, slow-progressing patients showed changes in symptoms. Beta amyloid is one of the first disease markers to appear in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease.

The new findings have significant implications: using AI to separate patients into different groups, such as slow versus rapidly progressing towards Alzheimer’s disease, allows scientists to better identify those who could benefit from a treatment approach - potentially accelerating the discovery of much-needed new Alzheimer’s drugs.

The results are published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Professor Zoe Kourtzi in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, senior author of the report, said: “Promising new drugs fail when given to people too late, when they have no chance of benefiting from them. With our AI model we can finally identify patients precisely, and match the right patients to the right drugs. This makes trials more precise, so they can progress faster and cost less, turbocharging the search for a desperately-need precision medicine approach for dementia treatment.”  

She added: “Our AI model gives us a score to show how quickly each patient will progress towards Alzheimer’s disease. This allowed us to precisely split the patients on the clinical trial into two groups – slow, and fast progressing, so we could look at the effects of the drug on each group.”

Health Innovation East England, the innovation arm of the NHS in the East of England, is now supporting Kourtzi to translate this AI-enabled approach into clinical care for the benefit of future patients.

Joanna Dempsey, Principal Advisor at Health Innovation East England, said: “This AI-enabled approach could have a significant impact on easing NHS pressure and costs in dementia care by enabling more personalised drug development - identifying which patients are most likely to benefit from treatment, resulting in faster access to effective medicines and targeted support for people living with dementia.”

Drugs like this are not intended as cures for Alzheimer’s disease. The aim is to reduce cognitive decline so that patients don’t get worse.

Dementia is the UK’s leading cause of death, and a major cause of mortality globally. It costs $1.3 tr per year, and the number of cases are expected to treble by 2050. There is no cure, and patients and families face high uncertainty.

Despite decades of research and development, clinical trials of treatments for dementia have been largely unsuccessful. The failure rate for new treatments is unreasonably high at over 95%, despite $43 bn having been spent on research and development. Progress has been hampered by the wide variation in symptoms, disease progression and responses to treatment among patients.

Although new dementia drugs have recently been approved for use in the US, their risk of side effects and insufficient cost effectiveness have prevented healthcare adoption in the NHS.

Understanding and accounting for the natural differences among individuals with a disease is crucial, so that treatments can be tailored to be most effective for each patient. Alzheimer’s disease is complex, and although some drugs are available to treat it they don’t work for everybody.

“AI can guide us to the patients who will benefit from dementia medicines, by treating them at the stage when the drugs will make a difference, so we can finally start fighting back against these cruel diseases. Making clinical trials faster, cheaper and better, guided by AI has strong potential to accelerate discovery of new precise treatments for individual patients, reducing side effects and costs for healthcare services,” said Kourtzi.

She added: “Like many people, I have watched hopelessly as dementia stole a loved one from me.  We’ve got to accelerate the development of dementia medicines. Over £40 billion has already been spent over thirty years of research and development - we can’t wait another thirty years.”

This research was funded by the Royal Society, Alan Turing Institute and Wellcome.

Reference 

Vaghari, D. V. et al: ‘AI-guided patient stratification improves outcomes and efficiency in the AMARANTH Alzheimer’s Disease clinical trial.’ Nature Communications, July 2025.  DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61355-3

Scientists have used AI to re-analyse a clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s medicine, and identified a group of patients who responded to treatment. The work demonstrates that AI can inform the design of future clinical trials to make them more effective and efficient, accelerating the search for new medicines.

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Originally founded with funding from the Department of Education and philanthropy, the Isaac Physics platform and STEM SMART programme run by the University of Cambridge have proven results in improving A-level students’ grades and boosting their success in securing a place to study STEM subjects at research-intensive universities. The future of this pioneering STEM provision, which is freely available to anyone, wherever they are in the world, has now been made significantly more secure with an anonymous donation of £6.25 million that is mirrored with a similar gift to the University of Oxford.

The Isaac Physics online platform was founded in 2013 by Professor Lisa Jardine-Wright and Professor Mark Warner at Cambridge’s Department of Physics, specifically to support physics teaching at A-level in response to the challenges facing many state schools that teach physical sciences. Teachers use the unique platform to set homework, which is marked automatically. Pupils develop essential problem-solving skills as they are guided through questions rather than being supplied with answers. Resources have since been expanded to cover maths, further maths, chemistry, and biology, and to support students in physics from age 11 through to university. It can be used in the classroom and beyond—anyone can sign up for a free account and use the available resources.

Professor Lisa Jardine-Wright, Director of Isaac Physics and Co-Director of STEM SMART, said “We are absolutely thrilled that thanks to this generous gift, Isaac Physics and STEM SMART are now on a much more secure footing until 2031, enabling us to support hundreds of thousands more pupils to gain essential problem-solving skills and pursue STEM degrees”.

Dr Michael Sutherland, Co-Director of STEM SMART, added, “This transformational gift will have long-term impact, not only for those students who gain the confidence and skills to study STEM subjects at university but also for wider society, because when these young people graduate they can provide a critical boost to the country’s STEM workforce”.

Second year student Rebecca Millar believes the STEM SMART programme played a pivotal role in her applying to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge: “Being here has changed a lot about my life—the people I know and the subjects I am doing. I didn’t realise there were courses like NatSci.”

The STEM SMART widening participation programme leverages the scalability of the Isaac Physics platform to engage thousands of sixth-form students from disadvantaged backgrounds when they are planning their university applications, raising their aspirations and confidence to apply to study STEM degrees at research-intensive universities. Independent analysis of pupils’ A-levels and UCAS applications shows that STEM SMART students achieved higher A-level grades and secured more places at top universities compared with matched cohorts not on the programme.

Amira Yonis Sheikmohamud, a second-year Mechanical Engineering student at Imperial College London, who took part in STEM SMART, said it "gives people access to materials they wouldn’t otherwise have, unless they were in a fee-paying school, so the programme helps bridge that gap.”

Since its inception, more than 700,000 Isaac Physics accounts have been created with users from over 100 countries.

Professor Bhaskar Vira, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Environmental Sustainability, University of Cambridge, said, “The University is very grateful for this exceptional gift that will benefit significant numbers of school pupils and teachers, and bring more talented young people to study STEM degrees at Cambridge and other research-intensive universities. Closing the attainment gap in science and maths A-levels is crucial for developing society’s ability to solve the technological challenges of the future”.

Joint major gift to Cambridge and Oxford Universities helps boost initiatives to address challenges in science education and increase the number of pupils progressing to STEM degrees

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Findings of the IMPORT LOW trial, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, showed that limiting radiation to only the tumour area is just as effective as treating the whole breast, therefore reducing radiation exposure.

At the 10-year follow-up mark, the team showed that recurrence rates for the less aggressive technique – known as partial breast radiotherapy – were 3%, the same as for whole breast radiotherapy, according to findings published in The Lancet Oncology.

Partial breast radiotherapy, which has been shown to reduce long-term changes in breast appearance, has now been adopted widely across the NHS and internationally.

It is hoped that more than 9,000 women a year in the UK – one in four patients who require radiotherapy for breast cancer – will benefit from the more personalised treatment, along with many tens of thousands of patients around the world.

More than 37,000 women have radiotherapy for breast cancer in the UK each year. The procedure is given after a tumour is surgically removed and is aimed at eradicating all remaining cancer cells.

Side effects of radiotherapy include changes in breast size or shape, swelling in the arm or breast due to fluid build-up, as well as pain or breast hardness.

IMPORT LOW was co-led by Professor Charlotte Coles from the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Professor Judith Bliss, Founding Director of The Institute of Cancer Research Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit (ICR-CTSU).

Professor Coles, Chief Investigator of the study, said: "The IMPORT LOW trial has transformed how we treat early breast cancer, offering women a safer and effective option while significantly reducing some side effects. By targeting the area around the tumour, rather than the whole breast, we have demonstrated that patients can achieve the same outstanding long-term outcomes with fewer complications.

“This approach is now widely adopted across the NHS, sparing thousands of women from unnecessary radiation exposure. The results of this study have not only shaped UK clinical practice but also informed international guidelines, ensuring that women worldwide benefit from this personalised, evidence-based treatment.”

The IMPORT LOW trial, which was managed by the ICR-CTSU and funded by Cancer Research UK, compared three radiotherapy approaches: whole-breast radiotherapy, partial-breast radiotherapy and partial-breast radiotherapy with reduced-dose to the part of the breast that was distant from the primary cancer. It involved more than 2,000 women at 30 radiotherapy centres in the UK who were monitored for 10 years after treatment.

The researchers found no difference in rates of cancer recurrence with either of the less aggressive approaches, and patients reported significantly lower side-effects.

Patients who received partial-breast radiotherapy were significantly less likely to experience long-term changes in breast appearance. Only 15% of patients reported noticeable changes at 5 years, compared to 27% in the whole-breast group.

Experts estimate that between 25% and 30% of patients who have radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer are eligible for partial breast radiotherapy, due to their cancer being low risk and, to date, around 74,000 women have benefitted from the gentler technique.

Following the trial's success, partial-breast radiotherapy has been integrated into NHS treatment guidelines and endorsed by the Royal College of Radiologists and Association of Breast Surgery. The IMPORT LOW trial has also changed clinical practice worldwide, informing the 2022 European Society of Radiation Oncology guidelines, and the 2023 American Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology (ASTRO) partial breast irradiation guidelines.

Since 2020, partial breast radiotherapy has been carried out in 5 sessions of radiotherapy instead of 15 – making it cheaper for the NHS and less burdensome for patients.

First author Dr Anna Kirby from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research said: "The long-term results of this study confirm that a less aggressive approach – limiting radiotherapy to the part of the breast where the tumour was – is just as effective as traditional whole-breast radiotherapy. Patients receiving partial breast radiotherapy experience fewer side effects while maintaining excellent cancer control.”

Dr Fay Cafferty, also from The Institute of Cancer Research, said: “This latest analysis confirms that partial breast radiotherapy remains a safe and effective treatment option, supporting its continued adoption as the standard of care in the UK and globally. Along with the parallel reduction in the number of radiotherapy sessions now required, the approach provides significant advantages both for patients and healthcare systems, helping to optimise resources while ensuring excellent long-term cancer control."

The study was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research's Biomedical Research Centres in Cambridge and at the Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research.

Dr Dani Edmunds, Research Information Manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “This study shows that we can safely reduce the amount of radiotherapy we give to many women with early breast cancer without increasing the risk of the disease coming back.

“This means people experience fewer long-term side effects, like changes in how their breasts look or feel, making the treatment kinder.”

Reference

Kirby, AM et al. Partial-breast radiotherapy after breast conservation surgery for women with early breast cancer (UK IMPORT LOW): 10-year outcomes from a multicentre, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3, non-inferiority trial. Lancet Oncology; July 2025; DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(25)00194-9

Thousands of women who undergo radiotherapy for low-risk breast cancer could be spared some of the side effects of treatment after a study confirmed that more targeted treatments are just as effective at controlling the disease in the long term.

Hilary Stobart, now 70, was diagnosed with ER-Positive breast cancer in December 2008 which revealed a two-centimetre tumour in her left breast.

Hilary, then aged 54, underwent wide local excision surgery and was then offered the chance to take part in the IMPORT-LOW trial. She was treated with partial breast radiotherapy as part of the trial. She says:

“I had three weeks of radiotherapy, but suffered no side effects, other than some soreness in my breast and nipple in the first few weeks.

“Ten years on, I am doing fine. I have no side effects and no recurrence of disease. For me personally, I am very thankful to have received the lowest dose of radiotherapy. Whilst I may have had some niggling worries in the early days, having seen the results of the trial, I feel positive and optimistic now. I know that I was lucky enough back then to have had the best treatment, a treatment that other women will be routinely offered now.

“I am excited to have been part of a trial that has made a noticeable difference to the way in which breast cancer patients are treated now and in the future.”

Adapted from a press release from The Institute of Cancer Research

Find out how Cambridge is changing the story of cancer

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Earlier observations of this star, called MP Mus, suggested that it was all alone without any planets in orbit around it, surrounded by a featureless cloud of gas and dust.

However, a second look at MP Mus, using a combination of results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, suggests that the star is not alone after all.

The international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, detected a large gas giant in the star’s protoplanetary disc: the pancake-like cloud of gases, dust and ice where the process of planet formation begins. This is the first time that Gaia has detected an exoplanet within a protoplanetary disc. The results, reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that similar methods could be useful in the hunt for young planets around other stars.

By studying how planets form in the protoplanetary discs around young stars, researchers can learn more about how our own Solar System evolved. Through a process known as core accretion, gravity causes particles in the disc to stick to each other, eventually forming larger solid bodies like asteroids or planets. As young planets form, they start to carve gaps in the disc, like grooves on a vinyl record.

However, observing these young planets is extremely challenging, due to the interference from the gas and dust in the disc. To date, only three robust detections of young planets in a protoplanetary disc have been made.

Dr Álvaro Ribas from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, who led the research, specialises in studying protoplanetary discs. “We first observed this star at the time when we learned that most discs have rings and gaps, and I was hoping to find features around MP Mus that could hint at the presence of a planet or planets,” he said.

Using ALMA, Ribas observed the protoplanetary disc around MP Mus (PDS 66) in 2023. The results showed a young star seemingly all alone in the universe. Its surrounding disc showed none of the gaps where planets might be forming, and was completely flat and featureless.

“Our earlier observations showed a boring, flat disc,” said Ribas. “But this seemed odd to us, since the disc is between seven and ten million years old. In a disc of that age, we would expect to see some evidence of planet formation.”

Now, Ribas and his colleagues from Germany, Chile, and France have given MP Mus another chance. Once again using ALMA, they observed the star at the 3mm range, a longer wavelength than the earlier observations, allowing them to probe deeper into the disc.

The new observations turned up a cavity close to the star and two gaps further out, which were obscured in the earlier observations, suggesting that MP Mus may not be alone after all.

At the same time, Miguel Vioque, a researcher at the European Southern Observatory, was uncovering another piece of the puzzle. Using data from Gaia, he found MP Mus was ‘wobbling’.

“My first reaction was that I must have made a mistake in my calculations, because MP Mus was known to have a featureless disc,” said Vioque. “I was revising my calculations when I saw Álvaro give a talk presenting preliminary results of a newly-discovered inner cavity in the disc, which meant the wobbling I was detecting was real and had a good chance of being caused by a forming planet.”

Using a combination of the Gaia and ALMA observations, along with some computer modelling, the researchers say the wobbling is likely caused by a gas giant – less than ten times the mass of Jupiter – orbiting the star at a distance between one and three times the distance of the Earth to the Sun.

“Our modelling work showed that if you put a giant planet inside the new-found cavity, you can also explain the Gaia signal,” said Ribas. “And using the longer ALMA wavelengths allowed us to see structures we couldn’t see before.”

This is the first time an exoplanet embedded in a protoplanetary disc has been indirectly discovered in this way – by combining precise star movement data from the Gaia with deep observations of the disc. It also means that many more hidden planets might exist in other discs, just waiting to be found.

“We think this might be one of the reasons why it’s hard to detect young planets in protoplanetary discs, because in this case, we needed the ALMA and Gaia data together,” said Ribas. “The longer ALMA wavelength is incredibly useful, but to observe at this wavelength requires more time on the telescope.”

Ribas says that upcoming upgrades to ALMA, as well as future telescopes such as the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), may be used to look deeper into more discs and better understand the hidden population of young planets, which could in turn help us learn how our own planet may have formed.

The research was supported in part by the European Union’s Horizon Programme, the European Research Council, and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Álvaro Ribas et al. ‘A young gas giant and hidden substructures in a protoplanetary disc.’ Nature Astronomy (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02576-w 

Astronomers have detected a giant exoplanet – between three and ten times the size of Jupiter – hiding in the swirling disc of gas and dust surrounding a young star.

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Using carbon capture to create a cleaner chemical supply chain

A collaboration on carbon capture between Cambridge and Hitachi Europe Ltd has been awarded Prosperity Partnership funding to develop a new way of converting green methanol – made from captured CO₂ – into high-value chemicals used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and materials manufacturing.

While many technologies focus on capturing and storing surplus CO₂, the researchers, led by Professor Ljiljana Fruk, aim to turn it into something genuinely useful.

The approach uses compact, continuous‑flow reactors – systems that enable chemical reactions to run more efficiently – with lower energy demand, less waste, and better control at scale. The catalysts themselves are being designed to work under mild, sustainable conditions, helping reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Professor Fruk said: “It’s exciting to be part of something that is working towards a future where science helps build a cleaner, healthier world.”

Read the full story here

Low-emission steel-making

With Prosperity Partnership funding from UKRI and Tata Steel, Cambridge University, Imperial College and the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick will work in partnership to drive innovation in low-emission steel production.

As the UK steel industry transitions towards electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, the programme will address one of the key challenges of using high-recycled-content steel: how to ensure its performance in demanding applications such as some automotive components and packaging.

The five-year programme will also fund 13 PhD studentships across the three universities to conduct leading research into the advanced manufacturing of steels and steel products suited to EAF steelmaking.

Professor Howard Stone, lead academic for the project, said: “This partnership will enable us to unlock the full potential of electric arc furnace steelmaking, combining advanced data science with metallurgical expertise. By working closely with Tata Steel, we aim to deliver practical solutions that support a more sustainable future for the UK steel industry and beyond.”

The University of Cambridge has been awarded two Prosperity Partnerships by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The awards are designed to support partnerships between universities and business which are focused on fundamental research addressing key industry challenges.

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Engineering Professor Julian Allwood (St Catharine's), Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh (Darwin) and Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group Director Emeritus Professor David Newbery (Churchill) join a panel of 17 expert advisors on STAC, which has been created to provide robust, scientific, evidence-based information to support key decisions as the UK overhauls its energy system to reach clean power by 2030.

The Council is expected to also offer independent viewpoints and cutting-edge research on topics from climate science, energy networks and engineering, to the latest technologies and artificial intelligence.

“Evidence-based decision-making is fundamental to the drive for clean power and tackling the climate crisis, with informed policymaking the key to securing a better, fairer world for current and future generations,” UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said in the Government’s announcement.

Professor Allwood is Professor of Engineering and the Environment at the University of Cambridge and directs the Use Less Group. Uniquely, his research aims to articulate a pathway to zero emissions based on technologies that already exist at scale. His projects include ground-breaking innovations such as electric cement.

Professor Shuckburgh is Director of Cambridge Zero, the University’s major climate change initiative. A mathematician and data scientist, Emily Shuckburgh is also Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration and the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER). 

As a climate scientist, Professor Shuckburgh worked for more than a decade at the British Antarctic Survey where her work included leading a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate.

Professor Newbery is the Director of the Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group, an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Economics and a Professorial Research Associate in the UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources at University College London.

STAC’s expert advice is expected to allow ministers to access the most up-to-date and well-informed scientific evidence, improving decision-making and effectiveness of policy implementation. 

STAC is led by Professor Paul Monks, STAC Co-Chair and Chief Scientific Adviser and Director General, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ); and Professor David Greenwood FREng, STAC Co-Chair and CEO of Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre.

Read the UK Government announcement

Three Cambridge academics have been appointed to the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s new Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), which met for the first time on Wednesday 9 July 2025. 

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By 2040, the energy demands of the tech industry could be up to 25 times higher than today, with unchecked growth of data centres driven by AI expected to create surges in electricity consumption that will strain power grids and accelerate carbon emissions.  

This is according to a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, which suggests that even the most conservative estimate for big tech’s energy needs will see a five-fold increase over the next 15 years.

The idea that governments such as the UK can become leaders in AI while simultaneously meeting their net zero targets amounts to “magical thinking at the highest levels,” according to the report’s authors. The UK is committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Researchers call for global standards in reporting AI’s environmental cost through forums such as COP, the UN climate summit, and argue that the UK should advocate for this on the international stage while ensuring democratic oversight at home.

The report, published today, synthesises projections from leading consultancies to forecast the energy demands of the global tech industry. The researchers note that these projections are based on claims by tech firms themselves. 

At the moment, data centres – the facilities that house servers for processing and storing data, along with cooling systems preventing this hardware from overheating – account for nearly 1.5% of global emissions.

This figure is expected to grow by 15-30% each year to reach 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, write the report’s authors. They point out that this would far exceed current emissions from air travel. 

The report highlights that in the US, China, and Europe, data centres already consume around 2-4% of national electricity, with regional concentrations becoming extreme. For example, up to 20% of all power in Ireland now goes to data centres in Dublin’s cluster.

“We know the environmental impact of AI will be formidable, but tech giants are deliberately vague about the energy requirements implicit in their aims,” said Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan, the report’s lead author from Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre.

“The lack of hard data on electricity and water consumption as well as associated carbon emissions of digital technology leaves policymakers and researchers in the dark about the climate harms AI might cause.”

“We need to see urgent action from governments to prevent AI from derailing climate goals, not just deferring to tech companies on the promise of economic growth,” said Desikan.

The researchers also use data from corporate press releases and ESG reports of some of the world’s tech giants to show the alarming trajectory of energy use before the AI race had fully kicked into gear.

Google’s reported greenhouse gas emissions rose by 48% between 2019 and 2023, while Microsoft’s reported emissions increased by nearly 30% from 2020 to 2023. Amazon’s carbon footprint grew around 40% between 2019 and 2021, and – while it has begun to fall – remains well above 2019 levels.

This self-reported data is contested, note the researchers, and some independent reporting suggests that actual emissions from tech companies are much higher.

Several tech giants are looking to nuclear power to defuse the energy timebomb at the heart of their ambitions. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has argued that fusion is needed to meet AI’s potential, while Meta have said that nuclear energy can ‘provide firm, baseload power’ to supply their data centres.

Microsoft have even signed a 20-year agreement to reactivate the Three Mile Island plant – site of the worst nuclear accident in US history.

Some tech leaders, such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, argue that environmental costs of AI will be offset by its benefits for the climate crisis – from contributing to scientific breakthroughs in green energy to enhanced climate change modelling.

“Despite the rapacious energy demands of AI, tech companies encourage governments to see these technologies as accelerators for the green transition,” said Professor Gina Neff, Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.

“These claims appeal to governments banking on AI to grow the economy, but they may compromise society's climate commitments.”

“Big Tech is blowing past their own climate goals, while they rely heavily on renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets rather than reducing their emissions,” said Prof Neff.

“Generative AI may be helpful for designing climate solutions, but there is a real risk that emissions from the AI build-out will outstrip any climate gains as tech companies abandon net zero goals and pursue huge AI-driven profits.”

The report calls for the UK’s environmental policies to be updated for the ‘AI era’. Recommendations include adding AI’s energy footprint into national decarbonisation plans, with specific carbon reduction targets for data centres and AI services, and requirements for detailed reporting of energy and water consumption.  

Ofgem should set strict energy efficiency targets for data centres, write the report’s authors, while the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology should tie AI research funding and data centre operations to clean power adoption.

The report’s authors note that that UK’s new AI Energy Council currently consists entirely of energy bodies and tech companies – with no representation for communities, climate groups or civil society.  

“Energy grids are already stretched,” said Professor John Naughton, Chair of the Advisory Board at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.

“Every megawatt allocated to AI data centres will be a megawatt unavailable for housing or manufacturing. Governments need to be straight with the public about the inevitable energy trade-offs that will come with doubling down on AI as an engine of economic growth.”

With countries such as the UK declaring ambitious goals for both AI leadership and decarbonisation, a new report suggests that AI could drive a 25-fold increase in the global tech sector’s energy use.

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A new study suggests that our ancestors’ close cohabitation with domesticated animals and large-scale migrations played a key role in the spread of infectious diseases.

The team, led by Professor Eske Willerslev at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen, recovered ancient DNA from 214 known human pathogens in prehistoric humans from Eurasia.

They found that the earliest evidence of zoonotic diseases – illnesses transmitted from animals to humans, like COVID in recent times – dates back to around 6,500 years ago, with these diseases becoming more widespread approximately 5,000 years ago.

The study detected the world’s oldest genetic trace of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in a 5,500-year-old sample. The plague is estimated to have killed between one-quarter and one-half of Europe’s population during the Middle Ages.

In addition, the researchers found traces of many other diseases including:

Malaria (Plasmodium vivax) – 4,200 years ago

Leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) – 1,400 years ago

Hepatitis B virus – 9,800 years ago

Diphtheria (Corynebacterium diphtheriae) – 11,100 years ago

This is the largest study to date on the history of infectious diseases and is published today in the journal Nature.

The researchers analysed DNA from over 1,300 prehistoric humans, some up to 37,000 years old. The ancient bones and teeth have provided a unique insight into the development of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

“We’ve long suspected that the transition to farming and animal husbandry opened the door to a new era of disease – now DNA shows us that it happened at least 6,500 years ago,” said Willerslev.

He added: “These infections didn’t just cause illness – they may have contributed to population collapse, migration, and genetic adaptation.”

The significant increase in the incidence of zoonoses around 5,000 years ago coincides with a migration to north-western Europe from the Pontic Steppe – that is from parts of present-day Ukraine, south-western Russia and western Kazakhstan. The people embarking on this migration – and who to a large extent passed on the genetic profile found among people in north-western Europe today – belonged to the Yamnaya herders.

The findings could be significant for the development of vaccines and for understanding how diseases arise and mutate over time.

“If we understand what happened in the past, it can help us prepare for the future. Many of the newly emerging infectious diseases are predicted to originate from animals,” said Associate Professor Martin Sikora at the University of Copenhagen, and first author of the report.

Willerslev added: “Mutations that were successful in the past are likely to reappear. This knowledge is important for future vaccines, as it allows us to test whether current vaccines provide sufficient coverage or whether new ones need to be developed due to mutations.”

The sample material was primarily provided by museums in Europe and Asia. The samples were partly extracted from teeth, where the enamel acts as a lid that can protect the DNA against degradation as a result of the ravages of time. The rest of the DNA was primarily extracted from petrosa bones - the hardest bone in humans - located on the inside of the skull.

The research was funded by the Lundbeck Foundation.

Reference

Sikora, M et al: ‘The spatiotemporal distribution of human pathogens in ancient Eurasia.’ Nature, July 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09192-8

Adapted from a press release by the University of Copenhagen.

Researchers have mapped the spread of infectious diseases in humans across millennia, to reveal how human-animal interactions permanently transformed our health today.

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During the French President's state visit to the United Kingdom, Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris), HEC Paris, Université Paris-Saclay, Oxford University and Cambridge University formalised a joint commitment to create a strategic partnership in the field of artificial intelligence.

Named the Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative, this partnership brings together two leading centres of scientific and technological excellence: the Saclay Cluster and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They share a common ambition - to foster the emergence of excellent, ethical and sovereign artificial intelligence on a European scale.

The aim of the partnership is to structure long-term cooperation in AI research, training and innovation, in order to meet the major challenges of our time. It is organised around five key areas:

• Encouraging academic mobility between students, doctoral students, researchers and teachers to enhance expertise and training.
• Organising joint scientific events (seminars, workshops, symposia) on the major scientific and ethical challenges of AI.
• Launching collaborative research projects: co-direction of theses, interdisciplinary programmes, joint applications for funding.
• Involving industrial and innovation players, to accelerate technology transfer and support AI entrepreneurship.
• Strengthen bilateral cooperation, in line with national and European strategic priorities.

The 'Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative' extends the shared vision of Institut Polytechnique de Paris and HEC Paris to establish a leading European hub in artificial intelligence, at the intersection of cutting-edge research, innovation, and the major challenges of our time.

A firmly solution-oriented ambition realised through Hi! PARIS, a key actor in the France 2030 strategy, integrating cutting-edge research, excellence in education, and concrete technological innovations to enhance European competitiveness, this interdisciplinary centre was co-founded by IP Paris and HEC Paris in 2020, joined by Inria in 2021, and benefits from €70 million in funding over 5 years.

In a joint statement, Thierry Coulhon, President of Institut Polytechnique de Paris and Eloïc Peyrache, Dean of HEC Paris, said:

"With the Entente CordIAle Paris-Saclay – Oxford-Cambridge AI Initiative, we are taking a decisive step forward in European scientific and academic cooperation. By bringing together the excellence of our institutions, through the interdisciplinary centre Hi! PARIS, with that of Oxford and Cambridge, we are laying the foundation for an unparalleled axis of research and innovation in artificial intelligence."

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, agreed:

"The University of Cambridge is proud to be part of this collaboration, which reflects our deep commitment to shaping the future of AI through rigorous research, inclusive education, and responsible innovation. Combining our strengths and sharing knowledge will help us to address the most pressing challenges of our time and ensure AI serves the common good."

The Saclay Cluster, which includes Institut Polytechnique de Paris, HEC Paris and Université Paris-Saclay, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge are joining forces to build AI excellence.

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PFAS have been linked with a range of health issues including decreased fertility, developmental delays in children, and a higher risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified a family of bacterial species, found naturally in the human gut, that absorb various PFAS molecules from their surroundings.  When nine of these bacterial species were introduced into the guts of mice to ‘humanise’ the mouse microbiome, the bacteria rapidly accumulated PFAS eaten by the mice - which were then excreted in faeces.

The researchers also found that as the mice were exposed to increasing levels of PFAS, the microbes worked harder, consistently removing the same percentage of the toxic chemicals. Within minutes of exposure, the bacterial species tested soaked up between 25% and 74% of the PFAS.

The results are the first evidence that our gut microbiome could play a helpful role in removing toxic PFAS chemicals from our body - although this has not yet been directly tested in humans.

The researchers plan to use their discovery to create probiotic dietary supplements that boost the levels of these helpful microbes in our gut, to protect against the toxic effects of PFAS.

The results are published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) can’t be avoided in our modern world. These man-made chemicals are in many everyday items including waterproof clothing, non-stick pans, lipsticks and food packaging, used for their resistance to heat, water, oil and grease. But because they take thousands of years to break down, they are accumulating in large quantities in the environment – and in our bodies.

Dr Kiran Patil, in the University of Cambridge’s MRC Toxicology Unit and senior author of the report, said: “Given the scale of the problem of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’, particularly their effects on human health, it’s concerning that so little is being done about removing these from our bodies.”

“We found that certain species of human gut bacteria have a remarkably high capacity to soak up PFAS from their environment at a range of concentrations, and store these in clumps inside their cells. Due to aggregation of PFAS in these clumps, the bacteria themselves seem protected from the toxic effects.”

Dr Indra Roux, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Toxicology Unit and a co-author of the study said: “The reality is that PFAS are already in the environment and in our bodies, and we need to try and mitigate their impact on our health now. We haven’t found a way to destroy PFAS, but our findings open the possibility of developing ways to get them out of our bodies where they do the most harm.”

There is increasing concern about the environmental and health impacts of PFAS, and in April 2025 the UK launched a parliamentary inquiry into their risks and regulation.

There are over 4,700 PFAS chemicals in widespread use. Some get cleared out of the body in our urine in a matter of days, but others with a longer molecular structure can hang around in the body for years.

Dr Anna Lindell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Toxicology Unit and first author of the study said: “We’re all being exposed to PFAS through our water and food – these chemicals are so widespread that they’re in all of us.

“PFAS were once considered safe, but it’s now clear that they’re not. It’s taken a long time for PFAS to become noticed because at low levels they’re not acutely toxic. But they’re like a slow poison.”

Lindell and Patil have co-founded a startup, Cambiotics, with serial entrepreneur Peter Holme Jensen to develop probiotics that remove PFAS from the body, and they are investigating various ways of turbo-charging the microbes’ performance. Cambiotics is supported by Cambridge Enterprise, the innovation arm of the University of Cambridge, which helps researchers translate their work into globally-leading economic and social impact.

While we wait for new probiotics to become available, the researchers say the best things we can do to help protect ourselves against PFAS are to avoid PFAS-coated cooking pans, and use a good water filter.

The research was funded primarily by the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, and Wellcome.

Reference

Lindell, AE: ‘Human gut bacteria bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.’ Nature Microbiology, July 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02032-5

Scientists have discovered that certain species of microbe found in the human gut can absorb PFAS - the toxic and long-lasting ‘forever chemicals.’ They say boosting these species in our gut microbiome could help protect us from the harmful effects of PFAS.

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Organised by the University Sports service, the annual ceremony brought together students, staff, alumni, and guests to recognise the exceptional contributions and successes of sports clubs, teams, and individuals across the University.

Hosted by Director of Sport Mark Brian, the awards were presented by a distinguished line-up of guests including Professor Bhaskar Vira (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Chair of the Sports Committee), Deborah Griffin (incoming RFU President), Scott Annett (CURUFC Director of Rugby), and Senior Tutors and Committee Members Victoria Harvey and Dr Jane Greatorex. Former Sports Personality of the Year Jack Murphy returned to present one of the evening’s headline awards.

The awards shine a light on the importance of sport as part of the Cambridge experience - enhancing student wellbeing, building community, and nurturing excellence both on and off the field. The winners were selected by a panel of senior University staff, with the exception of the Sporting Moment of the Year, which was decided by public vote.

This year’s winners:

Club of the Year: Association Football Club

Team of the Year: Women’s Cross Country A Team, Hare & Hounds

Sports Person of the Year: Jan Helmich (Trinity Hall), Rowing

Unsung Hero: Emma Paterson (Gonville and Caius), Mixed Lacrosse

Sports Club Personality of the Year: Tads Ciecieski-Holmes (Wolfson), Modern Pentathlon

Sporting Moment of the Year: Men’s Volleyball Blues Varsity Set Point

Newcomer of the Year: Lauren Airey (Emmanuel), Modern Pentathlon

College Team of the Year: Downing Table Tennis

Outstanding Contribution Awards were presented to:

• Lucy Xu (Pembroke), Taekwondo
• Sam Grimshaw (Girton), Hockey
• Georgina Quayle (Homerton), Modern Pentathlon and Swimming & Water Polo
• Ben Rhodes (Jesus), Touch Rugby
• Izzy Howse (Robinson), Netball
• Ksenija Belada (Peterhouse), Volleyball
• Izzy Winter and Jess Reeve, Clarissa’s Campaign for Cambridge Hearts

A particularly moving moment came during the presentation of an Outstanding Contribution Award to Clarissa’s Campaign for Cambridge Hearts, recognising efforts by Izzy Winter and Jess Reeve to raise funds and awareness for student heart screenings. For more information on the October 2025 screenings, visit www.sport.cam.ac.uk/heart-screening.

The University extends its congratulations to all nominees and winners, and its thanks to everyone who participated in and supported the 2025 Sports Awards. The event was a testament to the passion, resilience, and camaraderie that sport brings to the Cambridge community.

To read more about all the nominees, please visit the Sports Awards page: https://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/sportsawards/sports-awards-2025

Story by: Will Galpin

Crowds cheer on the Sports Awards 2025

Crowds cheer on the nominees and winners at the 2025 Sports Awards.

The University of Cambridge recently celebrated a remarkable year of student sporting achievement at the 2025 Cambridge University Sports Awards.

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As the world’s most intensive science and technology cluster, Cambridge is driving breakthrough research and attracting global investment across quantum, life sciences, and biotech.

During his visit, hosted by Founders at University of Cambridge and Innovate Cambridge, the Ambassador heard about the University’s success in securing funding for these critical areas and its bold plans to fuel national economic growth—most notably through the National Innovation Hub and the West Cambridge Innovation District, set to become Europe’s leading centre for AI, quantum, and climate research.

At the heart of the visit was a tour of the new Ray Dolby Centre, home to the historic Cavendish Laboratory. Hosted by Professor Mete Atatüre, Head of the Department of Physics, Lord Mandelson learned about Cambridge’s leadership in quantum technologies and the rapidly growing portfolio of real-world applications emerging from this research.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice then hosted a roundtable lunch at Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm, where leaders from high-growth companies in quantum, AI, and life sciences joined to discuss opportunities for deepening UK-US tech collaboration.

The visit follows the recent signing of the UK-US trade agreement, which lays the groundwork for a future technology partnership between the two countries. As both nations turn to innovation as a key driver of economic growth and global problem-solving, Cambridge stands ready to play a pivotal role.

Recent Dealroom research for Founders at the University of Cambridge highlights Cambridge’s momentum: the area now attracts more venture capital investment in deep tech per capita than anywhere else globally. The region’s tech ecosystem is valued at $222 billion—18% of the UK’s total tech value, second only to London.

Prof Deborah Prentice said: "It was a pleasure to join the Ambassador and colleagues to showcase the full depth and breadth of Cambridge’s research and business strengths - from personalised vaccines and genomics to qubits and semiconductors. Cambridge has unique capabilities to help drive the UK-US tech partnership forward, and we’re excited to build on this momentum."

This week, UK Ambassador to the United States of America Lord Mandelson visited the University of Cambridge to explore its world-leading strengths in innovation and its deepening academic and industrial partnerships with the USA.

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Mary Catchpole, 19, was given a newly licensed drug called leniolisib (or Joenja) at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. It is the first ever targeted treatment for a rare, inherited immunodeficiency called Activated PI3-Kinase delta syndrome (APDS).

People with APDS have a weakened immune system, making them vulnerable to repeated infections and autoimmune or inflammatory conditions. Discovered just over a decade ago by a team of Cambridge researchers, it is a debilitating and life-threatening condition, with patients more likely to develop blood cancers like lymphoma.

APDS is a relatively new immuno-deficiency, with Mary’s family playing a key role in its discovery in 2013. Mary’s mother and uncle, who were Addenbrooke’s patients, were offered DNA sequencing (whole exome sequencing) to see if there was a genetic cause for their immuno-deficiency.

Cambridge researchers identified a change in their genes that increased activity of an enzyme called PI3-Kinase delta, resulting in the illness being named Activated PI3-Kinase delta syndrome (APDS).

The team, which involved researchers from the University of Cambridge, Babraham Institute, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, and clinicians from Addenbrooke’s, was primarily funded by Wellcome and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

With APDS, the enzyme PI3-Kinase delta is ‘switched on’ all the time, preventing immune cells from fighting infection and leads to abnormal or dysregulated immune function.

The new treatment – with one tablet taken twice a day – aims to inhibit the enzyme, effectively normalising the immune system.

Dr Anita Chandra, consultant immunologist at Addenbrooke’s and Affiliated Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge, said: “It is incredible to go from the discovery of a new disease in Cambridge to a treatment being approved and offered on the NHS, within the space of 12 years.

“This new drug will make a huge difference to people living with APDS, hopefully allowing patients to avoid antibiotics, immunoglobulin replacement and potentially even a stem cell transplant in the future.”

Professor Sergey Nejentsev from the University of Cambridge who led the research that discovered APDS said: “As soon as we understood the cause of APDS, we immediately realised that certain drugs could be used to inhibit the enzyme that is activated in these patients. Leniolisib does precisely that. I am delighted that we finally have a treatment which will change the lives of APDS patients.”

The disorder has significantly impacted Mary’s family on her mother’s side. Her aunt died aged 12, while her mother, uncle and grandmother all died in their 30s and 40s.

Mary works as a teaching assistant and lives in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk with her father Jimmy and older brother Joe, who does not have the condition.

Prior to leniolisib, the only treatments available to APDS patients include antibiotics for infections, immunoglobulin replacement therapy (to prevent infections and damage to organs) or a bone marrow or stem cell transplant, which can be a potential cure but carries significant risks.

Mary said: “Having APDS means I’ve got a higher chance of infections and getting unwell, which is hard when all I want to do is work and dance and have adventures. All my life I’ve had to have weekly infusions which make me feel like a pin cushion, and I’ve had to take lots of medication which has been tough.

“Now that I have this new treatment, it does feel bitter-sweet as my late mum and other affected members of my family never got the chance to have this new lease of life, but it is a gift. I feel blessed.”

Leniolisib was licensed for use in the USA in 2023, following clinical trials. After assessment and approval by the UK medicines regulator, the MHRA, it is now approved by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) for NHS use - the first health system in Europe to use it to treat patients with APDS.

Professor James Palmer, NHS England’s Medical Director for Specialised Commissioning, said: “We’re delighted to see Mary become the first patient in Europe to receive this first-ever targeted and approved therapy for a rare condition identified just over a decade ago – in Cambridge no less.

“This treatment could be life-changing for those affected by this debilitating genetic disorder, and this important step forward is another example of the NHS’s commitment to offering access to innovative medicines for those living with rare conditions.”

As a tertiary centre for immune-deficiencies, patients eligible for leniolisib can be referred to Addenbrooke’s, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for specialist review and care and ongoing research in this rare condition.

Dr Susan Walsh, Chief Executive Officer at Immunodeficiency UK, said: “With leniolisib, we now have a targeted treatment available that addresses the fundamental cause of the immune system problems experienced in APDS. This demonstrates the power of research and is a huge leap forward. The new treatment will help improve the quality of life for those families living with APDS.”

By looking at the role of the enzyme linked to APDS and the impact of the new targeted drug on the patient’s immune system, it is hoped there is potential for leniolisib to be applied to other more common immune related conditions in the future.

Adapted from a press release from Cambridge University Hospitals.

A teenager who has lost family members including her mother because of a rare genetic hereditary illness has become the first patient in the UK and Europe to have a new treatment developed by Cambridge researchers and approved for use on the NHS.

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Wayve is one of the UK’s most valuable deep-tech startups, backed by more than $1 billion (about £730 million) in funding. Alex Kendall co-founded the company in 2017 following his PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he pioneered a contrarian approach to self-driving cars.

At a time when the industry relied heavily on rule-based systems, maps and multiple sensors, he proposed a different vision powered by deep learning – where a single neural network could learn to drive from raw data without human intervention.

Wayve’s approach creates a general-purpose driving intelligence that can adapt to new environments. Its models are trained on tens of petabytes of real-world data from its team of safety drivers. Wayve tests its models in both real-world driving settings and in simulation. Real-world testing exposes AI to diverse conditions, while simulation enables efficient, large-scale validation.

Synthetic data on rare or unseen scenarios are used to train their technology to safely navigate the real world. Wayve tests these safety-critical scenarios, such as near collisions or unpredictable pedestrian behaviour, using a cutting-edge generative world model.

Wayve’s autonomous cars have been navigating the complex streets of London since 2019, overseen by legally required safety drivers. Last year they expanded to San Francisco and have also been testing these cars in Stuttgart, and Japan. The company plans to license its technology to car manufacturers, with Nissan set to integrate Wayve’s AI to support driver assistance into its vehicles by 2027.

The engineering team have also built the first language-driving model tested on public roads. LINGO opens up communication with the robot and can narrate its driving and answer questions. That means Wayve’s engineers (and eventually passengers) can communicate with the AI and ask it to explain decisions or drive in a certain way.  

He sees autonomous driving as a launchpad for a broader revolution in embodied AI, with applications in robotics, manufacturing, and healthcare. “Bringing AI into the physical world in a way that it can interact with us, is real – is tangible,” explains Kendall, “I think it’s going to be the biggest transformation we go through in our lifetimes.”

Adapted from a Royal Academy of Engineering press release.

Alex Kendall, CEO and Co-Founder of Wayve, a billion-dollar UK company that uses deep learning to solve the challenges of self-driving cars, has been presented with the Princess Royal Silver Medal, one of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s most prestigious individual awards. 

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At a reception at the Vice-Chancellor’s Lodge this week, which celebrated his service to the University, Lord Sainsbury talked fondly about his own time as a student at Cambridge, and said: “It has been a great honour and pleasure to be Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s greatest universities.

“Over the years, I have watched with awe how the University has produced an endless stream of brilliant research and an enlightened education for its undergraduates and postgraduates, and I hope that by being Chancellor, and in a number of other ways, I have to some extent repaid my debt to the University. I will always look back at my time as Chancellor with the greatest pleasure.”

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, paid a warm tribute to the Chancellor and thanked him for his service and contribution to the life of the University, and his support for her.

In a recent edition of CAM – the University's alumni magazine – other friends and former colleagues recounted the unique qualities Lord Sainsbury has brought to the post during almost a decade and a half of unwavering commitment.

With high-level experience in government and industry alike, Lord Sainsbury has been a highly effective advocate for the best interests of the University on both the national and global stage. “He’s a man of great ability and thoughtfulness,” says Professor Mike Proctor, 2013-2023 Provost of King’s College, Lord Sainsbury’s alma mater. “He’s very well connected in both the public and private sectors. And that’s been very helpful to the University at large.” 

Professor Stephen Toope, the 346th Vice-Chancellor, says that although the role is technically ceremonial, Lord Sainsbury was always willing to go above and beyond. “If I asked him to do something for the University – connect me with the right person, give me a piece of advice – he always did it. He was very generous in making introductions, and saw his role as trying to strengthen the University where he could. And that was largely by supporting the people who’d been asked to do the big jobs – on the Council and in the leadership of Cambridge.”

As a former Minister of Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury has brought a wealth of experience to the University. But he has also brought his own love of research and innovation to bear, as Rebecca Simmons, the VC’s former Chief of Staff and now COO of quantum computing company Riverlane, saw first-hand. “He liked to get into the detail beforehand, so he could make good connections with people,” she remembers. “And sometimes, he would come back to see the same people over several years. For example, he stayed in touch with the CEO of Endomag, a cancer diagnostics spinout, and made a point of going back to meet them at key moments. In fact, accompanying him on visits was one of the most fun parts of my job.” 

Dr Regina Sachers, former Head of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office and now Director of Governance and Compliance, agrees. “He found it easy to connect with academics because he was genuinely interested in the work. He would always ask very informed questions, and would frequently offer his card and put people in touch with his own connections. It felt like a very genuine and low-key approach.”

The role of Vice-Chancellor can be lonely, says Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor 2010-17: often, the only person you can talk to is the Chancellor. “And Lord Sainsbury always made himself available. He was a friend, a mentor, an adviser. We had differences of opinion, but we could always talk. Having that open debate meant you could road-test the strength of an argument – and, sometimes, backpedal, because he’d made some very valid points that were critical for the University. And I can attest that during my time as Vice-Chancellor, he was always there for the difficult issues. He was quiet and understated, but very thoughtful and very wise – and never interfered with the executive functions that the Vice-Chancellor has to exercise.”

“Lord Sainsbury does not have an agenda of his own: he seeks to do what the University needs, and always has its best interests at heart,” says current Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice. “He approaches the job with selflessness and the mentality of a public servant. I like the fact that sometimes he just turns up to things; he’s such a curious and interested person. I think he very much embodies the values of the University.” 

Professor Toope says that he has always been struck by Lord Sainsbury’s “complete lack of pomposity. Some people think they are the role. He always understood that the role is the role: he just happened to be occupying it for a period. And he brought a personal and political integrity to it.”

The election for Lord Sainsbury’s successor as Chancellor takes place next month.

Read about the election of a Chancellor at the University.

After 14 years as Chancellor of the University, Lord Sainsbury of Turville has formally stood down from the role.

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So say a team of researchers who have uncovered significant weaknesses in two of the art protection tools most used by artists to safeguard their work.

According to their creators, Glaze and NightShade were both developed to protect human creatives against the invasive uses of generative artificial intelligence.

The tools are popular with digital artists who want to stop artificial intelligence models (like the AI art generator Stable Diffusion) from copying their unique styles without consent. Together, Glaze and NightShade have been downloaded almost nine million times.

But according to an international group of researchers, these tools have critical weaknesses that mean they cannot reliably stop AI models from training on artists’ work.

The tools add subtle, invisible distortions (known as poisoning perturbations) to digital images. These ‘poisons’ are designed to confuse AI models during training. Glaze takes a passive approach, hindering the AI model’s ability to extract key stylistic features. NightShade goes further, actively corrupting the learning process by causing the AI model to associate an artist’s style with unrelated concepts.

But the researchers have created a method – called LightShed – that can bypass these protections. LightShed can detect, reverse-engineer and remove these distortions, effectively stripping away the poisons and rendering the images usable again for Generative AI model training.

It was developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge along with colleagues at the Technical University Darmstadt and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The researchers hope that by publicising their work – which will be presented at the USENIX Security Symposium, a major security conference, in August – they can let creatives know that there are major issues with art protection tools.

LightShed works through a three-step process. It first identifies whether an image has been altered with known poisoning techniques.

In a second, reverse engineering step, it learns the characteristics of the perturbations using publicly available poisoned examples. Finally, it eliminates the poison to restore the image to its original, unprotected form.

In experimental evaluations, LightShed detected NightShade-protected images with 99.98% accuracy and effectively removed the embedded protections from those images.

“This shows that even when using tools like NightShade, artists are still at risk of their work being used for training AI models without their consent,” said first author Hanna Foerster from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, who conducted the work during an internship at TU Darmstadt.

Although LightShed reveals serious vulnerabilities in art protection tools, the researchers stress that it was developed not as an attack on them – but rather an urgent call to action to produce better, more adaptive ones.

“We see this as a chance to co-evolve defenses,” said co-author Professor Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi from the Technical University of Darmstadt. “Our goal is to collaborate with other scientists in this field and support the artistic community in developing tools that can withstand advanced adversaries.”

The landscape of AI and digital creativity is rapidly evolving. In March this year, OpenAI rolled out a ChatGPT image model that could instantly produce artwork in the style of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio.

This sparked a wide range of viral memes – and equally wide discussions about image copyright, in which legal analysts noted that Studio Ghibli would be limited in how it could respond to this since copyright law protects specific expression, not a specific artistic ‘style’.  

Following these discussions, OpenAI announced prompt safeguards to block some user requests to generate images in the styles of living artists.  

But issues over generative AI and copyright are ongoing, as highlighted by the copyright and trademark infringement case currently being heard in London’s high court.

Global photography agency Getty Images is alleging that London-based AI company Stability AI trained its image generation model on the agency’s huge archive of copyrighted pictures. Stability AI is fighting Getty’s claim and arguing that the case represents an “overt threat” to the generative AI industry.

And earlier this month, Disney and Universal announced they are suing AI firm Midjourney over its image generator, which the two companies said is a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.”

“What we hope to do with our work is to highlight the urgent need for a roadmap towards more resilient, artist-centred protection strategies,” said Foerster. “We must let creatives know that they are still at risk and collaborate with others to develop better art protection tools in future.”

Hanna Foerster is a member of Downing College, Cambridge. 

Reference:
Hanna Foerster et al. ‘LightShed: Defeating Perturbation-based Image Copyright Protections.’ Paper presented at the 34th USENIX Security Symposium. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity25/presentation/foerster

Artists urgently need stronger defences to protect their work from being used to train AI models without their consent.  

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A 15-seater autonomous bus will operate between Madingley Road Park & Ride, and around the University's Eddington neighbourhood and Cambridge West Innovation District. 

The early phase of the trial, following extensive virtual and on-road testing, starts on Tuesday 24 June with a limited number of morning and afternoon runs each Monday-Friday.

The trial passenger service is free and will enhance local connections, improving access to places of work and study, as well as community and sports facilities for those living and working in the area.

Dan Clarke, Head of Innovation and Technology at the Greater Cambridge Partnership, said: "This is an exciting milestone, but it’s just the beginning. People may have already seen the bus going around Eddington and Cambridge West from Madingley Park & Ride recently, as, after the extensive on-track training with the drivers, we’ve been running the bus on the road without passengers to learn more about how other road-users interact with the technology. We’re now moving gradually to the next stage of this trial by inviting passengers to use Connector.

"As with all new things, our aim is to introduce this new technology in a phased way that balances the trialling of these new systems with safety and the passenger experience. This will ensure we can learn more about this technology and showcase the potential for self-driving vehicles to support sustainable, reliable public transport across Cambridge."

The vehicle is operated by Whippet Coaches using autonomous technology from Fusion Processing. 

Professor Anna Philpott, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Resources and Operations at the University of Cambridge, said "Innovation and research that contributes to society is at the heart of the University’s mission, and this trial aligns with our vision for sustainable and pioneering transport solutions for everyone travelling to and from our sites. Cambridge West Innovation District and Eddington are fitting locations for such an ambitious and forward-thinking project."

A full-scale launch of two full-size autonomous buses on a second route to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus will begin later this year.

The Connector trial is part of a national Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) programme backed by the UK Government to explore how autonomous buses can be safely and effectively integrated into public transport systems.

All vehicles are supported by trained safety drivers at all times and have already undergone digital simulation and rigorous on-road testing.

Find out more about Connector and check the timetable to see when you can take a ride on the bus

The Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Connector project is bringing self-driving passenger transport to the city.

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The Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, has released its first imagery, showing cosmic phenomena at an unprecedented scale.

In just over 10 hours of test observations, the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory has already captured millions of galaxies and Milky Way stars and thousands of asteroids. The imagery is a small preview of the Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year scientific mission to explore and understand some of the universe's biggest mysteries.

Located on a mountaintop in Chile, the Rubin Observatory will repeatedly scan the sky for 10 years and create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our universe. The region in central Chile is favoured for astronomical observations because of its dry air and dark skies, and allows for an ideal view of the Milky Way’s centre.

The facility is set to achieve ‘first light,’ or make the first scientific observations of the Southern Hemisphere’s sky using its 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope, on 4 July.

UK astronomers, including from the University of Cambridge, are celebrating their role in the most ambitious sky survey to date.

“We will be looking at the universe in a way that we have never done before, and this exploration is bound to throw up surprises that we never imagined,” said Professor Hiranya Peiris from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, and a builder of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Dark Energy Science Collaboration. 

Enabled by an investment of £23 million from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), UK astronomers and software developers have been preparing the hardware and software needed to analyse the petabytes of data that the survey will produce to enable groundbreaking science that will enhance our understanding of the universe.

The UK is the second largest international contributor to the multinational project, putting UK astronomers at the forefront when it comes to exploiting this unique window on the Universe.

The UK is also playing a significant role in the management and processing of the unprecedented amounts of data. The UK will host one of three international data facilities and process around 1.5 million images, capturing around 10 billion stars and galaxies. When complete, the full 10-year survey is expected to rack up 500 petabytes of date – the same storage as half-a-million 4K Hollywood movies.

The UK’s science portal for the international community is capable of connecting around 1,500 astronomers with UK Digital Research Infrastructure to support the exploitation of this uniquely rich and detailed view of the Universe.

More than two decades in the making, Rubin is the first of its kind: its mirror design, camera size and sensitivity, telescope speed, and computing infrastructure are each in an entirely new category. Over the next 10 years, Rubin will perform the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) using the LSST Camera and the Simonyi Survey Telescope.

By repeatedly scanning the sky for 10 years, the observatory will deliver a treasure trove of discoveries: asteroids and comets, pulsating stars, and supernova explosions. Science operations are expected to start towards the end of 2025.

"I can’t wait to explore the first LSST catalogues - revealing the faintest dwarf galaxies and stellar streams swarming through the Milky Way’s halo," said Professor Vasily Belokurov from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, member of LSST:UK. "A new era of galactic archaeology is beginning!”

“UK researchers have been contributing to the scientific and technical preparation for the Rubin LSST for more than ten years,” said Professor Bob Mann from the University of Edinburgh, LSST:UK Project Leader. “These exciting first look images show that everything is working well and reassure us that we have a decade’s worth of wonderful data coming our way, with which UK astronomers will do great science.”

Hiranya Peiris is a Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. 

The Vera C Rubin Observatory, a new scientific facility that will bring the night sky to life like never before using the largest camera ever built, has revealed its ‘first look’ images at the start of its 10-year survey of the cosmos.

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Now, an international group of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge have shown that we will be able to learn about the masses of the earliest stars by studying a specific radio signal – created by hydrogen atoms filling the gaps between star-forming regions – originating just a hundred million years after the Big Bang.

By studying how the first stars and their remnants affected this signal, called the 21-centimetre signal, the researchers have shown that future radio telescopes will help us understand the very early universe, and how it transformed from a nearly homogeneous mass of mostly hydrogen to the incredible complexity we see today. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“This is a unique opportunity to learn how the universe’s first light emerged from the darkness,” said co-author Professor Anastasia Fialkov from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “The transition from a cold, dark universe to one filled with stars is a story we’re only beginning to understand.”

The study of the universe’s most ancient stars hinges on the faint glow of the 21-centimetre signal, a subtle energy signal from over 13 billion years ago. This signal, influenced by the radiation from early stars and black holes, provides a rare window into the universe’s infancy.

Fialkov leads the theory group of REACH (the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen). REACH is a radio antenna and is one of two major projects that could help us learn about the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionisation, when the first stars reionised neutral hydrogen atoms in the universe.

Although REACH, which captures radio signals, is still in its calibration stage, it promises to reveal data about the early universe. Meanwhile, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)—a massive array of antennas under construction—will map fluctuations in cosmic signals across vast regions of the sky.

Both projects are vital in probing the masses, luminosities, and distribution of the universe's earliest stars. In the current study, Fialkov – who is also a member of the SKA – and her collaborators developed a model that makes predictions for the 21-centimetre signal for both REACH and SKA, and found that the signal is sensitive to the masses of first stars.

“We are the first group to consistently model the dependence of the 21-centimetre signal of the masses of the first stars, including the impact of ultraviolet starlight and X-ray emissions from X-ray binaries produced when the first stars die,” said Fialkov, who is also a member of Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “These insights are derived from simulations that integrate the primordial conditions of the universe, such as the hydrogen-helium composition produced by the Big Bang.”

In developing their theoretical model, the researchers studied how the 21-centimetre signal reacts to the mass distribution of the first stars, known as Population III stars. They found that previous studies have underestimated this connection as they did not account for the number and brightness of X-ray binaries – binary systems made of a normal star and a collapsed star – among Population III stars, and how they affect the 21-centimetre signal.

Unlike optical telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, which capture vivid images, radio astronomy relies on statistical analysis of faint signals. REACH and SKA will not be able to image individual stars, but will instead provide information about entire populations of stars, X-ray binary systems and galaxies.

“It takes a bit of imagination to connect radio data to the story of the first stars, but the implications are profound,” said Fialkov.

“The predictions we are reporting have huge implications for our understanding of the nature of the very first stars in the Universe,” said co-author Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, Principal Investigator of the REACH telescope and PI at Cambridge of the SKA development activities. “We show evidence that our radio telescopes can tell us details about the mass of those first stars and how these early lights may have been very different from today’s stars.

“Radio telescopes like REACH are promising to unlock the mysteries of the infant Universe, and these predictions are essential to guide the radio observations we are doing from the Karoo, in South Africa.”

The research was supported in part by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Anastasia Fialkov is a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Eloy de Lera Acedo is an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Reference:
T. Gessey-Jones et al. ‘Determination of the mass distribution of the first stars from the 21-cm signal.’ Nature Astronomy (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02575-x

Understanding how the universe transitioned from darkness to light with the formation of the first stars and galaxies is a key turning point in the universe’s development, known as the Cosmic Dawn. However, even with the most powerful telescopes, we can’t directly observe these earliest stars, so determining their properties is one of the biggest challenges in astronomy.

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Dr Alex Tsompanidis, senior researcher at the Autism Research Centre in the University of Cambridge, and the lead author of this new study, said: “Small variations in the prenatal levels of steroid hormones, like testosterone and oestrogen, can predict the rate of social and cognitive learning in infants and even the likelihood of conditions such as autism. This prompted us to consider their relevance for human evolution.”

One explanation for the evolution of the human brain may be in the way humans adapted to be social. Professor Robin Dunbar, an Evolutionary Biologist at the University of Oxford and joint senior author of this new study said: “We’ve known for a long time that living in larger, more complex social groups is associated with increases in the size of the brain. But we still don’t know what mechanisms may link these behavioural and physical adaptations in humans.”

In this new paper, published today in Evolutionary Anthropology, the researchers now propose that the mechanism may be found in prenatal sex steroid hormones, such as testosterone or oestrogens, and the way these affect the developing brain and behaviour in humans.

Using ‘mini-brains’ – clusters of human neuronal cells that are grown in a petri dish from donors’ stem cells – other scientists have been able to study, for the first time, the effects of these hormones on the human brain. Recent discoveries have shown that testosterone can increase the size of the brain, while oestrogens can improve the connectivity between neurons.

In both humans and other primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas, the placenta can link the mother’s and baby’s endocrine systems to produce these hormones in varying amounts.

Professor Graham Burton, Founding Director of the Loke Centre of Trophoblast Research at the University of Cambridge and coauthor of the new paper, said: “The placenta regulates the duration of the pregnancy and the supply of nutrients to the fetus, both of which are crucial for the development of our species’ characteristically large brains. But the advantage of human placentas over those of other primates has been less clear.”

Two previous studies show that levels of oestrogen during pregnancy are higher in human pregnancies than in other primate species.

Another characteristic of humans as a species is our ability to form and maintain large social groups, larger than other primates and other extinct species, such as Neanderthals. But to be able to do this, humans must have adapted in ways that maintain high levels of fertility, while also reducing competition in large groups for mates and resources.

Prenatal sex steroid hormones, such as testosterone and oestrogen, are also important for regulating the way males and females interact and develop, a process known as sex differentiation. For example, having higher testosterone relative to oestrogen leads to more male-like features in anatomy (e.g., in physical size and strength) and in behaviour (e.g., in competition).

But in humans, while these on-average sex differences exist, they are reduced, compared to our closest primate relatives and relative to other extinct human species (such as the Neanderthals). Instead, anatomical features that are specific to humans appear to be related more to aspects of female rather than male biology, and to the effects of oestrogens (e.g., reduced body hair, and a large ratio between the second and fourth digit).

The researchers propose that the key to explain this may lie again with the placenta, which rapidly turns testosterone to oestrogens, using an enzyme called aromatase. Recent discoveries show that humans have higher levels of aromatase compared to macaques, and that males may have slightly higher levels compared to females.

Bringing all these lines of evidence together, the authors propose that high levels of prenatal sex steroid hormones in the womb, combined with increased placental function, may have made human brains larger and more interconnected. At the same time, a lower ratio of androgens (like testosterone) to oestrogens may have led to reductions in competition between males, while also improving fertility in females, allowing humans to form larger, more cohesive social groups.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and joint senior author on the paper, said: “We have been studying the effects of prenatal sex steroids on neurodevelopment for the past 20 years. This has led to the discovery that prenatal sex steroids are important for neurodiversity in human populations. This new hypothesis takes this further in arguing that these hormones may have also shaped the evolution of the human brain.”

Dr Tsompanidis added: “Our hypothesis puts pregnancy at the heart of our story as a species. The human brain is remarkable and unique, but it does not develop in a vacuum. Adaptations in the placenta and the way it produces sex steroid hormones may have been crucial for our brain’s evolution, and for the emergence of the cognitive and social traits that make us human.”

Reference

Tsompanidis, A et al. The placental steroid hypothesis of human brain evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology; 20 June 2025; DOI: 10.1002/evan.70003

The placenta and the hormones it produces may have played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain, while also leading to the behavioural traits that have made human societies able to thrive and expand, according to a new hypothesis proposed by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

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Representatives from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Cambridge Zero, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Cambridge Judge Business School convened the session and were joined by a range of experts working on climate change-related research and education. Every speaker from across higher education highlighted the importance of identifying misinformation and disinformation in tackling climate action. Read more about the workshop.

University of Cambridge experts highlighted the key role of education in combatting climate misinformation at a Global Sustainable Development Congress (GDSC) workshop in Turkey.

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Today, all non-Africans are known to have descended from a small group of people that ventured into Eurasia around 50,000 years ago. However, fossil evidence shows that there were numerous failed dispersals before this time that left no detectable traces in living people.

In a new study published today in the journal in Nature, scientists say that from around 70,000 years ago, early humans began to exploit different habitat types in Africa in ways not seen before.

At this time, our ancestors started to live in the equatorial forests of West and Central Africa, and in the Sahara and Sahel desert regions of North Africa, where they encountered a range of new environmental conditions.

As they adapted to life in these diverse habitats, early humans gained the flexibility to tackle the range of novel environmental conditions they would encounter during their expansion out of Africa.

This increase in the human niche may have been the result of social adaptations, such as long-distance social networks, which allowed for an increase in cultural exchange. The process would have been self-reinforcing: as people started to inhabit a wider proportion of the African continent, regions previously disconnected would have come into contact, leading to further exchanges and possibly even greater flexibility. The final outcome was that our species became the ultimate generalist, able to tackle a wider range of environments.

Andrea Manica, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who co-led the study with Professor Eleanor Scerri from the Max Plank Institute of Bioanthropology in Germany, said: “Around 70,000-50,000 years ago, the easiest route out of Africa would have been more challenging than during previous periods, and yet this expansion was big - and ultimately successful.”

Manica added: “It’s incredibly exciting that we were able to look back in time and pinpoint the changes that enabled our ancestors to successfully migrate out of Africa.”

Dr Emily Hallett of Loyola University Chicago, co-lead author of the study, said: “We assembled a dataset of archaeological sites and environmental information covering the last 120,000 years in Africa. We used methods developed in ecology to understand changes in human environmental niches - the habitats humans can use and thrive in - during this time.” 

Dr Michela Leonardi at the University of Cambridge and London’s Natural History Museum, the study’s other lead author, said: “Our results showed that the human niche began to expand significantly from 70,000 years ago, and that this expansion was driven by humans increasing their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts.” 

Many explanations for the uniquely successful dispersal out of Africa have previously been made, from technological innovations, to immunities granted by interbreeding with Eurasian hominins. But there is no evidence of technological innovation, and previous interbreeding does not appear to have helped the long-term success of previous attempts to spread out of Africa.

“Unlike previous humans dispersing out of Africa, those human groups moving into Eurasia after around 60-50,000 years ago were equipped with a distinctive ecological flexibility as a result of coping with climatically challenging habitats,” said Scerri. “This likely provided a key mechanism for the adaptive success of our species beyond their African homeland.”

Previous human dispersals out of Africa - which were not successful in the long term - seem to have happened during particularly favourable windows of increased rainfall in the Saharo-Arabian desert belt, which created ‘green corridors’ for people to move into Eurasia.

The environmental flexibility developed in Africa from around 70,000 years ago ultimately resulted in modern humans’ unique ability to adapt and thrive in diverse environments, and to cope with varying environmental conditions throughout life.

This research was supported by funding from the Max Planck Society, European Research Council and Leverhulme Trust.

Adapted from a press release by the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Germany

Reference: Hallett, E. Y. et al: ‘Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal.’ Nature, June 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09154-0.

Before the ‘Out of Africa’ migration that led our ancestors into Eurasia and beyond, human populations learned to adapt to new and challenging habitats including African forests and deserts, which was key to the long-term success of our species’ dispersal.

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The successful Cambridge grantees’ work covers a range of research areas, including the development of next-generation semiconductors, new methods to identify dyslexia in young children, how diseases spread between humans and animals, and the early changes that happen in cells before breast cancer develops, with the goal of finding ways to stop the disease before it starts.

The funding, worth €721 million in total, will go to 281 leading researchers across Europe. The Advanced Grant competition is one of the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes in the EU and associated countries, including the UK. It gives senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. Advanced Grants may be awarded up to € 2.5 million for a period of five years. The grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. The UK agreed a deal to associate to Horizon Europe in September 2023.

This competition attracted 2,534 proposals, which were reviewed by panels of internationally renowned researchers. Over 11% of proposals were selected for funding. Estimates show that the grants will create approximately 2,700 jobs in the teams of new grantees. The new grantees will be based at universities and research centres in 23 EU Member States and associated countries, notably in the UK (56 grants), Germany (35), Italy (25), the Netherlands (24), and France (23).

“Many congratulations to our Cambridge colleagues on these prestigious ERC funding awards,” said Professor Sir John Aston, Cambridge’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research. “This type of long-term funding is invaluable, allowing senior researchers the time and space to develop potential solutions for some of biggest challenges we face. We are so fortunate at Cambridge to have so many world-leading researchers across a range of disciplines, and I look forward to seeing the outcomes of their work.”

The Cambridge recipients of 2025 Advanced Grants are:

Professor Clare Bryant (Department of Veterinary Medicine) for investigating human and avian pattern recognition receptor activation of cell death pathways, and the impact on the host inflammatory response to zoonotic infections.

Professor Sir Richard Friend (Cavendish Laboratory/St John’s College) for bright high-spin molecular semiconductors.

Professor Usha Goswami (Department of Psychology/St John’s College) for a cross-language approach to the early identification of dyslexia and developmental language disorder using speech production measures with children.

Professor Regina Grafe (Faculty of History) for colonial credit and financial diversity in the Global South: Spanish America 1600-1820.

Professor Judy Hirst (MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit/Corpus Christi College) for the energy-converting mechanism of a modular biomachine: Uniting structure and function to establish the engineering principles of respiratory complex I.

Professor Matthew Juniper (Department of Engineering/Trinity College) for adjoint-accelerated inference and optimisation methods.

Professor Walid Khaled (Department of Pharmacology/Magdalene College) for understanding precancerous changes in breast cancer for the development of therapeutic interceptions.

Professor Adrian Liston (Department of Pathology/St Catharine’s College) for dissecting the code for regulatory T cell entry into the tissues and differentiation into tissue-resident cells.

Professor Róisín Owens (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology/Newnham College) for conformal organic devices for electronic brain-gut readout and characterisation.

Professor Emma Rawlins (Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience/Gurdon Institute) for reprogramming lung epithelial cell lineages for regeneration.

Dr Marta Zlatic (Department of Zoology/Trinity College) for discovering the circuit and molecular basis of inter-strain and inter-species differences in learning

“These ERC grants are our commitment to making Europe the world’s hub for excellent research,” said Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research, and Innovation. “By supporting projects that have the potential to redefine whole fields, we are not just investing in science but in the future prosperity and resilience of our continent. In the next competition rounds, scientists moving to Europe will receive even greater support in setting up their labs and research teams here. This is part of our “Choose Europe for Science” initiative, designed to attract and retain the world’s top scientists.”

“Much of this pioneering research will contribute to solving some of the most pressing challenges we face - social, economic and environmental,” said Professor Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council. “Yet again, many scientists - around 260 - with ground-breaking ideas were rated as excellent, but remained unfunded due to a lack of funds at the ERC. We hope that more funding will be available in the future to support even more creative researchers in pursuing their scientific curiosity.”

Eleven senior researchers at the University of Cambridge have been awarded Advanced Grants from the European Research Council – the highest number of grants awarded to any institution in this latest funding round.

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In Invisible Rivals, published by Yale University Press on 17 June, Dr Goodman argues that throughout human history we have tried to rid our social groups of free-riders, people who take from others without giving anything back. But instead of eliminating free-riders, human evolution has just made them better at hiding their deception.

Goodman explains that humans have evolved to use language to disguise selfish acts and exploit our cooperative systems. He links this ‘invisible rivalry’ to the collapse of trust and consequent success of political strongmen today.

Goodman says: “We see this happening today, as evidenced by the rise of the Julius Caesar of our time—Donald Trump— but it is a situation that evolution has predicted since the origins of life and later, language, and which will only change form again even if the current crises are overcome.”

Goodman argues that over the course of human evolution “When we rid ourselves of ancient, dominant alphas, we traded overt selfishness for something perhaps even darker: the ability to move through society while planning and coordinating.”

“As much as we evolved to use language effectively to work together, to overthrow those brutish and nasty dominants that pervaded ancient society, we also (and do) use language to create opportunities that benefit us … We use language to keep our plans invisible. Humans, more than other known organisms, can cooperate until we imagine a way to compete, exploit, or coerce, and almost always rely on language to do so.”

Goodman, an expert on human social evolution at the University of Cambridge, identifies free-riding behaviour in everything from benefits cheating and tax evasion, to countries dodging action on climate change, and the actions of business leaders and politicians.

Goodman warns that “We can’t stop people free-riding, it’s part of our nature, the incurable syndrome… Free riders are among us at every level of society and pretending otherwise can make our own goals unrealistic, and worse, appear hopeless. But if we accept that we all have this ancient flaw, this ability to deceive ourselves and others, we can design policies around that and change our societies for the better.”

Lessons from our ancestors

Goodman points out that humans evolved in small groups meaning that over many generations we managed to design social norms to govern the distribution of food, water and other vital resources.

“People vied for power but these social norms helped to maintain a trend toward equality, balancing out our more selfish dispositions. Nevertheless, the free-rider problem persisted and using language we got better at hiding our cheating.”

One academic camp has argued that ancient humans used language to work together to overthrow and eject “brutish dominants”. The opposing view claims that this never happened and that humans are inherently selfish and tribal. Goodman rejects both extremes.

“If we accept the view that humans are fundamentally cooperative, we risk trusting blindly. If we believe everyone is selfish, we won’t trust anyone. We need to be realistic about human nature. We’re a bit of both so we need to learn how to place our trust discerningly.”

Goodman points out that our distant ancestors benefitted from risk-pooling systems, whereby all group members contributed labour and shared resources, but this only worked because it is difficult to hide tangible assets such as tools and food. While some hunter-gatherer societies continue to rely on these systems, they are ineffective in most modern societies in our globalized economy.

“Today most of us rely largely on intangible assets for monetary exchange so people can easily hide resources, misrepresent their means and invalidate the effectiveness of social norms around risk pooling,” Goodman says.

“We are flawed animals capable of deception, cruelty, and selfishness. The truth is hard to live with but confronting it through honest reflection about our evolutionary past gives us the tools to teach ourselves and others about how we can improve the future.”

Taking action: self-knowledge, education and policy

Goodman, who teaches students at Cambridge about the evolution of cooperation, argues that we reward liars from a young age and that this reinforces bad behaviour into adulthood.

“People tell children that cheaters don’t prosper, but in fact cheats who don’t get caught can do very well for themselves.”

“Evolutionarily speaking, appearing trustworthy but being selfish can be more beneficial to the individual. We need to recognise that and make a moral choice about whether we try to use people or to work with them.”

At the same time, Goodman thinks we need to arm ourselves intellectually with the power to tell who is credible and who is not. “Our most important tool for doing this is education,” he says. “We must teach people to think ethically for themselves, and to give them the tools to do so.”

But Goodman cautions that even the tools we use to expose exploiters are open to exploitation: “Think about how people across the political sphere accuse others of virtue signalling or abusing a well-intentioned political movement for their own gain.”

Goodman believes that exposing free-riders is more beneficial than punishment. “Loss of social capital through reputation is an important motivator for anyone,” he argues, suggesting that journalistic work exposing exploitation can be as effective at driving behaviour change as criminal punishment.

“The dilemma each of us faces now is whether to confront invisible rivalry or to let exploiters undermine society until democracy in the free world unravels—and the freedom of dissent is gone.”

Dr Jonathan R Goodman is a research associate at Cambridge Public Health and a social scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Invisible Rivals: How We Evolved to Compete in a Cooperative World was published by Yale University Press on 17 June 2025 (ISBN: 9780300274356)

To save democracy and solve the world's biggest challenges, we need to get better at spotting and exposing people who exploit human cooperation for personal gain, argues Cambridge social scientist Dr Jonathan Goodman.

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After winning a nail-biting East of England final, which was held as part of the Cambridge Festival in April 2025, Spatika went on to represent the East of England in the UK final with her presentation on Time Travel with Your Brain. She will now go on to represent the UK in the International Final taking place live at CERN Science Gateway in Switzerland to mark the 20 year anniversary of the competition. 

“I was so surprised I won!”, said Spatika. “The other communicators were fantastic and we travelled through so many topics from planets to parasites and more!”. 

Spatika took part in FameLab because she enjoyed talking about science to non-scientists and bringing some meaning to the complex work taking place in the labs. “I wanted a chance to bring humour into the science, because most of the times science is presented in professional environments, it’s all very serious”, added Spatika.  

“I would recommend FameLab for anyone who’s even a tiny bit interested in knowing what happens to science when it’s let out in the wild!” 

Claudia Antolini, Public Engagement Manager at the University of Cambridge said, “We are delighted for Spatika to represent the UK at the International FameLab final. Both at the East of England regional competition and the UK final Spatika gave outstanding performances, scientifically accurate but also extremely engaging with wise-cracking humour. We wish her the best of luck and we look forward to cheering her on for the International Final.” 

The FameLab final will be streamed live from CERN on YouTube. 

Spatika Jayaram is a PhD student and Gates Cambridge Scholar in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Magdalene College. In her research, she looks at social and emotional behaviours emerging across development, and how regions within the prefrontal cortex contribute to their regulation. Her supervisor is Professor Angela Roberts.

FameLab was created by Cheltenham Festivals in 2005 and is the largest science communication competition and training programme in the world. Participants have just three minutes to convey a scientific concept of their choice to an audience and expert panel of judges with no presentations and limited props. 

Earlier this month, Cambridge PhD student Spatika Jayaram was crowned the winner of the FameLab 2025 UK final at this year’s Cheltenham Science Festival.  

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This year's prize winners are;

Dr Tore Butlin - Department of Engineering/Queens' College: 

Tore has played a key role in reshaping the engineering course content and led the design of the new IA mechanics syllabus.

Dr Alexander Carter - Institute of Continuing Education/Fitzwilliam College:

As Academic Director for Philosophy & Interdisciplinary Studies, Alexander leads a broad-ranging portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in philosophy, creativity theory and research skills.

Dr Nicholas Evans - Department of Clinical Neurosciences/Wolfson College: 

Nicholas has demonstrated an impressive commitment to medical education at the Clinical School for over a decade. As a mentor he has also shown a keen interest in student welfare.

Dr James Fergusson - Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics:

James is an outstanding lecturer who brings outstanding passion to everything he does. He has been heavily involved in establishing and supporting the new MPhil in Data Intensive Science. 

Dr Marta Halina - Department of History and Philosophy of Science/Selwyn College:

Marta has almost single-handedly overhauled the History and Philosophy of Science Tripos making it a more sought after course. She has led a major restructuring of the MPhil course and has introduced the increasingly popular module, AI in healthcare.

Paul Hoegger - University Language Centre/Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics/Fitzwilliam College: 

Paul is a teacher of German much respected by generations of students. Over the years he has created several new courses including one on German literature through the ages and one on the poetry of Schubert.

Dr Kate Hughes - Department of Veterinary Medicine/Girton College:

Kate makes a valued contribution to Years 4 - 6 of the veterinary programme. She led the design of a new final year rotation in anatomic pathology for which she is educational lead.

Dr Mairi Kilkenny - Department of Biochemistry/Queen's College:

Mairi delivers innovative and creative teaching with the Department of Biochemistry often incorporating digital media to stimulate the interest of her students. She's also a supervisor for several Colleges. 

Dr Ewa Marek - Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology/Jesus College:

Ewa is a valued lecturer, supervisor and Director of Studies. Passionate about sustainability, Ewa developed a new Part 1A course which introduces the topic in the context of chemical and biochemical engineering.

Dr Isabelle McNeill - Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics/Trinity Hall:

Isabelle was a passionate and outstanding teacher who made vibrant contributions to French and to Film and Screen within the Faculty. A co-founder and trustee of the Cambridge Film Trust, Isabelle was made aware of her prize two days before she sadly passed away in February. She will be much missed by colleagues and students alike.

Dr Ali Meghji - Department of Sociology/Sidney Sussex College:

Ali has been instrumental in creating a whole new Tripos paper in the Department (Empire, Colonialism, Imperialism). As a teacher, he repeatedly receives glowing comments from students on the clarity of his exposition, the contemporary relevance of his topics, and his effective use of technology. 

Dr Liam Saddington - Department of Geography/Lucy Cavendish College:

Liam was recruited as Training and Skills Director for the Tripos with a remit to oversee the quantitative and qualitative research training across the degree. He has led new innovations, such as creating a museum field trip for first-year students, organising a 'COP Cambridge' simulation for second-year students, and developing the dissertation 'research carousel'. 

Dr Christopher Tilmouth - Faculty of English:

Chris' visionary leadership has reshaped both undergraduate and postgraduate education at Cambridge. As Director of Undergraduate Studies, Chris introduced critical reforms to enhance student progression.

Dr Juliet Usher-Smith - Department of Public Health and Primary Care/Emmanuel College:

Juliet has made important contributions to the Department through direct teaching, supervision and mentoring and goes the extra mile to foster a culture in which teaching and learning is valued by all. 

The winners were presented with their awards by the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, at a ceremony also attended by Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education and Environmental Sustainability), Professor Bhaskar Vira. He said “The Pilkington Prize Award ceremony is one of my favourite events in the University calendar. It’s always deeply satisfying to see hard-working staff recognised for their commitment and dedication to teaching and learning. We all know that behind every great student is a great teacher and I feel privileged to work alongside such excellent colleagues.”

A total of fourteen dedicated and talented staff have been awarded the Pilkington Prize this year. The annual prizes are awarded in the name of Sir Alastair Pilkington to acknowledge excellence in teaching and to recognise the contribution each individual makes to a Department or Faculty. 

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Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh (Fellow of Darwin, Trinity alumna) has received a CBE for services to Climate Science and to the Public Communication of Climate Science.

"I am deeply honoured to accept this recognition, which is a reflection of the collective efforts of many scientists, communicators, educators, and advocates who strive every day to make climate science accurate, accessible and actionable at a time when honesty, clarity and urgency are more important than ever,” Professor Shuckburgh said.

Alongside leading the University of Cambridge’s major climate change initiative, Cambridge Zero, Emily is also Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology. Her primary research is focused on the application of artificial intelligence to climate science and in this context she is Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science, and co-Director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).

Professor Gordon Dougan (Fellow of Wolfson College), an Emeritus Professor who continues to work in the University’s Department of Medicine, and former Director of the Infection Health Challenge area at Wellcome, UK, has been awarded a CBE for services to Vaccines and to Global Health.

Professor Dougan is an internationally recognised expert in vaccinology, global health and infections. He was Head of Pathogens at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (WTSI) for over a decade and worked in the pharmaceutical industry (Wellcome Foundation/GSK) for part of his career, developing novel vaccines and other medicines. He has worked as an advisor to health agencies, industry, academia and regulatory agencies. He is an expert on the molecular basis of infection with a strong emphasis on pathogenic mechanisms/immunity, genomics, disease tracking and antibiotic resistance. He is currently President of the Microbiology Society of the UK.

He said: “I am delighted to receive this important recognition for my work and the people I have worked with and for. Applying science to the benefit of people and health is what I have been working toward throughout my career. I can recommend this path to anyone.”

Details of University alumni who are recognised in the King's Birthday Honours will be published on the University's alumni website.

The University extends its congratulations to all academics, staff and alumni who have received an honour.

Academics at the University of Cambridge are among those featured in the King's Birthday Honours 2025, which recognises the achievements and contributions of people across the UK.

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Why are there so many different kinds of animals and plants on Earth? One of biology’s big questions is how new species arise and how nature’s incredible diversity came to be.

Cichlid fish from Lake Malawi in East Africa offer a clue. In this single lake, over 800 different species have evolved from a common ancestor in a fraction of the time it took for humans and chimpanzees to evolve from their common ancestor.

What’s even more remarkable is that the diversification of cichlids happened all in the same body of water. Some of these fish became large predators, others adapted to eat algae, sift through sand, or feed on plankton. Each species found its own ecological niche.

Now, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Antwerp have determined how this evolution may have happened so quickly. Their results are reported in the journal Science.

The researchers looked at the DNA of over 1,300 cichlids to see if there’s something special about their genes that might explain this rapid evolution. “We discovered that, in some species, large chunks of DNA on five chromosomes are flipped – a type of mutation called a chromosomal inversion,” said senior author Hennes Svardal from the University of Antwerp.

Normally, when animals reproduce, their DNA gets reshuffled in a process called recombination – mixing the genetic material from both parents. But this mixing is blocked within a chromosomal inversion. This means that gene combinations within the inversion are passed down intact without mixing, generation after generation, keeping useful adaptations together and speeding up evolution.

“It’s sort of like a toolbox where all the most useful tools are stuck together, preserving winning genetic combinations that help fish adapt to different environments,” said first author Moritz Blumer from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.

These preserved sets of genes are sometimes called ‘supergenes. In Malawi cichlids, the supergenes seem to play several important roles. Although cichlid species can still interbreed, the inversions help keep species separate by preventing their genes from blending too much. This is especially useful in parts of the lake where fish live side by side – like in open sandy areas where there’s no physical separation between habitats.

The genes inside these supergenes often control traits that are key for survival and reproduction – such as vision, hearing, and behaviour. For example, fish living deep in the lake (down to 200 meters) need different visual abilities than those near the surface, require different food, and need to survive at higher pressures. Their supergenes help maintain those special adaptations.

“When different cichlid species interbred, entire inversions can be passed between them – bringing along key survival traits, like adaptations to specific environments, speeding up the process of evolution,” said Blumer.

The inversions also frequently act as sex chromosomes, helping determine whether a fish becomes male or female. Since sex chromosomes can influence how new species form, this opens new questions about how evolution works.

“While our study focused on cichlids, chromosomal inversions aren’t unique to them,” said co-senior author Professor Richard Durbin, from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics. “They’re also found in many other animals — including humans — and are increasingly seen as a key factor in evolution and biodiversity.”

“We have been studying the process of speciation for a long time,” said Svardal. “Now, by understanding how these supergenes evolve and spread, we’re getting closer to answering one of science’s big questions: how life on Earth becomes so rich and varied.”

Reference:
L. M. Blumer, V. Burskaia, I. Artiushin, J. Saha et al. ‘Introgression dynamics of sex- linked chromosomal inversions shape the Malawi cichlid radiation.’ Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adr9961

Researchers have found that chunks of ‘flipped’ DNA can help fish quickly adapt to new habitats and evolve into new species, acting as evolutionary ‘superchargers’.

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The Guardian calls it ‘shattering’. The Stage heralds it as a ‘challenging, artfully constructed indictment of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.’

Written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton, and directed by Burton, The Reckoning channels voices of Ukrainians across the country – a priest, a volunteer, a dentist, a security guard, a journalist – who are forced to confront the sudden horrors of invasion and occupation and to repair bonds of trust amid violence and fear. These voices are real, drawn from witness statements collected and conserved by the journalists and lawyers behind The Reckoning Project.

Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies and a Fellow of Robinson College at Cambridge, collaborated with Burton to help shape the play. His decades of research into Ukraine’s culture and society formed the basis for a grant in support of The Reckoning from the University of Cambridge’s AHRC Impact Starter Fund account.

“Our collaboration with Rory Finnin has been invaluable throughout the making of The Reckoning,” said Burton, who is also Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Dash Arts. “Rory’s insights into Ukraine’s past and present gave me deeper grounding as a director and co-writer and helped sharpen the questions the play asks of its audience.”

The Reckoning blends dynamic storytelling with movement, music, and food to forge new routes of solidarity and understanding with the audience. As Everything Theatre notes in a glowing review, “We leave not as passive spectators but as an active part of the struggle.”

Attendees share in a summer salad made over the course of the play by the Ukrainian and British cast – Tom Godwin, Simeon Kyslyi, Marianne Oldham, and Olga Safronova – who bring empathy, humour, and integrity to each scene. The conclusion of each performance features an invited speaker from the audience who comes to the stage to reckon with their own experience of the play from different ethical and intellectual perspectives.

Professor Finnin spoke on the play’s first night at the Arcola Theatre.

“Over three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, we are too often tempted to turn our eyes away from Ukraine,” said Finnin. “But The Reckoning empowers us to look closely and to see with new purpose. It has been an incredible privilege to support a dynamic work of art that brings Ukrainian voices to the fore and challenges us to listen and respond to them, with urgency and moral clarity.”

The Reckoning runs through 28 June at London’s Arcola Theatre.

The Reckoning is an intimate work of documentary theatre composed from a verified archive of witness testimonies chronicling Russia’s war of aggression. It is now playing at London’s Arcola Theatre to universal acclaim.

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Smartphone apps that track menstrual cycles are a ‘gold mine’ for consumer profiling, collecting information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.

This is according to a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, which argues that the financial worth of this data is ‘vastly underestimated’ by users who supply profit-driven companies with highly intimate details in a market lacking in regulation.

The report’s authors caution that cycle tracking app (CTA) data in the wrong hands could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring, health insurance discrimination and cyberstalking – and limit access to abortion.

They call for better governance of the booming ‘femtech’ industry to protect users when their data is sold at scale, arguing that apps must provide clear consent options rather than all-or-nothing data collection, and urge public health bodies to launch alternatives to commercial CTAs.

“Menstrual cycle tracking apps are presented as empowering women and addressing the gender health gap,” said Dr Stefanie Felsberger, lead author of the report from Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre. “Yet the business model behind their services rests on commercial use, selling user data and insights to third parties for profit.”

“There are real and frightening privacy and safety risks to women as a result of the commodification of the data collected by cycle tracking app companies.”

As most cycle tracking apps are targeted at women aiming to get pregnant, the download data alone is of huge commercial value, say researchers, as – other than home buying – no life event is linked to such dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour.

In fact, data on pregnancy is believed to be over two hundred times more valuable than data on age, gender or location for targeted advertising. The report points out that period tracking could also be used to target women at different points in their cycle. For example, the oestrogen or ‘mating’ phase could see an increase in cosmetics adverts.

Just the three most popular apps had estimated global download figures of a quarter of a billion in 2024. So-called femtech – digital products focused on women’s health and wellbeing – is estimated to reach over US$60 billion (£45 billion) by 2027, with cycle tracking apps making up half of this market.

With such intense demand for period tracking, the report argues that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) should develop its own transparent and trustworthy app to rival those from private companies, with apps allowing permission for data to be used in valid medical research.

“The UK is ideally positioned to solve the question of access to menstrual data for researchers, as well as privacy and data commodification concerns, by developing an NHS app to track menstrual cycles,” said Felsberger, who points out that Planned Parenthood in the US already has its own app, but the UK lacks an equivalent.

“Apps that are situated within public healthcare systems, and not driven primarily by profit, will mitigate privacy violations, provide much-needed data on reproductive health, and give people more agency over how their menstrual data is used.”

“The use of cycle tracking apps is at an all-time high,” said Prof Gina Neff, Executive Director of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre. “Women deserve better than to have their menstrual tracking data treated as consumer data, but there is a different possible future.”

“Researchers could use this data to help answer questions about women’s health. Care providers could use this data for important information about their patients’ health. Women could get meaningful insights that they are searching for,” Neff said.

In the UK and EU, period tracking data is considered ‘special category’, as with that on genetics or ethnicity, and has more legal safeguarding. However, the report highlights how in the UK, apps designed for women's health have been used to charge women for illegally accessing abortion services

In the US, data about menstrual cycles has been collected by officials in an attempt to undermine abortion access. Despite this, data from CTAs are regulated simply as ‘general wellness’ and granted no special protections.

“Menstrual tracking data is being used to control people’s reproductive lives,” said Felsberger. “It should not be left in the hands of private companies.”

Investigations by media, non-profit, and consumer groups have revealed CTAs sharing data with third parties ranging from advertisers and data brokers to tech giants such as Facebook and Google.

The report cites work published earlier this year from Privacy International showing that, while the major CTA companies have updated their approach to data sharing, device information is still collected in the UK and US with “no meaningful consent”.

Despite data protection improvements, the report suggests that user information is still shared with third parties such as cloud-based delivery networks that move the data around, and outside developers contracted to handle app functionalities.

At the very least, commercial apps could include delete buttons, says Felsberger, allowing users to erase data in the app as well as the company servers, helping protect against situations – from legal to medical – where data could be used against them. 

“Menstrual tracking in the US should be classed as medical data,” said Felsberger. “In the UK and EU, where this data is already afforded special category status, more focus needs to be placed on enforcing existing regulation.”

The report stresses the need to improve public awareness and digital literacy around period tracking. The researchers argue that schools should educate students on medical data apps and privacy, so young people are less vulnerable to health hoaxes.

The report ‘The High Stakes of Tracking Menstruation’ is authored by Dr Stefanie Felsberger with a foreword by Professor Gina Neff and published by the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy (MCTD).

Cambridge researchers urge public health bodies like the NHS to provide trustworthy, research-driven alternatives to platforms driven by profit.

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The Edison Histotripsy System was purchased thanks to a generous donation to the University of Cambridge from Hong Kong-based philanthropist Sir Ka-shing Li, a longstanding supporter of cancer research at the University.

Histotripsy uses pulsed sound waves to create ‘bubble clouds’ from gases present in targeted tissue. These bubble clouds form and collapse in microseconds, creating mechanical forces able to destroy tissue at cellular and sub-cellular levels while avoiding ionising energy of radiation, heat damage from thermal treatments, or the need for surgery.

Treatment is delivered via a single short session – potentially taking no longer than 30 minutes – with limited or no pain, a quick recovery, and can be performed as a day case. The speed of delivery has the potential to reduce cancer treatment times, avoid disease progression and improve cancer survival.

The system will be demonstrated today by Dr Teik Choon See, Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH). Guests will include Solina Chau, Director of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, and Baroness Merron, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

The machine, manufactured by HistoSonics, is expected to be fully installed at CUH later this year, where it will be used initially to treat patients with primary and secondary liver tumours before being expanded to treat tumours in other organs.

Previously, 23 patients from Europe were recruited in a histotripsy clinical trial that was completed in 2022. So far, over 1,500 patients worldwide have received treatment using histotripsy, mainly in the United States following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in late 2023. The machine at Cambridge will be the first in the UK and Europe to treat patients as part of their clinical care pathway, outside the trial setting

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “Through his longstanding support of cancer research at Cambridge, Sir Ka-shing Li continues to make a significant impact on outcomes for cancer patients. Cutting-edge technology such as this histotripsy machine allows Cambridge to remain at the forefront of understanding and treating cancer, a position we aim to strengthen further with Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.”

Roland Sinker, Chief Executive of CUH said: “Histotripsy is an exciting new technology that will make a huge difference to patients. By offering this non-invasive, more targeted treatment we can care for more people as outpatients and free up time for surgeons to treat more complex cases. The faster recovery times mean patients will be able to return to their normal lives more quickly, which will also reduce pressure on hospital beds, helping us ensure that patients are able to receive the right treatment at the right time. We are delighted to be receiving this new state of the art machine.”

Fiona, who has lived with cancer for over two decades, is Co-Chair of the Patient Advisory Group for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, and has been involved in planning and designing the new hospital, said: “This is seriously good news. A new, non-invasive option to treat these cancers is very welcome indeed. For patients for whom ordinary surgery is no longer an option, this could make all the difference.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting granted authorisation for controlled early access to the device via an unmet clinical need authorisation. Available through the UK’s Innovative Devices Access Pathway programme, this bypasses red tape to accelerate lengthy authorisation stages, so NHS patients benefit from it years earlier than planned.

Wes Streeting said: “Bureaucracy has become a handbrake on ambition, stopping innovation in its tracks and holding our health service back. But through our Plan for Change, we are slashing red tape, so game-changing new treatments reach the NHS front line quicker – transforming healthcare.  

“Regulation is vital to protect patients. However, as the pace of innovation ramps up, our processes must be more agile to help speed the shift from analogue to digital. Our common-sense approach to regulation will streamline approval processes so countless more patients are liberated from life-limiting conditions.”

Last year, an £11million donation was made in honour of Sir Ka-shing Li to support the now-renamed Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute. Sir Ka-shing Li has previously made generous donations to support cancer research at the University, including in 2007 to the Li Ka Shing Centre, which houses the CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Cutting-edge technology such as the histotripsy machine will enable Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a partnership with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge, to change the story of cancer. The University and Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust (ACT) are fundraising for the new hospital, which will transform how we diagnose and treat cancer. The hospital will treat patients across the East of England, but the research that takes place there promises to change the lives of cancer patients across the UK and beyond. Find out more here.

NHS patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, will become the first in the UK and Europe to undergo incisionless ultrasound surgery using a cutting-edge ‘histotripsy machine’ as part of their cancer care.

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The scholarships, aimed at exceptionally high-potential domestic and international students, will support study towards AI-related Masters degrees and provide an unparalleled package of benefits. Students will receive full tuition fees, a living stipend, and access to priority work placements with leading UK artificial intelligence companies and government institutions.

The programme, which will open to its first cohort in the 2026–27 academic year, intends to enrol 100 scholars over its first 4 years. Scholars will be selected from the top 1% of AI talent worldwide, with applicants required to demonstrate academic excellence, leadership, and ambassadorial potential, alongside a STEM background.

Uniquely, the Spärck AI Scholarships will provide its students with priority access to work placements within UK-based AI companies and organisations, including the UK government’s AI Security Institute (AISI) and i.AI, their in-house AI incubator.

The scholarships are named in honour of Professor Karen Spärck Jones (1935–2007), pictured, a pioneering British computer scientist whose ground breaking work at Cambridge laid the foundations for modern search engines and natural language processing. One of the most remarkable women in computer science, her seminal 1972 paper introduced the concept of inverse document frequency, a fundamental principle still central to information retrieval today.

karen_sparck.jpg

Professor Deborah Prentice, University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, said: “Cambridge combines academic excellence with a dynamic, interdisciplinary AI community, from foundational research to real-world impact. We are delighted to be a founding partner in this ambitious initiative, which reflects a shared commitment to attracting exceptional talent and reinforcing the UK’s position as a home for world-class AI. We are especially proud that these scholarships are named after Karen Spärck Jones, a brilliant Cambridge computer scientist.”

A long-time member of the Cambridge community, Professor Spärck Jones was an undergraduate at Girton College (1953 to 1956), a Research Fellow at Newnham College (1965 to 1968), an Official Fellow of Darwin College (1968 to 1980) and a Fellow of Wolfson College (2000 to 2007).

She began her research career at the Cambridge Language Research Unit in the late 1950s and later taught for the MPhil in Computer Speech and Language Processing, on language systems, and for the Computer Science Tripos on information retrieval. She supervised many Cambridge PhD students across a wide range of topics and was a tireless advocate for women in computing, famously declaring: “I think it's very important to get more women into computing. My slogan is: computing is too important to be left to men.”

Her international influence was recognised by numerous awards, including the ACM SIGIR Salton Award, the BCS Lovelace Medal, and election as a Fellow of the British Academy (of which she was also Vice-President from 2000 to 2002) and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

The University of Cambridge is delighted to honour her legacy by co-founding this exciting new programme, which was formally announced at London Tech Week.

On 9 June, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced the launch of the Spärck AI Scholarships, a major new initiative to nurture the next generation of AI leaders, with Cambridge proud to join as a founding partner.

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The Cambridge x Manchester Innovation Partnership – the first trans-UK innovation collaboration of its kind – will receive £4.8m of funding from Research England over 3 years, it has been announced. With further investment from the 2 universities, the total funding for the partnership will be £6m. The initiative aims to strengthen research networks, accelerate scale-up growth, drive private sector investment into research and development, and attract new foreign direct investment.

Led by the universities of Cambridge and Manchester, ‘CBG×MCR’ is supported by 2 mayoral combined authorities, city councils, key businesses (such as AstraZeneca, ARM, ROKU, and Microsoft), venture capitalists (Northern Gritstone and CIC), and angel investors (Cambridge and Manchester Angels).

As well as strengthening relations within and between the 2 cities, the partnership – fronted by Innovate Cambridge and Unit M – will pilot new approaches for delivering inclusive growth, providing insights to other cities, the wider higher education sector community, and local and national governments in the UK and internationally.

In the UK, collaboration has traditionally been focused on geographically proximate areas, such as Manchester-Liverpool, or Edinburgh-Glasgow. This new model of hyper-connected, place-to-place partnering – similar to those developed in the USA’s Northeast Corridor, Coastal California, and China’s Greater Bay Area – combines complementary innovation capabilities to create globally competitive connected ecosystems.

Amplifying what each city can achieve independently, the model aims to drive national economic growth, responding directly to the UK government’s national industrial strategy.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “This pioneering initiative brings together the combined strengths of Cambridge and Manchester to create something that is truly groundbreaking. By connecting our cities, we’re helping to build a more collaborative and dynamic environment in which innovative research can connect with industry, venture capital, and entrepreneurs, to drive economic growth and deliver real benefits for people and places across the UK.”

Paul Bristow, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said: "This is exactly the kind of partnership working we need to fire up innovation-led growth in both our regions. I’m delighted to see it backed with new funding. By joining forces to drive the discoveries of tomorrow, we can bring in investment, support exciting new businesses, and deliver real jobs and opportunity for our communities."

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Manchester, said: "Our partnership with Cambridge marks a new model of collaboration between UK universities. It brings together the distinctive strengths of each of our universities and cities, connecting 2 of the great innovation ecosystems to scale up what we can achieve. This new approach to innovation accelerates the time between discovery and impact, getting ideas into the real economy and our communities even more quickly to drive inclusive growth.”

Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, said: “This investment underscores our commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration across England. By connecting the vibrant ecosystems of Cambridge and Manchester, we aim to drive significant economic growth and create a model for place-based innovation that can be replicated nationwide."

Cambridge will join forces with Manchester as part of a pioneering collaboration to harness the combined strengths of both universities and cities – and boost innovation and growth for the whole of the UK

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The Guardian has launched Secure Messaging as a module within its mobile news app to provide a secure and usable method of establishing initial contact between journalists and sources.

It builds on a technology - CoverDrop –developed by Cambridge researchers and includes a wide range of security features. The code is available online and is open source, to encourage adoption by other news organisations.

The app automatically generates regular decoy messages to the Guardian to create ‘air cover’ for genuine messages, even when they are passing through the cloud, preventing an adversary from finding out if any communication between a whistleblower and a journalist is taking place.

“This provides whistleblowers with plausible deniability,” said Professor Alastair Beresford from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology.

“That’s important in a world of pervasive surveillance where it has become increasingly hazardous to be a whistleblower,” said Cambridge’s Dr Daniel Hugenroth, who co-led the development of CoverDrop with Beresford.

The technology also provides digital ‘dead drops’ – like virtual bins or park benches – where messages are left for journalists to retrieve. These are just two of a suite of functions that protect a source from discovery even if their smartphone is seized or stolen.

CoverDrop encrypts outgoing messages between the source and their named contact at the news organisation to ensure no other party can read their content. For this, it relies on cryptography using digital security key pairs consisting of a public and a secret key.

The source is given the public key that instructs the existing encryption technology on their smartphone to encrypt their messages to the Guardian. This key only works one way, so it can lock – but not unlock – their messages. The only person able to decode them is the whistleblower’s named contact at the Guardian, who uses their secret key to retrieve and decode the messages left in the dead drop.

CoverDrop also pads all messages to the same length, making it harder for adversaries – whether acting on their own behalf or for an organisation or state – to distinguish real messages from decoy ones. 

The system fulfils a need long identified by media organisations: providing a highly secure, yet easy-to-use, system for potential sources who want to contact them with sensitive information.

“The Guardian is committed to public-interest journalism,” said Luke Hoyland, product manager for investigations and reporting at The Guardian. “Much of this is possible thanks to first-hand accounts from witnesses to wrongdoing. We believe whistleblowing is an important part of a functioning democracy and will always do our utmost to avoid putting sources at risk. So we're delighted to have worked with the University of Cambridge on turning their groundbreaking CoverDrop research into a reality.”

The research began with workshops with UK news organisations to find out how potential sources first contacted them. The researchers learned that whistleblowers often reach out to them via platforms that are either insecure or hard to use.

Beresford said that when they started looking for a practical solution to this problem, “we realised that news organisations already run a widely available platform from which they can offer a secure, usable method of initial contact – their mobile news app.”

“When sources send messages, their confidentiality and integrity can be assured through the secure messaging protocols on their smartphone,” said Hugenroth. “CoverDrop goes one step further and also protects the communication patterns between sources and journalists by using decoy messages to provide cover and padding all messages to the same length.”

Importantly, the researchers say, users of the new CoverDrop system won’t need to install any specialist software that chews up large amounts of battery power or slows down their phones.

Its simple interface looks and works just like a typical messaging app. And there are no traces left on the device that the CoverDrop system has ever been used on that phone before.

“When you open the app,” said Beresford, “even if you’ve already set up an account on it, the CoverDrop feature will look as though you haven’t used it. Its home screen will only offer two prompts – ‘Get started’ or ‘Check your message vault’. This is because if it’s stolen, or a user is under duress, we don’t want your phone to reveal to anyone that you’ve already used it.”

The development of CoverDrop began in the years after the whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former US intelligence contractor, leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programmes.

This showed, the researchers said, the mass surveillance infrastructure available to nation states, which has profound implications for those who wish to expose wrongdoing within companies, organisations, and government.

Work on CoverDrop was first unveiled at an international Symposium on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies in 2022 by the Cambridge researchers (who originally included the late Professor Ross Anderson, a leader in security engineering and privacy).

When they published their peer-reviewed paper on the research at the conference, it attracted interest from the Guardian which, in collaboration with the researchers, subsequently helped develop CoverDrop from an academic prototype into a fully usable technology.

“The free press fulfils an important function in a democracy,” said Beresford. “It can provide individuals with a mechanism through which they can hold powerful people and organisations to account. We’re delighted that the Guardian is the first media organisation to adopt CoverDrop and will use it to help protect their sources.”

“All the CoverDrop code will be available online and open source,” said Hugenroth. “This transparency is essential for security-critical software and allows others to audit and improve it. Open-sourcing the code also means that other news organisations, particularly those with expertise in investigative journalism, could also use it. We would be excited to see them do so.”

References:
Mansoor Ahmed-Rengers et al. ‘CoverDrop: Blowing the Whistle Through A News App.’ Paper presented at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium. 12 July 2022, Sydney, Australia. DOI: 10.2478/popets-2022-0035

A new technical report on CoverDrop, describing its architecture and explaining how it works, is available at: www.coverdrop.org/coverdrop_guardian_implementation_june_2025.pdf

Whistleblowers can contact journalists more securely thanks to a new confidential and anonymous messaging technology co-developed by University of Cambridge researchers and software engineers at the Guardian.

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Efstathiou, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, shares the prize with Professor John Richard Bond from the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and the University of Toronto.

They were recognised for their pioneering research in cosmology, in particular for their studies of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. Their predictions have been verified by an armada of ground-, balloon- and space-based instruments, leading to precise determinations of the age, geometry, and mass-energy content of the universe.

Cosmology has undergone a revolution in the past two decades, driven mainly by increasingly precise measurements of the angular power spectrum of fluctuations in the temperature and polarisation fields of the cosmic microwave background, a relic of the early universe, most notably by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe spacecraft (2001–2010) and the European Space Agency’s Planck spacecraft (2009–2013).

These fluctuations are small — the strength of the background radiation is the same in all directions to better than 0.01% and it is only slightly polarised — but they offer a glimpse of the universe when it was very young, a test of many aspects of fundamental physics, insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and measurements of many fundamental cosmological parameters with accuracies unimaginable to cosmologists a few decades ago.

Although many researchers contributed to the development of the theoretical framework that governs the behaviour of the cosmic microwave background, Bond and Efstathiou emphasised the importance of the background as a cosmological probe and took the crucial step of making precise predictions for what can be learned from specific models of the history and the composition of the mass and energy in the universe.

Modern numerical codes used to interpret the experimental results are based almost entirely on the physics developed by Bond and Efstathiou. Their work exemplifies one of the rare cases in astrophysics where later experimental studies accurately confirmed unambiguous, powerful theoretical predictions.

The interpretation of these experiments through Bond and Efstathiou’s theoretical models shows that the spatial geometry of the observable universe is nearly flat, and yields the age of the universe with a precision of 0.15%, the rate of expansion of the universe with a precision of 0.5%, the fraction of the critical density arising from dark energy to better than 1%, and so on. The measurements also strongly constrain theories of the early universe that might have provided the initial “seed” for all the cosmic structure we see today, and the nature of the dark matter and dark energy that dominate the mass-energy content of the universe.

Both Bond and Efstathiou have worked closely with experimentalists to bring their predictions to the test: they have been heavily involved in the analysis of cosmic microwave background data arising from a wide variety of experiments of growing sophistication and accuracy.

George Efstathiou received his BA in Physics from the University of Oxford and PhD in Astronomy from Durham University. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, USA and the University of Cambridge. He was Savilian Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford, where he served as Head of Astrophysics until 1994. He returned to Cambridge in 1997 as Professor of Astrophysics, where he also served as Director of the Institute of Astronomy and the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology. He received the 2022 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and the Royal Astronomical Society, UK. He is a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.

Originally published on the Shaw Prize website. 

Professor George Efstathiou has been awarded the Shaw Prize in Astronomy, one of the biggest prizes in the field.

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First held in 1864, Varsity Athletics remains an enduring symbol of sporting excellence and tradition. This year’s event, hosted at Wilberforce Road Sports Ground in Cambridge, was made even more special by a prestigious recognition from World Athletics: the awarding of two Heritage Plaques to Cambridge University Athletic Club (CUAC) and the Varsity Match itself.

World Athletics Heritage Plaque

Founded in 1857, CUAC is one of the oldest athletics clubs in the world. It played a pivotal role in the development of modern athletics, contributing to the rules and formats that govern the sport today. "Cambridge University Athletic Club is among a small group of pioneering organisations that helped shape modern athletics," World Athletics noted in its announcement.

In honour of this distinguished history, World Athletics CEO and Cambridge alumnus Jon Ridgeon (Magdalene College) returned to his alma mater to present the plaques during the Varsity weekend. 

Athletics Varsity 2025

Living up to the historic occasion, fierce but friendly rivalry was on display, with Cambridge securing victories in:

• Men’s Blues
• Para Team
• Men's 2nds
• Women’s 2nds

In an interview with Varsity newspaper ahead of the Athletics Varsity, CUAC President Jess Poon reflected on the club’s evolution and the importance of the Varsity Matches. She highlighted the club’s embrace of inclusivity, particularly with the expansion of women's and para-athletics matches, and celebrated the sense of tradition and camaraderie that continues to define the event.

Athletics Varsity plaque giving

This milestone celebration aligns closely with the University’s priority to encourage participation in sport and physical activity at all levels. Sport plays a critical role in supporting mental wellbeing, fostering leadership and communication skills, and enhancing employability among students.

Across the University, activity priorities include:

• Club Support Programme: Aimed at helping sports clubs like CUAC deliver high-quality training and competition experiences, ensuring sustainability and growth.
• University of Cambridge Athlete Performance Programme (UCAPP): Providing specialist support for high-performing athletes, enabling them to excel both in their sport and academically.
• Active Students Initiative: Promoting sport and physical activity for all students, regardless of ability or experience level, through programmes like 'Give it a Go', designed to remove barriers and encourage lifelong engagement with physical activity.

Bhaskar Vira, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Chair of the Sports Committee, has expressed the University’s enthusiasm for supporting sport: "Involvement in physical activity and sports provides a much-needed release from the intense pressures that are associated with life at Cambridge. I firmly believe that these are inherently complementary pursuits, allowing participants to achieve a balance between their work commitments and their own personal wellbeing."

The 150th Men's, 50th Women's, and 2nd Para Athletics Varsity Matches not only celebrated a rich and trailblazing past but also pointed towards a vibrant future, powered by a University-wide commitment to excellence, inclusion, and wellbeing in sport.

As Cambridge looks to build on this legacy, the University invites alumni and supporters to help sustain and grow these opportunities - ensuring that generations of Cambridge students continue to benefit from the profound personal, academic, and societal advantages that sport and physical activity bring.

Find out more information on how to support sport at Cambridge.

Varsity Athletics team

The world’s oldest athletics competition — the annual contest between Cambridge and Oxford — reached a landmark celebration this year, commemorating 150 years of men's competition, 50 years of women's competition, and the second year of the para-athletics Varsity. 

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The research team, led by the University of Cambridge, used the GPT-4 large language model (LLM) to identify hidden patterns buried in the mountains of scientific literature to identify potential new cancer drugs.

To test their approach, the researchers prompted GPT-4 to identify potential new drug combinations that could have a significant impact on a breast cancer cell line commonly used in medical research. They instructed it to avoid standard cancer drugs, identify drugs that would attack cancer cells while not harming healthy cells, and prioritise drugs that were affordable and approved by regulators.

The drug combinations suggested by GPT-4 were then tested by human scientists, both in combination and individually, to measure their effectiveness against breast cancer cells.

In the first lab-based test, three of the 12 drug combinations suggested by GPT-4 worked better than current breast cancer drugs. The LLM then learned from these tests and suggested a further four combinations, three of which also showed promising results.

The results, reported in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, represent the first instance of a closed-loop system where experimental results guided an LLM, and LLM outputs – interpreted by human scientists – guided further experiments. The researchers say that tools such as LLMs are not a replacement for scientists, but could instead be supervised AI researchers, with the ability to originate, adapt and accelerate discovery in areas like cancer research.

Often, LLMs such as GPT-4 return results that aren’t true, known as hallucinations. However, in scientific research, hallucinations can sometimes be beneficial if they lead to new ideas that are worth testing.

“Supervised LLMs offer a scalable, imaginative layer of scientific exploration, and can help us as human scientists explore new paths that we hadn’t thought of before,” said Professor Ross King from Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, who led the research. “This can be useful in areas such as drug discovery, where there are many thousands of compounds to search through.”

Based on the prompts provided by the human scientists, GPT-4 selected drugs based on the interplay between biological reasoning and hidden patterns in the scientific literature.

“This is not automation replacing scientists, but a new kind of collaboration,” said co-author Dr Hector Zenil from King’s College London. “Guided by expert prompts and experimental feedback, the AI functioned like a tireless research partner—rapidly navigating an immense hypothesis space and proposing ideas that would take humans alone far longer to reach.”

The hallucinations – normally viewed as flaws – became a feature, generating unconventional combinations worth testing and validating in the lab. The human scientists inspected the mechanistic reasons the LLM found to suggest these combinations in the first place, feeding the system back and forth in multiple iterations.

By exploring subtle synergies and overlooked pathways, GPT-4 helped identify six promising drug pairs, all tested through lab experiments. Among the combinations, simvastatin (commonly used to lower cholesterol) and disulfiram (used in alcohol dependence) stood out against breast cancer cells. Some of these combinations show potential for further research in therapeutic repurposing.

These drugs, while not traditionally associated with cancer care, could be potential cancer treatments, although they would first have to go through extensive clinical trials.

“This study demonstrates how AI can be woven directly into the iterative loop of scientific discovery, enabling adaptive, data-informed hypothesis generation and validation in real time,” said Zenil.

“The capacity of supervised LLMs to propose hypotheses across disciplines, incorporate prior results, and collaborate across iterations marks a new frontier in scientific research,” said King. “An AI scientist is no longer a metaphor without experimental validation: it can now be a collaborator in the scientific process.”

The research was supported in part by the Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Find out more about how Cambridge is changing the story of cancer.

Reference:
Abbi Abdel-Rehim et al. ‘Scientific Hypothesis Generation by Large Language Models: Laboratory Validation in Breast Cancer Treatment.’ Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2025). DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2024.0674

An ‘AI scientist’, working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs – used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence – could also be effective at treating cancer, a promising new approach to drug discovery.

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Imagine a plant with entirely new abilities – more nutritious food, crops that survive heatwaves, or leaves that grow useful materials. With new ARIA funding Cambridge researchers hope to unlock the technology to fast-track crop development and enhance plants with new qualities, like drought-tolerance to reduce the amount of water they need, or the ability to withstand pests and diseases.

Their research has the potential to revolutionise the future of agriculture and offer a radical new approach to securing food supply in the face of climate change.

Programmable plants – a major leap in plant biology

“We’re building the tools to make plants programmable, just like software. This isn’t science fiction – it’s the future of agriculture,” said Professor Jake Harris, Head of the Chromatin and Memory group, and project lead for one of the ARIA-funded projects.

Harris’ team is awarded £6.5 million to build the world’s first artificial plant chromosome.

The ambitious aim of the Synthetic Plants programme is to develop artificial chromosomes and chloroplasts that can survive in a living plant. If the teams achieve this, it will be one the most significant advances in plant synthetic biology.

The international team involves collaborators from The University of Western Australia, biotech company Phytoform Labs and the Australian Genome Foundry at Macquarie University.

“Our idea is that instead of modifying an existing chromosome, we design it from the ground up,” Professor Harris said.

He added: “We’re rethinking what plants can do for us. This synthetic chromosome could one day help grow crops that are more productive, more resilient, and better for the planet.”

While synthetic chromosomes have been achieved in simpler organisms, such as bacteria and yeast, this will be the first attempt to create and deploy one entirely from scratch in a plant.

The project will use the moss Physcomitrium patens – a unique, highly engineerable plant – as a development platform to build and test a bottom-up synthetic chromosome, before transferring it into potato plants.

It also opens new possibilities for growing food and medicines in space, and for indoor agriculture. It could allow scientists to give elite crop varieties disease resistance, or to grow productively in new climates and environments.

Unlocking powerful applications in agriculture

The second funded project, led by Professor Alison Smith and Dr Paweł Mordaka in the Plant Metabolism group, aims to use the synthetic chloroplasts to enable plants to fix nitrogen, and produce vitamin B12. The use of fertilisers to supply nitrogen and promote good crop yields is the greatest cause of pollution from agriculture; reducing the need for these would promote more sustainable food production systems.

This builds on their previous work to design and build the entire chloroplast genome for the simple single-cell alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The Cambridge researchers are awarded almost £1 million, as part of a £9 million grant to this project. They are working with an international team of researchers from the UK, USA and Germany to transfer this technology to build synthetic chloroplasts in potato plants.

Professor Smith said: “Our success would unlock powerful applications in agriculture, like plants capable of nitrogen fixation or producing essential nutrients like vitamin B12, potentially reducing fertiliser dependence and addressing malnutrition. These traits have tremendous potential should they be engineered into plants.”

She added: “It will enable scientists to surpass what can be accomplished with gene editing and equip plants with new functions, from reducing agricultural water use to protecting crop yields in uncertain conditions.”

A unique opportunity

The ambitiousness of this project is outside the scope of most other UK funding schemes. Professor Harris believes this stems from ARIA’s unique approach to developing the research opportunity and goal along with the research community.

Harris said: “ARIA had a couple of events with synthetic biologists to look at what’s on the edge of possible, what could be useful as a moonshot approach that could really change things.”

He added: “It’s a totally different way of seeing things. We went from ‘here’s what we want to see in the world’ to ‘how are we going to get there?’ It catalysed a different team and a different way of thinking.”

“This work moves us beyond the limitations of natural genomes. It’s about designing entirely new capabilities in plants – from the molecular level up.”

Currently, it typically takes eight years to develop a new crop variety in the UK, but with this new technology it could be a matter of one year or even less. The speed of development would be dramatically increased, much in the way that revolutionary protein-folding technology like AlphaFold has massively accelerated the process of drug discovery.

Synthetic biology is already revolutionising the world of healthcare and could transform agriculture if applied to tailoring plant traits.

Two groups involving researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences are among nine teams to have been awarded funding today from the UK’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA)’s Synthetic Plants programme.

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Dealroom’s Global Tech Ecosystem Index analyses and compares start-up ecosystems in 288 cities across 69 countries. To measure innovation intensity, it looks for ecosystems that are performing well relative to their population size. These hubs typically have high start-up activity, research intensity and strong links with local universities.

Diarmuid O’Brien, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Cambridge, said: “It’s great to see that, as a relatively small city, Cambridge continues to lead the UK in innovation intensity but it’s no accident that we punch above our weight. In recent years, the University and the wider ecosystem have put in place a range of initiatives to ensure that we realise our potential and are able to bring transformative science and technologies out of the lab and into the real world.”

Gerard Grech, Head of Founders at the University of Cambridge, which supports new ventures emerging from the University, added: “Cambridge is proof of what happens when world-class research meets relentless ambition. While global venture capital funding in 2024 pulled back, Cambridge doubled investment – a powerful signal that deep tech innovation is increasingly leading the way in shaping our future economies.

“What makes Cambridge unique is its cutting-edge science, an increasing flywheel of people who have successfully scaled ventures, and a culture built to turn ground-breaking ideas into transformative companies.”

A new report by Dealroom shows that Cambridge is, for its size, the most innovative city in the UK. Globally, it ranks fourth behind US innovation powerhouses San Francisco, Boston and New York. 

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The new Fellows have been recognised for their remarkable contributions to advancing medical science, groundbreaking research discoveries and translating developments into benefits for patients and the wider public. Their work exemplifies the Academy’s mission to create an open and progressive research sector that improves health for everyone.

They join an esteemed Fellowship of 1,450 researchers who are at the heart of the Academy’s work, which includes nurturing the next generation of scientists and shaping research and health policy in the UK and worldwide.

One of Cambridge’s new Fellows, Professor Sam Behjati, is a former recipient of the Academy’s prestigious Foulkes Foundation medal, which recognises rising stars within biomedical research. Sam is Clinical Professor of Paediatric Oncology at the University and an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, as well as Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. His research is rooted in cancer genomics, phylogenetics, and single cell transcriptomics and spans a wide range of diseases and biological problems. More recently, his work has focused on the origin of cancers, in particular of childhood cancer. In addition, he explores how to use genomic data to improve the treatment of children. Sam is a Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Also elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship are:

Professor Clare Bryant, Departments of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Clare Bryant is Professor of Innate Immunity. She studies innate immune cell signalling during bacterial infection to answer fundamental questions about host-pathogen interactions and to search for new drugs to modify them. She also applies these approaches to study inflammatory signalling in chronic diseases of humans and animals.  Clare has extensive collaborations with many pharmaceutical companies, is on the scientific advisory board of several biotech companies, and helped found the natural product company Polypharmakos. Clare is a Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge.

Professor Frank Reimann, Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories

Frank Reimann is Professor of Endocrine Signaling. The main focus of his group, run in close partnership with Fiona Gribble, is the enteroendocrine system within the gut, which helps regulate digestion, metabolism, and how full we feel. Their work has included the use of animal models and human cellular models to understand how cells function. One of these cells, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is the target of therapies now widely used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus and obesity. How cells shape feeding behaviour has become a major focus of the lab in recent years.

Professor Mina Ryten, UK Dementia Research Institute

Mina Ryten is a clinical geneticist and neuroscientist, and Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at Cambridge since January 2024. She also holds the Van Geest Professorship and leads a lab focused on understanding molecular mechanisms driving neurodegeneration. Mina’s research looks at how genetic variation influences neurological diseases, particularly Lewy body disorders. Her work has advanced the use of single cell and long-read RNA sequencing to map disease pathways and identify potential targets for new treatments. Her expertise in clinical care and functional genomics has enabled her to bridge the gap between patient experience and scientific discovery.

Professor Andrew Morris CBE FRSE PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: “The breadth of disciplines represented in this year’s cohort – from mental health and infectious disease to cancer biology and respiratory medicine – reflects the rich diversity of medical science today. Their election comes at a crucial time when scientific excellence and collaboration across disciplines are essential for addressing global health challenges both now and in the future. We look forward to working with them to advance biomedical research and create an environment where the best science can flourish for the benefit of people everywhere.”

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a ceremony on Wednesday 9 July 2025.

Four Cambridge biomedical and health researchers are among those announced today as newly-elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

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Around 10% of women have very dense breasts. Between the ages of 50 and 70, these women are up to four-times more likely to develop breast cancer compared to women with low breast density.

Over 2.2 million women receive breast screening in the UK each year. For women with very dense breasts, mammograms (breast X-rays), which are used for breast screening, can be less effective at detecting cancer. This is because denser breasts look whiter on mammograms, which makes it harder to spot small early-stage cancers which also appear white.

Published today in The Lancet, a trial of over 9000 women across the UK who have dense breasts and had a negative (no cancer) mammogram result, found 85 cancers.

The trial, called BRAID, tested different scanning methods that could be used in addition to mammograms to detect cancers in dense breasts. Per 1000 women screened, two of the methods detected 17-19 cancers that were not seen in mammograms.

The two methods are known as CEM (contrast enhanced mammography) and AB-MRI (abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging).

The researchers that ran the trial recommend that adding either of these methods to existing breast screening could detect 3,500 more cancers per year in the UK. Estimates suggest that screening reduces mortality for about 20% of cancers detected, so this could mean an extra 700 lives saved each year.

BRAID also included a third scanning method, ABUS (automated whole breast ultrasound), which also detected cancers not seen in mammograms but was three times less effective than CEM and AB-MRI.

Each of the three methods was used to scan around 2000 women. Per 1000 women scanned, CEM detected 19 cancers, AB-MRI found 17 cancers, and ABUS found 4.

Mammograms already detect approximately 8 cancers per 1000 women with dense breasts. This means additional scans could more than treble breast cancer detection in this group of women.

BRAID is the first trial to directly compare supplemental imaging methods and to demonstrate their value for early cancer detection as part of widespread screening. The team hope their results will be used to enhance screening programmes in the UK and globally to diagnose more cancers early.

More work is needed to confirm whether additional scans will reduce the number of deaths as cancers detected through screening are not always life-threatening.

The trial was led from Cambridge. It recruited across 10 UK sites, including over 2000 women at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

The research was led by Professor Fiona Gilbert, Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge and honorary consultant radiologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH). The trial was funded by Cancer Research UK with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Professor Gilbert said: “Getting a cancer diagnosis early makes a huge difference for patients in terms of their treatment and outlook. We need to change our national screening programme so we can make sure more cancers are diagnosed early, giving many more women a much better chance of survival.”

Professor Stephen Duffy, Emeritus Professor, Queen Mary University, London, trial statistician and screening programme expert said: “The NHS Breast Screening Programme has made a huge difference to many lives. Thanks to these results we can see that the technology exists to make screening even better, particularly for the 10% of women with dense breast tissue."

Dr David Crosby, head of prevention and early detection at Cancer Research UK, said: “Breast cancer screening is for people without symptoms and helps to spot the disease at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be successful. But having dense breasts can make it harder to detect cancer.

“This study shows that making blood vessels more visible during mammograms could make it much easier for doctors to spot signs of cancer in women with dense breasts. More research is needed to fully understand the effectiveness of these techniques, but these results are encouraging.

“Remember, having dense breasts is not something you can check for yourself or change, but if you’re concerned at all, you can speak to your GP.”

Reference
Gilbert, FJ et al. Comparison of supplemental imaging techniques – interim results of BRAID (Breast Screening: risk adapted imaging for density) randomized controlled trial. Lancet; 22 May 2025; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00582-3 

Press release from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Researchers in Cambridge are calling for additional scans to be added to breast screening for women with very dense breasts. This follows a large-scale trial, which shows that extra scans could treble cancer detection for these women, potentially saving up to 700 lives a year in the UK.

Louise Duffield, age 60, a grandmother of four from Ely was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer as a result of the BRAID trial.

Louise works in local government. She spends her free time knitting, and visiting 1940s events around the UK with her husband, Fred, and their two restored wartime Jeep. She is enthusiastic about clinical research and has previously participated as a healthy participant in several studies.

In 2023, Louise was invited to participate in the BRAID trial following her regular mammogram screening, which showed that she had very dense breasts. As part of the trial, Louise had an AB-MRI scan which identified a small lump deep inside one of her breasts.

“When they rang to say they’d found something, it was a big shock. You start thinking all sorts of things but, in the end, I just thought, at least if they’ve found something, they’ve found it early. The staff were brilliant, and so supportive.”

Soon after the MRI, Louise had a biopsy that confirmed she had stage 0 (very early) breast cancer within the ducts of one of her breasts. Six weeks later Louise underwent surgery to remove the tumour, during that time the tumour had already grown larger than it appeared on the scans.

“It’s been a stressful time and it’s a huge relief to have it gone. The team have been fantastic throughout. The tumour was deep in the breast so, if I hadn’t been on the trial, it could have gone unnoticed for years.

“I feel very lucky, it almost doesn’t feel like I’ve really had cancer. Without this research I could have had a very different experience.”

The location of Louise’s tumour meant it would have been difficult for her to find it through self-examination, and since it was not detected during her regular mammogram it would have been at least three years before she was invited for another.

Following a short course of radiotherapy, Louise is now cancer free. She will continue to be monitored for several years and will continue to be attending her regular mammograms every three years as part of the national breast cancer screening programme.

“This experience has highlighted to me how important screening is. If I hadn’t had the mammogram, I wouldn’t have been invited to the trial. Getting treated was so quick because they found the cancer early.”

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Presented by The Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University, the exhibit is part of a brand-new GreenSTEM section that celebrates cutting-edge research and innovation in the world of plant science.

Blooming Numbers takes visitors on an immersive journey through the latest discoveries in quantitative plant biology—starting with the humble flower and diving deep into molecular biology, genetics, imaging technologies, computational modelling, and the often-overlooked mathematical patterns that govern plant development.

“This award is just so exciting,” said Kathy Grube from the Sainsbury Laboratory.

“We came in in the morning to water the plants and turn on the microscopes, and the medal had been laid out by the judges. We were jumping up and down when we found it.”

The eye-catching exhibit was a collaborative effort across multiple Cambridge institutions and partners. The University’s Department of Engineering co-designed the infrastructure, drawing inspiration from the Fibonacci sequence—an iconic numerical pattern found throughout nature. The Pollinator Patch, a lush highlight of the exhibit, was designed and cultivated by Oakington Garden Centre to demonstrate pollinator-friendly planting. Darwin Nurseries added wildlife-friendly hanging baskets that captivated visitors and judges alike.

“One of our fellow exhibitors, who have been coming to Chelsea for years, told us that getting a silver-gilt on your first try is a real achievement,” said Kathy.

“The judges came over and said the design of the stand was fantastic, and they loved the interactive exhibits. We’re just so honoured.”

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the world’s most famous horticultural show, runs until the end of the week and attracts horticultural experts, designers, and plant lovers from across the globe.
 

The University of Cambridge has made a dazzling debut at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, winning a prestigious silver-gilt medal for its interactive plant science exhibit, Blooming Numbers.

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“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society. “Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.

“The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs.”

The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

The new Cambridge fellows are:

Professor Edward Bullmore FMedSci FRS

Professor Ed Bullmore is Professor of Psychiatry and former Head of the Department of Psychiatry. His research mainly involves the application of brain imaging to psychiatry. He has introduced an entirely original approach to the analysis of human brain anatomy, involving graph theory and its application to small-world networks. This has had an enormous impact on the field, especially in relation to understanding the biological basis of schizophrenia and depression. His work has been key to the understanding of the 'wiring' of the human brain.

Professor Gábor Csányi FRS

Professor Gábor Csányi is Professor of Molecular Modelling in the Department of Engineering, and a Fellow of Pembroke College. His work is in the field of computational chemistry, and is focused on developing algorithms to predict the properties of materials and molecules from first principles. He pioneered the application of machine learning to molecular modelling which lead to enormous gains in the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation.

Professor Judith Driscoll FRS

Professor Judith Driscoll is Professor of Materials Science in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research is concerned with the nanoscale design and tuning of functional oxide thin film materials for energy-efficient electronic applications. A particular focus of her research group is oxide thin films, owing to their wide range of functionalities and their stability. However, their compositions tend to be complex, defects are prevalent, and interface effects play a strong role. Also, for many applications device structural dimensions are required down to nanometre length-scales. Together, all these factors produce exciting challenges for the materials scientist.

Professor Marie Edmonds FRS

Professor Marie Edmonds is Head of Department and Professor of Volcanology and Petrology in the Department of Earth Sciences. She is also a Fellow of Queens’ College. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of volcanoes on our environment and on the habitability of our planet. Her research spans the boundaries between traditional disciplines, from deciphering the nature of the interior of the Earth, to magma transport and storage in the crust, to volcano monitoring, understanding ore deposits and the dynamic chemistry of volcanic gases in the atmosphere and climate.

Professor Julian Hibberd FRS

Professor Julian Hibberd is Head of the Department of Plant Sciences and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. His research focuses on guiding optimisation of photosynthesis to improve crop yields. The C4 pathway is a complex form of photosynthesis that evolved around 30 million years ago and is now used by the most productive plants on the planet. Professor Hibberd has provided key insights into the evolution of C4 photosynthesis through analysis of plant physiology, cell specialisation, organelle development, and the control of gene expression.

Dr Gregory Jefferis FRS

Dr Gregory Jefferis is Joint Head of the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of Research of the Department of Zoology. The broad goal of his research is to understand how smell turns into behaviour in the fruit fly brain. His group is particularly interested in how odour information is processed by the higher olfactory centres that mediate innate and learned behaviour.

Professor Jason Miller FRS

Professor Jason Miller is a Professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics and a Fellow of Trinity College. His research interests are in probability, in particular stochastic interface models, random walk, mixing times for Markov chains, and interacting particle systems.

Professor Andrew Pitts FRS

Professor Andrew Pitts is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College. His research makes use of techniques from category theory, mathematical logic and type theory to advance the foundations of programming language semantics and theorem proving systems. His aim is to develop mathematical models and methods that aid language design and the development of formal logics for specifying and reasoning about programs. He is particularly interested in higher-order typed programming languages and in dependently typed logics.

Dr Marta Zlatic FRS

Dr Marta Zlatic is Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Director of Research in the Department of Zoology. She is also a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research aims to understand the relationship between the structure of the nervous system and its function and to discover the basic principles by which neural circuits implement fundamental computations. A major focus of her research is the circuit implementation of learning and decision-making.

Nine outstanding Cambridge scientists have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.

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What is a memory?

Is it a distinct pattern of brain activity, a blueprint for future behaviour, or a skill that we can improve with a little training? Probably all these things and more, argues Jon Simons, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and Head of the School of the Biological Sciences.

Jon’s Memory Lab studies all aspects of memory. They invite volunteers to complete memory tasks online, in the laboratory, or sometimes while lying in an MRI machine while the team scans their brains. 

If memory serves

The biochemical changes that represent memories range across the brain’s real estate. A long list of factors determine which brain areas light up during the experience: whether a memory is being encoded or reconstructed, whether it's an old or a new pattern, and what kind of information it deals with.

“We know that the hippocampus is crucial for forming new memories, but it’s not necessarily the permanent storage site," Jon says. "For long-term storage, we also recruit cortical areas – the frontal lobes, temporal lobes, parietal lobes and more.”

To plot a route through tangled terrain, researchers divide memory into different types. Short-term memory lasts a minute at most and has a limited capacity – around 7 items give-or-take, according to Harvard’s George Miller in the 1950s. Think of repeating numbers to yourself while jotting down someone’s phone number. If we don’t record those numbers fast enough, they’ll fade quickly. 

But even short-term memory isn’t unitary. Alan Baddeley (Churchill 1959), former director of Cambridge’s Medical Research Council (MRC) Applied Psychology Unit (now called the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit), coined a new way of understanding how short-term memories are stored and manipulated. His 'working memory' model proposes that separate brain systems deal with different kinds of inputs. One part rehearses and replays sounds, for instance, while another holds visual information like a ‘mental canvas’. 

the_working_memory_model.svg_.png

This is different yet again from our long-term memories. These deeper experiences can stay with us for a lifetime. Recalling them can be thought of as a kind of ‘mental time-travel’, allowing us to subjectively relive past events complete with the sights, smells and sounds of cherished scenes.

Researchers now believe that we reconstruct our memories each time we experience them. From scant traces, we extrapolate the narrative of what happened. In this way, memory is a creative act, not a simple recap. One classic Cambridge study revealed how our memories are morphed by bias, beliefs, feelings and expectations.
 

Cambridge’s long memory

Enter the elegant study of Sir Frederic Bartlett, Cambridge’s first Psychology professor. 

Bartlett’s book ‘Remembering’ (1932) made use of a now famous story: the war of the ghosts. 

In this Native American folk tale, a man meets warriors paddling their canoes downriver, who invite him to join a war party. He later realises the men are ghosts, waging war on the living. 

Bartlett taught his Edwardian undergraduates this tale, then asked them to retell it in their own words. Over several retellings, his students altered key elements of the story so that it sounded more like the world they knew. ‘Canoes’ became ‘boats’, while mentions of ‘spirits’ were dropped altogether.

canoe.jpg

Bartlett's study showed the effects of culture on recall, and how the changes we make to our memories aren’t random. Even if we’re not conscious of doing so, we prefer to change story elements so that they align with our expectations, biases and cultural norms.

This feature of memory has massive implications for how we remember the past. Eye-witness testimony will be prey to the same biases. Unintentional errors, made in favour of what is familiar to us, are very difficult to avoid.

Another titan of memory research was an undergraduate while Bartlett was teaching. During World War II, Brenda Milner (Newnham 1936) helped the Psychology department repurpose itself for the war effort. After this, Milner moved to Canada to analyse patient Henry Molaison (formerly known as H M). Molaison would become one of the most famous patients in all of psychology. 

Molaison had profound amnesia. This was due to experimental surgery, where doctors removed his hippocampus to try and improve his epilepsy. Milner meticulously documented how Molaison’s memory functioned after surgery. She showed how he was unable to form new memories or remember events from the years leading up to his surgery, but that his memories from earlier in life remained intact. This work transformed our understanding of the hippocampus’ role in memory.

Psychologists like Milner and Bartlett showed us the primacy of the hippocampus and highlighted the creative nature of memory. Modern Cambridge researchers can take our investigations even further.
 

Peak performance

With all we now know about memory, can we understand what makes for better performance?

Together with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and his team at the Autism Research Centre, Jon is currently studying thousands of the UK’s best memorisers to find the keys to their prowess. Volunteers completed a battery of memory tests online – the best performers then came for brain scans and further testing in the lab.

Their early results suggest some interesting traits, as well as the strategies people use to enhance their abilities. 

“There's a psychological trait called ‘systemising’,” says Jon. “It's found in people who have a drive to analyse and construct rule-based ways of thinking. Those kinds of people seem to be more likely to have exceptional memories.”

Simon Baron-Cohen was the first to define this trait. He did so in relation to people on the autism spectrum, for whom ‘systemising’ is set very high. 

So if you happen to think like a ‘systemiser’, you may have a better memory. If you don’t, there are also concrete strategies to boost your memory capacities.

“Mnemonics are an evidence-based technique that can improve our memories,” Jon explains. “They often involve thinking spatially. Start by visualising somewhere you know well, then mentally ‘place’ important information in that map. You can then 'travel through' that map when recalling.”

Think Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ from the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. Jon points out that pre-BBC, this strategy was familiar to ancient Greek and Roman orators. They called it the method of loci, using it as a way to remember extremely long speeches. It can also be helpful for everyday tasks, like remembering a shopping list.

gettyimages-1270935214.jpg

Jon’s tip for this method is to make the memory triggers striking. Associate the eggs on your shopping list with a fire-breathing dragon guarding its young, for example, and the sensory impression might be distinct enough to stand out from the background noise. 

“The more bizarre the better! Our memories have a big job in trying to differentiate one memory from another. We can help it out by making key information more distinctive. This helps our brains to distinguish memories from one another, and stop irrelevant ones from overlapping or interfering.”

Indeed, one of the functions of the hippocampus is to perform pattern separation – trying to make our memories distinct. If memories are too similar, we find it harder to recall specific experiences. 

This might go some way to explaining the ‘brain fog’ many experienced during COVID-19 lockdowns. With days inside tending to repeat familiar routines, we had less distinct and varied experiences. Our brains were less able to create rich, meaningful memories. Looking back on 2020 and 2021, people find it hard to separate what happened when.

There’s a lesson for non-lockdown living here too. If we want a rich life that feels like it lasts longer and is full of accessible, interesting memories, we should prioritise variety in our experience.

To further improve memory function, we should strive to decrease stress, fear and anxiety (where possible). These emotional states increase our cognitive load and reduce our memory abilities.

“When anxious thoughts flood our minds, they compete for space in our working memory and impair our ability to recall long-term memories. They pull attention and resources away from the things we’d like to focus on. If we can find ways to reduce stress and anxiety, our memory can often bounce back.”

While this might be easier said than done, science has concrete recommendations for reducing stress and anxiety. Done consistently, a healthy diet, regular exercise and a good sleep schedule, as well as techniques like mindfulness practice, can have transformative effects. 

Researchers like Jon are deepening our understanding of what memories are. The Memory Lab follows an illustrious line of Cambridge psychologists who identified key pieces of memory’s endless puzzle. Wherever the next steps lead, they will affirm a wonder of nature: the intricate patterns our mind weaves to make sense of the world outside.

For a handy guide to building mental resilience, check out Brain Boost by Dr Barbara Sahakian and Dr Christelle Langley. To focus on fighting anxiety with scientific techniques, try Dr Olivia Remes.

To find out how you can participate in Memory Lab studies, get in touch.

By tying together more than a century of memory research at Cambridge, the Memory Lab gives us tangible ways to improve, preserve and understand our memory.

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Dr O’Brien, who is an Irish citizen, will leave his role in Cambridge in September.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice said: “Diarmuid has helped deliver genuine progress in ensuring that Cambridge continues to be recognised globally as a centre of innovation and technology, building partnerships, working with Government, and driving UK economic growth.

"We have great plans and ambitions, including for a new Innovation Hub in the heart of this city. We wish Diarmuid well in his exciting new role in Ireland.”

Dr O’Brien, who was previously Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, said: “I have hugely enjoyed my time in Cambridge, which is a thriving world leader in innovation.

"The brilliant people and dynamic ecosystem here will continue to generate the startups and success stories of the future. I look forward to watching Cambridge flourish.”

He will remain in the role until September, with Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Sir John Aston, providing continuing leadership through the transition from Diarmuid to his successor. Recruitment will begin in due course.