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Dogs which are overweight or which have narrowed nostrils or a wider, shorter head shape are more likely to suffer from the serious breathing condition, Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS), according to new research from the Cambridge Veterinary School. In some breeds, shorter tails and thicker necks represented an additional risk factor.

The study, published today in PLOS One, found that BOAS varies considerably, in prevalence and severity, between flat-faced dog breeds but also within each breed.

BOAS is a chronic disease associated with short-skulled or flat-faced dogs. Lesions within the upper respiratory tract result in airway narrowing. This often leads to noisy breathing but can also impact a dog’s ability to exercise, sleep and cope with heat or stress.

“BOAS exists on a spectrum. Some dogs are only mildly affected, but for those at the more severe end, it can significantly reduce quality of life and become a serious welfare issue,” said Dr Fran Tomlinson, from the Cambridge Veterinary School, who co-led the study.

“While surgery, weight management and other interventions can help affected dogs to some degree, BOAS is hereditary, and there is still much to learn about how we can reduce the risk in future generations.”

While previous research into BOAS has focused on the three most popular ‘flat-faced’ dog breeds in the UK – the French Bulldog, the Pug and Bulldog – this study investigated a further 14 breeds:

The Affenpinscher, Boston Terrier, Boxer, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chihuahua, Dogue de Bordeaux, Griffon Bruxellois, Japanese Chin, King Charles Spaniel, Maltese, Pekingese, Pomeranian, Shih Tzu and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

The University of Cambridge-led study, which involved nearly 900 dogs, found that 12 out of the 14 breeds studied had some detectable level of breathing abnormality. The researchers identified two breeds at high risk of BOAS. 89% of Pekingese and 82% of Japanese Chin were found to be affected, rates comparable with Pugs, French Bulldogs and Bulldogs.

Five breeds were found to be at moderate risk of BOAS – the King Charles Spaniel, Shih Tzu, Griffon Bruxellois, Boston Terrier, and the Dogue de Bordeaux – with half to three-quarters of the dogs studied being affected.

Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chihuahua, Boxer, and Affenpinscher were found to be at mild risk, with only half of dogs having some degree of noisy breathing and only a few animals with clinically significant disease. None of the Pomeranian or Maltese dogs studied were found to be clinically affected.

Method

The researchers assessed almost 900 dogs during individual appointments at the Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital in Cambridge, at dog shows and at breed-specific health testing days.

The UK Kennel Club and the University of Cambridge run a Respiratory Function Grading Scheme to assess French Bulldogs, Bulldogs and Pugs, which is used in many countries around the world. The researchers adapted this assessment to enable them to study the 14 additional breeds.

The team assessed the dogs’ breathing before and after a 3-minute exercise test, grading any upper respiratory noises and signs of difficulty or discomfort. Dogs that completed the exercise test with no breathing discomfort or respiratory noise detected were classified as unaffected, while dogs that displayed any upper airway noises were classified from mild to severe BOAS.

Head shape

‘Brachycephalic’ dog breeds are generally associated with shortened muzzles and are described as being ‘flat-faced’ or as having ‘facial hypoplasia’. But the authors of this study caution that dogs which have a relatively wide skull in comparison to its length, such as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, can also be considered brachycephalic.

The researchers found that dogs with wider shorter head shapes – those with a lower craniofacial ratio – were more likely to have BOAS.

“Our findings show that the relationship between relative muzzle length and BOAS risk is more complex than is commonly assumed,” said Dr David Sargan.

“The King Charles Spaniel, also known as the English Toy Spaniel in the US, is an extremely flat-faced breed so you might expect to find it in a higher risk group. However, 40% of the animals we assessed were unaffected by BOAS.”

Nasal passages

Nostril ‘stenosis’, or narrowing, has previously been reported as a key risk factor for BOAS. This study provides more evidence to support this. The researchers found that prevalence of this problem varied substantially between different breeds and was significantly associated with BOAS risk.

The two breeds found to be high risk for BOAS, the Pekingese and Japanese Chin, had high rates of nostril narrowing. Only around 6% and 18% of dogs respectively had open nostrils. The Griffon Bruxellois and the Boston Terrier, breeds at moderate risk of BOAS, were also more likely to have restricted nostrils than the other breeds.

Tails, necks, body ratios and weight

In both the Shih Tzu and Staffordshire Bull Terrier breeds, the researchers found that shorter tails were associated with an increased risk of BOAS. For the Staffordshire Bull Terriers, those with longer tails were roughly 30% less likely to have BOAS, and affected dogs had tails 1.5 cm shorter on average. 

In the Boston Terrier and Staffordshire Bull Terrier breeds, they found that dogs with proportionately thicker necks were more likely to be affected. Neck girth ratio has previously been noted to be a significant factor in the risk of BOAS in Bulldogs and French Bulldogs.

Dr Jane Ladlow, who co-led the study said: “Considering the close genetic relationship between Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Boston Terriers and the bulldogs, it isn’t surprising that they share this link between neck thickness and BOAS.”

In the Chihuahua and King Charles Spaniel breeds, the researchers found that dogs with relatively longer bodies with a shorter height were more likely to affected by BOAS.

The researchers found that being overweight was a significant risk factor for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, the Shih Tzu and the Affenpinscher.

“Weight loss could be used as a management tool to reduce the risk of BOAS in these three breeds, as it is in the Pug,” said Jane Ladlow.

Implications and applications

The researchers hope that this study will lead to more ‘flat-faced’ dogs being tested and encourage greater engagement on BOAS and other health issues faced by these breeds.

Dr Ladlow said: “Being aware of risk factors can be useful for both breeders and prospective owners in selecting dogs which are less likely to be affected by BOAS. Knowledge of these risk factors can also help to inform judges in deciding which features are detrimental to health so that factors associated with BOAS are not rewarded in the show ring, particularly as winning dogs can become popular sires.”

The researchers point out that weight, nostril narrowing and craniofacial ratio only accounted for 20% of variation in BOAS status across the different breeds. For now, a breathing assessment remains the most accurate way to determine BOAS status and therefore which dogs should be selected for breeding, or whose welfare would benefit from veterinary intervention.

“Each individual breed has its own risk profile for BOAS and different factors affecting this,” said Dr Fran Tomlinson. “Our findings support a breed-specific approach when tackling the reduction of this disease on a population level.”

The Veterinary School team wish to acknowledge the help they have received from dog owners in carrying out this work. Funding was provided by The Royal Kennel Club Charitable Trust.

Reference

F. Tomlinson, N-C. Liu, D.R. Sargan, J.F. Ladlow, ‘A cross-sectional study into the prevalence and conformational risk factors of BOAS across fourteen brachycephalic dog breeds’, PLOS One (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0340604

Scientists have identified a further twelve dog breeds as being at risk of Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome – a condition that can cause serious breathing problems – including the Pekingese, Shih Tzu, Boston Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chihuahua and Boxer.

Our findings support a breed-specific approach when tackling the reduction of this disease Fran TomlinsonFran TomlinsonFour Boston Terrier study participants with (from left to right) Dr David Sargan, Dr Fran Tomlinson and Dr Jane Ladlow, from the Cambridge Veterinary School

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Professor Behjati, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, also holds positions as Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

“It is an enormous privilege to be given the opportunity to lead child health research in Cambridge, and I look forward to working and collaborating with individuals and stakeholders from around the campus,” said Professor Behjati.

Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: “I am delighted that we have appointed Sam as Head of the Department of Paediatrics. He is an accomplished clinician scientist who has made important contributions to understanding cancers in childhood that have been recognised through prestigious awards.”

Originally from Germany, Professor Behjati read Medicine at Oxford University and pursued academic clinical training in London and Cambridge, including a PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Funded by successive Wellcome Fellowships and then a Group Leader position at Sanger in 2018, he built a genomic research effort into the origins of childhood cancer.

His research is broad – it is tumour agnostic and technologically versatile – and combines DNA sequencing and single cell ‘omic’ methods. He retains a clinical practice as an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist and treats children with solid tumours outside the brain.

Alongside being Head of Department, Professor Behjati will be the Director of the Cambridge Children’s Research Institute, a key component of the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital. The Institute will embed research into Cambridge Children’s Hospital, bringing researchers and clinicians together in one place to create a collaborative and multi-disciplinary environment dedicated to improving the health of children and young people. It will work to understand the early origins of physical and mental health conditions, using this knowledge to intervene sooner, shifting from reactive care to prevention and early intervention, to mitigate or prevent onset of serious disease.

Childhood cancer expert Professor Sam Behjati has been announced as the new Head of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Children’s Research Institute at the planned new Cambridge Children’s Hospital.

It is an enormous privilege to be given the opportunity to lead child health research in CambridgeSam BehjatiSam Behjati at Wellcome Sanger Institute

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Yes

Anna Korhonen, a Professor of Natural Language Processing at the University, will be part of a panel of 40 members from across the world.

The Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence will bring together leading experts to assess how the technology is transforming our lives. One of its main duties will be to produce an annual report with evidence-based scientific assessments related to the opportunities, risks and impacts of AI, which will be presented at the United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance.

Based in the School of Arts and Humanities, Anna is Co-Director of the Institute for Technology and Humanity (ITH), Director of the Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence (CHIA), and Co-Director of the Language Technology Lab (LTL) in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. She is also a Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College. 

“I am honoured to be appointed to this panel, which serves as the first global scientific body on Artificial Intelligence,” Anna said.

“The appointment aligns closely with my research on developing responsible, human-centred AI and applying it to support global sustainable development.

“I am looking forward to taking up my place on the panel at its first meeting”.

Professor Sir John Aston, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge, congratulated Anna on her appointment.

“This appointment is recognition of Anna’s research focus around how to harness this incredible technology – Artificial Intelligence - for human good,” he said.

“She will be a fantastic representative not just for Cambridge but for UK research as a whole.”
 

A University of Cambridge academic has been appointed to a new United Nations panel on Artificial Intelligence.

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YesRelated Links: United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on AI

The former Federal Chancellor of Germany, Dr Angela Merkel, has been nominated for a Doctorate in Law, in recognition of her leadership and contribution to international relations.  The first woman to hold the Chancellorship of a reunited Germany, Dr Merkel is renowned for her influence both in shaping European institutions and promoting unity and co-operation.

Also nominated to be a Doctor of Law is the lawyer and judge, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill. Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, and the first woman to be Head of the Judiciary and President of the Courts in England and Wales, Sue Carr is an alumna and Honorary Fellow of Trinity College and also the Visitor of Darwin College.

The barrister, academic and writer, Professor Philippe Sands, is also proposed for a Doctorate in Law.  He has extensive experience in international, environmental, criminal and maritime law as an advocate in the International Courts. An alumnus of Corpus Christi College and former Fellow of St Catharine’s College and Visiting Fellow at Jesus College, he is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London.

A clinical medic and molecular biologist, Professor Yuk-ming Dennis Lo, has been nominated for a Doctorate in Medical Science. An alumnus and Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Professor Lo is currently Vice-Chancellor and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research is widely recognised for its contributions to the development of non-invasive prenatal testing.

Dr Fabiola Gianotti, uniquely distinguished by two full terms as Director-General of CERN, has been proposed for a Doctorate in Science.  Praised for her vision and rigour in the field of particle physics, Dr Gianotti is also known for her inspiring leadership of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during the 2012 landmark discovery of the Higgs boson.

Nominated for a Doctorate in Letters, Sir Richard Eyre, is a former Artistic Director of the National Theatre. An alumnus and Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse Sir Richard has won a host of awards in both Britain and the United States for directing critically acclaimed plays, films, opera and television.

The artist, Dame Rachel Whiteread, was the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993. Proposed for a Doctorate in Letters, her thought provoking and highly praised work exploring such concepts as negative space and the imprint of daily life on objects has led to major public works, such as a resin-cast for the empty plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square and the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna. Dame Rachel is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College.  

The composer and conductor, Sir George Benjamin, is nominated for a Doctorate in Music. An alumnus and Honorary Fellow of King’s College and Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King’s College London, he has won numerous awards and is a celebrated figure in the world of contemporary music having had his compositions performed by orchestras worldwide.

Following the nominations by the University Council and after final approval by the Regent House (the University's governing body) all eight individuals will be admitted to their degrees at a special Congregation on Wednesday, 24 June. The University’s Chancellor, Lord Smith of Finsbury, will preside at a ceremony attended by staff, students and alumni, as well as specially invited guests.

 

Eight distinguished individuals have been nominated for honorary degrees at the University of Cambridge. This year’s nominations recognise outstanding achievements in the fields of law, politics, science, the arts and music.

Tempest PhotographyUniversity Marshal, Lucy Lewis, leads the procession into the Senate-House

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Researchers led by the University of Cambridge analysed heart sounds from nearly 1,800 patients using an AI algorithm trained to recognise valve disease, a condition that often goes undiagnosed until it becomes life-threatening.

The AI correctly identified 98% of patients with severe aortic stenosis, the most common form of valve disease requiring surgery, and 94% of those with severe mitral regurgitation, where the heart valve doesn’t fully close and blood leaks backwards across the valve.

The technology, which works with digital stethoscopes, outperformed GPs at detecting valve disease and could be used as a rapid screening tool in primary care. The results are reported in the journal npj Cardiovascular Health.

“Valve disease is a silent epidemic,” said Professor Anurag Agarwal from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “An estimated 300,000 people in the UK have severe aortic stenosis alone, and around a third don’t know it. By the time symptoms appear, outcomes can be worse than for many cancers.”

Valvular heart disease affects more than half of people over the age of 65, with around one in ten having significant disease. In its early stages, it is often symptom-free. “By the time advanced symptoms develop, the risk of death can be as high as 80% within two years if untreated,” said co-author Professor Rick Steeds, from University Hospitals Birmingham. “The only current treatment is surgery to repair or replace the valve.”

Currently, diagnosis of valve disease relies on echocardiography, which is the gold standard, but is expensive and time-consuming. Wait times on the NHS can stretch to many months, meaning it cannot be used as a screening tool for the general population.

Doctors may listen to the heart using a stethoscope, but this is not routinely done in short GP appointments, and is known to miss many cases.

“Cardiac auscultation is a difficult skill, and it’s used less and less in busy GP surgeries,” said Agarwal. “That’s a big part of why so many cases of valve disease are being missed.”

The new study – a collaboration between engineers and cardiologists, research nurses and other clinicians from five NHS Trusts – used digital stethoscopes to record heart sounds from 1,767 patients. Each study participant also had an echocardiogram, which was used as a reference.

Rather than training the algorithm to recognise heart murmurs — the traditional diagnostic marker — the researchers trained it directly on echocardiogram results. This allowed the system to learn subtle acoustic patterns that humans might miss, including cases with no obvious murmur.

When tested against 14 GPs who listened to the same recordings, the algorithm outperformed every single one, and did so consistently. Individual GPs varied widely in their judgments, with some prioritising sensitivity and others specificity. The AI delivered reliable results every time and was particularly accurate for severe disease.

The system was designed to minimise false alarms, reducing the risk of overwhelming already-stretched echocardiography services. The researchers say that the technology is not intended to replace doctors, but could be a useful screening tool, helping doctors decide which patients should be referred for further investigation and treatment.

Only a few seconds of heart sound recording is needed, and the test could be carried out by staff with minimal training. “If you can rule out people who definitely don’t have significant disease, you can focus resources on those who need them most,” said Agarwal.

The researchers say that further trials, carried out in real-world GP settings with a diverse group of patients, will be needed before the device can be rolled out to the general population. In addition, they say that more moderate forms of valve disease are more difficult to detect.

However, they say that AI could help address growing pressures on the health service caused by an ageing population.

“Valve disease is treatable. We can repair or replace damaged valves and give people many more years of healthy life,” said Steeds. “But timing is everything. Simple, scalable screening tools like this could make a real difference by finding patients before irreversible damage occurs.”

The research was supported in part by the National Institute for Health Research, the British Heart Foundation, and the Medical Research Council (MRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Anurag Agarwal is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 

Reference:
Andrew McDonald et al. ‘Development and Validation of AI-Enhanced Auscultation for Valvular Heart Disease Screening through a Multi-Centre Study.’ npj Cardiovascular Health (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44325-026-00103-y

Artificial intelligence could help doctors detect serious heart valve disease years earlier, potentially saving thousands of lives, a new study suggests.

MoMo Productions via Getty ImagesDoctor listening to a man's heart with a stethoscope

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Yes

In a huge global study led by University of Cambridge researchers, a single group of bacteria - named CAG-170 - has repeatedly shown up in high numbers in the gut microbiomes of healthy people.

CAG-170 is a group of gut bacteria known only from their genetic fingerprints - scientists have never been able to grow most of them in the lab.

Using diverse computational approaches, the team looked for CAG-170’s genetic fingerprint in gut microbiome samples from over 11,000 people across 39 countries.

They found the level of CAG-170 present was consistently higher in healthy people than those with diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Further analysis of CAG-170 revealed they have the capacity to produce high levels of Vitamin B12, and enzymes that break down a wide range of carbohydrates, sugars and fibres in our gut.

The researchers think it’s likely the Vitamin B12 supports other species of gut bacteria, rather than supporting the humans whose guts it is being produced in.

The findings mean that CAG-170 could, in the future, be used as an indicator of our gut microbiome health. They also open the door to developing new probiotics specifically designed to support and maintain healthy levels of CAG‑170 in the gut.

Dr Alexandre Almeida, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine who led the work, said: “Our work has revealed that CAG-170 bacteria - part of the ‘hidden microbiome’ - appear to be key players in human health, likely by helping us to digest the main components of our food and keeping the whole microbiome running smoothly.”

He added: “We looked at the gut microbes of thousands of people across 39 countries and 13 different diseases including Crohn’s and obesity. We consistently found that people with these diseases had lower levels of CAG-170 bacteria in their gut.”

The study is published today in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

Discovering the ‘hidden microbiome’

The study builds on Almeida’s previous work to create a comprehensive reference catalogue of all the genomes in the human gut microbiome, called the ‘Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome catalogue’. He used an approach called ‘metagenomics’ – essentially, analysing the genomes of all the microbes in the gut in one go, and then teasing these apart into the genomes of individual species.

This revealed over 4,600 bacterial species, including over 3,000 that hadn’t previously been seen in the gut before - indicating the extent of the ‘hidden microbiome’ waiting to be explored. The catalogue provided ‘reference genomes’ for each species, including CAG-170: these are like fingerprints that the researchers can now look for in other gut microbiome samples.

“Our earlier work revealed that around two-thirds of the species in our gut microbiome were previously unknown. No-one knew what they were doing there – and now we’ve found that some of these are a fundamental and underappreciated component of human health,” said Almeida.

Three lines of evidence

The team looked at over 11,000 samples of human gut bacteria from people across 39 countries – primarily in Europe, North America and Asia. These were from healthy people, and people with 13 different diseases including Crohn’s, colorectal cancer, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

By comparing each sample to the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome catalogue the researchers noticed that CAG-170 bacteria are the part of the ‘hidden microbiome’ most strongly linked with health - and this is consistent across countries.

In a second approach, the team computationally analysed the full make-up of the gut microbiome of over 6,000 healthy people to investigate which species had the strongest potential to keep the gut ecosystem in check. Of all the bacteria in the ‘hidden microbiome’, CAG-170 were again most consistently associated with health.

In a third analysis they measured the level of CAG-170 present in the gut microbiomes of people with dysbiosis – a condition where the gut microbiome is out of balance. This revealed that lower levels of CAG-170 in the gut are linked with a higher likelihood of having a gut imbalance. Dysbiosis is linked with many long-term conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and anxiety and depression.

Therapeutic possibilities

The billions of bacteria that make up our gut microbiome represent around 4,600 different species. The composition is different in all of us, but the function is the same: to keep our body running smoothly.

Scientists hope that by understanding more about what a healthy gut microbiome looks like, they can see how it changes in people with specific diseases - and try to correct it using approaches including tailored probiotics. The new study is an important step towards making this a reality.

“The probiotic industry hasn't really kept up with gut microbiome research - people are still using the same probiotic species that were being used decades ago. We’re now discovering new groups of bacteria like CAG-170 with important links to our health, and probiotics aimed at supporting them could have a much greater health benefit,” said Almeida.

Until now, scientists studying the gut microbiome have focused their attention on the bacteria within it that can be grown, and therefore studied, in the lab. Most of the CAG-170 gut bacteria are not in this category - so scientists will need to figure out ways to grow and test them, in order to translate these findings into new potential therapeutics.

Reference: da Silva, A.C. et al: ‘Meta-analysis of the uncultured gut microbiome across 11,115 global metagenomes reveals a candidate signature of health.’ Cell Host & Microbe, February 2026. DOI:10.1016/j.chom.2026.01.013

An understudied group of bacteria in our gut microbiome appears to play a central role in keeping us healthy, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge.

These are a fundamental and underappreciated component of human health.Alexandre AlmeidaThom Leach, Science Photo Library on GettyGut microbes

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YesLicence type: Attribution-Noncommerical

The agenda included a stakeholder meeting on The University of Manchester’s campus on Wednesday 4 February, and a creative roundtable in MediaCity on Thursday 5 February, hosted by University of Manchester Professor of Poetry, John McAuliffe, on the role of the creative economy in innovation. 

Transport for Greater Manchester also hosted a meeting to showcase Manchester’s transport network, providing the chance to share learnings between the two cities, before the first partnership advisory board meeting was held at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre. 

The events were attended by both the mayors of Greater Manchester and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough respectively, Andy Burnham and Paul Bristow, and the Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, Professor Duncan Ivison and Professor Deborah Prentice. Attendees also included the leaders of both city councils, Shaun Grady, UK Chair of AstraZeneca, and industry leaders from both regions.

The visit to Manchester follows on from the launch of the partnership and the initial stakeholder visit to Cambridge last year. £4.8 million in funding was awarded by Research England for the collaboration, which is the first cross-UK innovation partnership.

At the 2025 Innovate Cambridge Summit in October, the partnership announced its advisory board which brings together leaders from academia, industry and policy to guide the collaboration between the two cities.

Delivered by both universities’ innovation capabilities, Innovate Cambridge and Unit M, the ambitious partnership was launched to boost UK economic growth and advance inclusive innovation, while supporting the delivery of industrial strategy and local growth plans.

The partnership is connected at every level: University to University, innovation ecosystem to ecosystem, council to council, Combined Authority to Combined Authority and business to business. This multi-layered connectivity allows ideas, talent, investment and opportunity to flow between places and organisations.

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “The Cambridge x Manchester partnership brings together two great universities and cities with complementary strengths and the will to work together. We are already showing how connected ecosystems can drive innovation, investment and inclusive growth. This week’s meetings underline the momentum behind our shared ambition and the firm foundations being laid for the next phase of work.”

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester said: “Our unique partnership with Cambridge brings together expertise, ideas and resources to support innovation and impact in the UK. It has been valuable to spend time together at the University and across the city this week to reflect on our progress and discuss how we continue to build on the strengths of our two great universities and city regions.”

Kathryn Chapman, Executive Director, Innovate Cambridge, said: "Cambridge and Manchester have deep histories of innovation, with complementary strengths that span the full journey from discovery to scale. By combining Cambridge’s track record in transformational early-stage companies and attraction of capital with Manchester’s strength in development, application and deployment across markets, this partnership will help shape the UK’s future economic growth."

Find out more about the partnership and get involved

Momentum is building behind The University of Cambridge’s groundbreaking partnership with The University of Manchester, with inaugural board meetings hosted across Manchester this week. 

The Cambridge x Manchester PartnershipProfessor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester

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Yes

From supporting women’s education in Afghanistan and advancing Nepal’s circular economy, to revitalising tourism in the Galápagos Islands and equipping Muslim communities across the UK with astronomy skills, the Cambridge Awards celebrate exceptional achievement, innovation, and creativity in the design of research engagement and impact plans with significant economic, social, and cultural potential.

From supporting women’s education in Afghanistan and advancing Nepal’s circular economy, to revitalising tourism in the Galápagos Islands and equipping Muslim communities across the UK with astronomy skills, the Cambridge Awards celebrate exceptional achievement, innovation, and creativity in the design of research engagement and impact plans with significant economic, social, and cultural potential.

Chris Loades

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Yes

The findings could have implications for the use of testosterone supplements, which while they have approved medical applications, are increasing in popularity, particularly among younger men who see testosterone as a way to fight ageing, enhancing performance or building strength.

Testosterone supplementation is an approved treatment for hypogonadism, a condition in which the body doesn't make enough of the hormone, and which typically manifests with fatigue and sexual dysfunction. Evidence from randomised controlled trials has shown beneficial effects of testosterone supplementation on sexual function, lean mass and muscle strength. Low circulating testosterone – that is, testosterone in the blood – is also a risk factor for poor metabolic health.

Recent years have seen testosterone supplements being promoted increasingly on social media and by influencers, often aimed towards younger men to boost their testosterone levels for perceived benefits like muscle growth, strength, energy, and confidence.

However, questions remain about the long-term health impacts of testosterone levels.

Observational studies have linked low measured testosterone levels with an increased risk of coronary artery disease in men, but randomized controlled trials – the ‘gold standard’ for testing the effectiveness of treatments – have been inconclusive and often contradictory.

To address the question of the impact of testosterone supplements on coronary artery disease, a team led by scientists at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge turned to a technique known as Mendelian randomisation. Mendelian randomisation involves using genetic variants as a way of exploring causal links between exposures (often to environmental factors) and disease.

In this case, using data from more than 400,000 adults recruited to UK Biobank and over 1 million individuals recruited to CARDIoGRAMplusC4D, the researchers looked for genetic variants that lead to higher levels of testosterone in the blood and examined whether carriers of these variants were at a greater or lesser risk of coronary artery disease.

The results are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The team found that for men, having genetically higher testosterone was linked to a 17% higher risk of coronary artery disease. Previous studies have suggested that an individual’s risk of coronary artery disease is 7.3% over their lifetime – testosterone supplementation would raise this to 8.5%. The increased risk seemed to be in part due to the fact that testosterone raises blood pressure.

The researchers argue that the reason this appears to contradict observational studies is most likely explained by other, confounding health factors such as diabetes and obesity. People with these conditions tend to have lower testosterone levels and greater risk of coronary artery disease.

The researchers found no clear link between testosterone and risk of coronary artery disease in women.

Emily Morbey, a PhD student at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and King’s College, University of Cambridge, said: “More and more men are taking testosterone supplements, in part because of greater awareness of hypogonadism in men, but also because of increased marketing and social media trends, particularly targeted at younger men.

“Our work indicates that high levels of testosterone in the blood increase the risk of coronary artery disease, which in turn can put people at risk of heart attack and heart failure. When there is a medical need to boost testosterone, the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks, but this might not necessarily be the case when taken to boost performance.”

Senior author Professor Ken Ong, also from the MRC Epidemiology Unit, said: “The US Food and Drug Administration has already issued guidance on the potential cardiovascular risk associated with testosterone supplementation. In the UK, there is no national guidance on the potential cardiovascular risk of high levels of testosterone. Our results suggest there’s a need for more consistent warnings.”

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

Reference

Morbey, EJ et al. Higher circulating testosterone linked to higher CAD risk in men: Mendelian randomisation and survival analyses. JCEM; 24 Oct 2025; DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgaf582

High levels of testosterone in the blood have been linked to a greater risk of coronary artery disease in men, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge.

When there is a medical need to boost testosterone, the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks, but this might not necessarily be the case when taken to boost performanceEmily MorbeyPeter Dazeley (Getty Images)Dumbbell weights in gym with pills

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Yes

There has long been debate over exactly how early in human brain development sex differences first emerge, and what causes them. Previous research has typically studied prenatal or postnatal brain development alone but not both together. That means that until now it has not been possible to study brain growth across the prenatal to postnatal transition.

Researchers at the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, analysed data that mapped how the human brain develops continuously across the prenatal to postnatal transition. This enabled them to develop a more accurate model of early human brain development and to pinpoint exactly when sex differences in brain growth first emerge.

The study used one of the largest perinatal brain imaging datasets ever assembled, collected by the Developing Human Connectome Project. The dataset consisted of nearly 800 prenatal and postnatal brain scans from mid-pregnancy to one month post-birth.

Yumnah Khan, a PhD student in the Autism Research Centre, who led the study, said: “The human brain undergoes its most rapid and complex development before and shortly after birth. But until now, very little was known about exactly how the brain grows during this formative period of life, and how males and females might differ in this process. Our study has documented the presence of prenatal sex differences in the growth of the human brain.”  

In research published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team identified that, on average, males showed greater increases in brain volumes with age, across the whole brain, compared to females.

Dr Alex Tsompanidis, a Senior Research Associate at the Autism Research Centre, and a member of the research team, said: “This study addresses the age-old question of whether nature plays a role in shaping sex differences in the brain. The findings suggest that prenatal biology sets the stage for such sex differences, even if postnatal experience influences these further.

“The next step is to test if the observed sex differences in human brain growth are driven by prenatal sex steroid hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen. Male fetuses are exposed to much higher levels of these hormones which we know play a role in shaping sex differences in the brain and behaviour in other animals. We need to test if the same is true in humans.”

The research also provided several other important insights into how the brain grows during early development. For example, different brain regions and tissues were found to mature at different rates. White matter – responsible for connecting different brain regions – was found to be the main contributor to brain growth during mid-pregnancy, while grey matter – responsible for cognition and information processing – was found to dominate growth during late pregnancy and after birth.

The researchers also found that early brain development is carefully timed to meet ongoing developmental demands. For instance, subcortical grey matter structures (those deeper within the brain, such as the amygdala, cerebellum, and thalamus) show earlier peak growth rates than cortical grey matter, suggesting that brain systems supporting basic functions mature earlier than those involved in higher-order cognition.

Dr Richard Bethlehem, an Assistant Professor in Neuroinformatics, and a member of the team, said: “Establishing these brain growth trajectories early in life is critical because these may help us understand how differences in early brain development contribute to diverse outcomes, including psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism, which is associated with differences in rates of brain growth.”

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, who supervised the study, added: “These findings may help us understand why males and females show differences in the likelihood of neurodivergent outcomes such as autism. For example, the early sex differences in the brain may be due to prenatal sex steroids, and autistic people are exposed to elevated levels of prenatal sex steroid hormones. Future research needs to join the dots in this exciting field of developmental neuroscience.”

The study used data from the Developing Human Connectome Project, funded by the European Research Council. The research was also supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Simon Foundation Autism Research Initiative, and a PhD studentship from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Reference

Khan, YT, et al. Mapping brain growth and sex differences across prenatal to postnatal development. Scientific Reports; 15 Jan 2026; DOI:10.1038/s41598-025-33981-w

Cambridge researchers have revealed a detailed picture of how the human brain grows from mid-pregnancy through the first weeks after birth and identified that sex differences in brain growth are apparent from mid-pregnancy onwards.

This study addresses the age-old question of whether nature plays a role in shaping sex differences in the brainAlex TsompanidisPexelsYoung boy and girl

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YesLicence type: Public Domain

Included among the Fellowship are winners of the Fields Medal, business leaders, distinguished teachers and academics, science communicators, and pioneers of computing and machine learning. They will collaborate on tackling challenges, including pandemic preparedness, economic transformation, national security, and safe AI

Much like Fellows of the other National Academies (Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences), the Fellows of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences have been recognised as leaders in their fields, through fundamental discoveries, exceptional work in education, or driving the application of mathematics across society.

The new Cambridge Fellows are:

Professor Sir John Aston FRS is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge. He is the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life and a Fellow of Churchill College. John leads research into the use of quantitative evidence in public policymaking. He works with those in public life to ensure they use the best methods. He aims to improve the use of statistics and quantitative evidence in public policy. He was Chief Scientific Adviser and Director-General for Science, Technology, Analysis, Research and Strategy at the Home Office from 2017 to 2020. He was a founding director of the Alan Turing Institute. John was knighted in 2021 for services to statistics and public policymaking.

Professor Anne-Christine Davis OBE is the Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Physics (1967) at Cambridge and Life Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. She was the first female Professor in the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge. She has held positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, CERN, Imperial College and Durham University. Her work over a number of years has been in the area of dark energy and theoretical cosmology. She was awarded an OBE in the King's Birthday honours in 2014.

Professor Richard Samworth FRS is Professor of Statistical Science and a Fellow of St John’s College. Since 2017, he has also been Director of the Statistical Laboratory. His main research interests are in statistical methodology and theory (particularly nonparametric and high-dimensional statistics), as well as the statistical foundations of AI. He received the COPSS Presidents' Award in 2018, was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021 and was awarded the David Cox Medal for Statistics and the Royal Statistical Society Guy Medal in Silver in 2025. 

Professor Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb is Professor of Applied Mathematics, Head of the Cambridge Image Analysis group and a Fellow of Jesus College. Her current research interests focus on variational methods, partial differential equations and machine learning for image analysis, image processing and inverse imaging problems, and the mathematical foundations of machine learning. She has active interdisciplinary collaborations with clinicians, biologists and physicists on biomedical imaging topics, chemical engineers and plant scientists on image sensing, as well as collaborations with artists and art conservators on digital art restoration.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE is Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Cambridge, and a Fellow of Churchill College. He was previously Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, which aimed to improve the way that statistical evidence is used by health professionals, patients, lawyers and judges, media and policymakers. He has authored several bestselling books and hosted multiple BBC4 documentaries. His career highlights include appearing on Desert Island Discs in 2022 and, in 2011, coming 7th in an episode of BBC One’s Winter Wipeout. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005, awarded an OBE in 2006, and knighted in 2014 for services to medical statistics. He was President of the Royal Statistical Society for 2017-2018, and has been a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority since 2020.

Professor Jack Thorne FRS is a pure mathematician with research interests at the intersection of number theory, representation theory, and algebra, particularly in the Langlands programme and arithmetic statistics. For his contributions to the subject, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2020. Jack received his PhD from Harvard University in 2012, when he was elected a Clay Research Fellow, and has held positions at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. He is currently Kuwait Professor of Number Theory & Algebra at Cambridge, and a Fellow of Trinity College.

Professor Wendelin Werner is Rouse Ball Professor at Cambridge since 2023. Prior to that, he had been a professor at University of Paris-Sud (1997-2013) and ETH Zürich (2013-2023). For his research in Probability Theory, he has received a number of awards, including the Fields Medal in 2006.

Lord Vallance KCB FRS FMedSci FRCP HonFREng, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), said:

“Mathematics sits at the heart of the UK’s scientific and technological strength and is essential to the development of the industries of the future, in exciting fields like AI and quantum.

“The Academy for the Mathematical Sciences’ inaugural Fellows represent the very best of this national capability, and I commend the Academy for bringing them together. Their expertise strengthens our security, boosts productivity and supports high‑quality jobs across the country, so it is only right that they are celebrated.”

Seven Cambridge researchers have been appointed Fellows of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. The inaugural cohort of 100 Fellows brings together the UK’s strongest mathematicians across academia, education, business, industry, and government to help solve some of the UK’s biggest challenges.

University of CambridgeSenate House

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Yes

While most AI models — including ChatGPT — are trained on text and images, a multidisciplinary team, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, has something different in mind: AI trained on physics.

Recently, members of the Polymathic AI collaboration presented two new AI models trained using real scientific datasets to tackle problems in astronomy and fluid-like systems.

The models — called Walrus and AION-1 —can apply the knowledge they gain from one class of physical systems to completely different problems. For instance, Walrus can tackle systems ranging from exploding stars to Wi-Fi signals to the movement of bacteria.

That cross-disciplinary skillset can accelerate scientific discovery and give researchers a leg up when faced with small samples or budgets, said Walrus lead developer Michael McCabe, a research scientist at Polymathic AI.

“Maybe you have new physics in your scenario that your field isn’t used to handling, and just can’t burn the time working through all the possible models that might fit your scenario,” said McCabe. “Our hope is that training on these broader classes makes something that is both easier to use and has a better chance of generalising for those users, as the ‘new’ physics to them might be something another field has been handling for a while.”

The Polymathic AI team recently announced Walrus in a preprint on arXiv.org and presented AION-1 at the NeurIPS conference in San Diego.

Walrus and AION-1 are ‘foundational models,’ meaning they’re trained on colossal sets of training data from different research areas or experiments. That’s unlike most AI models in science, which are trained with a particular subfield or problem in mind.

Rather than learning the ins and outs of a particular situation or starting from a set of fundamental equations, foundational models instead learn the basis, or foundation, of the physical processes at work. Since these physical processes are universal, the knowledge that the AI learns can be applied to various fields or problems that share the same underlying physical principles. Foundational models have a number of benefits — from speeding up computations to performing well in low-data regimes to finding physics shared across different fields.

Walrus’ domain is fluids and fluidlike systems. Walrus uses the Well — a massive dataset compiled by the Polymathic AI team, encompassing 19 different scenarios and 63 different fields in fluid dynamics. All in all, it contains 15 terabytes of data describing parameters such as density, velocity and pressure in physical systems as wide-ranging as merging neutron stars, acoustic waves and shifting layers in Earth’s atmosphere.

“I continue to be awed by the fact that a multi-disciplinary physics foundation model works at all, let alone at this level,” said Polymathic AI team member Dr Miles Cranmer from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Institute of Astronomy. “This question is part of what motivated us to start Polymathic in the first place, and Walrus feels like a nice checkpoint in this direction.”

“Walrus feels like a real step toward general-purpose AI for physical simulation—a single foundation model you can adapt across many scientific problems instead of re-training from scratch each time,” said Polymatic AI team member Dr Payel Mukhopadhyay, also from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “And because we’ve open-sourced the code and data, I’m genuinely excited to see what the community builds on top of it.”

AION-1 is trained on data from astronomical surveys that are already massive in their own right, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Gaia, containing more than 200 million observations of stars, quasars and galaxies totalling around 100 terabytes of data. AION-1 uses images, spectra and a variety of other measurements to learn as much as it can about astronomical objects. Then, when a scientist obtains a low-resolution image of a galaxy, for example, AION-1 can extract more information about it, learned from the physics of millions of other galaxies.

AION-1 and Walrus can use physics seen in a different case and apply it to learn about something new, like our own senses. “Multiple senses together — rather than one at a time — gives you a fuller understanding of an experience,” the AION-1 team explained in a blog post about the project. “Over time, your brain learns associations between how things look, taste and smell, so if one sense is unavailable, you can often infer the missing information from the others.”

Then, when a scientist is performing a new experiment or observation, they have a starting point — a map of how physics behaves in other similar situations. “It’s like seeing many, many humans,” said Shirley Ho, Polymathic AI’s principal investigator. “When you meet a new friend, because you’ve met so many people before now, you are able to map in your head … what this human is going to be like compared to all your friends before.”

Foundational models make scientists’ lives easier by streamlining data processing. Scientists will no longer have to create a new framework from scratch for every project or task; instead, they can start with an already trained AI to use as a foundation. “I think our vision for some of this foundation model is that it enables anyone to start from a really powerful embedding of the data that they’re interested in … and still achieve state-of-the-art accuracy without having to build this whole pipeline from scratch,” said AION-1 lead researcher Liam Parker from the University of California, Berkeley.

Their goal is to make tools that scientists can use in their day-to-day research. “We want to bring all this AI intelligence to the scientists who need it,” Ho said.

Adapted from a Simons Foundation media release.

While popular AI models such as ChatGPT are trained on language or photographs, new models created by researchers from the Polymathic AI collaboration are trained using real scientific datasets. The models are already using knowledge from one field to address seemingly completely different problems in another.

Vertigo3d via Getty ImagesDigital wave background and program code

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Yes

On a visit to India by a senior delegation from the UK university, Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice set out a series of measures designed to build dynamic new partnerships and encourage potential donors, plus a key policy change to help talented Indian students to apply to Cambridge.  

Professor Prentice announced the launch of the Cambridge-India Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) with a focus on innovation, research and learning. The Cambridge-India CAS establishes a bridge between the University of Cambridge, globally renowned as a leader in science and technology, and India's rapidly evolving knowledge economy. The Centre, operating as a hub for the University’s presence in India, will serve as a catalyst for intellectual exchange, policy influence, and societal impact.

In her speech, the Vice-Chancellor also paid tribute to Sir Mark Tully, the legendary BBC correspondent who studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and who lived much of his life in India. Sir Mark's death, at the age of 90, was announced on Sunday, and his cremation took place in Delhi yesterday.  For decades he was a widely respected reporter and commentator on India.

In addition, the University will broaden undergraduate entry pathways for top students educated in India. The Indian CBSE Class XII qualification will now be accepted by the University for some undergraduate courses, alongside additional requirements where appropriate.  The University is also exploring new philanthropic opportunities for the funding of scholarships for India’s most talented students.

Cambridge has also established a Section 8 company in India, the Cambridge India Research Foundation, which enables members of the public, Cambridge alumni, and friends of the University in India to provide funds for bursaries, fees and other expenses incurred by Indian students studying in Cambridge, as well as supporting research partnerships. More information is available at: www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/how-to-give-to-cambridge/cambridge-india-rese...

Building on strong sporting links, the Cambridge University Men's Cricket Team will tour India for pre-season warm up games in March 2026 for the first time in fifteen years. Plans are also under way for the Cambridge Women's team to visit India next year. The legendary cricketer, Ranjitsinhji (Ranji), was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, at the end of the 19th century, as was his nephew, Duleepsinghji, a few years later. Both received Cambridge Blues for representing the university, before going on to achieve even greater success at international level.

image_1.jpg

Vice-Chancellor Prentice said: “I am delighted to build on the strong and deep links between Cambridge University and India. The Cambridge-India CAS is an exciting opportunity to form collaborations with the best researchers and innovators in India and strengthen ties with such a rapidly growing knowledge economy. And our best cricketers are looking forward to testing their skills against their Indian counterparts.”

The British High Commissioner to India, Lindy Cameron, said: “Cambridge is amongst the world’s very best universities, and I welcome this brilliant step forward in its links with India. Education lies at the heart of UK-India Vision 2035 - our shared commitment to nurturing the next generation of global talent. These initiatives are bringing the UK and India’s world-class research and education even closer together through innovative platforms and channels for collaboration, helping unlock the full potential of our revitalised partnership.”

The senior Cambridge delegation visiting Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru this week includes Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Environmental Sustainability, Professor Bhaskar Vira, who is the first Indian Pro-Vice-Chancellor from India in the University’s 800-year history. Professor Vira recently presented the Discovery Channel series, Embers of Hope, on India’s environmental challenges, with legendary actress Zeenat Aman.

Commenting on the initiatives, Professor Vira said: “It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm of our colleagues in Cambridge and our partners in India for the Cambridge-India CAS. I’m looking forward to this next chapter in the relationship between Cambridge and India.”

The new Cambridge-India CAS Centre will provide a hub for the University’s activities in India, and will feature three integrated elements which align strongly with the UK Government’s recently announced International Education Strategy:  

• Centre for Advanced Research and Synthesis: a research institute, hosting programmes co-convened by Cambridge and Indian research leads 
• Knowledge-Policy-Innovation Hub: addressing issues of knowledge transfer and impact by creating an incubation space for academics, innovators, entrepreneurs and decision makers 
• The Learning Hub: providing learning opportunities, scholarships and mobility programmes for students and staff. 

Cambridge-India CAS will act as an “umbrella” for a range of programmes, building on the many bilateral partnerships between the University and India over recent decades. Working with partners, the Centre will act as a framework for a portfolio of activity across the whole of India without the limits of a specific physical presence. It will be multi-sited, and multi-dimensional.

One of the first initiatives under the Learning Hub was announced this week, with the establishment of a Real Estate educational programme by P E Analytics Ltd, with technical assistance and curriculum support from the University of Cambridge's Department of Land Economy, working towards the creation of the first School of Real Estate in India. Senior members of the University are also attending the India Global Education Summit in Chennai on 28-29 January.

The University is also planning to hold a UK-India partners event at Lord's Cricket Ground in London in May on the occasion of the historic Oxford-Cambridge Varsity cricket match, which is held each year at the historic ground.  

Well-known Indians who studied at Cambridge include the scientists Jagadish Chandra Bose, Srinivasa Ramanujan, M S Swaminathan and Jayant Narlikar, and the Nobel Laureates Subrahmanyam Chandrashekhar, Venki Ramakrishnan and Amartya Sen. They have included prominent nation builders including former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh as well as former President Shankar Dayal Sharma and nationalist leader Subhash Chandra Bose. In the world of industry, Cambridge alumni include Sir Dorabji Tata, as well as Chairman of Cipla, Yusuf Hamied, and Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, while prominent writers Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Sir Salman Rushdie were also both educated at Cambridge.

A series of new initiatives spanning research, technology, student access and cricket have been announced by the University of Cambridge on a high-level visit to India, renewing a relationship between the university and India which goes back more than 150 years.

The Cambridge-India CAS is an exciting opportunity to form collaborations with the best researchers and innovators in India and strengthen ties with such a rapidly growing knowledge economy.Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah PrenticeHunesh Ajmani - Kuku PhotographersThe speakers at the opening event of the Global Cambridge India series in New Delhi, from left to right: Professor Bhaskar Vira, Uday Khemka, V-C Professor Deborah Prentice, Alice Spencer, Professor Akshay Rao and Professor Gishan Dissanaike

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YesLicence type: Attribution

The study, published today in Psychological Medicine, found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) does not appear to mitigate these effects, though it can slow the decline in reaction times.

Menopause is a key period in a woman’s life when her periods stop, due to lower hormone levels. It typically affects women between the ages of 45 and 55, during which time they may experience hot flushes, low mood and sleep problems. Menopause has previously been linked to cognitive decline, such as memory, attention and language deficits.

To counter the effects of menopause – particularly depressive symptoms and sleep problems – many women are prescribed HRT. In England, in 2023, 15% of women were prescribed the treatment. However, there is limited understanding of the effects of menopause and subsequent HRT use on the brain, cognition and mental health.

To address this question, researchers at the University of Cambridge analysed data from UK Biobank of almost 125,000 women, who were classified into three categories: pre-menopause, post-menopause who have never used HRT, or post-menopause who have used HRT.

As well as answering questionnaires that included questions related to their experience of menopause, self-reported mental health, sleep patterns and overall health, some participants took part in tests of cognition, including tests of memory and reaction times. Around 11,000 participants also underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, allowing the researchers to look at the structure of their brains.

The average age of onset of menopause among the participants was around 49.5 years, while the average age that women prescribed HRT began their treatment was around 49 years.

Post-menopausal women were more likely than those pre-menopause to have sought help from their GP or a psychiatrist for anxiety, nerves or depression, and to score more highly on questionnaires for symptoms of depression. Similarly, they were more likely to have been prescribed antidepressants.

Although women in the HRT group had greater anxiety and depression compared with the non-HRT group, further analysis showed that these differences in symptoms were already present before menopause. It is possible, say the researchers, that in some cases, a woman’s GP may have prescribed HRT in anticipation of menopause worsening her symptoms.

Women post-menopause were more likely to report insomnia, get less sleep, and feel tired. Those on HRT reported feeling the most tired of all three groups, even though there was no difference in sleep duration between these women and those women post-menopause not on the medication.

Dr Christelle Langley from the Department of Psychiatry said: “Most women will go through menopause, and it can be a life-changing event, whether they take HRT or not. A healthy lifestyle – exercising, keeping active and eating a healthy diet, for example – is particularly important during this period to help mitigate some of its effects.

“We all need to be more sensitive to not only the physical, but also the mental health of women during menopause, however, and recognise when they are struggling. There should be no embarrassment in letting others know what you’re going through and asking for help.”

Menopause also appeared to have an impact on cognition. Post-menopausal women who were not on HRT had slower reaction times than those yet to start menopause or who were on HRT. However, there were no significant differences between the three groups when it came to memory tasks.

Dr Katharina Zühlsdorff from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, said: “As we age, our reaction times tend to get slower – it’s just a part of the natural ageing process and it happens to both women and men. You can imagine being asked a question at a quiz – while you might still arrive at the correct answer as your younger self, younger people would no doubt get there much faster. Menopause seems to accelerate this process, but HRT appears to put the brakes on, slowing the ageing process slightly.”

In both groups of women post-menopause, the researchers found significant reductions in volume of grey matter – brain tissue that contains nerve cell bodies and helps process information, control movement and manage memory and emotions.

In particular, these differences occurred in the hippocampus (responsible for forming and storing memories); entorhinal cortex (the ‘gateway’ for passing information between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain); and the anterior cingulate cortex (part of the brain that helps you manage emotions, make decisions, and focus your attention).

Professor Barbara Sahakian, the study’s senior author from the Department of Psychiatry, added: “The brain regions where we saw these differences are ones that tend to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Menopause could make these women vulnerable further down the line. While not the whole story, it may help explain why we see almost twice as many cases of dementia in women than in men.”

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

Reference

Zühlsdorff, K et al. Emotional and cognitive effects of menopause and hormone replacement therapy. Psychological Medicine; 27 Jan 2025; DOI: 10.1017/S0033291725102845

Menopause is linked to reductions in grey matter volume in key brain regions as well as increased levels of anxiety and depression and difficulties with sleep, according to new research from the University of Cambridge.

Most women will go through menopause, and it can be a life-changing event, whether they take HRT or notChristelle LangleyKate Wieser (Getty Images)Sick woman lying in bed at home

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Yes

The map builds on previous research to provide additional confirmation and new details about how dark matter has shaped the universe on the largest scales — galaxy clusters millions of light-years across — that ultimately give rise to galaxies, stars, and planets like Earth. The results are reported in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“This is the largest dark matter map we’ve made with Webb, and it’s twice as sharp as any dark matter map made by other observatories,” said lead author Diana Scognamiglio from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Previously, we were looking at a blurry picture of dark matter. Now we’re seeing the invisible scaffolding of the universe in stunning detail, thanks to Webb’s incredible resolution.”

Dark matter doesn’t emit, reflect, absorb, or even block light, and it passes through regular matter like a ghost. But it does interact with the universe through gravity, something the map shows with a new level of clarity. Evidence for this interaction lies in the degree of overlap between dark matter and regular matter. According to the researchers, Webb’s observations confirm that this close alignment can’t be a coincidence but, rather, is due to dark matter’s gravity pulling regular matter toward it throughout cosmic history.

“Wherever we see a big cluster of thousands of galaxies, we also see an equally massive amount of dark matter in the same place. And when we see a thin string of regular matter connecting two of those clusters, we see a string of dark matter as well,” said co-author Richard Massey from Durham University. “It’s not just that they have the same shapes. This map shows us that dark matter and regular matter have always been in the same place. They grew up together.”

Found in the constellation Sextans, the area covered by the new map is a section of sky about 2.5 times larger than the full Moon. A global community of scientists, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, have observed this region with at least 15 ground- and space-based telescopes for the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). Their goal: to precisely measure the location of regular matter here and then compare it to the location of dark matter. The first dark matter map of the area was made in 2007 using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a project led by Massey and JPL astrophysicist Jason Rhodes, a coauthor of the paper.

Webb peered at this region for a total of about 255 hours and identified nearly 800,000 galaxies, some of which were detected for the first time. The researchers then looked for dark matter by observing how its mass curves space itself, which in turn bends the light travelling to Earth from distant galaxies. When observed by researchers, it’s as if the light of those galaxies has passed through a warped windowpane.

“This result showcases the capability of the James Webb Space Telescope to produce maps of the cosmos in exquisite detail, not only of the stars and gas in galaxies, but also of the invisible web of dark matter upon which these structures hang,” said co-author Dr Natalie Hogg, from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “What I find particularly exciting is the prospect of comparing this map with the distortions dark matter produces on the shapes of strong gravitational lenses, where a single galaxy's mass acts as a huge lens to produce multiple images of a background galaxy.”

The new map contains about 10 times more galaxies than maps of the area made by ground-based observatories and twice as many as Hubble’s. It reveals new clumps of dark matter and captures a higher-resolution view of the areas previously seen by Hubble.

To refine measurements of the distance to many galaxies for the map, the team used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), designed and managed through launch by JPL, along with other space- and ground-based telescopes. The wavelengths that MIRI detects also make it adept at detecting galaxies obscured by cosmic dust clouds.

When the universe began, regular matter and dark matter were probably sparsely distributed. Scientists think dark matter began to clump together first and that those dark matter clumps then pulled together regular matter, creating regions with enough material for stars and galaxies to begin to form.

In this way, dark matter determined the large-scale distribution of galaxies in the universe. And by prompting galaxy and star formation to begin earlier than they would have otherwise, dark matter’s influence also played a role in creating the conditions for planets to eventually form. That’s because the first generations of stars were responsible for turning hydrogen and helium — which made up the vast majority of atoms in the early universe — into the rich array of elements that now compose planets like Earth. In other words, dark matter provided more time for complex planets to form.

“This map provides stronger evidence that without dark matter, we might not have the elements in our galaxy that allowed life to appear,” said Rhodes. “Dark matter is not something we encounter in our everyday life on Earth, or even in our solar system, but it has definitely influenced us.”

Scognamiglio and some of her coauthors will also map dark matter with NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, over an area 4,400 times bigger than the COSMOS region. Roman’s primary science goals include learning more about dark matter’s fundamental properties and how they may or may not have changed over cosmic history. But Roman’s maps won’t beat Webb’s spatial resolution. More detailed looks at dark matter will be possible only with a next-generation telescope like the Habitable Worlds Observatory, NASA’s next astrophysics flagship concept.

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

Reference:
Diana Scognamiglio et al. ‘An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter.’ Nature Astronomy (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9

Adapted from a JPL media release.

Scientists using data from the James Webb Space Telescope have made one of the most detailed high-resolution maps of dark matter ever produced. It shows how the invisible, ghostly material overlaps and intertwines with ‘regular’ matter, the stuff that makes up stars, galaxies, and everything we can see.

NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale/A. PaganContaining nearly 800,000 galaxies, this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is overlaid with a map of dark matter, represented in blue.

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Yes

The Institute for Biomedical Innovation (IBI) will bring together engineers, clinicians and manufacturers in a facility designed to help researchers develop and manufacture medical technologies to the point where they are ready for clinical trials and, ultimately, real-world use.

Part of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, the new institute has been created by transforming the University’s NanoScience Centre on the Cambridge West site into a specialised facility for moving medical technologies from proof-of-concept towards clinically usable products.

The team behind the Institute say the facility is not only unique in the UK, but will support high-value manufacturing and economic growth.

“There’s a real gap in the UK between a clever prototype that works in a lab and something that’s suitable for clinical trials,” said Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who will serve as Director of the new institute.

“Cambridge has almost everything you need for translation — the science, the clinicians, the entrepreneurs, the supporting organisations — but the pieces weren’t connected, and one critical element was missing: the ability to prototype medical devices properly, with patients and regulation in mind.”

That conclusion emerged from a series of studies conducted by the Department of Engineering last year, which tracked how early-stage medical technologies are developed into real-world clinical devices. 

The findings showed that while early-stage research at Cambridge is exceptionally strong, researchers and spin-out companies often have to look overseas to develop devices suitable for clinical testing.

The IBI aims to change that by offering facilities that will enable medical devices to be developed in ISO-certified environments: a requirement for technologies destined for use in patients.

Unlike typical university workshops, the institute will support what is called ‘batch prototyping’: producing tens or hundreds of devices, rather than just one or two, to standards suitable for pre-clinical and clinical evaluation.

“It’s not just about making something that works once,” said IBI co-Director Professor Ronan Daly, from Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing. “It’s about learning how to make it reliably, safely and at a quality level that is traceable and regulators will accept. That’s where so many good ideas fail — not because the science is wrong, but because there is no opportunity to test out the manufacturing challenges early enough.”

The IBI will support a range of technologies, including implantable devices such as neural interfaces, in-vitro diagnostics, surgical tools and wearable sensors. It will also include specialised facilities to help researchers test how medical devices interact with living cells, and a human performance lab to test wearables with healthy volunteers.

Another feature of the new institute is its focus on sustainable medical devices — an issue of growing importance to the NHS and UK Government. The NHS is committed to achieving net zero by 2040 and in its broader supply chain, including medical devices, by 2045. However, they have already introduced net zero measures into their procurement processes. The Government has said it has a vision of reaching net zero while generating cost savings and improving resilience in part by transitioning away from all avoidable single-use MedTech products by 2045.

“There’s huge pressure on the NHS to decarbonise, but very few people know how to design medical devices with sustainability built in from the start,” said Daly. “By addressing that at the prototyping stage, we can help create devices that meet future NHS requirements — rather than trying to retrofit sustainability years later.”

The institute will explore ways to design devices that can be safely disassembled, sterilised and reused, reducing waste and long-term costs.

Although based in Cambridge, the Institute for Biomedical Innovation will operate as an open-access facility, available not only to University researchers but also to start-ups, SMEs and industry partners.

For early-stage companies, access to specialist equipment and regulatory expertise can be prohibitively expensive. Malliaras and Daly say they hope the IBI will help de-risk innovation by allowing companies to test and refine devices without having to build their own facilities.

“There really aren’t many places in the UK where academics or small companies can do this kind of work,” said Malliaras. “If you’re a start-up developing a medical device, your options are extremely limited.”

In the longer term, Malliaras and Daly say they want the IBI to become a national, and eventually international, centre for medical device development, helping to strengthen the UK’s manufacturing base.

“We’re very good at inventing things in this country,” said Daly. “But we often lose value by manufacturing them elsewhere. High-skilled medical manufacturing is something the UK should be doing more of.”

“I’m excited that the Department of Engineering is leading the way in this field, in a way which will demonstrably benefit society,” said Professor Colm Durkan, Head of the Department of Engineering. “We have a unique opportunity here to rewrite the rule book on how universities interface with healthcare professionals and industry.”

The University has committed staff, space and existing equipment to get the IBI started, and the facility is already hosting early users. However, further investment is needed to realise its full potential. The IBI is seeking support from industry, government and philanthropists to expand the institute’s equipment and capabilities over the coming years.

An official launch event and national workshop are planned for later this year, bringing together researchers, clinicians, policymakers and industry figures to shape the institute’s future direction.

“If we can shorten the journey from lab to clinic — even by a few years — that can have an enormous impact, and make a real difference to people’s lives,” said Malliaras.

The University of Cambridge is launching a new Institute aimed at tackling one of the biggest bottlenecks in UK medical research: turning promising laboratory discoveries into regulated devices that can be tested with patients.

University of CambridgeResearchers working in a cleanroom

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Yes

In a boost for UK innovation, the University of Cambridge’s supercomputer is set to get six times more powerful thanks to a £36 million funding injection.

The investment builds on Cambridge's position at the heart of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor – one of Europe's most important centres for science, technology and innovation, home to globally-leading universities, research institutions, and fast-growing tech companies.

Already the supercomputer is having a real-world impact, having supported over 350 projects. Scientists have been using it to develop AI tools that could speed up personalised cancer vaccines, working out exactly which parts of a tumour the immune system needs to target. Others are using it to better understand the changing environment.

The extra AI power computing power will kick in as early as spring and will help create everyday benefits like:
•    Faster, more accurate tools that help doctors spot diseases much earlier
•    Smarter technology that cuts waiting times and makes public services easier to use
•    Better climate modelling to help communities prepare for extreme weather.

Professor Sir John Aston, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, University of Cambridge, said: "This investment marks an important milestone for the UK’s AI Research Resource, expanding the power of Cambridge’s supercomputer and strengthening our national computing ecosystem.

“It will give researchers, clinicians and innovators the tools they need to drive breakthroughs that improve public services. The University of Cambridge is proud to work with industry leaders such as Dell to ensure world class compute is available to those tackling society’s most complex challenges, helping the UK shape the next generation of AI for public good.”

Government Minister for AI Kanishka Narayan, said: “The UK is home to world-class AI talent, but too often our ambitious researchers and most promising start-ups have been held back by a lack of access to the computing power they need.

"This investment changes that – giving British innovators the tools to compete with the biggest players and develop AI that improves lives, from spotting diseases earlier to helping communities prepare for extreme weather, right across the country."

•    £36 million investment to increase the AI Research Resource supercomputing capacity at Cambridge sixfold by spring 2026.
•   More cutting-edge AI chips will be available free of charge to UK researchers and start-ups.
•   The supercomputer is already helping to deliver breakthroughs in areas like healthcare and environmental modelling.
 

Joe Bishop

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Yes

The international group of researchers, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, is led by the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Cambridge and the other five UK universities are supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Combining multiple, independent measurements of the cosmos, the research doubles the precision of previous Dark Energy Survey (DES) studies, while remaining broadly consistent with the standard model of cosmology, the most widely accepted theory of the universe.

The findings combine results from 18 separate studies and, for the first time, bring together four major techniques for studying dark energy within a single experiment, a milestone envisioned when DES was conceived 25 years ago.

The combination of these techniques - weak gravitational lensing (distortions in galaxy shapes), galaxy clustering, supernovae and galaxy clusters – enabled scientists to cross-check their measurements and gain a more robust understanding of how the universe behaves.

Around 100 years ago, scientists discovered that distant galaxies appeared to be moving away from Earth. They found that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it recedes, providing the first key evidence that the universe is expanding.

Researchers initially expected that this expansion would slow down over time due to gravity.  However, in 1998, observations of distant supernovae revealed that the universe’s expansion is accelerating rather than slowing down.

To explain this result, scientists proposed the idea of dark energy, which is now thought to drive the universe’s accelerated expansion.

Astrophysicists believe dark energy makes up about 70% of the mass-energy content of the universe, yet we still know very little about it.

The Dark Energy Survey is an international collaboration of more than 400 astrophysicists, astronomers and cosmologists from over 35 institutions, including several from the UK. It is led by the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

The other UK universities involved in the collaboration are University College London, University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham, University of Portsmouth and University of Sussex.

Through STFC, the UK is also supporting research programmes that will advance the work of the DES collaboration in the next generation of astronomical surveys, including Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Chile.

“This research shows the power of long-term international collaboration and UK investment in world-leading science,” said Professor Michele Dougherty, Executive Chair, STFC. “Dark energy remains one of the great unanswered questions in science. Studies like this demonstrate how bringing together different approaches can give us a clearer picture of our universe and where future discoveries may lie.”

To study dark energy, the DES collaboration carried out a deep, wide-area survey of the sky between 2013 and 2019, using a specially constructed 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera mounted on a telescope at the US National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

“This release squeezes an enormous amount of information out of subtle distortions in galaxy images, turning tiny signals into a powerful test of how the Universe works,” said DES team member Calvin Preston, from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy. “My role focused on baryonic feedback—understanding and modelling how processes like star formation and energy from supermassive black holes redistribute matter and subtly reshape the large-scale structure we measure. The results are so exciting as we’ve been able to learn so much about the universe and about galaxies themselves.”

Over six years, scientists collected images and data from hundreds of millions of distant galaxies, billions of light-years from Earth, mapping about one-eighth of the sky.

For the latest results, scientists refined how they use subtle distortions in galaxy shapes, known as weak gravitational lensing, to reconstruct the distribution of matter in the universe over six billion years. They did this by measuring both how galaxies cluster together and how similarly their shapes are distorted by gravity.

By reconstructing the universe’s matter distribution across six billion years, these measurements reveal how dark energy and dark matter have influenced the universe’s evolution.

The team compared their observations with two main theories, one in which dark energy remains constant over time (the standard model of cosmology), and another in which dark energy changes as the universe evolves.

DES found that although the data mostly align with the standard model, broadly agreeing with the most widely accepted theory of the universe, there remains a long-standing discrepancy in how matter clusters in the universe, and this has become more pronounced with the inclusion of the full dataset.

Looking ahead, DES will combine these latest findings with results from other dark energy experiments to explore and test alternative ideas about gravity and dark energy.

The work also helps prepare the ground for future breakthroughs at the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile for similar work with its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

Calvin Preston is a Member of Robinson College, Cambridge. 

Adapted from an STFC media release.

Scientists at the Dark Energy Survey have published their most detailed explanation yet of how the universe has expanded over the last six billion years, thanks to an unprecedented combination of cosmic measurements.

Fermilab via Wikimedia CommonsVictor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile

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YesLicence type: Attribution

Project Cumulus, funded by the Gates Foundation and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, will see researchers from the Alan Turing Institute, the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds link up with universities and meteorological agencies in Ghana and Senegal to co-design more accurate forecasting systems which could help farmers improve crop yields and reduce economic losses. 

These systems will be affordable and adaptable, enabling West African partners to produce their own forecasts, build expertise and drive local innovation.

Weather forecasting in West Africa currently presents a unique set of challenges. As a region increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, unpredictable weather patterns have a direct impact on food security and economic stability. 

Farmers often lack access to adequate weather forecasts, forcing them to make critical decisions on planting or harvesting crops without the information they need. 

“Forecasting and agricultural production are deeply interlinked; from planning, crop management and harvesting through to storage, transportation and marketing,” said Professor Leonard K Amekudzi, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

There is an urgent need for weather prediction tools that perform better under African conditions. Global forecasting systems such as the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) have achieved remarkable advances in overall accuracy, however in sub-Saharan Africa, where weather systems behave differently and local observations are limited, forecasts can still be less reliable.

“Forecasting rainfall in the tropics is a unique challenge, further complicated by climate change and a historical lack of localised data,” said Dr Scott Hosking from the Alan Turing Institute. “To protect lives and livelihoods in these regions, we cannot rely on off-the-shelf AI solutions.”

The way the Earth rotates, and solar heating drives the atmosphere, means that weather in Africa behaves differently from the mid-latitudes such as Europe and the USA, where most forecasting methods were designed. This means that we need new models which are optimised for African conditions. Challenges are compounded by the reduced availability in West Africa of in-situ measurements (such as weather stations) used to inform and build forecasts. 

Because traditional physics-based forecasting approaches used in the Global North are less effective in sub-Saharan Africa, the Cumulus initiative will draw on the Cumulus project team’s work on emerging technologies like Aardvark Weather and the Aurora Earth System Foundation Model, to develop new AI-based forecasting methods tailored to African conditions which therefore deliver more accurate and locally relevant insights. 

“AI is both revolutionising and democratising weather prediction,” said Professor Richard Turner from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Tasks that once required a supercomputer can now run on a laptop, producing accurate forecasts in a fraction of the time and cost. It’s exciting to combine West African and international expertise and put new advanced forecasting tools directly in the hands of local experts, enabling them to fine-tune models for their own local conditions for the first time.”

These technologies show great promise to inform this project as unlike well-established physics-based weather prediction systems Aardvark is fully driven by AI, combining satellite imagery, ground observations and existing forecast data to create a clearer picture of the atmosphere. It can draw on both remote-sensing and local measurements, learning from data-rich regions to improve predictions where data is more scarce such as in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The Aurora Earth System Foundation model has showed how a single AI model could be adapted for a wide range of forecasting tasks. 

The agility of models like Aardvark and Aurora will allow the Cumulus project to create systems tuned to local weather patterns as well as extending forecasts to sub-seasonal timescales most useful for farmers and planners. 

“The emerging science of AI weather prediction, paired with local insights into the physics and statistics of the region’s climate, is poised to amplify the benefits we’re already seeing in our universities and weather services,” said Professor Amadou Gaye, from University Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal. “This international partnership acts as a catalyst for strengthening climate resilience and food security in the region.” 

The Alan Turing Institute is the lead institution on the Cumulus project and the partner institutions include the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds, with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (UCAD) in Senegal, the Senegalese metrological agency ANACIM and the Ghanaian met agency GMet. The project is made possible due to funding from the Gates Foundation and UK International Development from the UK government.

Adapted from a piece published on the Alan Turing Institute website. 

A new initiative will harness the latest advances in artificial intelligence for weather prediction, with a goal of improving climate resilience and food security in West Africa. 

Cesar Pollo via Getty ImagesRice crops in Casamance, Senegal

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Yes

In a study published today in Nature Communications, researchers show that exposure to the mpox virus can occur without recognised illness, and that residual immunity from historic smallpox vaccination continues to shape how the virus spreads in human populations.

Mpox is a zoonotic virus – that is, one that initially jumped species to spread from animals to humans. It is closely related to smallpox. For decades, smallpox vaccination provided broad protection against related viruses such as mpox. Following the eradication of smallpox, routine vaccination stopped in 1980 and a growing proportion of the population lost this protection. This shift has been accompanied by renewed mpox transmission, culminating in outbreaks seen in multiple countries between 2022 and 2024.

While most public health attention has focused on symptomatic mpox cases, little is known about how often people may be exposed to the virus without developing classical disease.

To investigate this, the research team analysed archived blood samples from 176 healthy Nigerian adults who had originally been enrolled in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine studies. These included healthcare workers sampled in 2021 and community volunteers sampled in 2023. None of the participants had received mpox or smallpox vaccines in adulthood, and none were known to have been exposed to mpox.

Using a high-resolution multiplex antibody assay, the researchers measured responses to six distinct mpox virus antigens, different structural components of the virus that the immune system recognises and responds to, allowing detection of both the strength and breadth of immune responses.

At baseline, 24 (14%) of the participants showed antibody profiles consistent with residual immunity from historic smallpox vaccination. These responses were concentrated in people born before 1980, who were more likely to have been vaccinated during childhood. Their antibody responses were broader and stronger, recognising multiple mpox antigens decades after vaccination campaigns ended.

However, the study also identified something unexpected.

Among 153 participants with follow-up samples collected approximately nine months later, five individuals - around 3% of the cohort - showed clear evidence of new immune boosting consistent with recent mpox exposure. These individuals had no recorded mpox diagnosis and did not report compatible illness, suggesting that exposure may have occurred without recognised disease.

Lead author Dr Adam Abdullahi, from the University of Cambridge and Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, said: “What we’re seeing is evidence that mpox exposure doesn’t always look like the textbook description. In some people, particularly in settings with partial population immunity, the virus may circulate quietly, leaving immune footprints that routine clinical surveillance will miss.”

The strongest antibody increases were directed against specific viral proteins, particularly B6R, A35R and M1R - antigens known to be important targets of protective immune responses. These findings suggest that certain immune markers could be especially useful for detecting recent exposure in population studies.

To place the immunological findings in an epidemiological context, the team also analysed more than 100 mpox virus genomes collected in Nigeria over several years. Genomic reconstruction showed slow epidemic growth, frequent transmission dead-ends, and limited clustering – a pattern consistent with ongoing transmission constrained by partial immunity in the population.

Rather than explosive spread, the virus appears to persist through sporadic chains of infection, many of which fail to expand further.

Senior author Professor Ravindra Gupta is The Hong Kong Jockey Club Professor of Global Health from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge, and Co-Director of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Global Health Institute. He said: “Our data tell a consistent story. Mpox is not spreading unchecked in Nigeria and across the region, but neither is it absent. Instead, it appears to circulate at low levels, shaped by the lingering effects of smallpox vaccination in older generations.”

Importantly, the study found no major differences in immune responses between healthcare workers and the general population, suggesting that exposure is not confined to clinical settings. This points to broader community-level transmission rather than purely occupational risk.

The findings have important implications for public health surveillance. Current mpox monitoring relies heavily on detecting symptomatic cases, yet this approach may underestimate true exposure, particularly where infections are mild or atypical.

Professor Alash’le Abimiku, Executive Director of the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, said: “These findings show that mpox exposure can occur without obvious illness. Instead of relying solely on reported cases or symptoms, monitoring populations by testing blood samples for antibodies to reveal exposure to the virus will be important for understanding how it is spready and guiding targeted vaccination in our settings.”

“If we only look for obvious disease, we will miss part of the picture,” said Dr Abdullahi. “Monitoring blood samples gives us a way to detect exposure that doesn’t result in clinic visits, especially in regions where health systems are stretched and requires strengthening.”

The researchers stress that their findings do not suggest widespread silent epidemics but rather highlight the complexity of mpox transmission in populations with mixed immunity. The detected exposure rate reflects the study cohort and should not be interpreted as population prevalence.

The work also reinforces the long-lasting impact of smallpox vaccination. Individuals vaccinated decades ago still show broad immune recognition of mpox virus, which may help limit transmission even today.

Professor Gupta added: “This study reminds us that decisions made generations ago - such as ending smallpox vaccination - continue to shape how emerging infections behave. Understanding that legacy is crucial for designing rational vaccination and surveillance strategies now.”

The authors note that further work is needed to link antibody patterns to functional protection, to study cellular immune responses, and to assess how conditions such as HIV infection may modify mpox immunity.

The research was supported by the Cambridge-Africa program, Wellcome Trust, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Global Health Institute, and partners in Nigeria and Europe.

Reference

Abdullahi, A et al. Sero-genomic evidence 1 for occult mpox exposure in healthy Nigerian adults. Nat Comms; 20 Jan 2026; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68335-1

The mpox virus appears to be circulating silently in parts of Nigeria, in many cases without the symptoms typically associated with the disease, according to new research led by scientists from the University of Cambridge and partners in Nigeria. The findings may have implications for controlling the spread of the disease.

This study reminds us that decisions made generations ago - such as ending smallpox vaccination - continue to shape how emerging infections behaveRavindra GuptaNIAID/NIHColorized scanning electron micrograph of mpox virus (red) on the surface of infected cells (green)

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YesLicence type: Public Domain