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Dogs with severe intervertebral disc disease can now be treated with a new enzyme injection at the Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital (QVSH), part of the University of Cambridge Department of Veterinary Medicine, offering a safe, less invasive, and significantly more affordable alternative to spinal surgery for suitable cases.

Severe intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) is a serious and debilitating disease that affects many of the most popular breeds of dog in the UK. It occurs when a disc ruptures causing damage to the spinal cord. It can cause sudden paralysis and the inability to stand or walk, severe pain, and the loss of bladder or bowel control.

IVDD affects around 25% of dachshunds and is also common in other short-legged dog breeds like French bulldogs in the UK.

The new treatment, called percutaneous intra-discal chondroitinase injection, involves delivering an enzyme directly into damaged intervertebral discs. This dissolves the central part of the spinal disc, potentially relieving pressure on the spinal cord without the need for expensive open surgery.

Since early 2025, 24 dogs have been successfully treated in Cambridge – all regaining their mobility within days of the injection. The QVSH is currently the only place in the UK where this treatment is available.

The treatment was co-developed by Professor Paul Freeman at the University of Cambridge Veterinary School, in collaboration with colleagues at Texas A&M University in the United States. Earlier this year they published the results of a clinical trial involving 54 dogs who had lost the ability to walk due to IVDD. The trial found that dogs receiving the injections recovered the ability to walk at a similar rate to those who underwent other forms of treatment. The results were published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The procedure is now recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as routine veterinary practice, allowing it to be offered outside the original trial conditions.

The QVSH is also continuing to accept eligible dogs into the ongoing clinical trial.

Professor Paul Freeman, European Specialist in Veterinary Neurology at the QVSH and lead investigator on the trial, said: “This is not a miracle cure, but it is an exciting new option for some dogs with severe spinal cord injury caused by a herniated disc. The injections are much less invasive than surgery and can offer similar outcomes for the right patients. Our aim is to give owners more choice, particularly where surgery may be difficult, and ultimately to help more dogs get back on their feet.”

A success story

The clinical potential of this non-invasive approach is already being seen. Milo, a dachshund whose owner was searching for an alternative to invasive surgery, received chondroitinase injections at the QVSH and showed rapid improvement.

Milo’s owner, Lani, said: “A massive thank you to Paul and his team. The fruits of your research have given Milo a new chapter full of hope. Every day there is something new and he’s steadier. He started walking without falling one week post-injections. Now, just a few days later, it is really hard to keep him still!”

Milo’s owner was signposted to the treatment by Charlotte Baldwin, Founder of the UK charity Dedicated to Dachshunds, who said: “We’re thrilled to see the improvement in dogs like Milo following this new enzyme treatment. Being able to refer owners to a less invasive and more affordable option at Cambridge is hugely encouraging. This gives owners real choice in how they manage IVDD and offers many dogs the chance to regain their mobility.”

The treatment and study in the UK have been made possible thanks to funding and long-standing support from dachshund welfare charities including Dachshund Health UK and Dachshund Rescue UK.

Lynn Hall, Chair of Dachshund Rescue UK, said: “We’re so proud to have played a part in supporting the ongoing IVDD research at Cambridge. IVDD impacts so many dogs and the families who care deeply for them, and progress like this wouldn’t be possible without collaboration. It’s wonderful to see a non-surgical, affordable solution emerging - especially when so many dogs are sadly euthanised because their owners can’t afford surgery.”

A minimally-invasive treatment for severe intervertebral disc disease in small dog breeds is now available at the University of Cambridge’s Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital – the only place in the UK currently providing the procedure.

Our aim is to give owners more choice, particularly where surgery may be difficult, and ultimately to help more dogs get back on their feet.Paul FreemanQueen’s Veterinary School Hospital Dachshund receiving treatment

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YesLicence type: Attribution-Noncommerical

The global demand for solar energy is increasing and the most widely used solar technology - silicon-based photovoltaics - is nearing its theoretical efficiency ceiling. New solutions that can increase power output without having to redesign and replace existing solar panels are urgently needed. 

By converting each high-energy photon, normally lost as heat, into two infrared photons that can be absorbed by silicon, CPT’s innovation can boost energy output by up to 15% while remaining fully compatible with existing solar infrastructure. It represents the first demonstration of this photon-multiplication effect at scale.

The spinout has attracted international investment, with backing from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Spectrum Impact, Tybourne Capital, Providence Investment Company and SourceSquared. CPT has also been awarded a Clean Energy and Climate Technologies grant from the UKRI Innovate UK Investor Partnerships.

Chief Executive Officer, Dr Claudio Marinelli, said: “This investment demonstrates strong private-sector confidence in CPT’s technology and vision. Attracting backing from leading investors across the UK, India and Asia underlines the global relevance of our approach and its potential to transform solar efficiency at scale. The Innovate UK programme provides a powerful layer of support, helping us bridge early-stage development and commercial readiness. Together, this funding positions CPT to accelerate product readiness and bring a breakthrough British innovation to the global clean-energy market.”

CPT will use this funding to expand its R&D operation in Cambridge, accelerate material testing with global industry partners, and prepare for a larger investment round ahead of pilot deployment. The company aims to bring its first product to market by 2028.

Chris Gibbs, Investment Director at Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, said: “Cambridge Photon Technology exemplifies the kind of transformative innovation needed to accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy and address climate challenges. We are proud to have supported the company from the beginning and now in this next exciting phase of its journey.”

Adapted from a Cambridge Enterprise news story

Cambridge Photon Technology (CPT), a deep-tech spinout from the University of Cambridge, has raised £1.6 million to commercialise a technology that enables existing silicon solar panels to generate more power by converting wasted sunlight into usable light.

Solar panels

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Yes

ERC Synergy Grants bring together research expertise, skills and resources across institutions to tackle ambitious research problems that no single group could address alone.

These highly competitive grants foster collaboration between outstanding researchers, enabling them to push forward the boundaries of scientific discovery.

The funding is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. In total the ERC has awarded €684 million to sixty-six research teams, bringing together 239 scientists. The projects cover diverse topics across many disciplines.

The Cambridge recipients of 2025 ERC Synergy Grants are:

Professor Jeremy Baumberg, Department of Physics for ‘DNA for Reconfigurable Nano-Opto-Mechanical Systems’ (DNA4RENOMS), in collaboration with the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich. Using the ability to knit strands of DNA into rigid structures, and combining these with polymer ‘muscles’ that can be triggered by light, the team aims to construct nanomachinery with a wide range of applications including sensors and low energy computing.

Professor Ewa Paluch, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, and Professor Daniel St Johnston, Gurdon Institute and Department of Genetics for ‘Robustness and plasticity of epithelial architectures’ (EpiRaP), in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster. Every human cell has a distinctive shape tightly linked to its function, and cells often become misshapen in disease. This project investigates how cells build, maintain, and remodel their shapes, focusing on epithelia - the protective layers lining our organs, aiming to reveal how biology and physics come together to shape cells and tissues.

Professor Enrico Crema, Department of Archaeology for ‘Investigating alternative trajectories for human demographic growth in temperate northern Holocene societies’ (FORAGER), in collaboration with the Universities of York, Montana, USA and Lund, Sweden. The team aims to find out why and how some prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies experienced population growth comparable to that of early farming societies, and the consequences of these population booms. They will compare archaeological evidence from Japan, the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Atlantic Northeast Coast in North America, and the Baltic region in Europe.

Professor Richard Durbin and Dr Felipe Karam Teixeira, Department of Genetics for ‘GENomes Evolve in a Landscape of TEs’ (GENELT), in collaboration with the Gregor Mendel Institute, Vienna. This team will study transposable elements (TEs) - pieces of DNA that can copy themselves around the genome - to advance understanding of how the genomes of multicellular eukaryotes and their transposable elements co-evolve.

Professor Sadaf Farooqi, Institute of Metabolic Science for ‘The biology of innate behaviour’ (INSTINCT), in collaboration with the University of Florida and University College London. The team’s study of this fundamental research question has significant potential to impact conditions that harm human health, such as obesity and anxiety.

Only about one in ten proposals were selected for funding by the ERC, with the successful projects receiving on average €10.3 million each. The projects will be carried out at universities and research centres in 26 countries across Europe and beyond – with 24 grantees based in the United Kingdom.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said: “Europe’s frontier research has never been so international. This global collaboration strengthens European science, gives our researchers access to world-class expertise and infrastructure, and brings leading scientists from around the world closer to Europe.”

President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: “Collaboration is at the heart of the ERC Synergy Grants. In our latest round, teams of researchers will join forces to address the most complex scientific problems together - this time, they are more international than ever. The competition was fierce, with many outstanding proposals left unfunded. With more funds, the ERC could fully capitalise on this wealth of first-class science. Such scientific endeavours are what Europe needs to be at the real forefront.”

Seven researchers at the University of Cambridge have been awarded Synergy Grants from the European Research Council to lead five new collaborative projects that will tackle some of science’s toughest puzzles.

Teams of researchers will join forces to address the most complex scientific problems together - this time, they are more international than ever.Maria LeptinGetty

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YesLicence type: Attribution-Noncommerical

In research published today, they show how it is associated with damage to brain vessels – which can affect cognition – and with poorer management of lifestyle factors known to increase the chances of developing dementia.

Dementia disproportionately affects people who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Individuals living in such areas show greater cognitive decline throughout their lives and higher dementia risk, regardless of their own socioeconomic status. Recent studies have also found that neighbourhood deprivation is linked to differences in brain structure and greater signs of damage to brain tissue.

To explore this link further, researchers examined data from 585 healthy adults aged 40–59 living in the UK and Ireland who had been recruited to the PREVENT-Dementia programme. Details of the study are published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Among the data collected and examined were: neighbourhood deprivation according to postcodes; cognitive performance assessed through a series of tests; modifiable lifestyle risk factors; and MRI brain scans to look for signs of damage to the brain’s small blood vessels, which are crucial for delivering oxygen and nutrients to brain tissue.

The team found a strong link between living in a deprived neighbourhood and poorer management of lifestyle factors known to increase the chances of developing dementia. In particular, people living in areas of high unemployment, low income and/or poor education and training opportunities were more likely to experience poor sleep, obesity and high blood pressure, and do less physical activity.

However, people living in deprived neighbourhoods tended to consume less alcohol than those in less disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Alcohol consumption is another known risk factor for dementia.

The researchers also found a significant link between cognition and neighbourhood deprivation – particularly poorer housing and environment and higher levels of crime. This had the greatest impact on an individual’s ability to process information quickly, their spatial awareness and attention.

One possible explanation for this comes from the team’s finding that living in a deprived neighbourhood was associated with damage to the brain’s small blood vessels, which in turn affects thinking skills. Modifiable lifestyle habits are known to contribute to this damage, suggesting that the effect of deprivation on brain function – and hence performance in cognitive tests – may be down to lifestyle and vascular health.

First author Dr Audrey Low, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, said: “Where someone lives can affect their brain health as early as midlife. It doesn’t do this directly, but by making it more difficult for them to engage in positive lifestyle behaviours.

“This means that people living in these areas may face more challenges in getting quality sleep and exercise, and in managing blood pressure and obesity. This can then have a knock-on effect on the health of blood vessels in the brain, leading to poorer cognition.

“These lifestyle factors are no doubt influenced by both individual circumstances and the external environment in which they live. But importantly, the links we found were independent of educational attainment. So, even a person who has gone on to further or higher education and has a reasonably paid job may be better or worse at managing their lifestyle depending on where they live, perhaps due to better access to affordable healthy food options and safer recreational spaces.”

The researchers say their findings highlight the fact that dementia risk is influenced by environmental factors rather than just individual behaviours, and so reducing dementia risk will mean addressing the wider social determinants of brain health.

Senior author Professor John O’Brien, also from the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge, said: “Where you live clearly plays an important role in your brain health and risk of dementia, putting people living in deprived neighbourhoods at a serious disadvantage. This risk is preventable, but our works shows it’s not enough to assume it’s down to the individual. If we’re serious about reducing health inequalities, it will require support from local and national policymakers.”

The study highlights how different areas face their own challenges and hence will need different approaches, say the researchers. In wealthier areas, strategies could focus on reducing alcohol consumption, for example. Lower-income neighbourhoods, on the other hand, may benefit from targeted campaigns promoting healthy lifestyles for dementia prevention. This will require policymakers and community leaders to tackle systemic barriers that are impeding individuals’ abilities to adopt healthy lifestyle changes. This could include improving access to affordable healthcare and healthy food options, reducing crime, and providing safe recreational areas for exercise.

While these findings hold true for the UK and Ireland, the researchers say that more research is needed into whether they apply in other cultures. There is some previous evidence that the opposite is true in certain Asian cultures, for example.

The research was supported by the Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Association, Race Against Dementia, Wellcome Trust, Alzheimer’s Research UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference

Low, A et al. Neighbourhood deprivation and midlife cognition: evidence of a modifiable vascular pathway involving health behaviours and SVD. Alz & Dem; 5 Nov 2025; DOI: 10.1002/alz.70756

Cambridge researchers have discovered why living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood may be linked to an increase in an individual’s risk of dementia.

Where you live clearly plays an important role in your brain health and risk of dementia, putting people living in deprived neighbourhoods at a serious disadvantageJohn O'BrienMichael Greenwood (Getty Images)London housing estate

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Yes

The fellows will pursue efforts to solve challenging problems in AI by building AI scientists, designing safer and more trustworthy AI models, and improving the ability of AI to pursue biological and medical research.

The AI2050 programme funds researchers to pursue projects to help AI create immense benefits for humanity by 2050. Twenty-one early-career fellows and seven senior fellows will receive $18 million in funding over the next three years. This marks the fourth cohort of the programme, which now has 99 fellows across eight countries and 42 institutions.

Cranmer is Assistant Professor of Data Intensive Science at Cambridge, jointly appointed between the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and the Institute of Astronomy.

His research attempts to solve a puzzle: AI models trained on physics data sometimes make better predictions than our best theories, but scientists can't see how the AI arrives at its answers. Cranmer and his group develop techniques to distil this knowledge into interpretable theories.

As part of his early career AI2050 fellowship, Cranmer will push these methods to large-scale, general models – ones similar in spirit to large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini – but trained on scientific data rather than text. His goal is to discover new mathematical concepts and physical laws that explain how these AI models achieve their superior predictions.

“AI models trained on physics are finding patterns our theories miss,” said Cranmer. “We can see that these models work, but it's not always clear what they’re learning. What's more, the larger AI models get, the better they seem to do this! This funding from Schmidt Sciences will help us figure out what they've learned that science is missing.”

“AI is underhyped, especially when it comes to its potential to benefit humanity,” said Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences with his wife Wendy. “The AI2050 fellowship was established to turn that potential into reality – by supporting the people and ideas shaping a healthier, more resilient, and more secure world.”

“In four years, the AI2050 fellows have created a deep sense of community that we are grateful to be able to grow each year,” said Mark Greaves, executive director of AI2050.“We trust that the network they’ve created will remain a source of inspiration and support throughout their careers as they advance AI for the benefit of all.”

Cambridge researcher Dr Miles Cranmer is one of 28 researchers worldwide to receive an AI2050 fellowship from Schmidt Sciences, awarded to researchers studying how to fulfil AI’s potential to benefit humankind.

Philipp Ammon for Quanta MagazineMiles Cranmer

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Yes

The study is the largest of its kind in this population, and is published today in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. It was led by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, and University College London, with support from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK.

Principal author Dr Alexia Sampri, from the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: “Our whole-population study during the pandemic showed that although these conditions were rare, children and young people were more likely to experience heart, vascular or inflammatory problems after a COVID-19 infection than after having the vaccine — and the risks after infection lasted much longer.”

The research team uncovered these findings by analysing linked electronic health records for nearly 14 million children in England under the age of 18 between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022, covering 98% of this population. During this period, 3.9 million children and young people had a first COVID-19 diagnosis. And 3.4 million had a first COVID-19 BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) vaccine, the main vaccine used in 5-18-year-olds during the study period.

All personal information that could identify individuals had been stripped away, and approved researchers accessed this data entirely within the NHS England Secure Data Environment, a secure data and analysis platform.

The study looked at short- and long-term risks of rare complications including arterial and venous thrombosis (clots in blood vessels), thrombocytopenia (low levels of platelets in the blood), myocarditis or pericarditis (inflammation of the heart and its surrounding tissue respectively), and inflammatory conditions after COVID-19 diagnosis or vaccination.

After a first COVID-19 diagnosis, risks of the five conditions studied were highest in the first four weeks and, for several conditions, stayed higher for up to 12 months, compared to children and young people without or before a diagnosis.

In contrast, after COVID-19 vaccination, the team only saw a short-term higher risk in myocarditis or pericarditis in the first four weeks, compared to children and young people without or before vaccination. After that, the risk returned to the same level as the start of the study period.

Over six months, the research team estimated that COVID-19 infection led to 2.24 extra cases of myocarditis or pericarditis per 100,000 children and young people who had COVID-19. In those who were vaccinated, there were only 0.85 extra cases per 100,000 children and young people.

Previous research showed that children and young people diagnosed with COVID-19 are at a higher risk of developing conditions like myocarditis, pericarditis, and thrombocytopenia, compared to their peers who hadn’t had a COVID-19 diagnosis.

While many studies show that COVID-19 vaccines can help children to avoid severe illness and hospitalisation, some also report rare cases of myocarditis in young people shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, particularly for mRNA-based vaccines.

However, there hasn’t been any research directly comparing the longer-term risks of both COVID-19 diagnosis and vaccinations in children and young people until now.

Co-author Professor Angela Wood, University of Cambridge and Associate Director at the BHF Data Science Centre, said: “Using electronic health records from all children and young people in England, we were able to study very rare but serious heart and clotting complications, and found higher and longer-lasting risks after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination.

“Whilst vaccine-related risks are likely to remain rare and short-lived, future risks following infection could change as new variants emerge and immunity shifts. That’s why whole-population health data monitoring remains essential to guide vaccine and other important public health decisions.”

Co-author Professor Pia Hardelid, UCL and National Institute of Health and Care Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre, said: “Parents and carers have faced difficult choices throughout the pandemic. By building a stronger evidence base on both infection and vaccination outcomes, we hope to support families and healthcare professionals to make decisions grounded in the best available data.”

Co-author Professor William Whiteley, University of Edinburgh and Associate Director at the BHF Data Science Centre, said: "Parents, young people, and children need reliable information to make decisions about their health. Data from hospitals and GP practices are an important part of the picture because tell us all what has happened to people looked after in the NHS. Here we have shown that during the pandemic, risks of myocarditis and inflammatory illnesses were low for children and young people, and that they were less after COVID-19 vaccination than after COVID-19 infection."

Reference

Sampri, A et al. Vascular and inflammatory diseases after COVID-19 infection and vaccination in children and young people in England: a retrospective, population-based cohort study using linked electronic health records. Lancet Child and Adolescent Health; 4 Nov 2025; DOI: 10.1016/S2352-4642(25)00247-0

Adapted from a press release from Health Data Research UK  

Children and young people faced long-lasting and higher risks of rare heart and inflammatory complications after COVID-19 infection, compared to before or without an infection, according to new research. Meanwhile COVID-19 vaccination was only linked to a short-term higher risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.

Although these conditions were rare, children and young people were more likely to experience heart, vascular or inflammatory problems after a COVID-19 infection than after having the vaccine — and the risks after infection lasted much longerAlexia SampriKoldoyChris (Getty Images)Young female patient receiving a shot by female healthcare worker in vaccination centre

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Yes

The tool, called Denario, uses large language models to help scientists with tasks from developing new hypotheses to compiling manuscripts. The team hopes Denario will make research faster, more dynamic and more interdisciplinary.

AI can already help with parts of the scientific process: tools like ChatGPT can visualise data or write abstracts, for example. But these tools are typically limited to one step at a time.

With Denario, however, scientists have developed a new kind of assistant: one that can synthesise existing papers, formulate new research questions, analyse data, and write manuscripts.

In a paper published on the arXiv.org preprint server, its creators – led by the University of Cambridge, the Flatiron Institute, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona – provide an overview of the tool and suggest that Denario could accelerate and broaden the scientific process, giving scientists the ability to use it for whichever aspect they find most helpful.

“Sometimes the most interesting thing is the idea, because maybe it’s a new idea that hasn’t been explored,” said Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro from the Flatiron Institute and one of Denario’s primary developers. “Sometimes it’s a new method that’s never been applied to a certain dataset. There are many ways Denario can help expand the way we think and point us in new directions.”

The team stresses that Denario is not a replacement for scientists, however. The current version has major drawbacks: only about one in ten outputs yields interesting insights and, in some cases, Denario has fabricated data. Human review of Denario’s work remains essential.

Denario’s development was led by Dr Boris Bolliet from Cambridge, Pablo Villanueva Domingo from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Villaescusa-Navarro, with a team that included researchers from astrophysics, biology, biophysics, chemistry, material science, neuroscience, mathematics, machine learning, quantum physics and philosophy.

With recent advances in large language models such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, the researchers saw an opportunity to test how such tools might perform across every stage of the research process.

Denario uses a collection of AI ‘agents,’ each specialising in a different task. While Denario can complete the entire research process end-to-end, the agents can also be used separately for specific steps.

“We designed Denario with a modular architecture so that users can choose which of its components best fit their research, whether that’s coding, exploring research ideas, summarising results or something else,” said Bolliet, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

To use Denario end-to-end, scientists upload a dataset along with a brief description of what they’d like it to do. The first pair of agents develops and refines ideas for how best to approach the dataset, generating potential research projects. The next set searches through existing research literature on the topic, assuring that the project idea is new and grounded in previous work.

Once the idea is refined, the methods and planner agents suggest approaches for analysing the data. The next agents follow through on these plans, using a multi-agent system called CMBAgent, which acts as Denario’s research analysis back end. These agents write, debug and run code, then interpret the results. Finally, the writing and reviewing modules produce and revise summaries of the findings.

“The agents all work together to make it possible,” Villanueva Domingo said, emphasising that scientists can easily check each module’s work and, if desired, run the agents individually.

So far, Denario has been tested end to end hundreds of times on datasets across disciplines including astrophysics, neuroscience, chemistry, biology and materials science. Most outputs were deemed unsuitable in expert reviews, but around 10% produced an interesting question or finding.

Because Denario can draw from multiple disciplines, the team is hopeful that it can identify new research questions that a specialist might never think to ask.

“Denario can pull ideas from other fields that maybe a scientist is less familiar with and would never have considered,” said Villanueva Domingo. “That interdisciplinary nature is very exciting.”

The researchers also hope Denario will help scientists win back some of their most valuable resource: time.

“I hope that Denario will help accelerate science by providing researchers with tools that allow them to spend less time on menial tasks — like scrolling the arXiv, formatting images, summarising analysis — and more time on deep creative thinking,” said Bolliet.

In its next iteration, the team aims to make Denario more efficient and capable of producing higher-quality work, including automatically identifying and filtering out low-quality outputs.

Tools like Denario still face challenges. Some of the system’s final write-ups didn’t adequately convey uncertainty in the results, and it sometimes struggled to reference previous studies clearly, even when it could describe their content accurately.

There are also technical and ethical considerations, including the risk of Denario drawing from AI ‘hallucinations’ — misleading or false information — as well as questions around copyright and authorship. The researchers even had to add an instruction telling Denario not to generate ‘dummy data’ after it produced fabricated results.

The team say they look forward to an open discussion about how best to use Denario and similar tools in the scientific process, as well as how to prevent potential misuse. They emphasise that Denario was only possible thanks to collaboration across academia and industry.

Boris Bolliet is a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 

Adapted from a Flatiron Institute press release. 

Researchers have developed an AI-powered ‘scientific assistant’ designed to accelerate the scientific process by helping them identify new research questions, analyse and interpret data, and produce scientific documents.

Lisk Feng for Simons FoundationIllustration of researchers working at a computer

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Yes

Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the Business and Trade Committee, and his colleagues Charlie Maynard MP (Witney), John Cooper MP (Dumfries and Galloway), Sarah Edwards MP (Tamworth) and Cambridge MP, Daniel Zeichner, drew on expertise in the room to develop potential areas of focus for their programme of work in 2026.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, welcomed the Committee to Cambridge and reflected on the new government announcements highlighting the Oxford to Cambridge Corridor as a key focus for strengthening the UK’s global position as a leader in science and technology.

Hosted at the Ray Dolby Centre, home of the Cavendish Physics Laboratory, Committee members met with around thirty senior academics, business leaders, and investors representing a range of sectors across the Cambridge innovation ecosystem. The session provided an opportunity for open discussion about what is needed to keep the UK at the forefront of global research and enterprise.

A central theme of the discussion was how to attract and retain world-class talent. Participants emphasised the importance of investing in opportunities for the best global graduates to undertake PhDs in the UK, supported by a competitive and welcoming visa system. Access to finance was another key focus, with contributors exploring how to help spin outs and scale-ups grow through improved access to capital and foreign direct investment. Attendees also underlined the critical role of infrastructure, from housing and transport to water and energy systems, in ensuring regions like Cambridge can continue to grow sustainably and support frontier industries.

Overall, the session conveyed strong optimism about the opportunities presented by high-growth sectors such as life sciences, technology, and advanced manufacturing. It also highlighted Cambridge’s position as a global leader in transformative fields including artificial intelligence and quantum engineering.

Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the Business and Trade Committee said, “We had a brilliant first session in Cambridge with lots of people from across this extraordinary innovation ecosystem - they’ve got a lot of things right here, not least the Innovate Cambridge model.

“The big overriding issue that’s come out today is making sure that the UK, including through places like this, is a place where you can access world class talent - because of course it’s people that drive world-leading innovation, and create a system that drives through into creating the companies for the future that are not just scale-ups, but world-beaters.”

Jonny Davidson, Senior Business Development Manager, of Riverlane said, "I was delighted to meet with members of the Business and Trade Committee, alongside partners in the city, to hear about the success, and opportunities, here in Cambridge. We discussed how Riverlane, a global leader in quantum error correction technology, is a national success story, driving advances in quantum computing, and economic growth. For companies like Riverlane, continued investment in science and infrastructure and a financial system that rewards long-term growth will be key to helping Cambridge and the wider UK remain a world leader in advanced technologies"

Members of the Business and Trade Select Committee visited Cambridge on 27 October, at the start of their annual programme of engagement around the UK, which this year is focused on identifying priorities for driving economic growth.

It’s people that drive world-leading innovation, and create a system that drives through into creating the companies for the future that are not just scale-ups, but world-beaters.Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP

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Yes

According to researchers at the University of Cambridge and Meta Reality Labs, the human eye has a resolution limit: in other words, there are only so many pixels the eye can see. Above this limit, a screen gives our eyes more information than they can detect.

To calculate the resolution limit, the researchers conducted a study that measured participants’ ability to detect specific features in colour and greyscale images on a screen, whether looking at the images straight on or through their peripheral vision, and when the screen was close to them or further away.

The precise resolution limit depends on a number of variables, including the size of the screen, the darkness of the room, and the distance between the viewer and the screen. However, for an average-size UK living room, with 2.5 metres between the TV and the sofa, a 44-inch 4K or 8K TV would not provide any additional benefit over a lower resolution Quad HD (QHD) TV of the same size.

The researchers have also developed a free online calculator where users can enter the size of their room and the dimensions and resolution of their TV to determine the most suitable screen for their home. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Any consumer buying a new TV is bombarded with technical information from manufacturers, all trying to persuade them that the display resolution of their screens - whether Full HD, 4K or 8K - offers them the best viewing experience.

And display resolution is considered equally important for the many other screens we use, on our phones or computers, whether we’re using them to take pictures, watch films or play video games, including games in virtual or augmented reality. Even car manufacturers are offering higher and higher resolutions for in-car information displays and satnav screens.

“As large engineering efforts go towards improving the resolution of mobile, AR and VR displays, it’s important to know the maximum resolution at which further improvements bring no noticeable benefit,” said first author Dr Maliha Ashraf from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology. “But there have been no studies that actually measure what it is that the human eye can see, and what the limitations of its perception are.”

“If you have more pixels in your display, it's less efficient, it costs more and it requires more processing power to drive it,” said co-author Professor Rafał Mantiuk, also from Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology. “So we wanted to know the point at which it makes no sense to further improve the resolution of the display.”

The researchers created an experimental set-up with a sliding display that allowed them to measure exactly what the human eye can see when looking at patterns on a screen. Instead of measuring the specifications of a particular screen, they measured pixels per degree (PPD): a measurement of how many individual pixels can fit into a one-degree slice of your field of vision. Measuring PPD helps answer a more useful question than ‘how high is the resolution of this screen?’ Instead, it answers the question ‘how does this screen look from where I’m sitting?’

The widely accepted 20/20 vision standard, based on the Snellen chart that will be familiar to anyone who has ever had their vision checked, suggests that the human eye can resolve detail at 60 pixels per degree.

“This measurement has been widely accepted, but no one had actually sat down and measured it for modern displays, rather than a wall chart of letters that was first developed in the 19th century,” said Ashraf.

Participants in the study looked at patterns with very fine gradations, in shades of grey and in colour, and were asked whether they were able to see the lines in the image. The screen was moved towards and away from the viewer to measure PPD at different distances. PPD was also measured for central and peripheral vision.  

The researchers discovered that the eye’s resolution limit is higher than previously believed, but that there are important differences in resolution limits between colour and black-and-white. For greyscale images viewed straight on, the average was 94 PPD. For red and green patterns, the number was 89 PPD, and for yellow and violet, it was 53 PPD.

“Our brain doesn’t actually have the capacity to sense details in colour very well, which is why we saw a big drop-off for colour images, especially when viewed in peripheral vision,” said Mantiuk. “Our eyes are essentially sensors that aren’t all that great, but our brain processes that data into what it thinks we should be seeing.”

The researchers modelled their results to calculate how the resolution limit varies across the population, which will help manufacturers make decisions that are relevant for the majority of the population: for example, designing a display which has retinal resolution for 95% of people rather than an average observer.

Based on this modelling, the researchers developed their online calculator, which enables people to test their own screens or help inform future buying decisions.

“Our results set the north star for display development, with implications for future imaging, rendering and video coding technologies,” said co-author Dr Alex Chapiro from Meta Reality Labs.

Reference:
Maliha Ashraf, Alexandre Chapiro, Rafał K. Mantiuk. ‘Resolution limit of the eye: how many pixels can we see?’ Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64679-2

Is your ultra-high-definition television really worth it? Do you need a 4K or an 8K screen to get the best viewing experience at home?

gorodenkoff via Getty ImagesMan and woman looking at televisions in an electronics shop

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Yes

Every two years, the United Nations Youth Office recognises 17 exceptional young changemakers who are driving solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges and whose leadership is helping to advance the achievement of the SDGs.

Tanatswa Amanda Chikaura, 26, from Zimbabwe, is a Hughes Hall PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Elizabeth Weir and Professor Tamsin Ford. Her research interests are centred on autism, mental health and suicide prevention. In addition to her academic pursuits, Tanatswa is the Founder and Director of Ndinewe Foundation, a mental health organisation in Zimbabwe.

Tanatswa said: “Young people are everywhere and sometimes it takes a fellow youth to understand another’s needs.
“We have the ideas, solutions, creativity and so much more to add to the development of our nations. Youth leadership gives hope and inspiration to all. We are not only the future of tomorrow but the leaders of today.”

Her supervisor Dr Weir said: “I’m delighted that Tanatswa has been selected as one of 17 Young Leaders for the SDGs. There were over 33,000 applicants for the cohort from more than 150 countries and Tanatswa will work with the UN over the next two years in this role.
“She has been selected for this prestigious cohort on the basis of her impactful PhD scholarship on the relationship between trauma and suicidality among autistic people, as well as her ongoing work as the founder of the Ndinewe Foundation in Zimbabwe.”

The announcement was made on United Nations Day, on 24 October, which marks the date when the United Nations officially came into being.
 

The United Nations has selected a University of Cambridge student as a Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Yes

Helena Renfrew Knight, Chief Strategy Officer of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and Professor Bhaskar Vira, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Cambridge University, welcomed teams working on AI to share knowledge and innovation, and identify areas for future collaboration.

Experts across Cambridge are navigating the opportunities and challenges of AI-enabled technology in education and publishing, underpinned by a human-first approach to transformation and a shared commitment to delivering on the University's mission to contribute to society.

Read full story on Cambridge University Press & Assessment's website.

Hundreds of experts working on AI in education gathered for the first ever Connecting Cambridge event at Cambridge University Press & Assessment's headquarters on 21 October.

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Yes

The statistics for the University of Cambridge are available on our website as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency and openness around the use of animals in research.

This coincides with the publication of the Home Office report on the statistics of scientific procedures on living animals in Great Britain in 2024.

The 10 organisations are listed below alongside the total number of procedures they carried out on animals for scientific research in Great Britain in 2024. Of these 1,379,399 procedures, more than 99% were carried out on mice, fish, rats, and birds and 82% were classified as causing pain equivalent to, or less than, an injection. 

This is the tenth consecutive year that organisations have come together to publicise their collective statistics and examples of their research.

Organisation Number of Procedures (2024) The Francis Crick Institute 200,055 University of Oxford 199,730 University of Cambridge 190,448 UCL 175,687 Medical Research Council 140,602 University of Edinburgh 136,862 King's College London 106,300 University of Glasgow 99,509 University of Manchester 81,252 Imperial College London 48,954 TOTAL 1,379,399

In total, 72 organisations have voluntarily published their 2024 animal research statistics.

All organisations are committed to the ethical framework called the ‘3Rs’ of replacement, reduction and refinement. This means avoiding or replacing the use of animals where possible, minimising the number of animals used per experiment and optimising the experience of the animals to improve animal welfare. However, as institutions expand and conduct more research, the total number of animals used can rise even if fewer animals are used per study.

All organisations listed are signatories to the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK, which commits them to being more open about the use of animals in scientific, medical and veterinary research in the UK. More than 130 organisations have signed the Concordat, including UK universities, medical research charities, research funders, learned societies and commercial research organisations.

Wendy Jarrett, Chief Executive of Understanding Animal Research, which developed the Concordat on Openness, said: “Animal research remains a small but vital part of the quest for new medicines, vaccines and treatments for humans and animals. Alternative methods are increasingly being phased in, but, until we have sufficient reliable alternatives available, it is important that organisations that use animals in research maintain the public’s trust in them. By providing this level of information about the numbers of animals used, and the experience of those animals, as well as details of the medical breakthroughs that derive from this research, these Concordat signatories are helping the public to make up their own minds about how they feel about the use of animals in scientific research in Great Britain.” 

Professor Jon Simons, Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, said: “Animal research remains critical for understanding complex biological systems and is an essential step in the development of new medicines, vaccines and treatments for both humans and animals. We are committed to continuing to reduce the number of animals used in biomedical research, and our scientists are actively working on new methods and techniques that will provide robust scientific alternatives.”

Text adapted from a press release by Understanding Animal Research.

CASE STUDY: Mice are vital in the search for effective new dementia treatments Cambridge researchers are leading drug discovery to develop safer, more effective treatments for the millions of people affected by Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

“Dementia has often been viewed as something that happens normally as people age, but it's not. It's a disease that we need to treat, so that people can live well and stay independent in later life,” said David Harrison. “But many pharmaceutical companies have lost confidence in working in this area because the risk of failure is too great.”

With expertise in drug discovery, Harrison’s team at Cambridge’s ALBORADA Drug Discovery Institute is designing and making chemical molecules - the basis of future drugs - and testing whether they work on novel targets in the body. The aim is to develop these ideas to the point where pharmaceutical partners can more confidently take things forward.

While the team routinely uses test-tube and computer-based models, animal models are vital in understanding how the many different cell types in the brain interact together in disease. They’re also vital in understanding how potential drugs are metabolised and distributed throughout the body, and in looking for any adverse effects that may occur in other tissues.

Harrison said: “Almost one million people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK. We need to find better treatment options. The animals we use are an essential part of the drug discovery process - they could help us change people’s lives.”

Read the full story here

The 10 organisations in Great Britain that carry out the highest number of animal procedures - those used in medical, veterinary and scientific research - have released their annual statistics today.

Animal research... is an essential step in the development of new medicines, vaccines and treatments for both humans and animals.Jon Simonsanyaivanova, GettyMice are vital in drug discovery research

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YesLicence type: Attribution-Noncommerical

A study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge found that impaired movement of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) – the clear liquid that cushions and cleans the brain – predicted risk of dementia later in life among 40,000 adults recruited to UK Biobank. Their findings are published today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association and are being presented at the World Stroke Congress 2025 in Barcelona.

In the healthy brain, the so-called glymphatic system serves to clear out toxins and waste materials, keeping the brain healthy. Only discovered as recently as 2012, this system functions by flushing CSF through the brain along tiny channels around blood vessels known as perivascular spaces. It collects waste then drains out of the brain, helping keep it clean and healthy.

The glymphatic system is thought to be important in protecting against many of the common forms of dementia, which are often characterised by the build-up of toxic substances in the brain – for example, Alzheimer's disease sees amyloid ‘plaques’ and tau ‘tangles accumulate in brain tissue.

One of the most common forms of dementia is vascular dementia, caused by reduced blood flow to the brain. The most common cause of this type of dementia is cerebral small vessel disease, which affects the small blood vessels in the brain. But the impact of cerebral small vessel disease is even greater because it also interacts with other dementias making them worse; for example, a study of nuns in the US found that among those nuns whose brains showed signs of Alzheimer's disease post mortem, only around a half exhibited symptoms of dementia – but this increased to around nine in 10 if they also had cerebral small vessel disease.

Professor Hugh Markus and colleagues at the University of Cambridge wanted to see whether cerebral small vessel disease and other cardiovascular risk factors damage the glymphatic system – and whether this in turn increases the risk of dementia.

Until recently, it has only been possible to study glymphatic function in mice, but recent advances in MRI scanning have made it possible to study it indirectly in humans. Even so, it was only possible to do this practically in relatively small numbers, but Yutong Chen, while a medical student at the University of Cambridge, developed machine learning algorithms capable of assessing glymphatic functions from MRI scans at scale.

The team applied the algorithm to MRI scans taken from around 40,000 adults in UK Biobank. They found three biomarkers – biological signatures – associated with impaired glymphatic function assessed at baseline, predicted the risk of dementia occurring over the subsequent decade.  One of these was DTI-ALPS, a measure of the diffusion of water molecules along the perivascular spaces. Another was the size of the choroid plexus, where the CSF is produced. The third measure reflected the flow velocity of CSF into the brain.

Yutong Chen, from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge, said: “Although we have to be cautious about indirect markers, our work provides good evidence in a very large cohort that disruption of the glymphatic system plays a role in dementia. This is exciting because it allows to ask: how can we improve this?”

Further analysis showed that several cardiovascular risk factors impaired glymphatic function – and hence increased dementia risk, and that this was partly via causing cerebral small vessel disease, which is visible in the MRI scans.

First author Hui Hong, now a radiologist at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, said: “We already have evidence that small vessel disease in the brain accelerates diseases like Alzheimer's, and now we have a likely explanation why. Disruption to the glymphatic system is likely to impair our ability to clear the brain of the amyloid and tau that causes Alzheimer's disease.”

The research suggests possible approaches for reducing dementia risk. One is to look at strategies for improving glymphatic function. Sleep plays an important role in glymphatic function, and so disrupted sleep patterns are likely to impair its ability to clear toxins. Alternatively, there may be existing medicines that could be repurposed, or new ones that could be developed, to improve glymphatic function.

Another possible approach is to treat vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure. This is supported by recent studies: the SPRINT MIND trial, for example, showed that intensive blood pressure control (maintaining a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg) led to a 20% reduction in cognitive decline or dementia compared to participants in the standard treatment group.

Professor Markus, who leads the Stroke Research Group at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, said: “We already know the importance of cardiovascular risk factors when it comes to dementia, and our findings further emphasise this link.

“At least a quarter of all dementia risk is accounted for by common risk factors like blood pressure and smoking. If these impair glymphatic function, then we can intervene. Treating high blood pressure or encouraging people to stop smoking would be an achievable way to helping the glymphatic system work better.”

Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study offers us a fascinating glimpse into how problems with the brain's waste clearance system could be quietly increasing the chances of developing dementia later in life. By improving our understanding of the glymphatic system, this study opens exciting new avenues for research to treat and prevent dementia. It also emphasises the importance of managing known cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, for reducing dementia risk.”

The research was funded by the British Heart Foundation, with additional support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference

Hong, H et al. MRI markers of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics predict dementia and mediate the impact of cardiovascular risk. Alz & Dem; 23 Oct 2025; DOI: 10.1002/alz.70699

Problems with the brain’s waste clearance system could underlie many cases of dementia and help explain why poor sleep patterns and cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure increase the risk of dementia.

Treating high blood pressure or encouraging people to stop smoking would be an achievable way to helping the glymphatic system work betterHugh MarkusMaskot (Getty Images)Caretaker and senior woman using digital tablet at nursing home - stock photo

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Yes

Designed to drive UK growth, the Hub will connect entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and researchers on a 2.7-acre site in the centre of Cambridge, as the UK’s answer to Boston’s Lab Central and Paris’s Station F. The new facility will support science start ups to grow and compete on the world stage.

The announcement was made as the annual Innovate Cambridge Summit brings together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and political leaders this week, and is part of a £500 million growth package for new homes, infrastructure and business space for the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor.

It follows a new report that reveals the Cambridge area is now the most investible hub for science, and has had the highest growth of any UK region outside the capital in the last decade.

According to the new report from Beauhurst, Cambridge Enterprise, Innovate Cambridge and Cambridge Innovation Capital, Cambridge is a national economic asset where early-stage life sciences and deep tech companies have raised £7.9billion since 2015. International investors are now involved in nearly 40% of all deals, up from just 7% a decade ago. 

Cambridge’s innovation ecosystem has grown by almost 80% in the past decade, from 473 active companies in 2015 to 848 in 2025. Its spinout companies, born from University research, are powering this momentum, with spinouts accounting for 27.9% of all equity raised in the region. Total spinout investment has grown from £46 million in 2015 to £879 million in 2024, with life science spinouts raising an average of £8.4 million each in 2024, the highest for any UK city.

This growth and success have been embodied by Cambridge-born success stories, including CellCentric, a leading clinical-stage biotech developing novel cancer therapeutics; CuspAI, an AI-driven materials discovery company; and Featurespace, a world leader in adaptive behavioural analytics for financial crime prevention.

Science Minister and Oxford-Cambridge Innovation Champion, Lord Vallance, said: “Cambridge is one of the world's most fertile grounds for innovation to take root, and blossom into opportunities for investment, job creation, and progress in fields ranging from life sciences to deep tech.

“As impressive as these figures are, there is still more potential here for us to unleash. This is precisely why we are backing the Cambridge Innovation Hub, as part of our programme of work across Government to boost the entire Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor, and fulfil its promise as an economic engine the whole nation benefits from.”

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “Fast-tracking the Innovation Hub will help drive UK growth. It will connect entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and our world-class researchers. It will quickly become Europe’s leading destination for early-stage deep tech and life sciences companies, and means Cambridge will continue to be a global leader in research and innovation. The world is coming to Cambridge for science. Government support means that work will now start at pace to make the Innovation Hub a reality."

Professor Andy Neely OBE, Chair of Innovate Cambridge, said: “Cambridge’s science and innovation ecosystem is one of the UK’s greatest economic assets. The data shows that the world is increasingly looking to Cambridge to find the breakthrough ideas that can change lives and drive global progress.”

Dr Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director, Innovate Cambridge, said: “The Summit is a chance to demonstrate how Cambridge continues to lead on innovation worldwide. Recognition as the fastest-growing UK hub for science investment, combined with cornerstone funding for a new international innovation hub, reflects the success of our unified vision and commitment to building a truly global innovation economy.”

This latest report follows Dealroom data published earlier this year which showed Cambridge was #1 in Europe for deep tech VC per capita, and was second globally to only the Bay Area when it came to unicorns per capita. 

The Cambridge Innovation Hub has received cornerstone Government funding of at least £15 million to maintain the city’s position as a global leader in innovation.

The world is coming to Cambridge for science. Government support means that work will now start at pace to make the Innovation Hub a reality.Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor

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Yes

Using a new technique for imaging embryos in real time, a team led by scientists at the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, University of Cambridge, showed that abnormalities can arise at a later stage of embryo development than previously thought. This means that the tests used in some clinics may be finding errors in cells that will go on to develop into the placenta – and abnormalities in placental cells are less likely to affect the health of the fetus.

When an egg has been fertilised by a sperm, it is known as a zygote. This then divides, each new cell taking a copy of each parent’s DNA. Each of these cells itself divides and copies, and this process occurs repeatedly, developing into a hollow ball of cells, a stage of the embryo known as a blastocyst.

Around six days after fertilisation, the blastocyst implants itself into the lining of the uterus. Its outer cells develop into the placenta, a temporary organ that ensures the embryo – and the fetus into which it develops – receives the correct levels of nutrition and hormones necessary for its growth.

Assisted conception technologies are increasingly widespread due to a range of factors. These technologies involve fertilising eggs in the clinic and transferring the blastocyst into the uterus. However, before transfer, many clinics test the embryos for aneuploidy, where some cells in the embryo have the wrong number of chromosomes. When abnormalities are detected, the embryo may be deemed inviable and discarded, meaning patients may need to go through another cycle of treatment, which can prove costly.

So-called pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy is a treatment ‘add on’ that may be offered to older women and those with a history of recurrent miscarriages or multiple IVF failures.

Researchers at the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, Cambridge, are interested in how early human embryos develop before implantation in the womb. This is because in assisted conceived, as many as nine in ten embryos fail to develop to a stage where they can be transferred to the womb.

“Having a baby through assisted conception can be very challenging,” said Professor Kathy Niakan, Director of the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research and Co-Chair of Cambridge Reproduction. “Most embryos fail to develop or to implant, and even those that are good quality may not be transferred. Much more basic research is needed to inform future clinical practice and improve rates of assisted conception.”

To help understand development of the embryo at this early stage, Professor Niakan and colleagues, in collaboration with researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, developed a new, state-of-the-art method for watching embryos live in high resolution. The details are published today in Nature Biotechnology.

The new imaging technique involves tagging DNA inside the cell nucleus with a fluorescent protein, making it visible under a microscope. The researchers then use an imaging technique known as light-sheet microscopy to observe the embryos in 3D as they developed without damaging them.

First author Dr Ahmed Abdelbaki, a postdoctoral researcher at the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, said: “This is the first time that this very gentle method, with much higher resolution, has been used. It meant that we could watch the embryos as they developed over a two-day period, the longest continuous time that this process has been observed.”

Co-author Professor Ben Steventon from the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge said: “The unique design of the microscope allows for multiple precious embryos to be watched simultaneously, and from both sides. This has allowed the team to catch events that have previously been missed. It’s a proof of the power of direct observation to uncover unexpected findings in human biology.”

The technique led to a very unexpected finding.

Professor Niakan, the study’s senior author, said: “We were extremely surprised to discover that abnormal cell divisions can happen from scratch at a very late stage of human development. It was only by using a new imaging technique that it was possible to see this happening.”

Of the 13 embryos analysed by the team, 10% of the cells contained chromosomal abnormalities. These arose from problems when DNA is being copied between cells, for example when chromosomes did not move properly during division or when a cell divides into three, rather than two.

Because these abnormalities arise at a relatively late stage of the embryo’s development, they appear in the outer layer of the blastocyst, which develops into the placenta – and it is from this layer that biopsies are taken for pre-genetic testing for aneuploidy.

Professor Niakan’s team is now studying cells in the inner layer to see whether such spontaneous abnormalities can also arise there.

The embryos used in this study were donated by families who had had successful pregnancies. The families were treated at Bourn Hall Clinic and Create Fertility.

The research was supported by Wellcome, the Francis Crick Institute (which receives core funding from Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and Wellcome) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Reference

Abdelbaki, A et al. Live imaging of late-stage preimplantation human embryos reveals de novo mitotic errors. Nat Biotech; 23 Oct 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41587-025-02851-1

A test deployed in many fertility clinics to assess the viability of embryos for use in IVF is likely to overestimate the number of embryos with abnormalities, suggests a study published today.

Most embryos fail to develop or to implant, and even those that are good quality may not be transferred. Much more basic research is needed to inform future clinical practice and improve rates of assisted conceptionKathy NiakanJuan Gartner (Getty Images)Preimplantation genetic diagnosis - stock illustration

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Yes

The CSA delivers independent and impartial science and engineering advice to UK ministers and policymakers across the DESNZ policy and delivery portfolio and Clean Energy Superpower Mission. The CSA is also responsible for ensuring the department has robust systems in place to access science and engineering expertise, including as departmental Head of the Government Science and Engineering Profession.

“It's a great honour to join the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as Chief Scientific Adviser at a time when scientific evidence is so crucial to informing the UK’s response to the twin challenges of climate change and energy security,” Emily said.

Emily will make a phased transition from her role as Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge's major climate change initiative, while retaining her academic research activities. She will begin her DESNZ role by working one day a week from 3 November before moving to three days from January and four days from Summer 2026. The secondment will be for three years. 

“I warmly congratulate Professor Shuckburgh on her appointment as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. It is an appointment that recognises not only her outstanding academic leadership in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, but also the vital role that Cambridge plays in shaping Britain’s future,” University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice said. 

Emily was awarded a CBE in the 2025 Birthday Honours for HM King Charles III for the Public Communication of Climate Science and appointed alongside two other Cambridge academics to the DESNZ Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) in July. She has acted as an adviser on climate to the UK Government in various capacities, including as a Friend of COP26. Before founding Cambridge Zero in 2019, Emily 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.  

“The role of the CSA is so critical to our work and our Mission, therefore I’m delighted that Professor Shuckburgh is joining the Department. She brings incredible experience as a world leading climate scientist, and I know she’ll add considerable value to the work of our Department,” DESNZ Permanent Secretary Jeremy Pocklington said. 

Emily was awarded an OBE in 2016 and is co-author with HM King Charles III and British environmentalist Tony Juniper of A Ladybird Book on Climate Change. She is a mathematician and climate scientist, a Fellow of Darwin College and an alumna of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is President-elect of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute.

At Cambridge, Emily is Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology (CST), Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS), and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR) and also of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).

The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has appointed Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh CBE as the Department’s new Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA).

Emily ShuckburghEmily Shuckburgh poses for the camera

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Yes

Do you have a memory so vivid you can relive it as if it's happening all over again, re-experiencing the physical sensations and emotions just as you did in that moment?

Researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Durham want to understand more about vivid memories: how these experiences differ from person to person, how they evolve as we age, and how they changed across modern history. To do it, they need your help.

The team has launched an online public survey asking people to describe two of their most vivid memories. They’re hoping for thousands of responses from people of all age-groups and walks of life, to help them build an anonymised database representative of the whole population.

The findings will inform new ways to help people remember things in more vivid detail. They will also help researchers to understand the nature of human memories across the lifespan, and how ideas about memory have evolved over centuries.

While the modern scientific definition of vivid memory tends to emphasise visual detail, the team is taking a novel approach by drawing on Shakespeare’s texts and historical diaries for a richer definition, encompassing many additional sensations.

Dr Kasia Mojescik, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge who is involved in the project, said: “For the first time, cognitive neuroscientists are working directly with humanities scholars to design experiments that try to understand vivid memories from an entirely new perspective.”

Professor Charles Fernyhough in the Department of Psychology at Durham University, and a member of the project team, said: “By exploring historical and literary perspectives on memory, we’re including many aspects of the experience of remembering - such as strong emotions, and the feeling of being present in the moment - that have been neglected in purely scientific studies.”

Using machine learning tools, the team will look for recurring patterns in the experiences that are remembered with the greatest detail throughout our lives.

Trends that emerge across age groups might explain why, even as we feel our memories are becoming less precise as we age, our most precious or identity-shaping memories often remain as vivid as if they happened yesterday.

Dr Martha McGill in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge, a member of the project team, will reflect on how the experience of remembering has changed over time, looking at British autobiographical writings from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Professor Jon Simons in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, and project lead, said: “Many people have at least one really vivid memory. For me it’s the birth of my first child. It’s not something that I just know happened – it’s an event I can go back and relive in incredible detail, like mental time travel.”

The team hopes that the findings might also inform future pharmaceutical treatments and therapeutic interventions for memory problems.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE PART IN THE SURVEY

More information on the research project, When Memories Come Alive, is available here.

This research is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s pilot scheme for interdisciplinary research: the Cross Research Council Responsive Mode scheme (CRCRM).

Researchers have launched a public survey to help them unlock the secrets of vivid memory, and find ways to help us better recall past experiences 

For the first time, cognitive neuroscientists are working directly with humanities scholars to design experiments that try to understand vivid memories from an entirely new perspective.Dr Kasia MojescikGetty/JGI/Jamie GrillSmiling woman with eyes closed

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The team, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, analysed more than 250 young galaxies that existed when the universe was between 800 million and 1.5 billion years old. By studying the movement of gas within these galaxies, the researchers discovered that most were turbulent, ‘clumpy’ systems that had not yet settled into smooth rotating disks like our own Milky Way.

Their findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggest that galaxies gradually became calmer and more ordered as the universe evolved. But in the early universe, star formation and gravitational instabilities stirred up so much turbulence that many galaxies struggled to settle.

“We don’t just see a few spectacular outliers – this is the first time we’ve been able to look at an entire population at once,” said first author Lola Danhaive from Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “We found huge variation: some galaxies are beginning to settle into ordered rotation, but most are still chaotic, with gas puffed up and moving in all directions.”

The researchers used JWST’s NIRCam instrument in a rarely used ‘grism mode’ that captures faint light from ionised hydrogen gas in distant galaxies. Danhaive wrote new code to unravel the grism data, matching it with images from other JWST surveys to measure how gas was moving inside each galaxy.

“Previous results suggested massive, well-ordered disks forming very early on, which didn’t fit our models,” said co-author Dr Sandro Tacchella from the Kavli Institute and the Cavendish Laboratory. “But by looking at hundreds of galaxies with lower stellar masses instead of just one or two, we see the bigger picture, and it’s much more in line with theory. Early galaxies were more turbulent, less stable, and grew up through frequent mergers and bursts of star formation.”

“This work helps bridge the gap between the epoch of reionisation and the so-called cosmic noon, when star formation peaked,” said Danhaive, who is also affiliated with the Cavendish Laboratory. “It shows how the building blocks of galaxies gradually transitioned from chaotic clumps into ordered structures, and how galaxies such as the Milky Way formed.”

The results show how JWST allows scientists to probe galaxy dynamics at a scale that was impossible before. Future studies will aim to combine these findings with observations of cold gas and dust to paint a fuller picture of how the earliest galaxies took shape.

“This is just the beginning,” said Tacchella. “With more data, we’ll be able to track how these turbulent systems grew up and became the graceful spirals we see today.”

The research was supported in part by the Royal Society, the European Union, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). JWST is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The data for this result were captured as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Sandro Tacchella is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Lola Danhaive is a PhD student in the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Data Intensive Science.

 

Reference:
A. Lola Danhaive et al. ‘The dawn of disks: unveiling the turbulent ionised gas kinematics of the galaxy population at z 4-6 with JWST/NIRCam grism spectroscopy.’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf1540

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have captured the most detailed look yet at how galaxies formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang – and found they were far more chaotic and messy than those we see today.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA)JWST's grism mode captures faint light from ionised hydrogen gas in distant galaxies

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Yes

The pioneering procedure, which uses ultrasound energy to destroy tumours, took place at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where Roger Jackson from Bedford underwent the incisionless treatment for liver cancer.

The installation of the Edison Histotripsy System at Addenbrooke’s was made possible by a generous donation to the University of Cambridge from the Li Ka Shing Foundation, a long-standing supporter of cancer research in Cambridge. The technology, developed by US-based HistoSonics, has already treated over 2,000 patients worldwide following the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the destruction of liver tumours in 2023.

Histotripsy uses focused sound waves to generate microscopic “bubble clouds” from naturally occurring gases present in targeted tumour tissues. The bubbles form and collapse in microseconds, creating mechanical forces that destroy cancer cells without the need for surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. With treatment taking as little as 30 minutes and usually with minimal or no pain, patients can recover quickly and spend less time in hospital, with treatment performed as a day case.

Dr Teik Choon See, consultant interventional radiologist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), led the procedure. He said: “Histotripsy represents a major and exciting step forward in cancer treatment. It allows us to target tumours more precisely while sparing surrounding healthy tissue, offering patients a safer and faster alternative to traditional therapies.

“What is even more promising is in some reported cases, after the sound waves break apart the tumour, the patient’s immune response may become activated and clear up some remaining cancerous tissues, showing real hope for patients.”

“An amazing experience”

Roger Jackson, 80, said: “I feel privileged to be the first NHS patient and to receive this care was an amazing experience. It is impressive to think that sound waves can treat cancer, without the need for patients like me to go through intensive surgery, at what already is a stressful time. I’m hugely grateful to the team at Addenbrooke’s for their specialist care and expertise.”

After treatment last week, Mr Jackson was discharged the following day and is back at home. He said he is now looking forward to spending time with his family, including his sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Roger Jackson’s treatment is the first histotripsy procedure to take place after the equipment was granted Unmet Clinical Need Authorisation in Great Britain enabling time-limited, controlled early access to the Histotripsy device under the UK’s Innovative Devices Access Pathway pilot programme. Overseen by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), this enables early market access to the medical device under certain conditions prior to full regulatory approval, meaning NHS patients can benefit from technology years earlier than planned.

With preliminary funding from Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), treatment is initially being offered to selected patients with tumours from primary and secondary liver cancers. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is exploring initiatives to fund research into the clinical and cost-effectiveness of histotripsy. Further studies are underway to explore its use in other cancer types.

“The beginning of a new generation in cancer treatment”

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This marks the beginning of a new generation in cancer treatment. We are lighting the fuse beneath the technological revolution, transforming care for NHS patients. 

 “By slashing red tape, we’ve made sure this game-changing new cancer treatment has reached the NHS front line quicker, and I'm proud to say British patients are now the first in Europe to benefit. 

 “This government has streamlined approval processes to create an NHS fit for the future - protecting patients while unleashing the full potential of our scientists and NHS staff so they can deliver world-class care.”

Roland Sinker, chief executive of CUH, said: “Histotripsy represents a hugely exciting and new era of cancer innovation and care.

“With faster recovery times and shorter hospital stays, this not only reduces the strain on our hospital beds, but it also frees up surgeons to focus on the more complex cancer cases, helping to cut waiting times.

“We are delighted to be at the forefront of this new ground-breaking technology and understanding how we can treat cancer more accurately and precisely, a position we aim to strengthen further with our planned Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.”

Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, set to be built on Europe’s largest life science campus, the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, is a partnership between CUH and the University of Cambridge. By bringing world-leading scientists and clinical expertise together in one NHS building, the new hospital will treat patients across the East of England and will accelerate research and innovations to change the story of cancer across the UK and beyond.

Lawrence Tallon, Chief Executive of the MHRA, said: “This milestone shows how smart, agile regulation can help bring promising new treatments to patients sooner. Through the Innovative Devices Access Pathway, we at the MHRA have worked with partners across the health system to safely make early access to this technology possible.

“My congratulations to the team at Cambridge University Hospitals on this breakthrough – their work demonstrates how collaboration can unlock innovation for patients and deliver faster access to care.”

Treatment for Histotripsy

Addenbrooke’s is currently setting up a referral pathway, so the histotripsy technology can be made available to patients at Addenbrooke’s and beyond. External referrals will be considered through a consultant referral, and suitability for the treatment will be decided by medical teams based on the cancer location, size, extent and overall patient’s fitness.

No other provider is offering histotripsy in the UK at the moment.

Patients should speak to their consultant if they have any questions about being referred for treatment. If you already have a referral, and have further questions, please email the Cambridge team.  

Adapted from a press release from CUH

A Cambridge patient has become the first person in Europe to receive cutting-edge histotripsy treatment outside of a clinical trial, after the technology was fast-tracked by the Government - marking a major milestone in NHS cancer care.

Histotripsy represents a major and exciting step forward in cancer treatmentTeik Choon SeeCUHRoger Jackson from Bedford

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Yes

The 4MOST (4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope), mounted on the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope in Chile, achieved its ‘first light’ on 18 October 2025: a milestone marking the start of its scientific mission.

Unlike a typical telescope that takes pictures of the sky, 4MOST records spectra – the detailed colours of light from celestial objects – revealing their temperature, motion and chemical makeup. Using 2,436 optical fibres, each thinner than a human hair, the telescope can study thousands of stars and galaxies at once, splitting their light into 18,000 distinct colour components.

“This is an outstanding feat made possible by an amazing development team,” said Dr Roelof de Jong, Principal Investigator of 4MOST at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), which leads the international project. “The first data already look fantastic. To catch light that’s travelled for billions of years in a fibre the size of a hair is mind-boggling.”

When fully operational, 4MOST will scan the entire southern sky every few minutes, building a catalogue of tens of millions of objects. The data it gathers will help answer fundamental questions about how the Milky Way formed, how galaxies grow, and the mysterious forces of dark matter and dark energy shaping the universe.

The telescope’s first images targeted two specific regions: the Sculptor Galaxy, a star-forming spiral 11.5 million light years away, and Globular Cluster NGC 288, a dense sphere of 100,000 ancient stars on the Milky Way’s edge. The observations demonstrated 4MOST’s ability to capture a wide range of celestial objects in a single shot.

“With first light, we’re opening a new chapter in sky surveys,” said Professor Matthias Steinmetz, Scientific Director at AIP. “4MOST will help to answer fundamental questions about the formation of the Milky Way, the evolution of galaxies and the forces that shape the Universe.”

The project has been more than a decade in the making, involving 30 universities and research institutes – including the University of Cambridge – across Europe and Australia.

Engineers have equipped the VISTA telescope with a new optical camera nearly a metre wide, giving 4MOST one of the largest fields of view in the world for a telescope of its kind. Every 10 to 20 minutes, its fibres can reposition to observe a new set of targets, with a precision that allows it to switch focus across the sky in under two minutes.

Light captured from each fibre travels to a set of three spectrographs that separate it into red, green and blue components, then into finer detail using detectors with a total of 36 megapixels. Two of these spectrographs analyse the full visible and infrared spectrum, while a third focuses on specific colour bands to reveal the chemical fingerprints of stars.

Behind the telescope is an international team of more than 700 scientists working across 25 major science programmes. Some will focus on rare or exotic celestial objects, while others will build large statistical surveys of stars and galaxies.

Planning of nightly observations will be coordinated from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. The European Southern Observatory will operate the system from its Chilean base.

Data from the telescope will be transferred to the University of Cambridge, where researchers at the Institute of Astronomy lead data management. The Cambridge team will extract physical information from the raw spectra before transferring to AIP and ESO, who will distribute the processed results for use by the global astronomy community.

“The 4MOST instrument, with its huge number of optical fibres, has meant the development of a highly sophisticated, high throughput, data flow system, running in Cambridge,” said Dr Nicholas Walton, 4MOST Data Management lead. “Our advanced pipeline delivers the highest quality science data, underpinning the amazing discoveries that 4MOST will enable.”

“This is such an exciting time to be an astronomer, as 4MOST and other next-generation telescopes come online,” said Dr Lisa Kelsey from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, a member of the 4MOST team. “It’s taken a long time and a huge team to get here, but we can’t wait to get to work on some exciting new science.”

Kelsey and her Cambridge colleagues are members of one of the first major research projects to use 4MOST: the Time Domain Extragalactic Survey (TiDES). TiDES will focus on extragalactic transients: brief, dramatic events such as supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts and stars being torn apart by black holes in distant galaxies. By capturing these fleeting flashes of light as they happen, TiDES will help astronomers understand how stars die, how black holes feed, and how the universe evolves on its most violent timescales.

Over its planned 15-year lifetime, 4MOST is expected to revolutionise astrophysical research. By combining an enormous field of view with the ability to study thousands of objects simultaneously, it will deliver one of the most ambitious spectroscopic surveys ever undertaken.

A powerful new telescope has captured its first glimpse of the cosmos, and could transform our understanding of how stars, galaxies and black holes evolve.

AIP/Background: Harshwardhan Pathak/Telescope Live4MOST first-light field-of-view

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