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Launched on 19 December 2013, Gaia’s fuel tank is now approaching empty – it uses about a dozen grams of cold gas per day to keep it spinning with pinpoint precision. But this is far from the end of the mission. Technology tests are scheduled for the weeks ahead before Gaia is moved to its ‘retirement’ orbit, and two massive data releases are tabled for around 2026 and the end of this decade, respectively.

“Today marks the end of science observations and we are celebrating this incredible mission that has exceeded all our expectations, lasting for almost twice its originally foreseen lifetime,” said ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell.

“The treasure trove of data collected by Gaia has given us unique insights into the origin and evolution of our Milky Way galaxy, and has also transformed astrophysics and Solar System science in ways that we are yet to fully appreciate. Gaia built on unique European excellence in astrometry and will leave a long-lasting legacy for future generations.”

“Today marks the last day of science data collection from Gaia, these observations to form part of the final data release,” said Dr Nicholas Walton from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, lead of the UK Gaia Project team and ESA Gaia Science Team member. “Our Gaia team in the UK is now working hard on the incredibly complex data analysis for the upcoming Gaia data releases. These will enable a wealth of new discovery, adding to the science from one of the world’s most productive science discovery machines.”

Gaia delivers best Milky Way map

Gaia has been charting the positions, distances, movements, brightness changes, composition and numerous other characteristics of stars by monitoring them with its three instruments many times throughout the mission.

This has enabled Gaia to deliver on its primary goal of building the largest, most precise map of the Milky Way, showing us our home galaxy like no other mission has done before.

Gaia’s repeated measurements of stellar distances, motions and characteristics are key to performing ‘galactic archeology’ on our Milky Way, revealing missing links in our galaxy’s complex history to help us learn more about our origins. From detecting ‘ghosts’ of other galaxies and multiple streams of ancient stars that merged with the Milky Way in its early history, to finding evidence for an ongoing collision with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy today, Gaia is rewriting the Milky Way’s history and making predictions about its future.

Warning! More ground-breaking science ahead

The Gaia scientific and engineering teams are already working on the preparations for Gaia Data Release 4 (DR4), expected in 2026.

“This is the Gaia release the community has been waiting for, and it’s exciting to think this only covers half of the collected data,” said Antonella Vallenari, Deputy Chair of DPAC based at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Astronomical Observatory of Padua, Italy. “Even though the mission has now stopped collecting data, it will be business as usual for us for many years to come as we make these incredible datasets ready for use.”

“Over the next months we will continue to downlink every last drop of data from Gaia, and at the same time the processing teams will ramp up their preparations for the fifth and final major data release at the end of this decade, covering the full 10.5 years of mission data,” said Rocio Guerra, Gaia Science Operations Team Leader based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain.

Gaia’s retirement plan

While today marks the end of science observations, a short period of technology testing now begins. The tests have the potential to further improve the Gaia calibrations, learn more about the behaviour of certain technology after ten years in space, and even aid the design of future space missions.

After several weeks of testing, Gaia will leave its current orbit around Lagrange point 2, 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction away from the Sun, to be put into its final heliocentric orbit, far away from Earth’s sphere of influence. The spacecraft will be passivated on 27 March 2025, to avoid any harm or interference with other spacecraft.

Wave farewell to Gaia

During the technology tests Gaia’s orientation will be changed, meaning it will temporarily become several magnitudes brighter, making observations through small telescopes a lot easier (it won’t be visible to the naked eye). A guide to locating Gaia has been set up here, and amateur astronomers are invited to share their observations.

“Gaia will treat us with this final gift as we bid farewell, shining among the stars ahead of its well-earned retirement,” said Uwe Lammers, Gaia Mission Manager.

“It’s a moment to celebrate this transformative mission and thank all of the teams for more than a decade of hard work operating Gaia, planning its observations, and ensuring its precious data are returned smoothly to Earth.”

Adapted from a European Space Agency press release. 

The European Space Agency’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.

ESA/Gaia/DPAC, Stefan Payne-WardenaarThis is a new artist’s impression of our galaxy, the Milky Way, based on data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope.

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Feryal Clark MP was welcomed to the University’s DAWN supercomputer facility, located on the University’s West Cambridge Innovation District, by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor John Aston, and Dr Paul Calleja, Director of Research Computing Services at the University.  

Together they toured the DAWN supercomputer and met with representatives from academia and industry partners who have ambitious plans for AI and supercomputing in Cambridge. The visit comes as the Government opens a UK-wide call for early access to the new AI Research Resource service, of which DAWN is part of.

Now up and running in its state-of-the-art Data Centre in Cambridge, DAWN is currently the most powerful AI supercomputer in the UK, with more than a thousand top-end Intel graphics processing units (GPUs) operating inside its server stacks. The supercomputer’s bespoke innovations in hardware and software result from a long-term co-design partnership between the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab, directed by Dr Paul Calleja, and global tech leaders Intel and Dell Technologies, with support from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), StackHPC and UK Research & Innovation.  

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, also welcomed the Minister to the Wolfson Brain Imaging facility on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where they were able to learn about the impact of DAWN and AI on patients, with a demonstration of the advances in healthcare. 

Feryal Clark MP later toured the University’s latest brain imaging scanner and heard from leading University researchers who are utilising DAWN supercomputing capabilities and AI to improve patient outcomes, and develop new and innovative treatments.  

The Minister moved on to meet with Professor Zoe Kourtzi, whose team are working on improving the early diagnosis of Alzheimers, for which AI can help develop tools by combining diverse data sources that provider a richer picture of a patient’s brain health. Professor James Brenton also presented on his work developing a comprehensive clinical decision-making support platform that integrates and refines cancer patient data from multiple sources into a single, much more manageable tool. Feryal Clark MP further heard from researcher Bill McGough, who is working on a project to develop an AI tool to detect renal cancers in non-contrast and low-dose CT, to enable kidney screening in the UK. 

The University of Cambridge is home to world-leading researchers in AI, to students enthusiastic about the potential of AI, and to an innovation ecosystem that is successfully translating this research into innovative new start-ups and creating jobs. The University’s flagship AI@Cam is harnessing the University's interdisciplinary research to drive a new wave of AI innovation that delivers public value. 

The Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark MP, visited the University of Cambridge on the day the Government announced their new AI Action Plan.  

Lloyd Mann / University of CambridgeLeft to right: Nicola Ayton, Deputy Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), Feryal Clark MP, Minister for AI and Digital Government, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Professor Deborah Prentice

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The group of bacteria called Enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella, E.coli and others, is present at low levels as part of a healthy human gut microbiome. But at high levels - caused for example by increased inflammation in the body, or by eating contaminated food - these bugs can cause illness and disease. In extreme cases, too much Enterobacteriaceae in the gut can be life-threatening.

Researchers have used computational approaches including AI to analyse the gut microbiome composition of over 12,000 people across 45 countries from their stool samples. They found that a person’s microbiome ‘signature’ can predict whether a person’s gut is likely to be colonised by Enterobacteriaceae. The results are consistent across different states of health and geographic locations.

The researchers identified 135 gut microbe species that are commonly found in the absence of Enterobacteriaceae, likely protecting against infection.

Notable amongst the protective gut species are a group of bacteria called Faecalibacterium, which produce beneficial compounds called short-chain fatty acids by breaking down fibre in the foods we eat. This seems to protect against infection by a range of disease-causing Enterobacteriaceae bugs.

The researchers suggest that eating more fibre in our diet will support the growth of good bacteria - and crowd out the bad ones to significantly reduce the risk of illness.

In contrast, taking probiotics - which don’t directly change the environment in the gut - is less likely to affect the likelihood of Enterobacteriaceae infection.

The results are published today in the journal Nature Microbiology. 

“Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria, including E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, because this changes our gut environment to make it more hostile to invaders,” said Dr Alexandre Almeida, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and senior author of the paper.

He added: “By eating fibre in foods like vegetables, beans and whole grains, we can provide the raw material for our gut bacteria to produce short chain fatty acids - compounds that can protect us from these pathogenic bugs.”

Klebsiella pneumonia can cause pneumonia, meningitis and other infections. The alarming global rise in antibiotic resistance to this bacterial pathogen has led scientists to look for new ways of keeping it, and other similar infectious bacteria, under control. 

“With higher rates of antibiotic resistance there are fewer treatment options available to us. The best approach now is to prevent infections occurring in the first place, and we can do this by reducing the opportunities for these disease-causing bacteria to thrive in our gut,” said Almeida.

A new understanding of gut microbe interactions

Earlier research to understand interactions between the different bacteria in our gut has used mouse models. But some of these new results are at odds with previous findings. 

The new study revealed that 172 species of gut microbe can coexist with disease-causing Enterobacteriaceae bugs. Many of these species are functionally similar to the bugs: they need the same nutrients to survive. Previously it was thought that competition for resources would stop the disease-causing bacteria from getting established in the gut.

This has important implications for treatment: taking probiotics that compete for the same nutrients with the bad bacteria to try and starve them out isn’t going to work. The researchers say that it will be more beneficial to change the environment in the gut, for instance through diet, to reduce the risk of infection with Enterobacteriaceae.

“This study highlights the importance of studying pathogens not as isolated entities, but in the context of their surrounding gut microbiome,” said Dr Qi Yin, a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine and first author of the report.

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council.

Reference: Yin, Q. et al: 'Ecological dynamics of Enterobacteriaceae in the human gut microbiome across global populations.’ Jan 2025, Nature Microbiology. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01912-6.

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A new study has found that the composition of your gut microbiome helps predict how likely you are to succumb to potentially life-threatening infection with Klebsiella pneumoniae, E.coli and other bugs - and it may be altered by changing your diet.

Our results suggest that what we eat is potentially very important in controlling the likelihood of infection with a range of bacteria.Alexandre AlmeidaCredit Oleksandra Troian GettyIntestine with microbiome

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The letter highlights the role that the Greater Cambridge region – which generates over £50bn of turnover per year for the UK – can play in driving national economic growth. The signatories set out the ambitions and opportunities which the region offers, and a sense of unity of purpose.

Open New Year Letter 2025

If science were a country then Cambridge would likely be its capital, and if discovery were a global competition the city and region would regularly be winning for Britain. That’s because Greater Cambridge is where innovation makes history and where the future comes first.

The ‘can-do’ spirit and ingenuity is hardwired, running from Newton’s law of gravity, through the rules of football codified here 175 years ago, the discovery of the structure of DNA, the medical and technological breakthroughs of IVF and microprocessor design. All of them discoveries that have changed how we think and how we live. The number of Nobel Prizes awarded to members of the University of Cambridge for significant advances recently reached an extraordinary 125. We believe that innovation not only makes history – it also makes a better world.

So, we are rightly proud of our city, its region and its people - past and present. But as we enter a new year the question before us is how we can collectively do more for the country now and in the future. Our future success must seek to include everyone, be shareable and sustainable.

Britain is at a critical fork in the road. There are important choices for the summer Spending Review which will help chart the course we take as a country for years to come. The tough economic environment puts a premium on investing in growth sectors for the long term and prioritising delivery, working together as never before. 

We know that the Greater Cambridge region can be the beating heart of this national renewal. It is home to world-class clusters in strategically valuable emerging sectors including AI, Genomics, Life Sciences, Cybersecurity, Advanced Therapies and Semiconductor Design.  It is home to two Universities where world leading research sits at the heart of this innovation community. It is incubating the technologies and unicorns of the future with an economy that generates over £50bn of turnover per year and is a net contributor of around £1bn to the Treasury annually.

The success of the Cambridge economy has a direct positive impact across the country, creating jobs elsewhere in priority sectors and supporting the emergence of other innovation clusters. We know we need to move faster together to help support the UK economy even more which is why Innovate Cambridge has brought people together to accelerate the pace of innovation across sectors and the wider ecosystem, working with the NHS as a key partner to develop the life sciences strategy

But if we are to maximise the potential benefits of those future Cambridge innovations - the ‘software’ breakthroughs - it will mean investing in the ‘hardware’ of the city.  Lack of investment in housing, water and transport needs has meant we have not been able to maximise growth for Cambridge, the region and Britain.

We trust that the new Government recognises that any change cannot simply be done to the City and South Cambridgeshire but must be done with us in partnership, and we welcome the reappointment of Peter Freeman to the Cambridge Growth Company. The Government have renewed their commitment to Greater Cambridge which is why today we are renewing our commitment to Britain. As business and elected leaders across the city and region, we know that we must always balance long term strategic planning with delivery in the short term so we are facing into this important moment with a collective mindset - ‘Cambridge Can 2030’ - with three core priorities; purpose, partnership and pace. All united in endeavour by the power of possibility.

First, we are aligned on our collective purpose and what we believe Greater Cambridge can do for Britain, what it will require from all of us and what we need as a city and region to make it happen. To invest in homes with a new Development Corporation, to build new hospitals, to find creative ways to unlock lab and clinical space, to accelerate East West Rail and develop better transport links across the city and region and to build new reservoirs to fix the water crisis. And it must first and foremost be about people - their jobs, skills and community as well as their cultural, sport and leisure opportunities. New houses do not necessarily equate to good homes. What fits around them is equally important. Invest here and, in return, you will find an aligned and committed leadership group who will help drive delivery and make change happen.

We know progress depends on working with others right across the country. To that end we are excited by our developing partnerships with Manchester. City leaders have met at a senior level in recent months to map the future - with Mayors Andy Burnham and Dr Nik Johnson and the two Combined Authorities working closely together.   We all believe there is a real opportunity to be seized through this regional first and are always looking to learn from others.  

It is encouraging that increasing numbers of entrepreneurs and institutions are signing up to the Cambridge Pledge - committing a percentage of their future wealth to drive transformative change through social impact investment in the community. This is another example of how Cambridge does development differently and is an exemplar of inclusive change.

And finally pace. We have got to move at speed as there is not a moment to waste. Britain is in a global race for talent and ideas. The competition and the offer from international centres of innovation is growing, and it is increasingly being felt by firms in Cambridge.

Our past success has been hard earned and should give confidence that Greater Cambridge can be a beacon for Britain in the future. Backing Cambridge means backing regional job creation right across the country. and creating the path for the £10 billion life science and tech companies of the future. It is not a gamble. It can happen. Equally it can’t be taken for granted.

So it is time to embrace the possibility of now. Whilst no one is underestimating the challenges ahead of us we fervently believe we need to face into them with realism about what it will take to succeed but also with optimism and ambition about what we can deliver and the prize to be seized.

Britain’s best days can lie ahead. Our potential as a country is huge because the ingenuity, talents and spirit of its people are limitless. We have a shining past and the next chapter can be brighter still - and Cambridge can and will help write it.

Download the letter to see the full list of signatories Download the letter to see the full list of signatories (408.53 KB)

Ahead of the Spending Review, an open letter to government from leaders across Cambridge, including the University’s Vice-Chancellor, sets out the clear case for renewed support for a region with a proven track record and which stands ready to deliver economic growth.

University of CambridgeStudent at the Maxwell Centre

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The size and spin of black holes can reveal important information about how and where they formed, according to new research. The study tests the idea that many of the black holes observed by astronomers have merged multiple times within densely populated environments containing millions of stars.

The team, involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, examined the public catalogue of 69 gravitational wave events involving binary black holes detected by The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Observatory for clues about these successive mergers, which they believe create black holes with distinctive spin patterns.

They discovered that a black hole’s spin changes when it reaches a certain mass, suggesting it may have been produced through a series of multiple previous mergers.

Their study, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, shows how spin measurements can reveal the formation history of a black hole and offers a step forward in understanding the diverse origins of these astrophysical phenomena.

“As we observe more black hole mergers with gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo, it becomes ever clearer that black holes exhibit diverse masses and spins, suggesting they may have formed in different ways,” said lead author Dr Fabio Antonini from Cardiff University. “However, identifying which of these formation scenarios is most common has been challenging.”

The team pinpointed a clear mass threshold in the gravitational waves data where black hole spins consistently change.

They say this pattern aligns with existing models which assume black holes are produced through repeat collisions in clusters, rather than other environments where spin distributions are different.

This result supports a robust and relatively model-independent signature for identifying these kinds of black holes, something that has been challenging to confirm until now, according to the team.

“Our study gives us a powerful, data-driven way to identify the origins of a black hole’s formation history, showing that the way it spins is a strong indicator of it belonging to a group of high-mass black holes, which form in densely populated star clusters where small black holes repeatedly collide and merge with one another,” said co-author Dr Isobel Romero-Shaw, from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

Their study will now help astrophysicists further refine computer models which simulate the formation of black holes, helping to shape how future gravitational wave detections are interpreted.

“Collaborating with other researchers and using advanced statistical methods will help to confirm and expand our findings, especially as we move toward next-generation detectors,” said co-author Dr Thomas Callister from the University of Chicago. “The Einstein Telescope, for example, could detect even more massive black holes and provide unprecedented insights into their origins.”

Reference:
Fabio Antonini, Isobel M. Romero-Shaw, and Thomas Callister. 'Star Cluster Population of High Mass Black Hole Mergers in Gravitational Wave Data.' Physical Review Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.011401

Adapted from a Cardiff University media release. 

Gravitational waves data held clues for high-mass black holes’ violent beginnings

NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI)Computer-simulated image of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy.

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While male brains tended to be greater in volume than female brains, when adjusted for total brain volume, female infants on average had significantly more grey matter, while male infants on average had significantly more white matter in their brains.

Grey matter is made up of neuron cell bodies and dendrites and is responsible for processing and interpreting information, such as sensation, perception, learning, speech, and cognition.  White matter is made up of axons, which are long nerve fibres that connect neurons together from different parts of the brain. 

Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre, who led the study, said: “Our study settles an age-old question of whether male and female brains differ at birth. We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life.

“Because these sex differences are evident so soon after birth, they might in part reflect biological sex differences during prenatal brain development, which then interact with environmental experiences over time to shape further sex differences in the brain.”

One problem that has plagued past research in this area is sample size. The Cambridge team tackled this by analysing data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, where infants receive an MRI brain scan soon after birth. Having over 500 newborn babies in the study means that, statistically, the sample is ideal for detecting sex differences if they are present.

A second problem is whether any observed sex differences could be due to other factors, such as differences in body size.  The Cambridge team found that, on average, male infants had significantly larger brain volumes than did females, and this was true even after sex differences in birth weight were taken into account.

After taking this difference in total brain volume into account, at a regional level, females on average showed larger volumes in grey matter areas related to memory and emotional regulation, while males on average had larger volumes in grey matter areas involved in sensory processing and motor control.

The findings of the study, the largest to date to investigate this question, are published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences.

Dr Alex Tsompanidis who supervised the study, said: “This is the largest such study to date, and we took additional factors into account, such as birth weight, to ensure that these differences are specific to the brain and not due to general size differences between the sexes.

“To understand why males and females show differences in their relative grey and white matter volume, we are now studying the conditions of the prenatal environment, using population birth records, as well as in vitro cellular models of the developing brain. This will help us compare the progression of male and female pregnancies and determine if specific biological factors, such as hormones or the placenta, contribute to the differences we see in the brain.”

The researchers stress that the differences between males and females are average differences.

Dr Carrie Allison, Deputy Director of the Autism Research Centre, said: “The differences we see do not apply to all males or all females, but are only seen when you compare groups of males and females together. There is a lot a variation within, and a lot of overlap between, each group.”  

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, added: “These differences do not imply the brains of males and females are better or worse. It’s just one example of neurodiversity. This research may be helpful in understanding other kinds of neurodiversity, such as the brain in children who are later diagnosed as autistic, since this is diagnosed more often in males.”

The research was funded by Cambridge University Development and Research, Trinity College, Cambridge, the Cambridge Trust, and the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

Reference
Khan, Y.T., Tsompanidis, A., Radecki, M.A. et al. Sex differences in human brain structure at birth. Biol Sex Differ; 17 Oct 2024; DOI: 10.1186/s13293-024-00657-5

Sex differences in brain structure are present from birth, research from the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge has shown.

We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of lifeYumnah KhanChayene RafaelaPhotograph of a young girl hugging a baby boy

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Researchers from the UK and China drew this conclusion after studying proteins from blood samples taken from over 42,000 adults recruited to the UK Biobank. Their findings are published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Social relationships play an important role in our wellbeing. Evidence increasingly demonstrates that both social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health and an early death. Despite this evidence, however, the underlying mechanisms through which social relationships impact health remain elusive.

One way to explore biological mechanisms is to look at proteins circulating in the blood. Proteins are molecules produced by our genes and are essential for helping our bodies function properly. They can also serve as useful drug targets, allowing researchers to develop new treatments to tackle diseases.

A team led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Fudan University, China, examined the ‘proteomes’ – the suite of proteins – in blood samples donated by over 42,000 adults aged 40-69 years who are taking part in the UK Biobank. This allowed them to see which proteins were present in higher levels among people who were socially isolated or lonely, and how these proteins were connected to poorer health.

The team calculated social isolation and loneliness scores for individuals. Social isolation is an objective measure based on, for example, whether someone lives alone, how frequently they have contact with others socially, and whether they take part in social activities. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a subjective measure based on whether an individual feels lonely.

When they analysed the proteomes and adjusted for factors such as age, sex and socioeconomic background, the team found 175 proteins associated with social isolation and 26 proteins associated with loneliness (though there was substantial overlap, with approximately 85% of the proteins associated with loneliness being shared with social isolation). Many of these proteins are produced in response to inflammation, viral infection and as part of our immune responses, as well as having been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and early death.

The team then used a statistical technique known as Mendelian randomization to explore the causal relationship between social isolation and loneliness on the one hand, and proteins on the other. Using this approach, they identified five proteins whose abundance was caused by loneliness.

Dr Chun Shen from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, said: “We know that social isolation and loneliness are linked to poorer health, but we’ve never understood why. Our work has highlighted a number of proteins that appear to play a key role in this relationship, with levels of some proteins in particular increasing as a direct consequence of loneliness.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from the University of Warwick said: "There are more than 100,000 proteins and many of their variants in the human body. AI and high throughput proteomics can help us pinpoint some key proteins in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in many human diseases and revolutionise the traditional view of human health.

"The proteins we’ve identified give us clues to the biology underpinning poor health among people who are socially isolated or lonely, highlighting why social relationships play such an important part in keeping us healthy.”

One of the proteins produced in higher levels as a result of loneliness was ADM. Previous studies have shown that this protein plays a role in responding to stress and in regulating stress hormones and social hormones such as oxytocin – the so-called ‘love hormone’ – which can reduce stress and improve mood.

The team found a strong association between ADM and the volume of the insula, a brain hub for interoception, our ability to sense what's happening inside our body – the greater the ADM levels, the smaller the volume of this region. Higher ADM levels were also linked to lower volume of the left caudate, a region involved in emotional, reward, and social processes. In addition, higher levels of ADM were linked to increased risk of early death.

Another of the proteins, ASGR1, is associated with higher cholesterol and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, while other identified proteins play roles in the development of insulin resistance, atherosclerosis (‘furring’ of the arteries) and cancer progression, for example.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said: “These findings drive home the importance of social contact in keeping us well. More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. That’s why the World Health Organization has described social isolation and loneliness as a ‘global public health concern’. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthy.”

The research was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Shanghai Rising-Star Program, National Key R&D Program of China, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, 111 Project, Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, and Zhangjiang Lab.

Reference
Shen, C et al. Plasma proteomic signatures of social isolation and loneliness associated with morbidity and mortality. Nat Hum Behav; 3 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02078-1

Interactions with friends and family may keep us healthy because they boost our immune system and reduce our risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.

More and more people of all ages are reporting feeling lonely. We need to find ways to tackle this growing problem and keep people connected to help them stay healthyBarbara SahakianNoah SillimanPerson looking out through window

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The new approach uses samples from infected humans to allow real-time monitoring of pathogens circulating in human populations, and enable vaccine-evading bugs to be quickly and automatically identified. This could inform the development of vaccines that are more effective in preventing disease.

The approach can also quickly detect emerging variants with resistance to antibiotics. This could inform the choice of treatment for people who become infected - and try to limit the spread of the disease.

It uses genetic sequencing data to provide information on the genetic changes underlying the emergence of new variants. This is important to help understand why different variants spread differently in human populations.

There are very few systems in place to keep watch for emerging variants of infectious diseases, apart from the established COVID and influenza surveillance programmes. The technique is a major advance on the existing approach to these diseases, which has relied on groups of experts to decide when a circulating bacteria or virus has changed enough to be designated a new variant.

By creating ‘family trees’, the new approach identifies new variants automatically based on how much a pathogen has changed genetically, and how easily it spreads in the human population – removing the need to convene experts to do this. 

It can be used for a broad range of viruses and bacteria and only a small number of samples, taken from infected people, are needed to reveal the variants circulating in a population. This makes it particularly valuable for resource-poor settings.

The report is published today in the journal Nature.

“Our new method provides a way to show, surprisingly quickly, whether there are new transmissible variants of pathogens circulating in populations - and it can be used for a huge range of bacteria and viruses,” said Dr Noémie Lefrancq, first author of the report, who carried out the work at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.

Lefrancq, who is now based at ETH Zurich, added: “We can even use it to start predicting how new variants are going to take over, which means decisions can quickly be made about how to respond.” 

“Our method provides a completely objective way of spotting new strains of disease-causing bugs, by analysing their genetics and how they’re spreading in the population. This means we can rapidly and effectively spot the emergence of new highly transmissible strains,” said Professor Julian Parkhill, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine who was involved in the study.

Testing the technique

The researchers used their new technique to analyse samples of Bordetella pertussis, the bacteria that causes whooping cough. Many countries are currently experiencing their worst whooping cough outbreaks of the last 25 years. It immediately identified three new variants circulating in the population that had been previously undetected.

“The novel method proves very timely for the agent of whooping cough, which warrants reinforced surveillance given its current comeback in many countries and the worrying emergence of antimicrobial resistant lineages,” said Professor Sylvain Brisse, Head of the National Reference Center for whooping cough at Institut Pasteur, who provided bioresources and expertise on Bordetella pertussis genomic analyses and epidemiology.

In a second test, they analysed samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis. It showed that two variants with resistance to antibiotics are spreading.

“The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible,” said Professor Henrik Salje in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics, senior author of the report.

He added: “If we see a rapid expansion of an antibiotic-resistant variant, then we could change the antibiotic that’s being prescribed to people infected by it, to try and limit the spread of that variant.”

The researchers say this work is an important piece in the larger jigsaw of any public health response to infectious disease.

A constant threat

Bacteria and viruses that cause disease are constantly evolving to be better and faster at spreading between us. During the COVID pandemic, this led to the emergence of new strains: the original Wuhan strain spread rapidly but was later overtaken by other variants, including Omicron, which evolved from the original and were better at spreading. Underlying this evolution are changes in the genetic make-up of the pathogens.

Pathogens evolve through genetic changes that make them better at spreading. Scientists are particularly worried about genetic changes that allow pathogens to evade our immune system and cause disease despite us being vaccinated against them. 

“This work has the potential to become an integral part of infectious disease surveillance systems around the world, and the insights it provides could completely change the way governments respond,” said Salje.

The research was primarily funded by the European Research Council.

Reference: Lefrancq, N. et al: ‘Learning the fitness dynamics of pathogens from phylogenies.’ January 2025, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08309-9
 

Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans - including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis.

The approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible.Henrik SaljeMilan Krasula on Getty

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YesLicence type: Attribution

Former University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College and Homerton College, is made Knight Grand Cross (GBE) for services to cancer research, clinical research, medicine and to charities.

Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu, who has been President of Wolfson College since October 2024, becomes a Dame (DBE) for services to chemical sciences and inclusion and diversity. Prof Uchegbu is a renowned expert in the field of pharmaceutical science and was most recently Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London. Her research has focussed on methods that can be used to help drugs reach their target more effectively and reduce the likelihood of uncomfortable side effects. While at UCL she spearheaded a project to improve outcomes for both staff and students from under-represented ethnic groups. She is is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

She said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. I wouldn’t say I’m humbled – I know people say that, but when I saw the letter at the Porters’ Lodge what I felt was an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride. In my wildest dreams I never believed I would get such an award.”

Professor Ashley Moffet, Professor of Reproductive Immunology, is made Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) for services to reproductive health. A Fellow of King's College, she is the foremost international authority on the immunology of human reproduction and her work on genetic research has helped explain high rates of pre-eclampsia and maternal mortality in Ugandan populations. She is a Fellow of both the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. 

She said: "I am delighted by this honour that is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of my many colleagues both here in Cambridge and in Uganda who are working together so tirelessly to support women in the field of maternal health."

Professor Gilly Carr is Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage and receives an OBE for services to Holocaust research and education. Professor Carr, a Fellow of St Catharine's College, is a member of both the UK delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the academic advisory board for the UK Holocaust Memorial Centre. Professor Carr has a particular research interest in wartime incarceration, internment and imprisonment. 2024 saw the publication of her latest book 'A Materiality of Internment' which drew on over 15 years of research and interviews with more than 65 former internees. 

She said: “I am absolutely thrilled for my research and teaching to be recognised in this way. I've been working hard on behalf of victims of Nazism and the Holocaust for 15 years and for this to be seen as nationally important and worthwhile encourages me to continue my work with vigour.”

Professor Rachel Oliver, who also receives an OBE, is a materials engineer, inventor and commercial spinout founder. A Fellow of Robinson College, she is currently Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride and Chief Scientific Officer of Poro Technologies Ltd. (Porotech). Her research is in understanding and engineering the small-scale structure of semiconductor materials to enable new technologies to develop. Prof Oliver is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering and is a passionate advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion in science and engineering. 

She said: “I am delighted to receive this honour and it is vital that I acknowledge the fabulous teams that I work with both in the University of Cambridge and at Porotech, a company that spun out from my research group.  I hope I can encourage more people to get involved in semiconductors in the UK. The semiconductor ecosystem has been an exciting place to work throughout my career, but never more so than right now, with both research and industry rapidly growing and stepping up to address some of the most pressing challenges we face.”  

Academics and staff at both the University of Cambridge and Colleges feature in the 2025 list, which recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK.

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Yes

The near future could see AI assistants that forecast and influence our decision-making at an early stage, and sell these developing “intentions” in real-time to companies that can meet the need – even before we have made up our minds.

This is according to AI ethicists from the University of Cambridge, who say we are at the dawn of a “lucrative yet troubling new marketplace for digital signals of intent”, from buying movie tickets to voting for candidates. They call this the Intention Economy.

Researchers from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) argue that the explosion in generative AI, and our increasing familiarity with chatbots, opens a new frontier of “persuasive technologies” – one hinted at in recent corporate announcements by tech giants.

“Anthropomorphic” AI agents, from chatbot assistants to digital tutors and girlfriends, will have access to vast quantities of intimate psychological and behavioural data, often gleaned via informal, conversational spoken dialogue. 

This AI will combine knowledge of our online habits with an uncanny ability to attune to us in ways we find comforting – mimicking personalities and anticipating desired responses – to build levels of trust and understanding that allow for social manipulation on an industrial scale, say researchers.

“Tremendous resources are being expended to position AI assistants in every area of life, which should raise the question of whose interests and purposes these so-called assistants are designed to serve”, said LCFI Visiting Scholar Dr Yaqub Chaudhary.

“What people say when conversing, how they say it, and the type of inferences that can be made in real-time as a result, are far more intimate than just records of online interactions”

“We caution that AI tools are already being developed to elicit, infer, collect, record, understand, forecast, and ultimately manipulate and commodify human plans and purposes.”

Dr Jonnie Penn, an historian of technology from Cambridge’s LCFI, said: “For decades, attention has been the currency of the internet. Sharing your attention with social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram drove the online economy.”

“Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency. It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer, and sell human intentions.”

“We should start to consider the likely impact such a marketplace would have on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, a free press, and fair market competition, before we become victims of its unintended consequences.”

In a new Harvard Data Science Review paper, Penn and Chaudhary write that the intention economy will be the attention economy “plotted in time”: profiling how user attention and communicative style connects to patterns of behaviour and the choices we end up making.

“While some intentions are fleeting, classifying and targeting the intentions that persist will be extremely profitable for advertisers,” said Chaudhary.

In an intention economy, Large Language Models or LLMs could be used to target, at low cost, a user’s cadence, politics, vocabulary, age, gender, online history, and even preferences for flattery and ingratiation, write the researchers.

This information-gathering would be linked with brokered bidding networks to maximize the likelihood of achieving a given aim, such as selling a cinema trip (“You mentioned feeling overworked, shall I book you that movie ticket we’d talked about?”).

This could include steering conversations in the service of particular platforms, advertisers, businesses, and even political organisations, argue Penn and Chaudhary.

While researchers say the intention economy is currently an “aspiration” for the tech industry, they track early signs of this trend through published research and the hints dropped by several major tech players.

These include an open call for “data that expresses human intention… across any language, topic, and format” in a 2023 OpenAI blogpost, while the director of product at Shopify – an OpenAI partner – spoke of chatbots coming in “to explicitly get the user’s intent” at a conference the same year.

Nvidia’s CEO has spoken publicly of using LLMs to figure out intention and desire, while Meta released “Intentonomy” research, a dataset for human intent understanding, back in 2021.

In 2024, Apple’s new “App Intents” developer framework for connecting apps to Siri (Apple’s voice-controlled personal assistant), includes protocols to “predict actions someone might take in future” and “to suggest the app intent to someone in the future using predictions you [the developer] provide”.

“AI agents such as Meta’s CICERO are said to achieve human level play in the game Diplomacy, which is dependent on inferring and predicting intent, and using persuasive dialogue to advance one’s position,” said Chaudhary.

“These companies already sell our attention. To get the commercial edge, the logical next step is to use the technology they are clearly developing to forecast our intentions, and sell our desires before we have even fully comprehended what they are.”

Penn points out that these developments are not necessarily bad, but have the potential to be destructive. “Public awareness of what is coming is the key to ensuring we don’t go down the wrong path,” he said.

Conversational AI agents may become attuned to covertly influence your intentions, creating a new commercial frontier that researchers call the “intention economy”.

Public awareness of what is coming is the key to ensuring we don’t go down the wrong pathJonnie PennGetty/d3signYoung woman talking with AI voice virtual assistant on smartphone

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Yes

Desert locusts typically lead solitary lives until something - like intense rainfall - triggers them to swarm in vast numbers, often with devastating consequences. 

This migratory pest can reach plague proportions, and a swarm covering one square kilometre can consume enough food in one day to feed 35,000 people. Such extensive crop destruction pushes up local food prices and can lead to riots and mass starvation.

Now a team led by the University of Cambridge has developed a way to predict when and where desert locusts will swarm, so they can be dealt with before the problem gets out of hand. 

It uses weather forecast data from the UK Met Office, and state-of the-art computational models of the insects’ movements in the air, to predict where swarms will go as they search for new feeding and breeding grounds. The areas likely to be affected can then be sprayed with pesticides.

Until now, predicting and controlling locust swarms has been ‘hit and miss’, according to the researchers. Their new model, published today in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, will enable national agencies to respond quickly to a developing locust threat.

Desert locust control is a top priority for food security: it is the biggest migratory pest for smallholder farmers in many regions of Africa and Asia, and capable of long-distance travel across national boundaries.

Climate change is expected to drive more frequent desert locust swarms, by causing trigger events like cyclones and intense rainfall. These bring moisture to desert regions that allows plants to thrive, providing food for locusts that triggers their breeding.

“During a desert locust outbreak we can now predict where swarms will go several days in advance, so we can control them at particular sites. And if they’re not controlled at those sites, we can predict where they’ll go next so preparations can be made there,” said Dr Renata Retkute, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and first author of the paper.

“The important thing is to respond quickly if there’s likely to be a big locust upsurge, before it causes a major crop loss.  Huge swarms can lead to really desperate situations where people could starve,” said Professor Chris Gilligan in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, senior author of the paper.

He added: “Our model will allow us to hit the ground running in future, rather than starting from scratch as has historically been the case.”

The team noticed the need for a comprehensive model of desert locust behaviour during the response to a massive upsurge over 2019-2021, which extended from Kenya to India and put huge strain on wheat production in these regions. The infestations destroyed sugarcane, sorghum, maize and root crops. The researchers say the scientific response was hampered by the need to gather and integrate information from a range of disparate sources.

“The response to the last locust upsurge was very ad-hoc, and less efficient than it could have been. We’ve created a comprehensive model that can be used next time to control this devastating pest,” said Retkute. 

Although models like this have been attempted before, this is the first that can rapidly and reliably predict swarm behaviour. It takes into account the insects’ lifecycle and their selection of breeding sites, and can forecast locust swarm movements both short and long-term. 

The new model has been rigorously tested using real surveillance and weather data from the last major locust upsurge. It will inform surveillance, early warning, and management of desert locust swarms by national governments, and international organisations like the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

The researchers say countries that haven’t experienced a locust upsurge in many years are often ill-prepared to respond, lacking the necessary surveillance teams, aircraft and pesticides. As climate change alters the movement and spread of major swarms, better planning is needed - making the new model a timely development.

The project involved collaborators at the FAO and the UK Met Office. It was funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Reference: Retkute, R., et al: ‘A framework for modelling desert locust population dynamics and large-scale dispersal.’ PLOS Computational Biology, December 2024. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012562
 

A new tool that predicts the behaviour of desert locust populations will help national agencies to manage huge swarms before they devastate food crops in Africa and Asia. 

The response to the last locust upsurge was very ad-hoc, and less efficient than it could have been. We’ve created a comprehensive model that can be used next time to control this devastating pest.Renata RetkuteKeith Cressman, FAOLocust swarm fills the skies in Ethiopia

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YesLicence type: Attribution-Noncommerical

Like a bear gorging itself on salmon before hibernating for the winter, or a much-needed nap after Christmas dinner, this black hole has overeaten to the point that it is lying dormant in its host galaxy.

An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect this black hole in the early universe, just 800 million years after the Big Bang.

The black hole is huge – 400 million times the mass of our Sun – making it one of the most massive black holes discovered by Webb at this point in the universe’s development. The black hole is so enormous that it makes up roughly 40% of the total mass of its host galaxy: in comparison, most black holes in the local universe are roughly 0.1% of their host galaxy mass.

However, despite its gigantic size, this black hole is eating, or accreting, the gas it needs to grow at a very low rate – about 100 times below its theoretical maximum limit – making it essentially dormant.

Such an over-massive black hole so early in the universe, but one that isn’t growing, challenges existing models of how black holes develop. However, the researchers say that the most likely scenario is that black holes go through short periods of ultra-fast growth, followed by long periods of dormancy. Their results are reported in the journal Nature.

When black holes are ‘napping’, they are far less luminous, making them more difficult to spot, even with highly sensitive telescopes such as Webb. Black holes cannot be directly observed, but instead they are detected by the tell-tale glow of a swirling accretion disc, which forms near the black hole’s edges. When black holes are actively growing, the gas in the accretion disc becomes extremely hot and starts to glow and radiate energy in the ultraviolet range.

“Even though this black hole is dormant, its enormous size made it possible for us to detect,” said lead author Ignas Juodžbalis from Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “Its dormant state allowed us to learn about the mass of the host galaxy as well. The early universe managed to produce some absolute monsters, even in relatively tiny galaxies.”

According to standard models, black holes form from the collapsed remnants of dead stars and accrete matter up to a predicted limit, known as the Eddington limit, where the pressure of radiation on matter overcomes the gravitational pull of the black hole. However, the sheer size of this black hole suggests that standard models may not adequately explain how these monsters form and grow.

“It’s possible that black holes are ‘born big’, which could explain why Webb has spotted huge black holes in the early universe,” said co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino, from the Kavli Institute and Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “But another possibility is they go through periods of hyperactivity, followed by long periods of dormancy.”

Working with colleagues from Italy, the Cambridge researchers conducted a range of computer simulations to model how this dormant black hole could have grown to such a massive size so early in the universe. They found that the most likely scenario is that black holes can exceed the Eddington limit for short periods, during which they grow very rapidly, followed by long periods of inactivity: the researchers say that black holes such as this one likely eat for five to ten million years, and sleep for about 100 million years.

“It sounds counterintuitive to explain a dormant black hole with periods of hyperactivity, but these short bursts allow it to grow quickly while spending most of its time napping,” said Maiolino.

Because the periods of dormancy are much longer than the periods of ultra-fast growth, it is in these periods that astronomers are most likely to detect black holes. “This was the first result I had as part of my PhD, and it took me a little while to appreciate just how remarkable it was,” said Juodžbalis. “It wasn’t until I started speaking with my colleagues on the theoretical side of astronomy that I was able to see the true significance of this black hole.”

Due to their low luminosities, dormant black holes are more challenging for astronomers to detect, but the researchers say this black hole is almost certainly the tip of a much larger iceberg, if black holes in the early universe spend most of their time in a dormant state.

“It’s likely that the vast majority of black holes out there are in this dormant state – I’m surprised we found this one, but I’m excited to think that there are so many more we could find,” said Maiolino.

The observations were obtained as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). The research was supported in part by the European Research Council and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Reference:
Ignas Juodžbalis et al. ‘A dormant overmassive black hole in the early Universe.’ Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08210-5

Scientists have spotted a massive black hole in the early universe that is ‘napping’ after stuffing itself with too much food.

Jiarong GuArtist’s impression of a black hole during one of its short periods of rapid growth

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Yes

The annual Trial VIIIs, the UK’s final rowing event of the year, serves as a dress rehearsal for The Boat Race, with two evenly matched Cambridge University Boat Club (CUBC) crews rowing the full Championship Course for the first and only time before 12–13 April 2025.

This year, all 31 Cambridge Colleges were represented at the start of trials. The crews showcased an exciting mix of seasoned experience and youthful energy, featuring international rowers and returning Blues alongside many College rowers proudly wearing Cambridge Blue for the first time.

Read the full race report on the CUBC website.

The Cambridge contenders for The Boat Race 2025 have become clearer after a thrilling day of action on the Thames.

Row360 / AllMarkOneMen’s VIIIs “Scylla” en route to victory

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Yes

A leading advocate for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, in particular the right to education, Joya is the founder of Rukhshana Media, a news agency dedicated to telling the stories of Afghan women in their own voices. Her appointment recognises her transformational work and reflects Hughes Hall’s mission to advance inclusive education.

Joya said: “In a time when, as a woman, I have been deprived of my basic rights in my own country, joining the extraordinary Hughes Hall team at the University of Cambridge is a great honour for me. I view this opportunity as a chance to step into a wellspring of knowledge, and I hope to learn from this team and bring what I learn here back to my people.”

Sir Laurie Bristow, President of Hughes Hall, welcomed Joya to the College: “Zahra’s work on behalf of Afghanistan’s women and girls has never been more urgent nor her own story more pertinent. Zahra’s work is about enabling Afghan women and girls to speak for themselves. It is about the right of all girls to receive an education. It is about challenging gender-based oppression and protecting the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in our world today.”

Read the full story on the Hughes Hall website.

Zahra Joya, an Afghan journalist and one of TIME magazine's Women of the Year 2022, has been appointed By-Fellow at Hughes Hall.

Zahra Joya on the cover of TIME magazine

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Yes

Photonic chips transmit and manipulate light instead of electricity, and offer significantly faster performance with lower power consumption than traditional electronic chips. 

The Cambridge Graphene Centre and Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre at the University of Southampton will partner with members from across Europe to host a pilot line, coordinated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain, combining state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from 20 research organisations.

The PIXEurope consortium has been selected by the European Commission and Chips Joint Undertaking, a European initiative aiming to bolster the semiconductor industry by fostering collaboration between member states and the private sector. The consortium is supported by €380m in total funding.

The UK participants will be backed by up to £4.2 million in funding from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), match-funded by Horizon Europe. The UK joined the EU’s Chips Joint Undertaking in March 2024, allowing the country to collaborate more closely with European partners on semiconductor innovation.

The new pilot line will combine state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from research organisations across 11 countries. It aims to encourage the adoption of cutting-edge photonic technologies across more industries to boost their efficiency.

Photonic chips are already essential across a wide range of applications, from tackling the unprecedented energy demands of datacentres, to enabling high-speed data transmission for mobile and satellite communications. In the future, these chips will become ever more important, unlocking new applications in healthcare, AI and quantum computing. 

Researchers at the Cambridge Graphene Centre will be responsible for the integration of graphene and related materials into photonic circuits for energy efficient, high-speed communications and quantum devices. “This may lead to life-changing products and services, with huge economic benefit for the UK and the world,” said Professor Andrea C. Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. 

The global market for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) production is expected to grow by more than 400% in the next 10 years. By the end of the decade, the global photonics market is expected to exceed €1,500bn, a figure comparable to the entire annual gross domestic product of Spain.

This growth is due to the demand from areas such as telecommunications, artificial intelligence, image sensing, automotive and mobility, medicine and healthcare, environmental care, renewable energy, defense and security, and a wide range of consumer applications.

The combination of microelectronic chips and photonic chips provides the necessary features and specifications for these applications. The former are responsible for information processing by manipulating electrons within circuits based on silicon and its variants, while the latter uses photons in the visible and infrared spectrum ranges in various materials.

The new pilot line aims to offer cutting-edge technological platforms, transforming and transferring innovative and disruptive integrated photonics processes and technologies to accelerate their industrial adoption. The objective is the creation of European-owned/made technology in a sector of capital importance for technological sovereignty, and the creation and maintenance of corresponding jobs in the UK and across Europe.

“My congratulations to Cornerstone and the Cambridge Graphene Centre on being selected to pioneer the new pilot line – taking a central role in driving semiconductor innovation to the next level, encouraging adoption of new technologies,” said Science Minister Lord Vallance. “The UK laid the foundations of silicon photonics in the 1990s, and by pooling our expertise with partners across Europe we can address urgent global challenges including energy consumption and efficiency.”

“The UK’s participation in the first Europe-wide photonics pilot line marks the start of the world’s first open access photonics integrated circuits ecosystem, stimulating new technology development with industry and catalyse disruptive innovation across the UK, while strengthening UK collaboration with top European institutions working in the field,” said Ferrari.

“PIXEurope is the first photonics pilot line that unifies the whole supply chain from design and fabrication, to testing and packaging, with technology platforms that will support a broad spectrum of applications,” said CORNERSTONE Coordinator Professor Calum Littlejohns. “I am delighted that CORNERSTONE will form a crucial part of this programme.”

The Chips JU will also launch new collaborative R&D calls on a range of topics in early 2025. UK companies and researchers are eligible to participate. 

The University of Cambridge is one of two UK participants named as part of the PIXEurope consortium, a collaboration between research organisations from across Europe which will develop and manufacture prototypes of their products based on photonic chips.

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Yes

Temperatures in cities are rising across the globe and urban heat stress is already a major problem causing illness, death, a surge in energy use to cool buildings down, heat-related social inequality issues and problems with urban infrastructure.

Some cities have already started implementing mitigation strategies, with tree planting prominent among them. But a University of Cambridge-led study now warns that planting the wrong species or the wrong combination of trees in suboptimal locations or arrangements can limit their benefits.

The study, published today in Communications Earth & Environment found that urban trees can lower pedestrian-level air temperature by up to 12°C. Its authors found that the introduction of trees reduced peak monthly temperatures to below 26°C in 83% of the cities studied, meeting the ‘thermal comfort threshold’. However, they also found that this cooling ability varies significantly around the world and is influenced by tree species traits, urban layout and climate conditions.

“Our study busts the myth that trees are the ultimate panacea for overheating cities across the globe,” said Dr Ronita Bardhan, Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment at Cambridge's Dept. of Architecture.

“Trees have a crucial role to play in cooling cities down but we need to plant them much more strategically to maximise the benefits which they can provide.”

Previous research on the cooling effects of urban trees has focused on specific climates or regions, and considered case studies in a fragmented way, leaving major gaps in our knowledge about unique tree cooling mechanisms and how these interact with diverse urban features.

To overcome this, the authors of this study analysed the findings of 182 studies – concerning 17 climates in 110 global cities or regions – published between 2010 and 2023, offering the first comprehensive global assessment of urban tree cooling.

During the day, trees cool cities in three ways: by blocking solar radiation; through evaporation of water via pores in their leaves; and by foliage aerodynamically changing airflow. At night, however, tree canopies can trap longwave radiation from the ground surface, due to aerodynamic resistance and ‘stomatal closure’ – the closing of microscopic pores on the surface of leaves partly in response to heat and drought stress.

Variation by climate type

The study found that urban trees generally cool cities more in hot and dry climates, and less in hot humid climates.

In the ‘tropical wet and dry or savanna’ climate, trees can cool cities by as much as 12 °C, as recorded in Nigeria. However, it was in this same climate that trees also warmed cities most at night, by up to 0.8°C.

Trees performed well in arid climates, cooling cities by just over 9°C and warming them at night by 0.4 °C.

In tropical rainforest climates, where humidity is higher, the daytime cooling effect dropped to approximately 2°C while the nighttime heating effect was 0.8 °C.

In temperate climates, trees can cool cities by up to 6°C and warm them by 1.5°C.

Using trees more strategically

The study points out that cities which have more open urban layouts are more likely to feature a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees of varying sizes. This, the researchers found, tends to result in greater cooling in temperate, continental and tropical climates.

The combined use of trees in these climates generally results in 0.5 °C more cooling than in cities where only deciduous or evergreen trees feature. This is because mixed trees can balance seasonal shading and sunlight, providing three-dimensional cooling at various heights.

In arid climates, however, the researchers found that evergreen species dominate and cool more effectively in the specific context of compact urban layouts such as Cairo in Egypt, or Dubai in UAE.

In general, trees cooled more effectively in open and low-rise cities in dry climates. In open urban layouts, cooling can be improved by about 0.4 °C because their larger green spaces allow for more and larger tree canopies and a greater mix of tree species.

“Our study provides context-specific greening guidelines for urban planners to more effectively harness tree cooling in the face of global warming,” Dr Ronita Bardhan said.

“Our results emphasize that urban planners not only need to give cities more green spaces, they need to plant the right mix of trees in optimal positions to maximize cooling benefits.”

 “Urban planners should plan for future warmer climates by choosing resilient species which will continue to thrive and maintain cooling benefits,” said Dr Bardhan, a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Matching trees to urban forms

The study goes further, arguing that species selection and placement needs to be compatible with urban forms. The orientation of the ‘street canyon’, local climate zones, aspect ratio, visible sky ratio and other urban features that influence the effects of trees all need to be carefully considered.

Although a higher degree of tree canopy cover in street canyons generally results in more cooling effects, excessively high cover may trap heat at the pedestrian level, especially in compact urban zones in high temperature climates. In such locations, narrow species and sparse planting strategies are recommended.

The researchers emphasise that we cannot rely entirely on trees to cool cities, and that solutions such as solar shading and reflective materials will continue to play an important role.

The researchers have developed an interactive database and map to enable users to estimate the cooling efficacy of strategies based on data from cities with similar climates and urban structures.

Reference

H. Li et al., ‘Cooling efficacy of trees across cities is determined by background climate, urban morphology, and tree trait’, Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01908-4

While trees can cool some cities significantly during the day, new research shows that tree canopies can also trap heat and raise temperatures at night. The study aims to help urban planners choose the best combinations of trees and planting locations to combat urban heat stress.

Trees have a crucial role to play in cooling cities down but we need to plant them much more strategically to maximise the benefits which they can provideRonita Bardhanhannahisabelnic via Flikr (Public domain)Trees in an Indian city street. Photo: hannahisabelnic via Flikr (Public domain)

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YesLicence type: Public Domain

Professor Richards joins Cambridge from the University of Oxford, where he has been since 2019. His particular research interest is the demonstration of clinical proof of concept of novel therapeutics through the application of experimental medicine techniques, especially human challenge studies.

As Climax Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, director of the Oxford Clinical Trial Research Unit (OCTRU), and the NIHR Oxford Clinical Research Facility, he led a broad portfolio focused on new medicines for multiple conditions. His focus has been the acceleration of promising new drug treatments through better decision-making in early phase clinical trials.

Professor Richards also brings with him a wealth of experience in a number of Pharmaceutical R&D clinical development roles. In 2003 he joined GSK and held a number of roles of increasing responsibility, latterly as Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, including directorship of GSK’s phase 1 and experimental medicine unit in Cambridge (CUC).

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Richards said: “As a clinical pharmacologist, I have been fortunate to work across a broad range of therapeutic areas over the years. I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team. My goal is to work with the Department team, the Clinical School, and hospitals to maximise the impact of the important work taking place in Cambridge.”

Members of the department’s leadership team are looking forward to the continued development of the department under Professor Richards, building on its legacy of collaboration and groundbreaking translational research to drive our future success.

Professor Mark Wills, Interim Head of Department of Medicine, said: “Duncan brings to his new role a fantastic breadth of experience, which encompasses his clinical speciality in pharmacology, extensive experience of working within the pharmaceutical industry R&D at senior levels and most recently establishing academic clinical trials units and human challenge research facilities.

“I am very excited to welcome Duncan to the Department and looking forward to working with him, as he takes on the role of delivering of the Department of Medicine’s vision to increase the efficacy of translation of its world class fundamental research, and its impact upon clinical practice and patient wellbeing.”

Menna Clatworthy, Professor of Translational Immunology and Director of the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID), said: "Duncan has a wealth of leadership experience in biomedicine, in both academia and pharma. That skillset will be invaluable in ensuring the Department of Medicine continues to deliver world-leading research to transform patient outcomes."

Charlotte Summers, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine and Director of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute, said: “Duncan’s exemplary track record of translating fundamental scientific discoveries into therapies that benefit patients will help us further increase the impact of our research as we continue our mission to improve human health.”

The appointment underpins the recently announced five-year collaboration between GSK and the University of Cambridge, the Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC). The £50 million investment will accelerate research and development in kidney and respiratory diseases to improve patient outcomes.

Professor Richards will assume the role in February 2025, replacing Interim Head of Department Dr Mark Wills who was appointed after the departure of Professor Ken Smith in January 2024.  Dr Wills will continue as Director of Research and Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine as well as leading his research group. 

Professor Richards trained in medicine at Oxford University and after junior doctor roles in London, he returned to Oxford as Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology. His DM thesis research was on a translational model using platelet ion flux to interrogate angiotensin biology and he is author of the Oxford Handbook of Practical Drug Therapy and the 3rd edition of Drug Discovery and Development.

Professor Richards has been a core member of the UK COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel. He is a member of the Oxford Bioescalator Management Board, UK Prix Galien Prize Committee, and the therapeutic advisory committee of several national platform clinical trials.

Professor Duncan Richards has today been announced as the new Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge.

I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific teamDuncan Richards

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Yes

The technique, called hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging, can increase the detected signal in an MRI scanner by more than 10,000 times. Scientists have found that the technique can distinguish between two different subtypes of ovarian cancer, to reveal their sensitivities to treatment.

They used it to look at patient-derived cell models that closely mimic the behaviour of human high grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common lethal form of the disease. The technique clearly shows whether a tumour is sensitive or resistant to Carboplatin, one of the standard first-line chemotherapy treatments for ovarian cancer. 

This will enable oncologists to predict how well a patient will respond to treatment, and to see how well the treatment is working within the first 48 hours. 

Different forms of ovarian cancer respond differently to drug treatments. With current tests, patients typically wait for weeks or months to find out whether their cancer is responding to treatment. The rapid feedback provided by this new technique will help oncologists to adjust and personalise treatment for each patient within days.

The study compared the hyperpolarised imaging technique with results from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, which are already widely used in clinical practice. The results shows that PET did not pick up the metabolic differences between different tumour subtypes, so could not predict the type of tumour present.

The report is published today in the journal Oncogene.

“This technique tells us how aggressive an ovarian cancer tumour is, and could allow doctors to assess multiple tumours in a patient to give a more holistic assessment of disease prognosis so the most appropriate treatment can be selected,” said Professor Kevin Brindle in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry, senior author of the report. 

Ovarian cancer patients often have multiple tumours spread throughout their abdomen. It isn’t possible to take biopsies of all of them, and they may be of different subtypes that respond differently to treatment. MRI is non-invasive, and the hyperpolarised imaging technique will allow oncologists to look at all the tumours at once.

Brindle added: “We can image a tumour pre-treatment to predict how likely it is to respond, and then we can image again immediately after treatment to confirm whether it has indeed responded. This will help doctors to select the most appropriate treatment for each patient and adjust this as necessary. 

“One of the questions cancer patients ask most often is whether their treatment is working. If doctors can speed their patients onto the best treatment, then it’s clearly of benefit.”

The next step is to trial the technique in ovarian cancer patients, which the scientists anticipate within the next few years.

Hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging uses an injectable solution containing a ‘labelled’ form of the naturally occurring molecule pyruvate. The pyruvate enters the cells of the body, and the scan shows the rate at which it is broken down - or metabolised – into a molecule called lactate. The rate of this metabolism reveals the tumour subtype and thus its sensitivity to treatment.

This study adds to the evidence for the value of the hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging technique for wider clinical use. 

Brindle, who also works at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, has been developing this imaging technique to investigate different cancers for the last two decades, including breast, prostate and glioblastoma - a common and aggressive type of brain tumour. Glioblastoma also shows different subtypes that vary in their metabolism, which can be imaged to predict their response to treatment. The first clinical study in Cambridge, which was published in 2020, was in breast cancer patients.

Each year about 7,500 women in the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer - around 5,000 of these will have the most aggressive form of the disease, called high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). 

The cure rate for all forms of ovarian cancer is very low and currently only 43% of women in England survive five years beyond diagnosis. Symptoms can easily be missed, allowing the disease to spread before a woman is diagnosed - and this makes imaging and treatment challenging. 

The research was funded by Cancer Research UK.

Reference: Chia, M.L.: ‘Metabolic imaging distinguishes ovarian cancer subtypes and detects their early and variable responses to treatment.’ Oncogene, December 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41388-024-03231-w

An MRI-based imaging technique developed at the University of Cambridge predicts the response of ovarian cancer tumours to treatment, and rapidly reveals how well treatment is working, in patient-derived cell models.

We can image a tumour pre-treatment to predict how likely it is to respond, and then we can image again immediately after treatment to confirm whether it has indeed respondedKevin Brindle

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Yes

Researchers hope that early detection, through the simple urine test, could enable earlier treatment interventions, significantly improving patient outcomes and prognosis. Around 36,600 lives are saved from lung cancer in the UK every year, according to new analysis from Cancer Research UK.

Professor Ljiljana Fruk and Dr Daniel Munoz Espin and their teams at the University of Cambridge are leading on the research, funded by Cancer Research UK.

The work, at Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and the Early Cancer Institute, will provide a cheap, affordable sensor that uses urine samples to help doctors detect lung cancer before the disease develops.

Lung cancer has a poor prognosis for many patients because often there are no noticeable symptoms until it has spread through the lungs or into other parts of the body. The new urine test will allow doctors to spot the disease before it develops.

To create the test, scientists looked at proteins excreted by senescent cells: “zombie” cells which are alive but unable to grow and divide. It’s these cells that cause tissue damage by reprogramming their immediate environment to help promote the emergence of cancer cells.

Now, researchers have developed an injectable sensor that interacts with zombie cell proteins and releases easily detectable compound into urine, signalling their presence.

“Early detection of cancer requires cost-effective tools and strategies that enable detection to happen quickly and accurately,” said Fruk. “We designed a test based on peptide-cleaving proteins, which are found at higher levels in the presence of zombie cells, and in turn appear in the early stages of cancer.

“Ultimately, we want to develop a urine test that could help doctors identify signs of the early stages of cancer – potentially months or even years before noticeable symptoms appear.”

As well as targeting lung cancer, Fruk hopes her research, along with joint efforts across other university departments, will result in the development of probes capable of detecting other cancers.

“We have almost completed a functional urine test to detect ‘zombie' cells in lung cancer, which will spot cancer earlier and avoid the need for invasive procedures, but this test does have potential for other cancers,” she said. “Developing more efficient cancer treatments requires earlier detection and better therapies, but also work with other disciplines for a more holistic view of the disease, which is an essential part of my research.”

From uncovering the causes of lung cancer to pioneering drugs to treat it, Cancer Research UK has helped power progress for people affected by lung cancer. Over the last 10 years, the charity has invested over £231 million in lung cancer research.

“Cancer Research UK has played a key role in advancing lung cancer research and improving survival,” said Dr Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of research and innovation. “This project being led by Professor Fruk is another example of our commitment to driving progress so that more people can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”

Adapted from a Cancer Research UK media release. 

Cambridge scientists have developed a urine test for early detection of lung cancer. The test, the first of its kind, detects ‘zombie’ cells that could indicate the first signs of the disease.

koto_feja via Getty ImagesClose-up of cancer cells

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Yes

The Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES) is hosting two projects that aim to aid Singapore’s business transition away from petrochemicals towards a net-zero emissions target by 2050.

Under the newly launched CREATE Thematic Programme in Decarbonisation supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF), the two projects will investigate non-fossil fuel-based pathways for Singapore’s chemical manufacturing industry and energy systems. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the NRF, Mr Heng Swee Keat toured the first of three laboratories for the programme to view the technical capabilities required for the various project teams, including CARES’ projects on the Sustainable Manufacture of Molecules and Materials in Singapore (SM3), and Hydrogen and Ammonia Combustion in Singapore (HYCOMBS).

SM3 aims to provide a path to a net-zero, high-value chemical manufacturing industry in Singapore. Its core goal is to address the dependency of producers of performance chemicals on starting materials that typically come from fossil-based carbon sources. The SM3 team hope to develop effective synthetic methods that best convert cheap and abundant fossil-free raw materials into high-value molecules, for use in sectors such as medicines and agrochemicals.

In project HYCOMBS, universities from Singapore, UK, Japan, France and Norway will work together to investigate the underlying combustion process of hydrogen and ammonia to minimise pollutants and accelerate industry innovation. 

As part of the lab demonstrations on decarbonisation, CARES showcased an additional ongoing activity with City Energy investigating hydrogen-rich town gas for residential and commercial cooking stoves.

Mr Heng Swee Keat said: "The need to tackle climate change and its impact grows ever more urgent. During my visit to Cambridge CARES (Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore) — Cambridge University's first and only research centre outside the UK — I witnessed how research and international collaboration are driving innovative solutions to combat climate change, particularly in the area of decarbonisation.

"In just a decade, CARES has established cutting-edge R&D facilities dedicated to decarbonisation projects that not only reduce emissions but also pave the way for a more sustainable future for Singapore. From hydrogen combustion and laser-based combustion diagnostics to the development of cleaner fuels for gas stoves, their work is closely aligned with the goals outlined in our Singapore Green Plan 2030, and achieving Singapore’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050.

"It was encouraging to hear from Director of CARES, Professor Markus Kraft, as he shared how being based in the CREATE facility at the National University of Singapore facilitates interactions with researchers from diverse countries and disciplines. This collaborative and interdisciplinary approach embodies the essence of research — working together to address shared global challenges."

Since 2013, CARES has been involved in research programmes with Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore as the University of Cambridge’s first overseas centre. One of its early flagship programmes, the Centre for Carbon Reduction in Chemical Technologies (C4T), has investigated areas from sustainable reaction engineering, electrochemistry, and maritime decarbonisation to digitalisation.

By building on this foundation and leveraging the local talent pool, CARES has attracted new partners from international universities and institutes for SM3 and HYCOMBS. This includes EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, which will provide skills in the domain AI for chemistry. CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Tohoku University from Japan will contribute technical equipment and key talent in hydrogen and ammonia combustion.

Adapted from a release originally published by CARES. 

Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF) paid a visit to the University of Cambridge’s overseas research centre in Singapore and viewed its technical capabilities for decarbonisation research.

Cambridge CARES/Back Button MediaDeputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Heng Swee Keat, viewing decarbonisation activities at Cambridge CARES

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Yes