Research

How to Recruit a High-Performing Apprentice: Anglia Ruskin Panel Event

In September 2019, Anglia Ruskin University’s (ARU’s) Cambridge campus will begin the first year of its new – and currently unique in the UK – Data Scientist Degree Apprenticeship for the bioinformatics profession. Ahead of this, ARU and the Wellcome Sanger Institute have set up a “Lunch and Learn” panel event for hiring managers and talent acquisition specialists, looking at how they can best recruit and support top apprentices.

news

Neuron-Optimised CRISPR Can Manipulate Neuron Gene Expression for First Time

A neuron-optimised CRISPR-Cas9 activation system has been used by scientists to regulate genes in a rat brain for the first time. This technique could lead to researchers being able to probe genetic influences on brain health and disease in model organisms which more closely resemble humans.

news

CRISPR Twins Could Develop Abnormal Intelligences, Animal Studies Suggest

New information from China has suggested that the twins recently created using CRISPR gene-editing technology to make them HIV-resistance could also develop genetically-enhanced brains.

news

New “Hit and Run” CRISPR Delivery System Improves Efficiency

Researchers from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) have determined a new way to deliver DNA editing tools so that the presence of their proteins in cells is reduced, in what they have called a “hit and run” approach.

news

Four New Synthetic DNA Bases Double “Alphabet of Life”

Scientists have used synthetic nucleotides to double the traditional number of life’s building blocks to eight.

news

Drug Combination Shows Survival Promise for Kidney Cancer Patients

A combination of immunotherapy drug avelumab and targeted agent axitinib has been seen to increases progression-free survival in patients with metastatic kidney cancer, scientists from the Dana-Farber Institute have reported following a phase 3 clinical trial.

news

Bio-Rad’s PCR-Based Test for CML Finds FDA Approval

Global life science researcher Bio-Rad has announced that its droplet digital PCR-based test for chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), the first of its kind, has been cleared by the FDA. The test quantifies BCR-ABL, the gene fusion which causes CML, in the blood.

news

New Software Predicts Ovarian Cancer Prognostics 4x Better than Standard Methods

TEXLab, a mathematical AI software created by scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Melbourne can predict survival rates of patients with ovarian cancer more accurately than any current method, a trial published in Nature Communications has found.

news

Older Sperm Breeds Healthier Offspring

Sperm which lives longer before fertilising an egg produces more health children, Uppsala University and University of East Anglia (UEA) scientists have found.

news

Oxbridge S&T Sector will Need “40 Football Fields” More Space Post-Brexit

The leading advisor for the UK science and technology (S&T) sectors has estimated that despite Brexit, Cambridge and Oxford’s S&T companies will require 2.5 million more square feet of lab and research space over the next five years, and are looking to accommodate 20,000 new R&D workers by 2023.

news

Ketamine-Like Antidepressant Receives FDA Advisory Group Approval

Esketamine, a Johnson & Johnson antidepressant based on the party drug ketamine, has received backing from an FDA independent advisory group.

news

“Trojan Horse” Antibody to Treat Cancers Reaches New Test Stage

Toxic antibody tisutumab vedotin (TV) has shown promise as a treatment for a number of types of advanced cancer. This “trojan horse” approach has now reached the stage of being tested on a wider variety of patients. Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust researchers tested the drug on 147 patients to evaluate potential benefits and side effects.