The  groundbreaking research, led by Dr Matthew J. Kibble, used a state-of-the-art 3D printing technique called bioprinting to replicate the complex structure and environment of human spinal discs. 

In a study published in the journal today, they reveal tissue stiffness and oxygen levels significantly impact the production of vital biological materials, including collagen and hyaluronic acid, by human disc cells. 

The insights could ultimately lead to new treatments for back pain, a condition affecting hundreds of millions of people across the world. 

Bioprinting is a cutting-edge technique that uses living cells and biological materials to create complex 3D structures that accurately mimic the structure of human organs. 

The new bioprinted discs will allow scientists to study how different conditions affect disc cell behaviour and contribute to tissue degeneration and back pain.

Most bioprinters work in a similar way to plastic 3D printers, extruding material through a nozzle under pressure to build structures.

However, rather than printing plastic, bioprinters use cells and gel-like inks made from cell-friendly materials such as collagen, cellulose or gelatin.

The scientists prepared the cells and materials needed for bioprinting and designed a digital model of a human spinal disc. For this study, the bioprinted discs were made from gels containing collagen combined with alginate, a protein derived from seaweed.

They used state-of-the-art 3D bioprinters capable of depositing multiple types of cells and materials, layer-by-layer, to create sophisticated models where the different biological, chemical, and mechanical characteristics of the human disc could be modelled.

The bioprinted tissues were then stored in controlled conditions so they could grow, mature, and develop their biological functions.

Dr Stephen M. Richardson, from The University of Manchester, corresponding author of the study said: “This work represents a step towards the automated creation of realistic whole organ models and brings us closer to understanding the root causes of disc degeneration.”

“Our findings provide important insights into the factors driving disc degeneration and pave the way for the development of more effective regenerative therapies, for example through incorporation of stem cells.”

Bioprinting has been used to fabricate models of different tissues including skin, brain, nerve and heart, kidney and tumour.

However, fully functional tissue engineered organs are still  decades away; current models are mostly used for investigating biological processes in the lab but may act as replacements for lab animals.

As part of his PhD research at The University of Manchester, Dr Kibble developed the bioprinted discs to explore the impact of tissue stiffness on the two cell types that inhabit different parts of the adult spinal discs:  nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus cells.

In future disc models the scientists plan to incorporate cells found in healthy, young developing discs, alongside stem cells or gene-edited cells to create even more advanced models of health and disease. This will enable them to understand how healthy tissue is formed and whether stem cells can be used to produce healthy tissue and treat back pain.

Dr Kibble said: “Over 600 million people worldwide suffer from lower back pain. Our bioprinted intervertebral disc models are an exciting opportunity to inform better regenerative therapies.

Our research has shown that tissue stiffness and oxygen levels have a significant impact the production of vital biological materials.

There have been many attempts to engineer discs so that we can understand their biology and develop models for testing different therapies or transplanting them into animals. But as well as being very difficult to do, this is also extremely time consuming.

Our work allows us to produce biologically functional disc models at scale and will allow us to make desperately needed advances in our understanding  of disc disease.”

The study was funded by the UKRI EPSRC/MRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Regenerative Medicine, the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund, and the Medical ����Ӱ�� Council.

The authors also acknowledge the support of the national Henry Royce Institute EPSRC grants and the Bioprinting Technology Platform.

A video of the bioprinted in action is available, as are images of the bioprinted discs, and graphics.

The paper,  Suspension bioprinted whole intervertebral disc analogues enable regional stiffness- and hypoxia-regulated matrix secretion by primary human nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus cells is published in Acta Biomaterialia and is available.

Less climate mitigation will increase the spread of fungal pathogens in certain areas, putting more people at risk.

• Novel projections show that in 15 years, if we rely on fossil fuels instead of clean power (scenario of *), we are likely to see the significant spread of certain fungal pathogens in Europe
• Under this scenario, the spread of Aspergillus flavus, for example, could increase by about 16%, putting 1 million more people at risk of infection in Europe. Infections affect the respiratory system, and this fungus infects a broad range of agricultural crops
• The predictions also show that the spread of another fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus, could increase by 77.5% and potentially expose 9 million people in Europe
• This is a concerning trend due to a rise in antifungal resistance and a severe lack of diagnostics and treatment options for fungal infections

In a new study, published on  and funded by , the effects of rising temperatures on infection-causing fungi have been mapped under different climate change mitigation scenarios until the year 2100. Using climate modelling and forecasts, at the University of Manchester and colleagues have mapped how the global distributions of three fungal pathogens (Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus niger) could be expected to change as a result.

The rise of pathogenic fungi is a real concern and is being driven by climate change. Fungi are incredibly adaptable organisms, with large, malleable genomes that allow them to colonize new geographies and survive as their environment changes.

Dr. Norman van Rhijn said: “Changes in environmental factors, such as humidity and extreme weather events, will change habitats and drive fungal adaptation and spread.

“We’ve already seen the emergence of the fungus Candida auris due to rising temperatures, but, until now, we had little information of how other fungi might respond to this change in the environment.  Fungi are relatively under researched compared to viruses and parasites, but these maps show that fungal pathogens will likely impact most areas of the world in the future. Raising awareness and developing effective interventions for fungal pathogens will be essential to mitigate the consequences of this.”

The maps show that in a fossil fuel dependent economy, as outlined in the IPCC scenario of , the climate will change to become suitable for fungal pathogens to spread to new geographies, with a marked increase in Europe.

The spread of Aspergillus flavus could increase by about 16%, putting 1 million more people at risk of infection from this deadly fungal pathogen in Europe. This fungus is known to cause severe infections and is resistant to many antifungals available.

This is an especially concerning trend as many fungal infections have high mortality rates, partly because of the lack of diagnostics, vaccines and treatment options as well as a lack of awareness of fungal infections. Additionally, as fungi are more similar to humans than other pathogens, developing anti-fungal treatments without toxic side effects is challenging.

The predictions also show that the spread of Aspergillus fumigatus could increase by 77.5% and potentially expose 9 million people in Europe. This is one of the most common fungal pathogens responsible for life-threatening infections in humans and affects the lungs.

Whilst the rise in global temperatures will increase the spread of fungi in Europe, temperatures in Africa could become so high that some fungi will not be able to survive on the continent. Fungi are an essential component to a functioning ecosystem, decomposing plant and animal matter to reintroduce nutrients into the soil. They also contribute to the carbon cycle which regulates the global climate and temperatures.  

Antifungal resistance is also being driven by the use of fungicides in agriculture, which are used to protect crops and support food production. The researchers also looked at the how the changing environment impacts our use of fungicides.

Viv Goosens, ����Ӱ�� Manager at Wellcome said: “Fungal pathogens pose a serious threat to human health by causing infections and disrupting food systems. Climate change will make these risks worse. To address these challenges, we must fill important research gaps. By using models and maps to track the spread of fungi, we can better direct resources and prepare for the future." 

Fungal infections are transmitted through fungal spores in the air we breathe. People with weakened immune systems, co-morbidities and other risk factors are most vulnerable to infections, although fungi could adapt to become more pathogenic due to rising temperatures and could result in more infections in healthy people.

Despite this mounting threat, fungal infections receive little attention or resources. Less than 10% of an estimated 1.5 to 3.8 million species have been described, and a tiny fraction has had their genome sequenced. Wellcome is awarding over £50mn in funding towards fungal research over the next year. 

The study has been published on preprint platform ����Ӱ�� Square, available here

In a Wellcome funded study published today (01/05/25) in Science - one of the world’s leading scientific journals – the researchers challenge conventional wisdom taught in schools for over 100 years.

Students are currently taught that during cell division, a ‘parent’ cell will become spherical before splitting into two ‘daughter’ cells of equal size and shape.

However, the study reveals that cell rounding is not a universal feature of cell division and is not how it often works in the body.

Dividing cells, they show, often don’t round up into sphere-like shapes. This lack of rounding breaks the symmetry of division to generate two daughter cells that differ from each other in both size and function, known as asymmetric division.

Asymmetric divisions are an important way that the different types of cells in the body are generated, to make different tissues and organs.

Until now, asymmetric cell division has predominantly only been associated with highly specialised cells, known as stem cells.

The scientists found that it is the shape of a parent cell before it even divides that can determine if they will round or not in division and determines how symmetric, or not, its daughter cells are going to be.

Cells which are shorter and wider in shape tend to round up and divide into two cells which are similar to each other.  However, cells which are longer and thinner don’t round up and divide asymmetrically, so that one

daughter is different to the other.

The findings could have far reaching implications on our understanding of the role of cell division in disease. For example, in the context of cancer cells, this type of ‘non-round’, asymmetric division could generate different cell behaviours known to promote cancer progression through metastasis.

Harnessing this information could also impact regenerative medicine, enabling us to better manufacture the cell types needed to regenerate damaged tissues and organs.

Scientists may one day be able to influence the function of daughter cells by simply manipulating their parental cell shape.

Co-lead author Dr Shane Herbert, a senior research fellow at The University of Manchester said: “The phenomenon of mitosis - or cell division - is one of the fundamentals of life and a basic biological concept which is taught from school age.

“Students learn that when a cell divides, it will generate a uniform spherical shape. Our study, however, shows that in real living organisms, it is not as simple as that.

“Our research suggests that the shape of the cell before it divides can fundamentally direct whether a cell rounds, and importantly, if its daughters are symmetric or asymmetric both in size and function.”

The scientists used real time imaging to study the formation of blood vessels in 1-day old transparent zebrafish embryos.

Growing blood vessels and other tissues are made of strands of collectively migrating cells.

Each new vessel is led by a special fast-moving cell at the front with slower cells following behind.

When the fast moving “tip” cell divided, the study showed, it didn’t “round-up” as expected. In doing so it was able to divide asymmetrically and generate the new fast “tip” cell at the front and a slower following cell behind it.

Co-lead author Dr Holly Lovegrove, a lecturer at The University of Manchester said: “Using transparent 1-day old zebrafish embryos allows us to study a dynamic process like cell division inside a living organism.

“We are therefore able to make movies of this fundamental cell behaviour and in doing so reveal exciting new aspects of how tissues grow.”

The team also used a technique using human cells called micropatterning.

Co-First author Dr Georgia Hulmes, a Postdoctoral ����Ӱ�� Associate at The University of Manchester said: “Micropatterning allows us to generate specifically shaped microscopic patches of proteins that cells can stick to.

“The cells will then take the shape of the patch. This therefore allows us to change the shape of the cells and test how these shapes impact on the subsequent cell division.”

The micropatterning system used by the scientists is called PRIMO by Alvéole. This system allowed the scientists  to manipulate cells into different shapes at tiny resolutions of less than a tenth of the width of a human hair. A UV laser is used to burn specific shapes onto a non-sticky surface. Cells are then seeded onto the surface and will only be able to stick down in areas where the UV laser has printed a shape. The cells then spread out into the laser patterned shape and this allowed the scientists to create the precise shape of cell they desire.

• Video shows cells with membrane and nucleus labelled undergoing division, copyright University of Manchester
• The paper Interphase cell morphology defines the mode, symmetry, and outcome of mitosis, is published in Science.

The compound, developed by the scientists and known as caADAMTS13, could be a breakthrough for patients who have brain blood clots with an overabundance of platelets-  the tiny cell fragments that help form clots and are often not treatable by existing therapies. 

The study, funded by a British Heart Foundation 4-Year PhD Studentship Program and The University of Manchester Innovation Factory is published in the leading journal in the field, Stroke. 

It is the first potential new treatment for stroke in the UK since the clotbusting drug recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) was licensed in September 2002. 

According to existing research, rtPA is only effective in as few as 10% to 35% of patients and is associated with a significant risk of bleeding. 

Another clotbuster called Tenecteplase (TNK), a variant of rtPA, was recently approved for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke in the United States but has similar limitations to rtPA. 

Both rtPA and TNK have similar efficacy and risk of haemorrhage. 

Von Willebrand Factor (VWF), a protein involved in blood clotting, helps platelets stick to damaged blood vessels and form the structure of blood clots. 

The greater the proportion of platelet and VWF components in a clot, the less effective rtPA is in dissolving it. 

The scientists investigated an alternative strategy which utilises caADAMTS13, an enzyme that reduces the size of VWF and helps break down blood clots. 

In previous mouse studies they have already shown that caADAMTS13 improves cerebral blood flow, reduces damage in the brain, reduces the depositing of both platelets and a clot promoting protein called fibrin, as well displaying anti-inflammatory properties. 

However, until now, a head to head comparison with the existing therapies of rtPA and  TNK had not been carried out. 

The scientists directly compared caADAMTS13 with rtPA and TNK in mice with a cerebral artery blockage from platelet and VWF rich clots, to mimick rtPA-resistance. 

They found that the restoration of cerebral blood flow 1 hour after treatment was the greatest in the mice treated by caADAMTS13 and that at 24 hours the caADAMTS13 mice had reduced brain damage.

Lead author Lucy Roberts, from The University of Manchester, said: “When someone has an acute ischemic stroke, doctors need to quickly remove the clot blocking cerebral arteries in the brain.

“To avoid  severe and potentially life-threatening complications, the need to act fast is acute. Unfortunately, current treatments are only sometimes effective.

“However, our findings show that the compound we developed, called caADAMTS13, is more effective than current stroke treatments

“That is why it is tremendously exciting that this compound could one day meet an unmet clinical need for stroke patients.”

Co-author and principle investigator Professor Stuart Allan from The University of Manchester said: “We know that removing blood clots can improve outcomes in stroke and that current treatments don’t always work.

“Therefore, the approach is proven to work and we just need better drugs that can break down all types of blood clots. We think caADAMTS13 may allow this to happen.”

Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: "A stroke is a medical emergency. For every minute blood flow to the brain is disrupted during a stroke, millions of nerve cells can become damaged and die. Stroke remains the single biggest cause of severe disability in the UK and we urgently need new treatments.

“More research will be needed to understand how these early results in mice can be translated to humans, but this study gives us a promising glimpse into a future where the compound caADAMTS13 could potentially be developed as a new therapy to safely and effectively dissolve blood clots in the brain.”

The paper Comparison of the Novel Thrombolytic Constitutively Active ADAMTS13 With Clinical Thrombolytics in a Murine Stroke Model , DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.125.050848, is available

• The  video animation  illustrates the formation of a clot. Please credit the .
• For the image of the brain, please credit the .

The researchers suggest that policymakers should increase funding so that deprivation is taken into account as a factor in general practice funding to address income disparities between GPs in more deprived and less deprived areas.

Published in the today (22/04/25) and funded by the , the researchers analysed data from over 8,500 GPs between 2015 and 2021 in the GP work life

They looked at the relationship between deprivation of practice population and job pressures, job satisfaction, reported income, working hours, and intentions to leave direct patient care.

The lead researcher is , an NIHR Clinical Lecturer at The University of Manchester and practicing GP.

He said: “This study shows how the socioeconomic deprivation of practice populations in England is adversely linked to the working conditions of the GPs that work there.

“We highlight a clear and persistent challenge in ensuring equitable healthcare provision.

“Without targeted investment and policy interventions, the difficulties faced by GPs in deprived areas will only continue to worsen, exacerbating health inequalities.”

Key Findings also included:

• GPs in the most deprived areas earn less than those in wealthier areas with an average difference of £5,525 less per year.
• Despite higher job pressures, there were no differences in overall job satisfaction, hours worked per week, or intentions to leave patient care between GPs working in more deprived and less deprived areas.

from The University of Manchester, senior author of the study, added: “Though deprived populations have higher needs for GP services, we know these areas have the most difficulty recruiting and retaining GPs.

“Our study is the first to examine how working in deprived areas affects the working lives of GPs. Addressing their concerns about increased job pressure and decreased resources would help reduce health inequalities.”

According to the researchers, the findings explain why working in areas of greater deprivation is less attractive to GPs, exacerbating workforce recruitment and retention issues.

Dr Anderson added: “Alongside financial incentives, non-financial incentives such as enhanced career development opportunities including fellowships that incorporate time for additional training, research, and leadership responsibilities could be a useful lever to promote GP recruitment and retention in areas of greater deprivation”.

“We also think it’s important to acknowledge we find no differences in hours worked per week, job satisfaction, and intention to quit direct patient care in more deprived and less deprived areas.

“Despite the challenges experienced by GPs working in areas of greater deprivation, this suggests that there are many rewarding aspects of working in areas of greater deprivation.  A broader recognition by the GP community of the potential advantages of working in areas of greater deprivation would therefore be helpful to promote recruitment and retention.”

This article reports the findings from independent research commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and carried out by the Policy ����Ӱ�� Unit in Health and Social Care Systems and Commissioning (PRUComm). The research was conducted by the Health Organisation, Policy, and Economics (HOPE) group within the Centre for Primary Care & Health Services ����Ӱ�� at The University of Manchester. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR) Policy ����Ӱ�� Programme. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Policy ����Ӱ�� Programme, NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care

• Deprivation and General Practitioners’ working lives: Repeated cross-sectional study is published in the  Journal of the , DOI: JRSM-24-0273.R2 and is available here.

����Ӱ��ers at The University of Manchester have developed a ground-breaking method to precisely measure the strength of hydrogen bonds in confined water systems, an advance that could transform our understanding of water’s role in biology, materials science, and technology. The work, published in , introduces a fundamentally new way to think about one of nature’s most important but difficult-to-quantify interactions.

Hydrogen bonds are the invisible forces that hold water molecules together, giving water its unique properties, from high boiling point to surface tension, and enabling critical biological functions such as protein folding and DNA structure. Yet despite their significance, quantifying hydrogen bonds in complex or confined environments has long been a challenge.

“For decades, scientists have struggled to measure hydrogen bond strength with precision,” said , who led the study with and Dr Ziwei Wang. “Our approach reframes hydrogen bonds as electrostatic interactions between dipoles and an electric field, which allows us to calculate their strength directly from spectroscopic data.”

The team used gypsum (CaSO₄·2H₂O), a naturally occurring mineral that contains two-dimensional layers of crystalline water, as their model system. By applying external electric fields to water molecules trapped between the mineral’s layers, and tracking their vibrational response using high-resolution spectroscopy, the researchers were able to quantify hydrogen bonding with unprecedented accuracy.

“What’s most exciting is the predictive power of this technique,” said Dr Yang. “With a simple spectroscopic measurement, we can predict how water behaves in confined environments that were previously difficult to probe, something that normally requires complex simulations or remains entirely inaccessible.”

The implications are broad and compelling. In water purification, this method could help engineers fine-tune membrane materials to optimise hydrogen bonding, improving water flow and selectivity while reducing energy costs. In drug development, it offers a way to predict how water binds to molecules and their targets, potentially accelerating the design of more soluble and effective drugs. It could enhance climate models by enabling more accurate simulations of water’s phase transitions in clouds and the atmosphere. In energy storage, the discovery lays the foundation for “hydrogen bond heterostructures”, engineered materials with tailored hydrogen bonding that could dramatically boost battery performance. And in biomedicine, the findings could help create implantable sensors with better compatibility and longer lifespans by precisely controlling water-surface interactions.

“Our work provides a framework to understand and manipulate hydrogen bonding in ways that weren’t possible before,” said Dr Wang, first author of the paper. “It opens the door to designing new materials and technologies, from better catalysts to smarter membranes, based on the hidden physics of water.”

This research was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Full title: Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water

DOI: 

The research was supported by the European ����Ӱ�� Council and UK ����Ӱ�� and Innovation (UKRI).

The is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

Funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences ����Ӱ�� Council (BBSRC), the study on mice shows that the brain’s hypothalamus controls how the immune system adapts during fasting, through a handful of highly specialized neurons responsible for making animals hungry.

Published today (04/04/25) in —one of the world’s leading immunology journals—the study shows the brain’s perception of hunger or fullness, rather than actual eating or caloric restriction, is enough to drive changes in the body’s immune cells.

The findings cast doubt on the current view that a lack of nutrients alone controls how the immune system responds to fasting, indicating the brain has a critical role, beyond the simple absence of food.

By artificially switching on specific brain neurons in mice—which typically signal low energy levels—scientists induced a synthetic sense of hunger. Remarkably, within hours, they saw a fast reorganization of immune cells in the blood, with a noticeable drop in inflammatory monocytes. These artificially hungry mice looked, from an immune perspective, just like mice that had fasted for real.

This discovery could have important implications for developing new therapies to treat a range of inflammatory diseases as well as for treating wasting syndromes seen in cancer, in which individuals lose weight despite eating normally.

It may also explain why obesity often accompanies inflammatory conditions and why malnourished individuals are more prone to infections and inflammation.

The lead senior researcher, Dr Giuseppe D’Agostino, who coordinated the study, said: “Our perceptions can shape our bodies in ways we don’t always notice. It’s easy to see how thoughts guide our actions, but this study reminds us that even our internal body adjustments that are not under conscious control respond to the brain’s signals.

“This study underlines how important the brain is in regulating the immune system. But if internal or external factors alter the brain’s perception, these processes can go awry, reminding us how deeply the mind and body are—and should remain—connected.

"In addition to BBSRC who funded the work, we are grateful to the Medical ����Ӱ�� Council for providing early-stage seed funding that helped the lab explore completely novel areas — a small but truly visionary contribution that still resonates today."

Collaborator and Manchester immunologist Professor Matt Hepworth added: “This work challenges the long-standing view that fasting’s immunological impact is driven purely by nutrient levels. It highlights the nervous system’s profound influence on how the immune system adapts during fasting.”

Lead author Dr Cavalcanti de Albuquerque said: “By showing how the brain exerts top-down control over immune cells, we can further explore when and how fasting might deliver health benefits. It also opens up potential ways to treat infectious, inflammatory, metabolic, and psychiatric conditions.”

The paper Brain Sensing of Metabolic State Regulates Circulating Monocytes   is available

The study of 15.7 million patient records, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� and published in the prestigious Journal of the R, implies there could be scope to prescribe far fewer antibiotics. 

The researchers found the probability of being prescribed antibiotics for a lower respiratory tract or urinary tract infection was unrelated to hospital admission risk. 

And the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for an upper respiratory tract infection was only weakly related to hospital admission risk. 

The study also showed that patient characteristics such as age and the presence of other health problems were only weakly associated with the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic treatment of common infection. 

The most elderly patients in the sample were 31% less likely than the youngest patients to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infections. 

That inevitably means, say the researchers, that because many younger people are being prescribed antibiotics, even though they are often fit enough to recover without them, potentially  leading to resistance. 

Conversely,  many older people may not be able to deal with infections without antibiotics are not  receiving them, with the potential of complication and hospital admissions. 

Patients with combinations of diseases were 7% less likely than people without major health problems  to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infections. 

Lead authors are  Professor Tjeerd van Staa and Dr Ali Fahmi, from The University of Manchester. 

Professor Tjeerd van Staa said: “Antibiotics are effective in treating bacterial infections, but they carry the risks of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and loss of effectiveness when used inappropriately. 

“That is why AMR to antibiotics has been recognised as one of the biggest threats to global public health. 

“Given the threat of resistance, there is a need to better target antibiotics in primary care to patients with higher risks of infection-related complications such as sepsis. 

“But this study finds that antibiotics for common infections are commonly not prescribed according to complication risk and that suggests there is plenty of scope to do more on reducing antibiotic prescribing.” 

The study also showed that the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for lower respiratory infections was even more unrelated to complication risk during the pandemic, however they were only minor changes for urinary tract infections. 

The research team accessed anonymised patient-level electronic health records of primary care data from The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) through OpenSAFELY, a secure platform for electronic health records in the NHS. 

They included adults registered at general practices in England from January 2019 to March 2023 diagnosed with upper respiratory, lower respiratory and urinary tract infections. 

Patient-specific risks of infection-related hospital admission were estimated for each infection using risk prediction scores for patients who were not prescribed an antibiotic. 

Dr Ali Fahmi added: “Rather than imposing targets for reducing inappropriate prescribing, we argue that it is far more viable for clinicians to focus on improving risk-based antibiotic prescribing for infections that are less severe and typically self-limiting. 

“Prognosis and harm should explicitly be considered in treatment guidelines, alongside better personalised information for clinicians and patients to support shared decision making.”

“A Knowledge Support (KSS) led by Professor Tjeerd van Staa, which provides personalised information to clinicians is  now being tested in the North-West England

“We hope it could provide a workable solution to the problem of untargeted antibiotic prescribing.”

Antibiotics for common infections in primary care before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: cohort study of extent of prescribing based on risks of infection-related hospital admissions  is published in  DOI: 10.1177/01410768251328997

The study team at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and The University of Manchester (UoM) implemented the new technology across MFT hospitals in December 2023, which provides specialist liver care to the Greater Manchester region. The technology aims to improve early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – the most common cancer affecting the liver and the third most common cause of cancer death.

Developed by Roche Diagnostics, the pioneering test, known as Elecsys®GAAD, combines blood tests with gender and age, which can increase the detection rate of HCC at an early, curable stage. This is being used alongside routine surveillance tests to see how it can benefit patients, so they have the best chance of surviving this type of cancer.

One of the risks for developing HCC is a pre-existing liver disease and scarring of the liver, known as cirrhosis. Approximately 3,000 people are found to have HCC in the UK every year. Less than 1,000 are identified at a stage when they can have curative treatment, leaving over 2,000 people per year with a cancer that cannot be cured.

More than 600 patients with cirrhosis have been tested using Elecsys®GAAD within clinics at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Wythenshawe Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital, all part of MFT, and four patients have been detected with early-stage liver cancer at a treatable stage, which would not have been found without the new technology.

Gerry’s story

Father of three, Gerry, 67 was diagnosed with hemochromatosis approximately 15 years ago, a hereditary condition where the body stores too much iron, which has led to scarring on his liver, cirrhosis.

Whilst attending his routine screening appointment at Wythenshawe Hospital, Gerry joined the research trial using the Elecsys®GAAD technology, which detected the early stages of liver cancer.

Following a number of CT scans at Manchester Royal Infirmary, it was confirmed that there is a small tumour on the upper part of his liver, which he has now had removed and remains cancer free.

Gerry said: “I was shocked to find out that I had liver cancer, but also relieved that it had been found early and it hadn’t spread any further. I didn’t have any symptoms that would make me think that there was anything wrong, so I am grateful that the cancer has been caught early, where a number of treatment options are available to me.

“It isn’t until you’re in this position, that you truly realise how cancer can affect anyone, and detecting it early can save your life. I would encourage others to take part in this research trial, if given the opportunity, as this new technology will save lives. I am grateful to be in a position where curative treatment is available and I am now cancer free.”

How the technology works

In early, curable stages, HCC can have no symptoms and so it is recommended that everyone with known cirrhosis is tested every six months which involves an ultrasound scan and a blood test (alpha fetoprotein – AFP) to screen for primary liver cancer – HCC.

The new test is an algorithm used in addition to the current standard of care, which uses the AFP information alongside another blood test (Elecsys®PIVKA-II), age and gender to calculate a risk score. Data suggests that this test increases the likelihood of detecting liver cancer at an earlier stage where curative treatments are far more likely. 

Principal Investigator for the study, Dr Varinder Athwal, Consultant Hepatologist at MFT and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, said: “Manchester has some of the highest rates of liver disease and liver cancer in the UK and far too many people are diagnosed when curative treatment is not possible.

“This innovation is a non-invasive test that easily fits into our current pathway. Early results from the project are very promising and show we are able to detect more cases of HCC at earlier, treatable stages which would have been missed by standard routine care – so it truly has the potential to save lives.

“Using this new test and with additional improvements to the surveillance pathway, we believe more than 1,000 people per year could be additionally detected at an earlier stage when their cancer is potentially curable. This number could be increased if more people are offered the test and stay in surveillance, which is something we are addressing in this project.”

Vic’s story
 

Vic joined the research trial at MFT and was detected in the early, curable stages of liver cancer and despite not being fit enough for common therapies to cure his cancer, Vic has since received a treatment called transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) which cuts off the tumour’s blood supply with little or no effect to liver functioning.

Detecting his cancer early through Elecsys®GAAD means that it has prevented the spread of his cancer and there is currently no sign of his cancer on repeat scans.

He said: “When I agreed to join the trial, I had been being monitored routinely because of the presence of liver disease but the last thing that I thought I would ever develop was cancer. I had been stable for some years and had not experienced any new symptoms to suggest anything had changed.

“The GAAD test changed all that. The results were high and detected that I had a primary liver cancer which turned out to be a Stage 2 liver cancer. I had no symptoms. I was referred immediately for expert treatment.

“Because the GAAD test detected the cancer early I have been able to access one of several treatment options quickly, before the cancer had the chance to spread outside the liver. Early diagnosis and treatment has meant that I can also benefit from the care and support of an amazing multidisciplinary team.

“It has also meant that I have been given time to involve my family, especially my children, to navigate this journey together. Without the GAAD test, the diagnosis of cancer may have come too late for all of us.”

Through the study, researchers aim to find out if the Elecsys®GAAD test reduces unnecessary further scans and if it improves earlier detection of HCC. They will also investigate if a six-monthly ultrasound adds any further benefit to Elecsys®GAAD to detect HCC – or if Elecsys®GAAD could be used on its own, which would provide a considerable cost saving to the NHS and a significant improvement to current standard of care. 

Director of Access and Innovation at Roche Diagnostics UK and Ireland, Chris Hudson said: “Roche Diagnostics is committed to early disease diagnosis and to ensuring our innovations reach the people who need them. Working with the team in Manchester, we are taking the learnings from this hugely successful trial to help other NHS Trusts implement the Elecsys®GAAD digital diagnostic solution and enable more patients with liver cancer to access timely diagnostics and potentially curative treatments.”

Dr Katherine Boylan, Director of Innovation at MFT said: “As one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, MFT is uniquely placed to test the innovation, which brings together the knowledge and expertise of academic, medical and industry partners – strengthening our position as a leader in research and innovation in the UK. We are proud to partner with Roche Diagnostics to address this unmet clinical need for the benefit of our patients, which has the potential to revolutionise early cancer diagnosis for HCC.”

Elecsys®GAAD was fast-tracked into the NHS at MFT, following £1million funding from NHS England, to test the accuracy and benefits of technology over a two-year period.

Project Managers at NHS England visited MFT alongside Roche Diagnostics, to see the progress of the project and how we are utilising the test alongside current pathways.

Dr Michael Gregory, Regional Medical Director for NHS England – North West, said: “This is a great example of how the NHS can transform health outcomes and save lives through the use of cutting-edge technology and a greater focus on prevention.

“The stories of the patients who have already benefited from this new test highlight why it is so important that we diagnose and treat cancers at the earliest possible opportunity and I’m excited to see how it could be made more widely available in the future.

“In the meantime, I would continue to encourage people with potential signs of cancer to come forward and speak to their general practice as soon as possible.”

The study is running until April 2025, recruiting more than 600 patients to the research project. Findings from the implementation at MFT will be used to co-develop a plan for the national roll out within the NHS.

This work is supported by Imperial College London who are observing the economic impact of the new technology on the NHS, and Unity Insights who are carrying out an independent evaluation of the findings across the project.

Photo: Photo: Patrick Ezean (NHS England Cancer Programme Manager), Emily Corser (NHS England Cancer Programme Manager), Dr Varinder Athwal (Principal Investigator for the study), Darren Banks (MFT Interim Deputy Trust Chief Executive), Chris Hudson (Roche Diagnostics UK and Ireland), Delphine Scokaert (Roche Diagnostics UK and Ireland), Oliver Street (Programme Manager, The University of Manchester), Dr Katherine Boylan (Director of Innovation at MFT), Laura Tornatore (Senior Programme Manager, LGC).

Led by Health Innovation Manchester, the University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, this collaborative project has helped bridge the gap between research and clinical implementation of advanced diagnostic technologies.

ADA is one of ten projects funded within the Greater Manchester portfolio of the Innovation Accelerator (IA) programme, which is transforming the innovation landscape in the UK and paving the way for the future of place-based research and development (R&D) investment.

Since its launch, the IA programme has invested £100m in 26 transformative R&D projects between 2022-25, focusing on high-potential innovation clusters across three UK regions - Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Glasgow City Region and has been extended by £30m for 2025/26. The programme builds on regional cluster strengths and brings together the innovation ecosystem, to drive economic growth and technological advancement.

The programme is led by Innovate UK, on behalf of UK ����Ӱ�� and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and co-created in Greater Manchester with regional leadership to ensure it is locally led and focused on harnessing the region’s strengths in high performance materials, health innovation, advanced manufacturing and digital technology.

The IA programme in Greater Manchester provided a unique opportunity to test hypotheses in real-world settings, and those projects emerging from the programme have made significant impacts in just two years. The programme has supported more than 500 businesses to take forward innovations, while over 1000 Greater Manchester residents have accessed skills support – to either upskill or begin their journey to a career in a high-growth sector.

The work delivered has been highly output-focused, resulting in the creation of meaningful networks and lasting relationships. Partners and stakeholders have embarked on a collective learning journey, creating something new that they can be proud of whilst adding tangible value to a new paradigm shift in ways of working. An approach that has proven to be highly effective in bringing together diverse stakeholders, while strengthening key relationships.

Two years since its launch the projects are demonstrating globally competitive research and development that is putting the region’s innovation strengths on the map including Advanced Diagnostic Accelerator (ADA)..

ADA has various work streams from public and patient involvement through focus groups to the development of data-driven advanced diagnostics, point-of-care testing and rapid, cost-effective diagnostic tests for conditions like heart failure and lung cancer. By utilising Greater Manchester’s academic and industry excellence from frontier sectors of Bioinformatics and Genomics, and AI, the project builds on assets already in existence within the city-region’s ecosystem, including validating and translating biomarkers and therapeutic assets into clinical use.

Key achievements include attracting £2.7m in co-investment to date, the development of a new MedTech product, deployment of new engagement techniques, alongside the identification and creation of at least three new products and services. The programme has strengthened Greater Manchester’s research, innovation, and data landscape through four submitted grants, two network events, and 26 digital communications assets. It has also expanded access to screening and diagnostic services, engaging over 1200 patients in treatment or research activities, while fostering greater research participation and early diagnosis for underserved communities, with over 400 patients engaged in community events.

By enhancing early diagnosis, boosting business sustainability, and tackling health inequalities, Advanced Diagnostic Accelerator is contributing to increased productivity, reduced economic inactivity due to poor health, and longer life expectancy for Greater Manchester residents and created multiple high value jobs.

Building on this momentum, Health Innovation Manchester, the University of Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and the industry partners have together secured a further £1.6 million Innovate UK grant for the Advanced Diagnostic Accelerator in Greater Manchester.

Science Minister, Lord Vallance, said: “The Innovation Accelerator programme is unlocking new opportunities for growth in regions across the UK and this £30m investment backs further collaboration between business, academia and government to build on local innovation that can improve lives across the country.

“Greater Manchester’s Advanced Diagnostics Accelerator’s work to support early disease detection and targeted care will support our NHS and with further investment is driving up local jobs, benefiting the local economy and helping to deliver our Plan for Change.”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, added: “It’s fantastic to see the innovation happening in Greater Manchester having such a wide-ranging impact. The Advanced Diagnostics Accelerator is improving the diagnosis and treatment of diseases while also delivering a significant economic boost, creating high-value jobs, driving investment, and encouraging closer collaboration between industry and academia. It is also doing great work in getting more of our residents involved in supporting medical trials, and speeding up access to the newest treatments and diagnostics being developed in our universities and research hospitals.

“The wider Innovation Accelerator programme has been an important catalyst for locally led innovation, and we’ve seen that translate into business growth, new jobs and investment, and advances in technology across a range of sectors. The extension of funding for Greater Manchester’s 10 projects will help them build on the success they’ve already achieved.”

Professor Ben Bridgewater, Chief Executive at Health Innovation Manchester, commented: “The investment we have received from the Innovation Accelerator programme for Advanced Diagnostic Accelerator was a catalyst to progress in our mission for improved population health. For each of our focus areas from liver disease and lung cancer to heart failure and chest pain we had a shared ethos to reduce inequalities, build on assets in existence and drive productivity through collaboration. To reach over 1,200 patients, create high-value jobs and establish a spin out in just two years shows the potential of projects like ours to make a meaningful impact on health outcomes.”

The Innovation Accelerator programme has helped to catalyse transformative innovation projects and bolster the UK’s global competitiveness. For more information and find out about other projects that have been funded through the programme, visit the website.

The scientists also found slightly less, but still significant levels of microplastics in other organs of both male and female turtles, including the heart, kidney, liver and spleen, as well as skeletal muscle, subcutaneous fat, stomach and intestines.

They studied the bodies of 10 stranded loggerhead sea turtles, recovered by the Oceanogràfic Foundation of Valencia, that suffered drowning and exhaustion when they were accidently caught up in commercial fishing nets. 

The findings, published in the journal , could spell disaster for the majestic creatures already found in declining numbers in the world’s oceans.

It is the first study to show that microplastics from the gut can translocate in sea turtles, opening up the possibility of different organs  especially the reproductive system -  being directly affected.

The scientists believe microplastics may also lead to systemic inflammation  in the animals.

The largest median particle size  of around 25 microns was found in the intestines and fat, and the smallest median particle size  - of around 15 microns was found in the stomach and reproductive organs.

Lead author Leah Costello, a PhD researcher from The University of Manchester was funded under a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences ����Ӱ�� Council Doctoral Training Studentship. 

She said: “Microplastics are a pervasive marine environmental pollutant, on a par with other global threats such as climate change and ozone depletion. 

“Our study is the first to show direct evidence of the presence of microplastics in the reproductive and other organs of loggerhead sea turtles.

“Sea turtles already face many pressures from human activity and although we have been aware that they ingest plastic throughout their range, the finding of microplastics in almost every tissue sample was quite shocking.

“These findings show that even seemingly healthy individuals could be under physiological stress, impacting the reproductive success of vulnerable and recovering populations.”

Foreign microparticles were identified in 98.8% of all samples, of which around 70% were  microplastics. 

Analysis revealed that polypropylene, polyester fibres, and polyethylene were the most common microparticle types. 

Polypropylene is used in include food packaging, clothing, bottle caps, ropes, personal care products, fishing gear and twine. 

Loggerhead turtles are regularly reported to ingest plastic bags  - made from polyethylene -  who misidentify them as  jellyfish and algae. 

Polyester is another dominant microfiber releasing large numbers of microfibres into the oceans and seas. 

And further analysis provided direct visualisation of cotton microfibres embedded in loggerhead heart tissue.

 Three million tonnes of primary microplastics are released into environment every year, with a further 5.3 million tonnes of larger plastic items that can degrade into secondary microplastics over time.

Because plastics can remain in the gut for up to four months in sea turtles, the scientists speculate that microplastics can cross biological barriers from the gut to organs via the circulatory system contributing to a suite of adverse biological effects.

Co-author Professor Holly Shiels from the University of Manchester  added: “Microplastic accumulation is likely to be associated with organ damage and toxicity in these incredible marine reptiles that can live for 70 years.

“Of particular concern is the impact on reproduction, with implications on growth, development and viability of offspring which could spell trouble for the stability of these already vulnerable sea turtle populations. 

“However, further studies are required to more broadly assess the biological and health impacts of microplastic on sea turtle reproduction.”

• Images: fibre lodged in sea turtle heart; microplastics found in the turtles; drawing of sea turtle by Eve Boswell 
• Microplastics accumulate in all major organs of the Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) is published in Marine Environmental ����Ӱ��  

Working in partnership with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Roche, the team developed the project - REVISE-HCC.

The REVISE-HCC project, funded by SBRI Healthcare /NHS England, was established to explore the use of an innovative test for liver cancer, which will help patients access earlier care and potentially save lives.

This project focused on implementing an improved strategy for liver cancer surveillance in patients who are at high risk by using the GAAD algorithm developed by Roche.

GAAD is an accurate test that combines blood tests with gender and age to indicate the presence of HCC (Hepatocellular carcinoma), which is the most common cause of cancer affecting the liver and a leading  cause for cancer-related deaths worldwide. The test is used alongside routine HCC surveillance tests to see how it can benefit patients.

With the  combined purpose to improve the detection rate for this deadly cancer at curable stages and improve the quality of life for these patients, we’re thrilled to receive this recognition.

Healthcare is rapidly shifting, towards more personalised care that’s more in tune with patients, embracing digital technologies that enable new possibilities. We’re excited to be at the forefront of this new class of diagnostic algorithms that our teams are helping to shape.

Programme Manager  Oliver Street said:  “Manchester has some of the highest rates of liver disease and liver cancer in the UK and is a significant healthcare and societal burden. Far too many people are diagnosed too late when curative treatment is not possible.

“We were thrilled to be recognised at this year’s HSJ Partnership Awards for our partnership with Roche and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust that implemented this innovative technology at MFT and allows for more patients with liver cancer to be detected an early stage when their cancer is potentially curable.”

The breakthrough centres around an active spatial light modulator, a surface with more than 300,000 sub-wavelength pixels capable of manipulating THz light in both transmission and reflection. Unlike previous modulators, which were limited to small-scale demonstrations, the Manchester team integrated graphene-based THz modulators with large-area thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays, enabling high-speed, programmable control over the amplitude and phase of THz light across expansive areas.

, Professor of 2D Device Materials at The University of Manchester, commented, “We have developed a new method to dynamically control THz waves at an unprecedented scale and speed. By integrating graphene optoelectronics with advanced TFT display technologies, we can now reconfigure complex THz wavefronts in real time.”

The research demonstrates various capabilities, including programmable THz transmission patterns, beam steering, greyscale holography, and a proof-of-concept single-pixel THz camera. These functionalities are made possible through fine-tuned electrostatic gating of graphene, a material known for its unique electrical and optical properties at THz frequencies.

Co-author Dr M. Said Ergoktas, now a lecturer at the University of Bath, added, “Our devices operate by adjusting local charge densities on a continuous graphene sheet, allowing for pixel-level control without the need for graphene patterning. This architecture allows for scalable fabrication using commercial display backplanes.”

The team’s device architecture also supports dynamic beam steering and the generation of structured THz beams carrying orbital angular momentum, key features for advanced THz communication systems. One striking demonstration showed how a binary “fork” diffraction pattern generated donut-shaped beams with tunable vortex order, useful in multiplexed data transmission and beam shaping.

Beyond communications, the researchers showcased a single-pixel THz camera capable of imaging concealed metallic objects, representing a significant advance for non-invasive inspection in security, industrial monitoring, and medical diagnostics. This approach uses compressive sensing algorithms to reconstruct images from modulated THz patterns, highlighting the flexibility of their programmable platform.

“Until now, THz modulators have struggled with scale and speed,” Kocabas noted. “By leveraging display technology, we demonstrate that it's possible to bring this field from lab-scale demonstrations to real-world applications.”

Future directions

The authors indicate that the next steps involve enhancing modulation speeds and extending these systems to operate in reflection mode for full spectroscopic imaging. Future work may also focus on integrating this platform with advanced beamforming systems and next-generation 6G wireless technologies.

The is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

According to their study published today (25/03/25), satisfaction levels were lower in practices that rely more both on telephone appointments and consultations with non-GP staff.

Advanced nurse practitioners, physician associates, practice-based pharmacists and even paramedics, are among the roles who over the past few years have increasingly worked in place of GPs.

The study also theorises that patient satisfaction could increase by 1% when 10 additional face to face GP appointments per 1000 patients per month are added.

The findings are released amid recent changes to Government policy which aims to place more emphasis on non-GP roles to fill gaps in primary care provision.

However, critics of the policy argue that the new roles can be a cheap substitute which blur the lines between doctors and non-doctors.

The study is the first to use national appointment data to investigate the complex relationships between patient satisfaction, access, preference for a specific GP, and support for managing long-term conditions against appointment volume, modality (telephone or face-to-face), and practitioner type.

The data set of over half a million English patients from 5,500 practices was taken from the General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS) and  NHS Digital's practice level appointment data, covering August 2022 to March 2023.

The study found that 69.5% of appointments were face-to-face and 27.2% were on the telephone. Only 29.6% of appointments were face-to-face with a GP and 18.4% were GP telephone appointments.

The researchers also found that practices with a larger amount of telephone consultations had less satisfied patients. This dissatisfaction was still present and decreased only slightly when telephone calls were carried out by GPs, rather than non-GP staff.

The  correlation coefficient between face-to-face appointments and overall satisfaction was 0.096, showing that  practices with a greater percentage of face-to-face appointments were  more likely to have patients with higher overall satisfaction.

However the figure for GP face-to-face appointments was 0.167 showing that GP face-to-face appointments have an even stronger correlation.

The study also found that:

• Practices offering more on the day appointments had reduced satisfaction with access compared to practices that offered appointments days or weeks in advance.
• Greater numbers of appointments of any type with any staff member overall resulted in improved patients satisfaction.
• Greater numbers of GP appointments at a practice were associated with reduced unmet health needs.

Dr Patrick Burch is an academic clinical lecturer at The University of Manchester and a practising GP.

He said: “This study of appointments from over 5,500 practices showed that more appointments, particularly with face-to-face with GPs, tended to be associated with more satisfied patients who were better able to meet their health needs.

“While telephone and IT assisted appointments have an important role to play in general practice, we would cautiously welcome an overall increase in the proportion of face-to-face consultations.

“Until recently, simply employing more GPs was not seen as feasible. However, given six out of 10 job-seeking GPs have to find a vacancy to apply for over the past year, this may now be a potential option.

“We would also welcome measures that free up GP time to enable more patient appointments.”

He added: “A greater proportion of telephone appointments were associated with decreased satisfaction in general, especially when provided by non-doctor roles.

“Non-GP clinicians employed in primary care since 2019 has increased by 21,600 full time equivalent staff members.

“As primary care funding has not gone up significantly, arguably this cash is now being used to pay other less expensive clinicians rather than GPs.

“The reasons for the findings behind this study are likely to be complex, but there is undoubtedly an important role for non-GP clinicians in primary care.

“Patient satisfaction is not the only measure of success in general practice but it is important that policy makers take note of the link between patient satisfaction and numbers of appointments with GPs.”

In the paper, appointments were only divided into GP or non-GP, with no other categories used. As a proportion, if one goes up, the other goes down.

The paper What is the relationship between the volume and type of appointments in general practice and patient experience? An observational study of general practice in England is published in the British Journal of General Practice . DOI:

The research looks, for the first time, into how to assess the range of ongoing needs after having a brain tumour for young people between 16-39 year olds.

Using a questionnaire designed with the help of nearly 130 patients, detailed information is now going to be gathered from 100 brain tumour survivors as part of their follow-up consultation. ����Ӱ��ers will then assess the impact the survey has on providing personalised care to improve the long-term support after treatment. If this trial improves the experience for patients at The Christie, then the plan is to roll it out at to other hospitals around the UK.

Dr Kate Law, a research fellow and specialist nurse at The Christie and honorary research associate at The University of Manchester, who is leading on the research study known as YOU-CAN said: “A third of all childhood cancers are brain tumours and survival is highest for 15 – 39 year olds. Currently there is no assessment tailored specifically for young people with a brain tumour.  We have identified an unmet need, and want to address this to make life better for young brain tumour survivors in the future.

“At The Christie alone we see approximately 550 patients who were diagnosed with brain cancer as a child or young adult every year on long-term follow-up. What is fantastic is that people are living longer and recovering from brain tumours, but we are aware that often these very determined and resilient young people need help with independent living, forming relationships and friendships, starting a family and managing the emotions associated with the long-term effects of a brain tumour. They want to make the most out of life and we need to support them in doing this.

“It is hoped that the evidence gathered from the YOU-CAN study will be a step towards a change in clinical practice in the future where every young person has access to a multi-disciplinary team for on-going support after being treated for a brain tumour.

Claudia Laird (27), a children’s nurse from Burnley in Lancashire was diagnosed with a brain tumour in January 2022 when she was 24. Her tumour was 7cm by 5cm and doctors believed it had been growing in her head for 15 years. Claudia went to the GP several times due to headaches, fatigue, memory loss, hallucinations and sickness. She initially thought she had a virus, but a scan revealed she had an astrocytoma, a form of brain cancer.

“I was a healthy person, so it was hard at first to get a diagnosis. But when I did, from the scan to surgery was like a whirlwind and I had emergency neurosurgery.  Thankfully the surgeon believed he’d removed the whole tumour. Now I just go for six-monthly scans. While I feel well physically, and no longer on treatment, you’re left with psychological trauma and you worry about what will happen if the tumour grows back. You have to pick up your life where you left off but it’s a ‘new normal’. Forming relationships is hard and I haven’t had a partner since all this happened. I’m not 100 per cent back to where I was, and have some short term memory loss and I can get overwhelmed easily.  Hopefully that will improve in time and the brain can re-learn things. It’s still quite early days and it’s still hard for me but I take it day by day.

“I was discharged two days after surgery and I didn’t even take any time off work. My mum has been a massive support system, and I don’t think I’d be here without her, but having a professional like a support worker you can go to with questions would be so useful. I’ve been writing poetry which has been great therapy. I do a lot of charity work and fundraising to give back and next month I’m helping with a creative workshop for other young people who have brain injuries. I also do a lot of yoga, pilates and relaxation classes which really help. I’m enjoying life and see things differently now and appreciate everything so much more than before.”

is Professor of Health Policy and is a GP by background. She leads a team of researchers in the Division of Population Health, Health Services ����Ӱ�� and Primary Care at The University of Manchester. Professor Checkland’s team researches the impact of changes to NHS policy, organisation and management, working closely with policy makers at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to ensure that policy and organisational changes are based upon the best possible evidence.  

Professor Checkland has a particular interest in primary care workforce, working with colleagues across the and to develop an evidence base to support policy in this area. 

is Professor in Health Economics, Lead for the Manchester Centre for Health Economics (MCHE), an applied health economist, and a UK-registered pharmacist.  

Professor Elliott applies an economics perspective to better understand complex healthcare themes (patient safety and adherence, primary care, digital interoperability, diabetes, antibiotic resistance, mental health and dementia) to design effective, sustainable solutions that improve health where there is the greatest unmet need. 

is a Professor of Health Psychology at the University as well as being President of the European Health Psychology Society. Professor French is a behavioural scientist who is interested in developing, evaluating and implementing complex interventions to improve health. His research focusses on cancer screening, prevention of diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease in high-risk populations, and effects of changing the built environment. 

The University also celebrates , Professor in Oncology, who has been reappointed as Senior Investigator by the NIHR. 

Professor Kath Checkland said: “I was absolutely delighted to have my work for NIHR recognised by this award. My research has benefitted enormously from the financial and practical support provided by NIHR, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to contribute to further to its work.  

Professor Rachel Elliott said: “I am very pleased and honoured to have been given the Senior Investigator award. As a Senior investigator, I will expand my leadership in research through continued development of the economics of safety work programme, augmented by my role in NIHR-Greater Manchester-Patient Safety ����Ӱ�� Collaboration.  

“I will enhance public, patient, and community engagement in health economics through expanded training and funded projects, while promoting inclusion in the academic workforce by proactively reaching out to underrepresented professions, regions, and institutions, supported by my role as Post-doctoral Award Chair in the NIHR Academy.” 

Professor David French said: “I am delighted to be appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator, and the opportunities this provides to provide leadership in developing and evaluating complex interventions to promote health, especially those with high reach.” 

The NIHR funds Senior Investigators every year. Those appointed to the role help to guide research capacity development and play a leading role in guiding strategy and tackling challenges in the health and social care landscape.  

The position is awarded to those who make an outstanding leadership contribution to the work of the NIHR. All Senior Investigator appointees receive funding for 4 years to support their research activities while undertaking a senior leadership role for the NIHR. 

Working in partnership with the NHS, universities, local government, and the public, the NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and well-being and promotes economic growth. 

See the full list of NIHR Senior Investigators .

Read NIHR's news story .

The team led by New York University Abu Dhabi and University of Manchester researchers show that fishes living in the Arabian Gulf reefs have - remarkably - adapted to extreme summer temperatures, which are akin to a hot bath.

When the researchers tested the difference in fish’s temperature tolerances compared to fishes from the nearby - more benign Gulf of Oman- the Arabian Gulf animals only partially compensated for their higher summer temperatures. 

The study is published in the journal Global Change Biology and supported by Mubadala and Tamkeen in the UAE, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences ����Ӱ�� Council in the UK 

It  serves as a stark warning of what the future might look like for all tropical reef fishes across the world. 

“Our study suggests while these coral reef fishes have evolved a remarkable ability to cope with rising temperatures, it is still limited,” said co-author Dr Daniel Ripley, a fish physiologist from The University of Manchester and New York University Abu Dhabi. 

“So, if the trends in rising global sea temperatures continue, at some point we anticipate these animals will start to struggle. 

“The resultant loss of biodiversity- and the impact that would have on things like tourism and fisheries could devastate coastal communities.” 

Though the scientists studied three species, the Arabian Monocle Bream, Gulf Blenny and the Twospot Cardinalfish, most other species would be likely to be in a similarly precarious position, the scientists argue. 

Because the Arabian Gulf – also known as the Persian Gulf – is relatively shallow, averaging 35 metres deep, it heats up quickly in the hot summer months, with sea temperatures typically exceeding 36 Celsius. 

This makes it an ideal proxy for what the temperature ranges of tropical seas might look like in the future. 

Though the Gulf of Oman is nearby, it’s average depth of 2,700 metres means it doesn’t get as warm, with summer temperatures typically not exceeding 32 Celsius, - making it ideal for comparison. 

Changes and extremes in temperatures can have profound consequences for fishes, including displacing them to cooler waters, reducing their body sizes, and changing the time they reproduce. 

Co-author Professor Holly Shiels from The University of Manchester added: “Our research found that the ability for the three species we studied to survive and thrive is on the brink. 

“It’s impossible to know at what temperature they will cease to survive in these areas, but we can say with some certainty that they are edging closer to that situation.” 

A past leading theory suggested that fishes had relatively fixed upper heat limits, but the new results suggest that they have more flexibility than previously appreciated

John Burt, Professor of Biology at New York University Abu Dhabi said: “The Gulf is not only extremely hot, but also has high seasonal variability between winter and summer, and this exposure to dramatic temperature swings may promote improved flexibility of fish physiology than we had assumed.

“As our climate continues changing, climate variability will also increase, which suggests that the situation we see in Gulf fishes is likely to be seen more widely.”

• Images and videos: Please credit Rebekka Pentti and Oliver Farrell from New York University Abu Dhabi.

����Ӱ��ers at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and The University of Manchester, with colleagues in Newcastle, Germany and the USA, collaborated with clinicians across the world to identify changes in two different genes, that both result in Perrault syndrome.

Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical ����Ӱ�� Centre (BRC), Action Medical ����Ӱ��, The Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) and the Medical ����Ӱ�� Council, the results from two separate studies, which identified changes to the DAP3 and MRPL49 genes, have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Professor Bill Newman, Consultant in Genomic Medicine at MFT, and Rare Conditions Co-Theme Lead at the NIHR Manchester BRC, who co-led the research, said: “Finding the causes of rare conditions like Perrault syndrome are the first steps in understanding why people are affected, providing clearer diagnosis, and developing novel treatments.

“Previously up to half of all people with Perrault syndrome could not have this diagnosis confirmed by a genetic test. These new discoveries through this research will provide an accurate diagnosis to more affected people.”

Initial research into the condition began in 2011 at The Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, Saint Mary’s Hospital, part of MFT, when researchers led by Professor Newman undertook genetic studies on a local family with Perrault syndrome. Their research identified a novel gene and changes within the gene which led to the diagnosis of the syndrome. Further studies by the Manchester group and other researchers around the world have found eight different genes that cause Perrault syndrome.

Sam’s story

56-year-old Sam was diagnosed with Perrault syndrome when she was 28 years old, after being under the care of various hospitals to diagnose her rare genetic condition. 

Sam is profoundly deaf and was fitted with hearing aids before the age of one, which is a common feature of the condition. Other symptoms that led to her diagnosis include short stature, very small ovaries and the absence of periods.

 Sam was identified with a DAP3 genetic change through this research in August 2024.

DAP3 is found in every cell of the body and is important in a part of the cell called the mitochondria, often referred to as the powerhouses of the cell. Some tissues in the body are very susceptible to when the mitochondria do not work properly, and it is why researchers believe hearing and ovarian problems occur in Perrault syndrome.

Sam said: “When I was told I had DAP3 gene changes I was pleased as it helped me make sense of my symptoms and better understand Perrault syndrome.  

“This research is incredible and will help others who are in a similar position to me. I struggled for years not knowing what was wrong with me so, I hope it will help others too – especially those who are younger so they can get an earlier diagnosis and access to the help they need. 

“I would advise anybody who is concerned to get advice as soon as possible. Thanks to this research, family members will also be tested which will provide an early diagnosis for more people potentially affected by the condition.”

This research will now be used globally to provide an accurate diagnosis for those at risk or undiagnosed with the condition.

Professor Ray O’Keefe, Professor of Molecular Genetics at The University of Manchester co-led the work. Professor O’Keefe said: “Genetic testing helps families to get diagnosed earlier and to access the right care and support sooner.

“When patients – particularly children, are presenting with hearing loss or changes on their brain scan, they can be genetically tested to see if their health problems are caused by changes in these genes.

“Genetic testing removes the need for unnecessary investigations, allows closer monitoring to spot problems earlier and enables accurate genetic counselling for other family members who may be at risk.”

Dr Ralph Holme, Director of ����Ӱ�� at RNID said: “We are delighted to have been able to support this important research.

“As ovarian problems are a key feature of the diagnosis, men are rarely diagnosed even though they have the same risk of being affected. Early, accurate diagnosis can result in improved hearing outcomes.

“Understanding rare types of hearing loss, such as Perrault Syndrome, also gives us important insights that may be relevant to more common forms of hearing loss.”

Professor Newman, who is also Professor of Translational Genomic Medicine at The Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine at The University of Manchester, added: “Although genetic research into Perrault syndrome is complex, this new information provides important pieces in the jigsaw. We are continuing to look at all the genes that cause Perrault syndrome as understanding how these genes are all linked together means that perhaps it would be possible to create a treatment that would work for all of them.

“We have also started to make hearing nerve cells from skin cells of individuals with Perrault syndrome. This is exciting as testing the cells that are actually affected by the condition will help us to develop treatments targeted to the correct cell type.” 
 

Both research papers are available to read in the American Journal of Human Genetics:

(published 2 January 2025).

Published 4 March 2025).

These body ideals continue to be influenced by visual exposure to different body weights into adulthood, the research also found.

The results show that people’s perceptions of body weight are flexible and adult-like from seven years of age onwards and have implications for our understanding of body size and the perceptions, and possible misperceptions, of weight in health and wellbeing.

Professor Lynda Boothroyd, from Durham University’s Department of Psychology, carried out a first-of-its-kind study to examine the flexibility of body weight perceptions in children and young adults.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, found that children as young as seven years old adjust how heavy or light they rate other people’s bodies after seeing a series of pictures of low or high weight bodies.

The analysis uncovered a significant shift in weight perceptions after exposure to images depicting various body weights. The results showed that the manner in which our brains represent what constitutes “heavy” or “light” develops at a very young age.

The research, which involved more than 200 individuals aged seven through to adulthood, also indicated that media influences known to shape adult body perceptions can almost certainly impact children to the same degree, starting from early childhood and continuing to evolve into adulthood.

Lead author, Professor Lynda Boothroyd said: “It has been clear for many years that we need to be wary about visual media which present only a narrow range of bodies, because this affects adults’ body perceptions. 

“Now we know that’s true for children, too. Even very neutral images can adjust their ideas about what is heavy or thin if they see enough of the same kind of body.” 

C-author Dr Amelia Parchment from The University of Manchester said: “This was such an interesting study to work on and highlights that body-weight perceptions are shaped early on in life and continue into adulthood. Our findings have important implications, including the potential impact of unrealistic body weights, typically seen in visual media, on the lifelong body weight perceptions of children as young as 7-years old. “

Professor Boothroyd’s team at Durham has previously shown that adults’ ideas about what is an ‘attractive’ body weight or muscle mass are affected by visual experience. This includes the effect of television access on body perceptions among remote communities in Latin America and, in a separate study, finding that White Western women have lower body appreciation and experience greater pressure from the media to be thin compared to Black Nigerian and Chinese women across all ages.

Looking ahead, the team is now investigating how best to address body image concerns in young adults across the globe in a major £2 million (€2.5M) research project and developing novel play-based techniques to investigate children’s understandings of body weight and body ideals from a younger age.

Professor Boothroyd added: “����Ӱ��ers often assume that children’s body perceptions and their ideas about body image work the same way as adults. We’ve shown that that’s true, down to seven years, for basic perceptual impacts on body weight perception. But there’s more to explore in how that converts into their own body image and their own feelings about weight.”

This new study included data gathered during the University’s ‘Junior Scientist’ event, which actively involves families from the local communities around Durham, UK, in various research and educational activities.

Additionally, the research involved stimuli provided by Northumbria University and contributions from a Post-doctoral ����Ӱ�� Associate at the University of Manchester.

Innovative approach to spintronics

Spin transport electronics, or spintronics, represents a revolutionary alternative to traditional electronics by utilising the spin of electrons rather than their charge to transfer and store information. This method promises energy-efficient and high-speed solutions that exceed the limitations of classical computation, for next generation classical and quantum computation.

The Manchester team, led by , has fully encapsulated monolayer graphene in hexagonal boron nitride, an insulating and atomically flat 2D material, to protect its high quality. By engineering the 2D material stack to expose only the edges of graphene, and laying magnetic nanowire electrodes over the stack, they successfully form one-dimensional (1D) contacts.

Quantum behaviour and ballistic transport

The study explores the injection process via these 1D contacts at low temperatures (20 K), revealing that electron transport across the interface is quantum in nature. The contacts act as quantum point contacts (QPCs), commonly used in quantum nanotechnology and metrology.

First author of the paper, Dr Daniel Burrow, said “this quantum behaviour is evidenced by the measurement of quantised conductance through the contacts, indicating that the energy spectrum of electrons transforms into discrete energy subbands upon injection. By adjusting the electron density in the graphene and applying a magnetic field, we visualised these subbands and explored their connection with spin transport.”  

These QPCs, formed by using magnetic nanowires, avoid the need to engineer a physical constriction within the graphene channel, which makes their implementation more practical than previous approaches.

Implications for quantum nanotechnology

The state-of-the-art device architecture developed by the Manchester team offers a straightforward method for creating tuneable QPCs in graphene, overcoming fabrication challenges associated with other methods. The magnetic nature of the nanoscale contacts enables quantised spin injection, paving the way for energy-efficient devices in spin-based quantum nanotechnology.

Furthermore, the demonstration of ballistic spin injection presents an encouraging step towards the development of low-power ballistic spintronics. Future research efforts will focus on enhancing spin transport in graphene by leveraging the quantum nature of injection via the QPCs.

This research is part of the Horizon Europe Project "2D Heterostructure Non-volatile Spin Memory Technology" (2DSPIN-TECH), supported by a UKRI grant.

The is a world-leading graphene and 2D material centre, focussed on fundamental research. Based at The University of Manchester, where graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Professors Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, it is home to leaders in their field – a community of research specialists delivering transformative discovery. This expertise is matched by £13m leading-edge facilities, such as the largest class 5 and 6 cleanrooms in global academia, which gives the NGI the capabilities to advance underpinning industrial applications in key areas including: composites, functional membranes, energy, membranes for green hydrogen, ultra-high vacuum 2D materials, nanomedicine, 2D based printed electronics, and characterisation.

University of Manchester Scientists are among the researchers at the Cancer ����Ӱ�� UK National Biomarker Centre in Manchester have developed a simple blood test which can tell doctors at a very early stage if the melanoma is back even if a scan looks normal.

The test is now being used as part of a Cancer ����Ӱ�� UK funded clinical trial, led by researchers at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, for patients across the region which could mean quicker diagnosis for people at risk of a relapse.

Among those taking part is mum of two Karen Dickinson, who was at a routine appointment for her arthritic knee, when her osteopath pointed out an irregular looking mole on her lower back.

The next day, the 57-year-old IT manager, now living in Lancaster, went to see her GP, who referred her for tests which revealed that Karen had melanoma – the most serious form of skin cancer.

Unfortunately, she was also told that the melanoma – which affects 2,200 people in the North West every year* - had spread to her lymph nodes.

Karen had surgery to remove the mole including a wider area of skin as well as the affected lymph nodes and she was unable to work for a month.

She said: “It was such a shock. I had noticed the mole one day getting out of the shower and wondered if it was slightly darker. I thought it may have been due to the fact we’d been on holiday, even though it had been covered up. So, I had decided to keep an eye on it, but when my osteopath pointed it out and said I should get it checked sooner rather than later, I went straight to my GP. Then it all just happened so fast. They had removed it and diagnosed me with melanoma skin cancer all within a few weeks.

“I had no idea how serious melanoma was, and you do worry that you could die. Telling my husband Stephen and my two girls Chelsea and Alex was hard. Having cancer has changed my outlook on life. You do worry it might come back, but it absolutely doesn’t define who I am. It’s made me prioritise my time and not take my health for granted anymore. My time is precious, and I value what is most important to me more than ever.”

Now Karen is one of 50 people to sign up to the DETECTION-2 clinical trial which aims to prevent people from having unnecessary treatment if their cancer is unlikely to return.

For most people who are diagnosed with melanoma at an early stage, the cancer will be successfully removed by surgery. But in a small percentage of patients the cancer will come back.

On the NHS, patients are currently offered a one-year preventative drug treatment aimed at reducing the risk of recurrence. But with this new blood test, it could be possible to identify patients most at risk, so that further treatment is only given to those who really need it. 

The blood test spot can spot small fragments of DNA shed by cancer cells - known as circulating tumour DNA or ctDNA.

The trial, which launched last month, is led by teams of researchers from The University of Manchester, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.

Consultant medical oncologist at The Christie, Professor Paul Lorigan is leading on the trial. He said: “While immunotherapy or targeted therapy after surgery can help to prevent cancer returning, the majority of patients do not need this.  Giving this treatment to everyone means that many patients may unnecessarily receive additional treatment, which can have serious and long-term side effects. Ideally, only patients likely to have the melanoma return would receive the additional treatment and we therefore want to see if we can use a simple blood test to spot those patients who are most at risk.”

Senior Lecturer in medical oncology at The University of Manchester and Principal Investigator on the trial, Dr Rebecca Lee added: “If ctDNA is detected, then we can fast-track patients on to treatment and this would mean that only those patients who really need drug treatment receive it.”

The research team, which is working closely with the charity Melanoma Focus and its patient groups, has recently begun recruiting patients at eight hospitals across the UK, including The Royal Preston Hospital where Karen had her first blood test which has shown no signs of melanoma.

Patients who decide to take part will be randomly assigned to one of two groups, half will receive the standard NHS care and the other half will have regular ctDNA blood tests following surgery instead. The results will be compared at the end of the study and if successful, the trial will be expanded to more hospital sites and more patients.

All patients will continue to have regular scans and skin checks and will be followed up for 5 years.

Karen added: “The benefit for me of this brand-new trial is that I don’t need to go on medication, that could make feel very ill, if I don’t need it. Also, I have that reassurance that alongside the regular scans and checks, I will have these fantastic blood tests every three months that show up signs of the cancer coming back up to 12-months earlier than a scan. So for me it’s hugely beneficial both mentally and physically.”

Analysis by Cancer ����Ӱ�� UK showed that rates of melanoma have increased by almost a third over the past decade with around 16,000 people diagnosed with melanoma every year in the UK.**

With melanoma cases in the UK on the rise, this clinical trial has come at a crucial time according to Cancer ����Ӱ�� UK’s Executive Director of ����Ӱ�� and Innovation Dr Iain Foulkes. He said: “Cancer ����Ӱ�� UK is dedicated to discovery science while ensuring our findings in the laboratory have patient benefit. This project is an important step towards ensuring that our understanding of cancer can provide more personalised treatment for people diagnosed with melanoma, whilst sustaining their quality of life."

Melanoma Focus CEO Susanna Daniels added: “It’s hoped that by using these ctDNA blood tests, doctors will be able to identify very early on which patients have a high chance of the melanoma returning and treat those patients accordingly. Doctors will also be able to provide reassurance to those patients that do not have ctDNA in their blood that their melanoma is not returning, and therefore avoid unnecessary treatment and potential side effects for many patients.”

Image: Karen Dickinson

The Options Roundabout event on the 19^th February 2025 was the culmination of the which saw our researchers pitch to a panel of commercialisation experts, entrepreneurs and funders. The event was a resounding success and an opportunity for the cohort to network and celebrate their achievements with peers and supporters of the programme.

The programme aims to inspire and accelerate the translation of the knowledge created through academic research into products, services or processes to deliver tangible benefit through a series of bespoke workshops and mentoring opportunities. The workshops helped researchers articulate their ideas by taking them through a lean start-up pathway to explore the commercial potential of their research.

The Innovation Enabling Awards were granted to acknowledge the impact and growth potential with early career researchers receiving between £1000 to £8000 to further develop the commercial potential of their ideas and businesses.

Aline Miller, Professor of Biomolecular Engineering and Associate Dean for Business Engagement and Innovation, presented the Innovation Enabling Awards to the six winning projects.

Award Winners

Innovation Enabling Award: £8,000

Tiny Human Dramas 

Dr Meghan Rose Donnelly (School of Social Sciences)

“The R2I programme provided me with the skills I needed to take my research out into the world and make a real impact: connecting with industry, refining ideas, building a plan for the future, pitching to potential investors, and much more. R2I absolutely brought me from researcher to innovator.”

Innovation Enabling Award: £5,000

Antenatal Education

Dr Holly Reid (School of Medical Sciences)

"The programme and the award have meant that the little idea with which I started R2I, could now be a commercially viable business very soon and that's really exciting."

Innovation Enabling Awards: £3,000

Graphene Vision

Dr Rui Zhang and Dr Matthew Lindley (School of Natural Sciences)

"The R2I programme has equipped us with the skills and confidence needed to navigate the entrepreneurial journey. The Innovation Enabling Award will help accelerate the commercialization of our innovation and has given us even more motivation to succeed." 

AI- GPR

Dr Frank Podd (School of Engineering)

“R2I was a fantastic way to learn about the best approach to starting a company, from the inception of an innovation through to the collaborative development of a product with customers” 

Innovation Enabling Awards: £1,000

Green Terra Energy Storage

Camilo Salazar (School of Engineering)

&�Բ�����;“R2I is a very user-friendly program that provides you with the fundamental tools to start becoming an entrepreneur. The key is to believe in your role, you are already the best.”

Battery Waste Recycling

Dr Amal Nadri (School of Engineering)

The prize winners will also receive expert support and signposting to regional and national accelerator programmes and all the participants on the MEC R2I programme will be connected to the wider ecosystem for further support, mentoring and guidance in taking their research ideas forward.

The organisers wish to thank the  Fellowship for their sponsorship of the Innovation Enabling Awards.

Get Involved

If you are an early career researcher looking for an exciting opportunity to develop your innovative thinking and enhance your understanding of creating and developing impact join the next round of the R2I programme. Find out more .

The is supported by the University’s Innovation Academy. The Innovation Academy is a pan University initiative and joint venture between the , the and the Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange team, bringing together knowledge, expertise and routes to facilitate the commercialisation of research.

The  guideline establishes new standards for managing fungal infections, which affect millions of people worldwide every year, and was recently published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. 

The new guideline contains detailed recommendations on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of various forms of candidiasis – from superficial infections to life-threatening invasive infections – for clinicians, including innovative diagnostic procedures and the latest therapeutic approaches. 

Particular attention is paid to new challenges such as resistance to common antifungals and the increasing spread of Candida auris, a multiresistant pathogen 

“With this guideline, we have taken an important step towards improving treatment for patients worldwide,” said Professor Cornely, head of the global initiative. Co-lead Dr Sprute added: “Our aim was to pool the expertise of a global network to provide doctors and healthcare professionals with a practical and scientifically sound tool. 

The document is the result of four years of intensive collaboration among more than one hundred experts from 35 countries. Supported by the expert associations ECMM (European Confederation of Medical Mycology), ISHAM (International Society for Human and Animal Mycology) and ASM (American Society for Microbiology).

Dr Cornely invited potential authors for the guideline based on speciality, geography, and gender. Six coordinators were appointed to ensure the structure of the guideline, assign topics, identify missing aspects and monitor progress.

The guideline has been endorsed worldwide by seventy six international expert associations as an important guide for practising physicians and meets the highest standards of quality and relevance to clinical care.

“Our compilation is unprecedented and provides a basis for improving the treatment and chances of survival of affected patients worldwide,” said Cornely, underlining the significance of the work.

Dr Riina Rautemaa-Richardson, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and Medical Education at The University of Manchester said: “"It was a mammoth project to bring practically the world together to agree how to diagnose and manage the most common invasive fungal disease. For the first time, all continents are represented and all aspects of Candida infections covered, including the very common superficial ones (thrush).”

"It was amazing to see how much more evidence there is to support the recommendations made compared to the previous European guideline 10 years ago. Although we had over 100 expert authors in the group it was easy to agree on the recommendations.”

Published in the and led by David Denning, Professor of Infectious Diseases in Global Health at The University of Manchester, the team analysed fungal infection management policies from the Netherlands,Italy, South Korea, China, and India. 

The contrast between the countries gives a representative picture of policies around the world according to Professor Denning. 

The research focussed on recognition and prioritization, awareness and education, prevention and monitoring, diagnosis and coordinated care, access to appropriate treatment, and diagnostic and treatment innovation. 

They also found worrying gaps in policy coverage, including low prioritization of diagnostics and omission of fungal pathogens from antimicrobial resistance policies.

There was also a general lack of awareness, poor healthcare professional training on optimal management of the potentially deadly infection which often presents with minimal, vague, or nonspecific symptoms.

Professor Denning said: “Development of efficient and coordinated national systems to reduce avoidable deaths from fungal diseases has lagged behind other infectious diseases.

“A key element is timely and appropriate use of antifungal agents, based on diagnostic results, prevailing resistance trends and stewardship.

“We hope this article will provide a stimulus for all countries to put in place comprehensive plans for fungal diseases and monitor their implementation.”

The policy framework that was developed is summarised in 6 areas: policy recognition, awareness and education, prevention and monitoring, diagnosis and coordinated care, access to appropriate treatment and innovation.

Each item in each country was scored using a traffic light system.

A £1m funding award from the Medical ����Ӱ�� Council in collaboration with Innovate UK will accompany £1.2 million of in-kind support from 85 partners to fund the pilot phase of the UK Centre of Excellence on In-Silico Regulatory Science and Innovation (UK CEiRSI). This Centre will collaborate globally to address some of the sector's most pressing challenges and target unmet patient outcomes and safety needs. 

The consortium will work with computational modelling and simulation and AI techniques—all of which are poised to revolutionise the healthcare landscape. The UK CEiRSI will contribute to making the UK the best milieu for delivering medical innovations using in silico evidence and regulatory science. 

The Centre will consist of leading universities from the UK’s four nations, world-class companies, and health systems and regulatory bodies, including the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Health ����Ӱ�� Authority (HRA) but will also collaborate with colleagues in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in mainland Europe.

Professor Alex Frangi, Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine at The University of Manchester, will direct the Centre.

He said: “Human and animal trials often face high failure rates resulting in delays, increased costs, and potential risks to patients.

“On average, pharmaceutical products take 12  years to develop, with testing consuming up to 30% of costs.

“However, we will seek to address these critical inefficiencies by developing in-silico technologies that produce digital evidence for the digital age. Our aim is to reflect engineering practices in other sectors where physical testing is complemented by virtual testing and product optimisation. This will result in improved medical products (drugs or devices), faster and more affordable lifesaving therapies for patients, and innovative regulatory approval processes.”

He added: “These cutting-edge tools can greatly enhance reliability in testing, while substantially reducing development time and costs, as well as improving the diversity of testing conditions, leading to more equitable care.”

“And that will benefit patients through reduced failure rates and recalls, while fostering economic growth by driving innovation in pharmaceuticals and medical technologies.”

However, despite their transformative potential, a regulatory deadlock for in-silico technologies means the technologies face barriers to adoption. Regulators lack frameworks to assess in-silico evidence, while developers hesitate to invest without clear pathways to approval.

The UK CEiRSI aims to break the deadlock and position in-silico technology and virtual trials as a mainstream approach to eliminate risk from future medical and pharmaceutical innovation developments. To tackle this impasse, the Pilot phase will implement an In Silico Airlock Initiative where actors from industry, academia and regulatory bodies will explore 10 industry-led pre-commercial regulatory pilots and assess the opportunities and limitations of current credibility frameworks.

Building on the success of a six-month discovery phase, UK CEiRSI will bring together industry leaders, regulators, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and standardisation bodies, academics, and patient representatives - to test and refine frameworks for assessing in-silico evidence.

Reports from the project will address key issues such as regulatory frameworks, legal and ethical implications, and patient risk reduction, paving the way for in-silico technologies to make a real impact on our lives.

• "in silico"  is a term used to describe experiments or studies that are performed using computer simulations or software. 

For more information visit:

• UK CEiRSI LinkedIn
• InSilicoUK
• InSilicoUK
• InSilicoUK
• InSilicoUK L 

The May Davidson Award 2024 has been presented to Dr Sarah Parry by the British Psychological Society (BPS) for her exceptional early career achievements.

Dr Parry is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Academic Director for the Clinical Psychology Doctorate at The University of Manchester. Her research focuses on young people’s mental health and advancing care for children and families.

Alongside this, Dr Parry co-leads a research centre at , where she works with young people and families to develop evidence-based improvements to mental health services.

Dr Parry’s current research studies include exploring joint responses for young people experiencing mental health crises, supporting young people with distressing sensory experiences, identifying and overcoming barriers to inclusive research, and developing a trauma-informed care approach for use in homes for cared for children.

Dr Sarah Parry said: “I am truly grateful to receive the May Davidson Award, especially when I think of the inspiring previous recipients of the award, whose work I greatly admire.

The BPS seeks to represent psychology and psychological professions, with the aim of promoting the incredible impact the field can have on individuals and society.

The May Davidson Award is presented to clinical psychologists who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of clinical psychology within the first 10 years of their work as a qualified clinical psychologist. The late May Davidson was president of the BPS in 1976 and was actively involved in government discussions about the role of clinical psychologists.

The BPS said: “Sarah has championed a reflective and compassionate approach to training in mental health and clinical psychology. She has pioneered leading on clinical research in under researched areas in the field of youth mental health using a collaborative approach in developing communities of support and co-creating research with experts by experience.

“The Award is in recognition of the dedication and thoughtfulness shown and the quality of the work in improving children and young people's mental health.”

The Young People’s ����Ӱ�� Centre at Pennine Care reports an increasing number of young people are reporting mental health concerns, with one in six 7-16 year-olds experiencing a mental health difficulty in 2022. The centre recognises that early access to support is crucial, as around 50% of mental health challenges emerge by the age of 14.

Through the vital research Dr Parry is championing, she hopes to learn how to improve the quality and accessibility of mental health services, to support and advocate for young people with a range of different needs.

Revealed today, The University ranks in the top 50 globally for five subject areas: Social Sciences, Business Economics, Engineering, Arts and Humanities and Medical and Health, with the strongest performance in Business Economics (32^nd) and Social Sciences (37^th).  

The University also featured in the top 100 worldwide for all 11 subject areas which are assessed, an achievement only shared by 7 other UK institutions. Among the six subject areas not yet in the top 50 there were significant climbs in the rankings for Computer Science and Law. 

This ranking uses key performance indicators to measure ; teaching, research environment, research quality, industry partnerships and international outlook.  

Professor Colette Fagan, Vice-President for ����Ӱ��, said: “This latest influential global subject ranking provides additional evidence of our research and teaching strengths across the University – something to pause on and celebrate as we develop our Manchester 2035 strategy. Having achieved this global standing our job now is to work together, with ambition and focus, to do even better.” 

Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching Learning and Students, said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome these rankings for our University, which demonstrate our strength and breadth across so many subject areas. It is important for us to benchmark our results to guide us in improving our design and delivery of high-quality teaching and learning in Manchester even further.” 

The THE Subject Rankings are one of three major international subject ranking exercises that the University tracks to benchmark its performance. In the , the University ranked in the top 35 globally for each of the five broad subject groups – Arts and Humanities (27), Engineering and Technology (27), Life Science and Medicine (30), Natural Sciences (33), Social Sciences and Management (28). 

In the 2024 Shanghai Rankings’ Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (AWRU), the University was placed among the top 25 worldwide in seven of 46 subjects, ranked first in the UK for four subjects and moved up in 21 subjects thanks to our research excellence and impact. 

The HDRC is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR). It will connect the Council, University of Manchester researchers and other academic institutions to give local people an equal say in research and the ability to influence decisions made from that research, using both real-life experiences and building on current ways of doing things, to make sure the benefits last long after the programme ends.

The funding approval given today  follows last year’s submission to the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ��.

The collaboration, led by Manchester City Council, University of Manchester and partner organisations, is a significant step in uniting Manchester academic institutions and residents with other key players including voluntary and faith organisations, and public and private sector partners.

It aims to enhance better understanding of the factors affecting health and health inequalities, increase research capacity and use this evidence to inform future policy and planning and improve health outcomes in areas of high deprivation.

Councillor Thomas Robinson, Executive Manchester for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Manchester to lead the way in tackling health inequalities by ensuring that local people’s voices are at the heart of shaping policy. By building our research capacity and working closely with partners and local people across the city we can develop a deeper understanding of the challenges our communities face and create evidence-based solutions that will have a real and lasting impact on people’s lives.

"This collaboration allows us to continue to shape the future of health and wellbeing in our city which is the central tenet of our Making Manchester Fairer Programme to address health inequity and preventable deaths by looking at all the social factors that mean that some people in the city die earlier than others.”

Professor Arpana Verma from The University of Manchester, Academic Lead for the HDRC, said: “We are so proud that Manchester has been awarded full HDRC status. This is a testament to our communities and public contributors who have helped us as the HDRC team create a plan of work that will strengthen our partnership. The HDRC will ensure we continue to hear the voices of the unheard, make the invisible, visible and making sure that we don’t leave anyone behind.

“Putting people at the heart of this exciting initiative is vital for inclusive research and improving health and wellbeing. As we look to the next 5 years, we will continue to build our research-active communities and research-responsive policies to tackle inequalities together."

This commitment to addressing health inequalities across Manchester is echoed in the University's recent investment in interdisciplinary research focused on delivering fairer health outcomes for all through its  research platform.

The study of special bacteria, which have evolved nanoscopic syringes –Type 6 Secretion Systems (T6SSs) – that inject cocktails of deadly toxins into rival microorganisms, is published today in the journal PNAS. 

Microbes been fighting their own wars on germs for Millions of years  – battling for survival against each other.

The new Wellcome Trust-funded research shows that toxin cocktails used in these fights have a highly valuable property – they limit resistance evolution to T6SS attacks.

In both computer simulations and lab experiments, the researchers found that microbes readily evolved resistance to individual T6SS toxins, but that resistance did not occur when the toxins were injected together.

That means multi-toxin T6SSs might be ideal candidates for resistance-busting antimicrobials of the future.

T6SS-armed bacteria are already being harnessed as antimicrobials, with applications in crop protection or aquafarming.

Attacker bacteria could also be engineered as “living biotherapeutics”, targeting drug-resistant bacteria or fungi inside hosts. 

The new results could now be used to improve these technologies,using toxin combinations to limit resistance evolution and extend their lifespan.

The work also suggests that microbes themselves might have much to teach us when it comes to overcoming resistance.

While the idea of combination therapy – using multiple toxins together to prevent resistance – dates from the 1950s, bacteria seem have been beaten humans to the discovery.

“Bacteria have been using T6SSs to attack other microbes for millions of years, and have developed their own type of combination therapy – injecting a range of toxin types together ,” said Lead author, Dr Will Smith, from the University of Manchester.

“It’s possible this evolved to limit resistance in competitors. If so, what other mechanisms might microbes have to do this?”

“It’s an exciting prospect that we might make better antimicrobial therapies by consulting our top microbial assassins: the germs themselves”

• Video shows attacker and target bacteria. The dead bacteria is stained pink

Cosmologist Dr Steve Cunnington has been awarded the Early Career Award for early achievement in astronomy. This award is presented to individuals in a UK institution whose career has shown the most promising development within five years of completing their PhD.

Dr Cunnington began working at the at The University of Manchester in 2022. His research focuses on using radio telescopes to map our Universe’s structure across billions of light years. Through this, clues about phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy are revealed, and we can gain a better understanding of how gravity behaves.

Dr Cunnington said: “I am very passionate about my research and am thrilled that the Royal Astronomical Society is highlighting it. There is a long list of inspirational scientists who have won this award in previous years, and I see it as a challenge to continue the prestigious legacy.”

As for what is next for Dr Cunnington’s research, he said: “I am involved in the preparations for the SKA Observatory (SKAO), set to be the largest radio telescope ever constructed. The SKAO precursor, MeerKAT, is already operational and was used to validate our novel mapping technique. We are now making further progress with MeerKAT mapping volumes of the Universe hundreds of times larger than before.”

Dr Michael Keith, Lecturer in Astrophysics at Jodrell Bank is also the recipient of a Royal Astronomical Society Award. Dr Keith is part of the (EPTA) which has won a Group Award, given in recognition of an outstanding achievement made by a large consortium of academics.

The EPTA is a multinational European collaboration between scientists from over ten institutions. It unites collaborators of different nationalities and backgrounds, and encourages and supports early career researchers, resulting in an egalitarian and diverse team structure.

By bringing together the efforts and resources of multiple scientists and six large radio telescopes (including the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank), the EPTA monitor pulsars, which are used to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black hole binary systems in distant galaxies.

In 2023 the EPTA published the first seen evidence of ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves; their findings stemmed from observations made over 25 years.

Each year the RAS recognise significant achievement in the fields of astronomy and geophysics through many awards, medals and prizes, encompassing different types of talent from research to education and outreach.

Led by researchers at The University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), alongside researchers in Australia and United States, the study will enable researchers to track changes in brain structure over time in children and young people with NF1.

The research is funded by a £2.2 million award from the US Department of Defence and is the largest investigation into brain development in NF1 to date. Using advanced machine-learning techniques, the team will analyse the brain structure of over 10,000 MRI scans, comparing them to healthy individuals of the same age.

By doing that, they will shine a light on how specific genetic changes affect the brain and how alterations in brain structure may predict learning difficulties outcomes.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Murdoch ����Ӱ�� Institute in Melbourne and the Complex NF1 Service hosted by the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine at Saint Mary’s Hospital, part of MFT, which is a world leading centre for clinical care and research in NF1, have all signed up to the project.

NF1 affects approximately 1 in 2,500 children. Although the severity of the condition varies from person to person, about half of all children affected by the condition may have difficulties with learning, autism or ADHD.

Dr Shruti Garg, Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester and National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical ����Ӱ�� Centre (BRC) Mental Health Theme Capacity Development Lead, is leading the international research.

Dr Garg, who is also Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, part of MFT said: “Learning and behavioural difficulties in NF1 can profoundly impact the quality of lives of affected children and young people. This funding provides a crucial opportunity for researchers to deepen our understanding of how changes in the NF1 gene impact brain development.

“Just like ‘growth-charts’ are widely used to monitor children’s physical growth, our research will enable us to create NF1-specific ‘brain charts’ to serve as a reference for age-related changes in brain structure.”

Dr Nils Muhlert, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroanatomy at the University of Manchester said: “This project is a powerful illustration of collaboration across the world, and we are tremendously excited about what it might achieve.”

Karen Cockburn, Charity Director of Nerve Tumours UK, said: "We fully endorse this extremely important global project, and the work of Dr Shruti Garg, who is also a member of the charity's Medical Advisory Board. This research and its potential findings will be of huge benefit for the NF1 community.”

Dr Grace Vassallo, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist and Clinical Lead for the Complex NF1 Service at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Centre for Medicine at Saint Mary’s Hospital, said: “We are incredibly grateful for this unique opportunity to collaborate in cutting edge research into the developing NF1 Brain charts which will in future improve the clinical care for children and young people with NF1.”

The new suggests that repeated head injuries, such as concussions, a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), may reactivate a common dormant virus in the brain, increasing the risk of AD and other neurodegenerative conditions. ����Ӱ��ers found that even mild brain trauma can trigger this chain reaction, leading to harmful changes associated with memory loss and cognitive decline.

, the researchers demonstrated the roles that common viruses, such as herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) (the so-called cold sore virus) and varicella zoster virus (VZV) (which causes chickenpox and shingles) play in the development of AD. HSV-1 can lie dormant in human cells for a lifetime, but when it re-awakens it can cause changes that resemble changes observed in AD patients’ brains - amyloid plaque-like formations (PLFs), gliosis, neuroinflammation, and decreased functionality.

In the latest study, published today in Science Signaling, the researchers once again used their small, 3D, bioengineered human brain tissue model to test the effects of physical trauma on the brain cells. When the brain tissues were exposed to repeated "mild blows," similar to concussions, the previously dormant HSV-1 virus became active. This reactivation triggered inflammation, beta-amyloid plaque build-up, and the formation of harmful tau proteins, which can damage brain cells and impair memory.

Importantly, the researchers also found that blocking an inflammatory molecule called Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) prevented many of these harmful effects in lab models, opening the door to potential new treatments for those at risk. 

Professor Ruth Itzhaki, who led the research with Drs Cairns and Kaplan at Tufts, has been researching the potential role of HSV-1 in AD for more than 30 years, beginning at the University of Manchester, where her team discovered HSV-1 DNA is present in the human brain in a high proportion of older people - the first microbe to be detected definitively in normal human brains. 

Professor Itzhaki, Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester, said: “Head injuries are already recognised as a major risk factor, as are the cumulative effect of common infections, for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, but this is the first time we have been able to demonstrate a mechanism for that process.

“What we’ve discovered is that in the brain model these injuries can reactivate a dormant virus, HSV1, setting off inflammation which, in the brain, would lead to the very changes we see in Alzheimer’s patients.

“Understanding both the risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer’s, and the mechanism by which they develop, is important in being able to target treatment and prevention at as early a point as possible.”

The researchers hope their work will pave the way for new treatments to protect against neurodegeneration, particularly for those at high risk due to repeated concussions.

The full paper, ‘Repetitive injury induces phenotypes associated with Alzheimer’s disease by reactivating HSV-1 in a human brain tissue model’, is published in.

Scientists have long known that many animals have a magnetic sense, which some use to navigate around the Earth, particularly during their spectacular seasonal migrations. However, given that the Earth has a large magnet at its core, it is perhaps not surprising that accumulating evidence suggests that all animals can respond to magnetic fields: often termed the ‘sixth-sense’.

A team of researchers composed of behavioural biologists Professors Ezio Rosato and Charalambos Kyriacou from the University of Leicester and including neurophysiologists Professors Richard Baines and Stuart Peirson, from Manchester and Oxford Universities, alongside quantum scientist Dr Alex Jones from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), has been awarded £3 million by Wellcome to understand how animals are able to detect magnetic fields.

Professor Ezio Rosato, from Leicester’s Department of said: “We and others have shown that a blue-light sensing protein called Cryptochrome (CRY) is at the heart of magnetoreception.

“However, we surprisingly observed that only a short stretch at the end of CRY is absolutely required to mediate a biological response to magnetic fields. This is significant because it shows that animals might detect magnetic fields via a variety of mechanisms.

Professor Richard Baines from the at the University of Manchester added: &�Բ�����;“This award consolidates our earlier work because by understanding how the short CRY fragment functions, we will be able to move closer towards understanding the fundamental mechanisms of magnetoreception.”

Dr. Alex Jones, Principal Scientist at NPL, said: “This work has significant potential to inform the development of measurement tools based on an engineered version of CRY that enables non-invasive, magnetic stimulation of target cells. Such tools would reduce measurement uncertainty in complex and noisy biological systems, and could even form the basis of future magnetic cell therapies.”

Leicester’s Professor of Behavioural Genetics and co-investigator Charalambos Kyriacou added: “We are a team with a unique blend of expertise, bridging the gap between quantum physics and biology, whose principles underly magnetoreception, and behaviour.

“Our interdisciplinary approach has already provided major advances in this area. Thus, we are uniquely positioned to attempt to solve this fascinating and long-standing biological enigma.”

The award by Wellcome, which provides funding for research into science and health, will support the team’s research work over the next five years.

Circadian rhythms are our internal 24-hour body clocks. These natural cycles of physiological and behavioural patterns, if disrupted, can have adverse effects on ageing and related health issues.

The project, called CircadiAgeing, will focus on understanding how both the well-known molecular clock and the less studied processes in cell membranes influence daily changes in cell activity.

Through an interdisciplinary approach using cutting-edge electrophysiology, imaging, genetic analysis and computational biology, the research team hopes to develop ways to better understand and strengthen these biological clocks, to promote healthier ageing and potentially reduce age-related disorders.

, Senior Lecturer in the Division of Neuroscience, is a part of CircadiAgeing’s core team. 

Dr Belle said: “I am excited to be part of the CircardiAgeing research programme and fantastic team of world-leading researchers in circadian biology and neuroscience."

The programme, funded for 60 months, is a collaboration between Dr Mino Belle (University of Manchester), Dr Marco Brancaccio (UK Dementia ����Ӱ�� Institute at Imperial College London), Professor Hugh Piggins (University of Bristol), Professor Krasi Tsaneva-Atananova (University of Exeter), and Dr Alessio Vagnoni (King's College London). The project is led by Professor James Hodge (University of Bristol).

Professor James Hodge said: “We will take advantage of the powerful genetics and short lifespan of the fruit fly to determine the effect of age on the clock translating our finding to a nocturnal, and for the first time, a day active species of rodent using closely aligned computational models, innovative tools and protocols developed by our labs.

“We will employ, a holistic approach taking a multiple-disciplinary approach to understanding how the circadian clock works at every level across the whole life course. Finally, we will investigate evolutionary conserved interventions to rejuvenate rhythms and behaviour extending health during ageing, revealing ways to potentially allow our ageing population to continue to live well and independently.”

The funding comes from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences ����Ӱ�� Council (BBSRC), who have backed four groundbreaking research projects through their (sLoLa). The scheme supports innovative teams in pursuing ambitious, multidisciplinary long-term bioscience research.

The study - led by two University of Manchester researchers and published in Nature Communications - significantly advances our understanding of how Aspergillus fumigatus rapidly develops drug resistance.

 The mould, found in soil, composts, and decaying vegetation, is potentially deadly to people with a range of health conditions including those with weakened immune systems and respiratory problems.

Millions of people develop invasive and chronic aspergillosis infections around the world every year, with mortality rates ranging between 30% to 90%.

Only three classes of antifungal drugs available to treat disease, and only one class, the azoles, is suitable for long-term oral administration.

Resistance to azoles is spreading due to the use of a class of fungicides in agriculture, known as the DMIs. Resistance can double the risk of mortality from invasive aspergillosis.

According to the study funded by The Wellcome Trust, strains resistant to azoles are over five times more likely to acquire resistance to new treatments currently in clinical trials. 

The study follows previous research by the team showing how an agricultural fungicide called ipflufenoquin- currently under consideration by authorities worldwide - could have a devastating effect on a new drug, olorofim, currently being trialled to treat Aspergillus fumigatus infections. 

F2G Ltd – a spin out company from The University of Manchester – invested more than £250 million over 20 years in the development of olorofim, which is in late-stage clinical trials and aims to be clinically deployed within the next few years. 

Because olorofim works against azole resistant infections, it could save many lives of affected patients. 

However, ipflufenoquin, could severely impact the new drug because it has the same biological target and kills the fungi the same way as olorofim. 

Co-author Dr Michael Bottery from The University of Manchester said: “Our discovery, coupled with our previous research on the impact of an agrochemical on antifungal resistance, highlights the urgent need for innovative strategies to combat the growing public health threat of antifungal resistance. 

“Aspergillus fumigatus produces billions of spores. Even slightly elevated rates of mutation mean it is highly likely resistant mutants will arise.” 

By exposing billions of spores from genetically different natural strains of Aspergillus fumigatus to a range of drugs they accelerated evolution in the lab to predict how likely it was for resistance to evolve. 

Strains that evolve faster, they found,  were also the ones already resistant to azoles. These strains had genetic changes in genes that control the fungus’s system which repairs mutated DNA  -  known as the mismatch repair system. 

By using CRISPR-Cas9 to reproduce these variants in the lab, they were able to directly link the changes in the mismatch repair system with the ability of Aspergillus fumigatus to evolve resistance to new drugs. 

Co-author Prof. Michael Bromley from The University of Manchester said: “Specific strains of Aspergillus fumigatus are resistant to azoles, the only effective long-term treatment for chronic aspergillosis.

“But these strains also have elevated mutation rates due to changes in their DNA mismatch repair system - the fungus’s system which repairs errors in its DNA.

“This means that isolates that are already resistant to our first line treatments could develop resistance to new drugs 5 times faster than drug resistant isolates, potentially leading to strains that are resistant to all antifungal medications.”

The  paper "Elevated mutation rates in multi-azole resistant Aspergillus fumigatus drive rapid evolution of antifungal resistance," to be published in in Nature Communications, is published in Nature Communications.

The duration reduction of around 10% could provide significant cost savings to health systems, limit unwanted drug side-effects, reduce overtreatment and reduce the development of antimicrobial resistance in individuals, across communities and internationally.

The study was commissioned and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR), and its leading partners were The University of Manchester, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and Warwick Medical School’s Clinical Trials Unit,  who specialise in research in emergency and critical care.

Chief investigator Paul Dark, Professor of Critical Care at the University of Manchester will present the findings to a global online audience at the prestigious this week (10/12/24), where it will be scrutinised and debated by some of the world’s leading experts in the field.

The research team are also to publish their peer reviewed findings in JAMA-  one of the world’s leading medical  journals today

According to the charity Sepsis ����Ӱ�� FEAT, around 50,000 people are estimated to die of sepsis in the UK each year, which develops when the body's immune system overreacts to an infection and starts attacking its own tissues and organs.

Accounting for 100,000 hospital admissions a year in the UK, it is estimated that there are 49 million cases and 1 million deaths a year globally.

Recognising sepsis and starting antibiotics  early are crucial but until now the recommended duration of such treatment has been uncertain.

The only available option recommended for doctors currently is to use their judgement  to decide when to discontinue the potent  broad spectrum antibiotics, usually reserved to treat the condition.

The new decision support system is based on a simple blood test, carried out daily and available in most  NHS hospital laboratories.

It tests for levels of a circulating protein called procalcitonin (PCT), which is produced as part of the body’s immune system responses to bacterial infections.

Higher levels indicate a greater likelihood of bacterial infection and sepsis, with subsequent falling levels indicating favourable responses to treatments

A computer automated response, based on the PCT levels from the blood test,    advises doctors whether to discontinue antibiotic treatment or not.  A further commonly measured circulating inflammation protein (C-reactive protein or CRP) was also tested.

The randomized controlled trial was based at 41 intensive care units across the UK, involving 2,760 adults from January 2018 to June 2024.

It compared 918 patients on a  PCT protocol with 924 patients on a  C-reactive protein (CRP) and 918 patients on current standard care.

Clinicians responsible for managing patients received daily standardized written advice on either standard care or on PCT or CRP biomarker-guided antibiotic discontinuation.

The protocols in the study were uniquely designed to  conceal laboratory test results  from clinical  staff to reduce potential bias and patients were randomly assigned to one of the three groups.

The team found that a PCT protocol reduced total antibiotic duration by 10% and all-cause mortality, a key patient safety measure, was the same as standard care .

There was no difference in total antibiotic duration between standard care and CRP protocols..

Professor Dark, who is also an NHS Consultant in Critical Care Medicine at Salford Royal, said: “This simple protocol, if implemented, could significantly change the way sepsis is treated and safely help to combat antimicrobial overuse and resistance-  one of the world’s leading health challenges.

“It is also a powerful illustration of how precision medicine can make a real difference to patient care  when treatment is tailored to  individual test results  of each patient.

“It’s also important to acknowledge that this study would not have been possible without the generous contribution  of patients with this life threatening condition who like all of us, are committed to finding better ways to deal with sepsis.”

He added: “Sepsis has been at the forefront of policy makers minds ever since the publication of 2013 Health Service Ombudsman report which focused on sepsis patients who were not treated urgently enough.

“Ever since then, developing better diagnostics and treatment guidance for GPs and hospital clinicians to help them recognise sepsis at an early stage has been a national priority.

“This trial has been planned to address NICEs recommendations so that its results will inform their future guidance on antibiotic duration in sepsis.”

Sepsis ����Ӱ�� FEAT trustee Beth Budgen developed sepsis as a result of a seemingly innocuous Strep A infection on Christmas Day 2022, resulting in quadruple amputations.

She said: “Within 24hrs I was fighting for my life and have been left with life changing injuries as a result. If this can happen to me, it really can happen to anyone. It really is that scary

“The University of Manchester study is one of several significant projects currently being undertaken in the UK in the field of antibiotic treatment for sepsis patients - an extremely important area of research which Sepsis ����Ӱ�� FEAT fully endorses.

“The priority setting partnership exercise that the charity recently completed with the James Lind Alliance will also now be crucial in ensuring that the best research into sepsis takes place UK-wide.”

Professor Gavin Perkins, Warwick CTU Trial Lead said: “Sepsis claims tens of thousands of lives each year in the UK.  The findings from ADAPT-sepsis will help doctors ensure that critically ill patients with severe infections get the right duration of treatment with life-saving antibiotics.”

• Critically ill patients recruited to the trial had already commenced antibiotics for sepsis, so the study does not provide evidence for biomarker use in initiating antibiotic therapy.
• The University of Manchester, University of Warwick and Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust researchers would like to thank the NIHR Clinical ����Ӱ�� Network (CRN) for help delivering the study in the NHS and the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme for funding the trial.  The collaborative  co-investigator  funded team  in this national study are linked here    .  We would also like to thank Abbott and Roche Diagnostics for their contracted support to assist NHS laboratories participate in the study. 
• Beth’s story is available to read in full and she also appears on the Sepsis ����Ӱ�� FEAT  . The PSP outcomes page on their  website can be found .

Professor Adam Greenstein, Professor of Medicine at the University of Manchester, said: “The team and I are delighted to have been chosen as the winners of the British Heart Foundations ����Ӱ�� Story of the Year award. Our research marks a revolutionary step forward in understanding the vascular causes of dementia by uncovering new routes for drugs which could slow the progression of  this devastating condition.

The British Heart Foundation has been funding my work for the last 12 years, and it has been the privilege of a lifetime. None of these breakthroughs would exist if it wasn’t for their unwavering and continuous support. Dementia in the over 65’s is largely a vascular illness – together with the British Heart Foundation we are going to stop it in it’s tracks”

The ����Ӱ�� Story of the Year category invites the public to vote for their favourite BHF-funded research project addressing some of the biggest challenges in cardiovascular disease.

The Manchester team, co led by Professor Greenstein and Dr Harry Pritchard won for their study that unmasked the hidden dangers of even slightly high blood pressure, revealing how it disrupts communication between the cells that make up the arteries in the brain.

Blood flow in the brain is regulated by two cell structures. When blood pressure increases, these structures help to transmit messages that tell arteries to dilate, allowing more blood to flow through them.

But the researchers found that, when blood pressure remains consistently high, these two structures move further apart. This stops messages reaching their target, causing arteries to remain permanently constricted and limiting blood flow to the brain.

Brain cells that don’t receive enough blood are starved of oxygen and nutrients, causing them to become damaged over time and die. This can lead to lack of concentration and poor memory, both symptoms of dementia.

These results in mice still need to be confirmed in humans, but the team are already looking at potential drugs that could restore this communication. They hope that this could improve blood supply to affected areas in the brain, slowing the progression of all dementia syndromes.

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation, said:

&�Բ�����;“Cardiovascular disease affects the lives of too many families, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. But, thanks to the incredible commitment and generosity of our BHF supporters and researchers, there is hope on the horizon.

“This study is just one example of the incredible research happening in labs and hospitals across the UK. Every day, our awe-inspiring BHF-funded researchers bring us one step closer to the next breakthrough that will save and improve lives of people affected by cardiovascular disease.”

The review also finds that 15% of people with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) die in the first year following other lung diseases.

The international study of CPA - which kills 340,000 people a year around the world - is  led by Professor David Denning from The University of Manchester and published today in the leading journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Though still high, CPA patients with prior tuberculosis (TB) had a lower overall 5 year mortality of 25%, according to the study.

Though patients with TB tend to be younger, a multivariable analysis showed prior TB was 24% less lethal than other lung conditions, even accounting for age, though the reason for the difference in outcome was not identified.

Being older than 60, having interstitial lung disease, current cancer and smoking-related lung disease carried worse outcomes.

Co-authors Dr Abinhav Sengupta and Dr Animesh Ray from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi examined the death rates in 8,778 patients described in the literature from all continents except Antarctica.

CPA, in which lungs gradually scar over months and years, is a debilitating condition which causes severe tiredness, weight loss, breathlessness and coughing up blood.

Caused by exposure to airborne spores of the mould Aspergillus, it is harmless to most people, but not to those with lung damage.

A small group of patients with disease in only one lung have it removed surgically have a much lower mortality.

In contrast, very ill patients tend to be treated with the antifungal drug voriconazole and had a significantly higher mortality.

David Denning, Professor of Infectious Diseases in Global Health at The University of Manchester who led the study said: “This truly international collaboration highlights the poor outcome of diagnosed and treated patients with CPA.

“Many are not diagnosed or misdiagnosed as having TB, and then not treated with antifungal agents.

“Treatment with antifungal drugs or surgery improves symptoms and probably reduces deaths from this truly disabling disorder, although as this study shows new strategies to reduce deaths are required, especially straight after diagnosis.”

Earlier in 2024, Professor Denning that CPA developed in 1.8 million people each year, leading to 340,000 deaths (18%), taking into account diagnosed and undiagnosed patients.

Of the deaths, an estimated 204,000 were directly attributable to CPA. This new research takes the CPA mortality down and consequently the number of patients living with CPA up. The last figure (prevalence) was estimated by Denning at over 6 million.

The paper Mortality in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis is available

In a position statement published today, British Society of Audiology, the British Academy of Audiology and the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists say the misinformation is promoting a sense of alarm and stigma around hearing loss, and may discourage people experiencing hearing difficulties from seeking help.

They also argue the focus on what causes the co-occurrence of hearing loss and dementia could inadvertently distract from much needed research on how to assess and help people who live with both conditions.

The statement published by the organisations, provides a more balanced view of the link between the two, arguing there is no evidence to support or refute either of the claims.

Factors which are predictive of dementia include depression, traumatic brain injury, diabetes, lower levels of education, and social isolation. Hearing loss comes much further down the ranking and has a clear but weak association.

The lead author Kevin Munro, Professor of audiology at The University of Manchester, said: “It is true that hearing loss and dementia both increase with age. But it does not follow that one causes the other.

“Social responsibility is paramount, and any misleading negative messaging may distract from the importance of good hearing in its own right.

“Hearing loss is a huge challenge because it ranks third in terms of years lived with a disability.“

There is clear evidence that treating adult-onset hearing loss facilitates an active, engaged, independent, and healthy older age, and that could be good for people with or without dementia.

“The topic of dementia raises considerable fear and alarm because of the potential devastating consequences for individuals, with a significant impact on families and carers, as well as the health and care system.”

Siobhan Brennan, Chair of the British Society of Audiology said: “While the nature of the link has yet to be determined, it is a mistake to think that if two things co-occur, one must have caused the other.

“We can say with certainty that just because someone experiences age-related cognitive change, and changes in their hearing, this does not mean that they will go on to develop dementia.”

Listening and trying to communicate with others when you have a hearing loss can be a challenge. Hearing aids have proven benefits for improving communication and this helps to keep the user cognitively and socially active.

Professor Munro added: “If hearing aids help you to hear more easily, this means your brain probably doesn’t have to work so hard. That could free up your brain to do other things. This is a simple and clear message: hearing better can help you to live better.”

Claire Benton, President of the British Academy of Audiology said: “We need to change the narrative, so society appreciates the importance of healthy hearing. We are in an ageing society and the more people who enter older age in good health, the better. Healthy hearing is an important component of healthy ageing.”

Michael Marchant, Vice President of the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, said: “This document is designed to reassure our members and help them navigate any concerns. Since causation between hearing loss and dementia has not been proven, it’s essential that our members approach this topic with sensitivity, ensuring patients feel informed and supported rather than alarmed.”

The authors of the report stress that the content is specific to adult-onset hearing loss. It does not apply to people who identify as being Deaf and are members of a vibrant community that uses sign language to communicate.

The position statement and clinical guidance is called: The link between adult-onset hearing loss and dementia. It is published this week by the British Society of Audiology, the British Academy of Audiology and the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists.

The full mission statement is  available  

The projects are supported through £22 million of funding – of which each will receive £5 million - by the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences ����Ӱ�� Council (EPSRC) Place Based Impact Acceleration Account (PBIAA) scheme.

The first project, CyberFocus, led by Lancaster University, will strengthen and deliver strategic investments in the region’s cyber ecosystem, fuelling the potential of the North West cyber sector and keeping the UK at the forefront of advance cyber security.

Danny Dresner, Professor of Cyber Security in the Department of Computer Science and the University’s academic lead for CyberFocus, said: “The volatile, risk-filled landscape of cyber security so often gives our adversaries free rein to innovate faster than those who create for the online safety of all of us."

CyberFocus brings together the universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Salford, Manchester Metropolitan, Central Lancashire, Cumbria and Liverpool.

It will also be supported by other partners including Team Barrow (Westmorland & Furness Council, and BAE Systems), Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, Cumbria LEP, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Lancashire County Council.

The project aims to act as a catalyst for cyber knowledge exchange across the North West, fostering a collaborative approach to research and innovation, and helping the region drive economic growth and improve cyber resilience.

CyberFocus aims to:

• Create 85 new collaborative partnerships
• Develop 400 new products, processes, or services
• Secure £40m additional funding for the region
• Train 300 individuals in cyber innovation skills

The second project, led by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, focuses on nuclear robotics and artificial intelligence. It will connect academia with the supply chain, with the aim of decommissioning the country’s nuclear legacy, as well as developing technology that can be exploited by the nuclear fusion sector.

Barry Lennox, Professor of Applied Control, in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, is the University’s lead for this project.

The project will link Cumbria and Oxfordshire – its' university partners being The University of Cumbria, The University of Manchester and The University of Oxford – and hopes to mobilise significant knowledge and technology transfer between these areas.

Being the only research focused university with a research base in West Cumbria, The University of Manchester will also attempt to bring other universities into the region and support them, as they develop technology for the nuclear industry.

The project aims to:

• Create 200 business opportunities
• Establish 10 spin-out companies
• Generate 200 new jobs
• Engage 5,000 people in cluster-driven events

UK Science Minister, Lord Vallance said: “We are backing universities across the UK to home in on local strengths in research – from cybersecurity in Lancaster to maritime in Liverpool, offshore wind in Edinburgh to digital healthcare in Belfast – to support thousands of local jobs, boost skills and bring new technologies to market.

“This investment will allow innovators up and down the country to continue or expand their pioneering work to improve lives and kickstart growth in our economy with new opportunities.”

Other ongoing projects at The University of Manchester, funded by EPSRC PBIAA, include the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC), which is a collaborative project led by the University, aimed at creating a cohesive ecosystem for Industrial Biotechnology innovation. 

UKRI also funds the Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), which provides flexible support to progress the commercialisation and translational development of University research.

Developed by researchers at Saint Mary’s Hospital, part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and The University of Manchester, in collaboration with Manchester-based firm genedrive Plc, the rapid bedside test could save the NHS £5 million every year by reducing the need for interventions, such as cochlear implants.

The innovative test was first piloted at Saint Mary’s Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, in 2020 as part of the Pharmacogenetics to Avoid Loss of Hearing (PALOH) study. Following its success, the test was implemented into routine clinical practice at Saint Mary’s Hospital in 2022 and extended to all three maternity units at MFT, Saint Mary’s Hospital, Wythenshawe Hospital, and North Manchester General Hospital, in 2023.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) conditionally recommended the genedrive test for use in the NHS last year. It has since been implemented into routine clinical practice at all eight Greater Manchester neonatal units, with funding from Health Innovation Manchester (HInM). So far, the test has prevented the hearing loss of 11 babies at MFT and across Greater Manchester, with 4,000 babies tested to October 2024.

As part of its recommendation, NICE identified areas requiring more information to determine whether the test should be recommended for use at all neonatal sites across the NHS. This includes how the test impacts the time it takes for a baby to be given antibiotics, how the results affect antibiotic prescribing decisions, and the technical performance and accuracy of the test.

Now, having successfully received £1.4m funding from the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR) and the Office for Life Sciences, researchers at MFT will lead PALOH-UK, a new two-year study across 14 neonatal units, from large intensive care units to small special care baby units.  

Dr John McDermott, Clinical Geneticist at MFT and joint lead for the PALOH-UK study said: “We are incredibly proud to be leading this research at MFT, having already seen the difference this new genetic test has made across Greater Manchester. We are excited to explore how it can be used effectively at other neonatal units across the UK.  

“The PALOH-UK study will demonstrate how the test can be used in a timely way to ensure babies get a safe, effective antibiotic without affecting normal clinical practice, on a much larger scale.”

Using a cheek swab, the test can identify in 26 minutes whether a critically ill baby admitted to intensive care has a gene change that could result in permanent hearing loss if they are treated with a common antibiotic, gentamicin.

While gentamicin is used to safely treat approximately 100,000 babies a year, one in 500 babies carry a gene change that can result in permanent hearing loss when given the drug.

The test replaces a previous method that traditionally took several days and is the first use of a rapid point of care genetic test in acute neonatal care. Babies found to have the genetic variant can be given an alternative antibiotic within the NICE recommended ‘golden hour.’

The 24 month, PALOH-UK study, due to start in November 2024 will be co-led by Professor Bill Newman, Consultant in Genomic Medicine at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Professor of Translational Genomic Medicine at The University of Manchester.

Professor Newman, who is also Rare Conditions Co-Theme Lead at the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical ����Ӱ�� Centre (BRC), said: “While we were delighted that NICE recommended the use of the genetic beside test, we understand that evidence is needed to understand implementation in smaller centres and in more diverse populations, which is what this study will do.

“We are looking forward to working with partners across the NHS to take this research to the next level and hopefully bring this test closer to implementation across every NHS neonatal unit in the UK.”

Dr Gino Miele, Chief Executive, genedrive plc, said: “We are delighted with the successful funding award to MFT, to address the areas where NICE has identified a need for further information.  We are proud to be at the forefront of pharmacogenetic testing in emergency care settings and look forward to working with all partners across the UK to progress implementation of this worlds-first rapid genetic test in neonatal settings, positively impacting patient outcomes and healthcare finances.”

Dr John McDermott, who is also a NIHR Fellow at The University of Manchester added:&�Բ�����;“It’s fantastic to see this research moving forward and highlights how genomic medicine can be integrated into routine clinical practice to improve healthcare outcomes. Most importantly, having this test available nationally will ensure no baby will go deaf unnecessarily.”

• Image: using the genetic test

Each individual on this prestigious list has achieved remarkable and far-reaching influence in their field of research across each of the University’s three faculties. The key data in the ranking is the number of ‘Highly Cited’ papers they have each authored. These papers proudly rank in the top one percent by citations for their field and publication year in the Web of Science over the past decade. The rankings, built on rigorous citation analysis and refined by expert judgment from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), are a testament to their outstanding contributions.

The University of Manchester continues to lead on the global stage, during its 2024 Bicentenary year the University has celebrated its excellence in research, education, and engagement—transforming lives, communities, and innovation worldwide.

The University’s Highly Cited ����Ӱ��ers are at the forefront of tackling global challenges in environmental research, physics, engineering, social sciences, immunology and clinical medicine. From the Manchester researchers featured in the top one percent ranking, 6 are categorised as ‘cross-field’ demonstrating the importance of their work on multiple fields.

University of Manchester Highly Cited ����Ӱ��ers 2024:

David Pendlebury, Head of ����Ӱ�� Analysis at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate said: “The Highly Cited ����Ӱ��ers list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at The University of Manchester whose significant and broad influence in their fields translates to impact in their research community. Their pioneering innovations contribute to a healthier, more sustainable and secure world. These researchers’ achievements strengthen the foundation of excellence and innovation that drives societal progress.”

This small fraction of the researcher population contributes disproportionately to extending the frontiers of knowledge and contributing to innovations that make the world healthier, more sustainable and drive societal impact. 

In 2024, an impressive 6,636 researchers from institutions in 59 countries and regions earned the title of Highly Cited ����Ӱ��ers, a distinction that highlights their extraordinary impact and innovation.

Highly Cited ����Ӱ��ers 2024 by country/region:

To find out more about this league table go to the .

The NorthWest Doctoral Programme in Biosciences (NWD) unites the strengths of the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool, to train a diverse community of motivated, inquisitive bioscientists for tomorrow’s workforce.

Alongside the partnership between Manchester and Liverpool university, NWD is also in collaboration with industrial partners Boots No7, Unilever, Waters, and Bionow, who will all provide training and research opportunities.

NWD will centre on four scientific and cross-cutting themes that bring together the complementary strengths of UoM and UoL in areas critical to the UK scientific, societal and economic landscape: Discovery Bioscience, Agrifood & Sustainable Systems, Engineering Biology & Industrial Biotechnology, and Advanced Tools and Technology.

NWD will offer PhD students a strong sense of community and team-led research, face-to-face training - including mandatory training in digital/AI skills - networking events and individualised training plans.

The programme also recognises that many biosciences doctoral graduates pursue careers beyond research. To aid students looking at careers elsewhere, the NWD will be underpinned by innovative PhD-to-workforce programmes - PhD-PROSPER and BIOBRIDGE – which will empower PhD students to plan, develop, and pursue future careers across diverse sectors.

Rasmus Petersen, Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and academic lead for NWD said: "I am delighted that the BBSRC has made this award to our new Doctoral Training Programme: an innovative new partnership between the University of Manchester and University of Liverpool, in collaboration with industry and charity partners.

Professor Peter McCormick from the University of Liverpool said: "We are delighted to win this award in conjunction with our partners at the University of Manchester. Together we build on our tradition in the North West of England in training world class researchers in the biosciences arena. The proximity of our partnership allows the students to take advantage of both our facilities and will enhance the cohort community."

As NWD is committed to accelerating equality of access and opportunity, the University will work in partnership with social mobility charity to engage and create opportunities for those currently underrepresented in UK doctoral training. This will include a significant institutional investment into Widening Participation Masters bursaries.

Doctoral Landscape Awards are funded by UK ����Ӱ�� and Innovation, who are investing more than £500 million across universities to support doctoral training.

Prospective postgraduate researchers can register their interest and receive updates about the programme .

The findings from a survey and interviews provide an important context to the retention crisis for pharmacy technicians, who are leaving their current employers or the role altogether in numbers. 

Published in the journal ����Ӱ�� in Social and Administrative Pharmacy this week, the study reveals their role is characterised by heavy workloads, inadequate staffing, and lack of support. 

A minority of the 603 respondents - 489 of which were women - also reported favouritism, bullying, and racism, especially in community pharmacies and some hospitals. 

The findings are a stark warning to policy makers that urgent action is needed to retain the 26,500-strong English pharmacy technician workforce. 

After formal recognition of the role in the early 2000s, registration was made mandatory in 2011, requiring two years of study. 

Pharmacy technicians are now regulated pharmacy professionals, who are taking on increasing levels of responsibility in community and hospitals, and increasing numbers are working in general practice. 

Government plans for newly qualified pharmacists registering as independent prescribers from 2026 and delivery of increasing levels of clinical services through community pharmacies will mean pharmacy technicians are needed to take on more responsibility to free up pharmacists’ time. 

However, according to NHS England, current workforce projections (Based on 2021 figure from Health Education England. Pharmacy Technician and Pharmacy Support Staff Workforce Development Strategy) suggest the number of pharmacy technicians will not meet the demand, which could lead to a vacancy rate of 9% across the acute and primary care sectors.

NHSE also estimates that vacancy rates in community pharmacies are even starker at 20% and rising. 

Lead author Dr Imelda , research fellow at The University of Manchester said: “Our study discovered many complexities behind the falling numbers of pharmacy technicians. 

“These include low pay, limited career advancement, lack of recognition by employers and stressful work environments, characterised by heavy workloads, inadequate staffing, and lack of support. 

“Our evidence shows that staff turnover is influenced by a multitude of factors such as career commitment, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and job stress.

“But as Government policy sees their role as increasingly important, these issues need to be resolved.”

Co-author and the study’s principal investigator Professor Ellen said: “There are challenges preventing pharmacy technicians from effectively fulfilling their expanded roles.

“One is the lack of clarity surrounding their roles and responsibilities, particularly in community pharmacy settings.

“But the heart of the problem could lie in the lack of adequate support and recognition of their inherent value, leading to job dissatisfaction and high turnover rates.

She added: “Employers need to address compensation disparities, offering fair and competitive wages that reflect the pharmacy technician's extended roles and responsibilities. 

“Prioritising career development opportunities, such as mentorship, demonstrates a commitment to pharmacy technician growth and job satisfaction. 

“Cultivating supportive and inclusive work environments is equally important. This involves fostering a culture that values pharmacy technician contributions and promotes work-life balance. 

“A stable, committed workforce, will benefit the organisation, the pharmacy technician’s workforce and ultimately, patient care.”

It was sent by the NHS England funded Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) to 11,762 people who had agreed to be contacted for marketing and evaluation purposes. 

The team also carried out 19 qualitative interviews to understand the views and experiences of pharmacy technicians and the factors that contribute to their intention to leave practice.

One of the respondents told the researchers:  “Within the career itself, I don't think pharmacy technicians’ role is very well described. People don't actually know what we do.” 

Another said: “I have left community pharmacy after 10 years of stress and bullying by customers, staff and management.”

And another commented: “you could get £3 an hour more stacking shelves in supermarket, which is pretty eye opening.…In pharmacy you make a mistake and you have got a whole raft of things that you need to be seriously worried about and that is only worth 30 pence more an hour.”

The paper Why are pharmacy technicians leaving?: Factors contributing to turnover intention and strategies for retention is available

Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR), the research will investigate how current youth worker services for children and young people with physical or mental health LTCs are organised, provided and experienced across the UK.

Around a quarter of young people aged 11 to 25 have an LTC, such as diabetes, depression or autism, and the number of young people with mental health problems has increased significantly in England since 2017. Recent figures published in 2023 indicate that 20 per cent of 8 to 16-year-olds, 23 per cent of 17 to 19-year-olds and 22 per cent of 20 to 25-year-olds are now reporting LTCs.

Youth workers have been introduced into healthcare settings to support young people, however there is little evidence to support this introduction, and little is known about their role and the best way of providing youth work services.

The 30-month study, jointly led by Professor Marie Marshall MBE, Deputy Director of NMAHP for ����Ӱ�� and Innovation at MFT and Professor Sue Kirk, Professor Family and Child Health at UoM, aims to fill this evidence gap and to standardise and improve how support is delivered in healthcare settings across the UK, to benefit the health and wellbeing of young people.

Professor Marie Marshall at MFT, said: “Adolescence is a life stage when patterns of health behaviour are established that continue into adult life, which makes this a key time to intervene, to improve health, social and educational outcomes in adulthood.

“The study findings will help services develop and provide youth work services that will be used in the NHS and other organisations, to improve young people's health, confidence, social relationships and resilience. This could support young people living with LTCs to have a better quality of life both now and in adulthood.”

The study will be carried out in two stages; in stage one researchers will conduct a national survey to find out what types of youth worker services there currently are for young people with LTCs in the UK. This will include those provided by the NHS and other organisations.

In stage two, six youth worker services drawn from the survey will be selected to compare the different ways of providing youth work services. ����Ӱ��ers will study these services in detail and talk to young people, parents, professionals and managers about their views on the services.

12 young advisors and parents, including one or two young people at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, part of MFT, with a LTC will also help with the research.

Their input will ensure the work is relevant and matters to young people by developing the study materials, advising on the best way to carry out the research, helping researchers understand the findings and co-develop the guidance for developing the future of youth work services.

Joint study lead, Professor Sue Kirk at The University of Manchester, said: “This study will develop the evidence-base for youth work services for young people with LTCs and identify the best way of providing these services to improve health and wellbeing. We are a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, practitioners, managers and researchers from across the UK, working closely with our young people’s advisory group and study advisory group to help ensure the guidance we develop is appropriate and used by commissioners and services.”

The study will run until 31 March 2027, and findings from the research will be used to develop guidance on the best way of providing youth work services for young people with LTCs in the NHS and other healthcare settings.

The research, led by researchers at The University of Manchester and McGill University in Canada which analysed over 1 million patients newly initiated on opioids, found prescription of strong opioids was associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality compared to taking codeine.

 Strong opioids include morphine, fentanyl, and oxycodone, as well as combination opioids. 

Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health ����Ӱ�� the UK , the study findings, published today in  the journal Pain is one of the first to provide clarity on the comparative safety of different types of opioids across different countries. 

Additionally, patients taking 50 or more morphine milligram equivalents per day experienced an incremental higher risk of death. 

Morphine milligram equivalents are a way to compare the strength of different opioid medications to morphine which enables measurement of how much opioid a person is taking, no matter which specific drug is prescribed.

 The researchers also found that:

• UK patients on morphine had more than 12 times the risk of all-cause mortality compared to codeine users after adjusting for confounding factors. Similarly elevated risks were observed in the US and Canada after such adjustments. Elevated risks were also seen with fentanyl, oxycodone and buprenorphine.
• A history of depression and prior substance abuse were associated with an increased risk of death across all cohorts and in most subgroups.
• In the UK, the use of antipsychotics and benzodiazepine medications at the same time as an opioid was associated with higher risk of death across all three subgroups.
• Being on more than one type of opioid was associated with a significantly higher risk of mortality.. 

Dr Meghna Jani, NIHR Advanced Fellow and Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis, The University of Manchester was the lead author of the study. 

She is also based at the North Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust  and a researcher within the NIHR Manchester Biomedical ����Ӱ�� Centre. 

She said: “It is understandable that some people do need to be prescribed opioids for pain especially in the short term given the limited options for pain relief. 

“What these study findings allow is for people to make more informed choices about the types of pain relief or specific opioid to get started on based on scientific evidence across multiple countries.” 

She added: “The morphine milligram equivalent thresholds at which the risks of opioid use are considered to outweigh the benefits, vary considerably across current international guidelines. 

“This study highlights the importance of closely monitoring patients on or approaching doses of 50 or more morphine milligram equivalents per day. 

“It also suggests having earlier, open discussions with patients on such doses to explore alternative treatments and provide additional support, especially for those with risk factors for serious opioid-related harms. 

“However instead of stopping the use of stronger opioids outright, shared decisions need to be made collaboratively between patients and healthcare professionals, considering each person’s unique situation”.

An embargoed copy of the paper Comparative risk of mortality in new users of prescription opioids for non-cancer pain: results from the International Pharmacosurveillance ����Ӱ�� , published in Pain  - the journal from the International Association for the ����Ӱ�� of Pain -is available

The research examines the unmet healthcare needs of marginalised communities in Greater Manchester during the pandemic and how community-based organisations and networks stepped up to help address these challenges.

Led by researchers at the University of Manchester and the National Institute for Health and Care ����Ӱ�� (NIHR) Applied ����Ӱ�� Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM), the study highlights the frustration, fear and loss of faith in the healthcare system from people within these communities, who felt they were not supported sufficiently by mainstream services.

VCFSE organisations and community networks mobilised to meet health and wellbeing needs, such as providing food and care packages to vulnerable households, food bank services, support for people experiencing homelessness, and online support groups.

The research found that these community-based approaches were deemed crucial to the success of the vaccination drive thanks to the unique position to reach members of diverse communities to boost uptake of the vaccine.

These efforts included VCFSE group helping run vaccine pop-up sites in community spaces, such as mosques and other religious sites, children’s centres, and local specialist charities such as refugee and sex worker charities.

The findings suggest that the support delivered by the VCFSE sector remains under-recognised and under-valued by the health system and decision-makers, and has prompted calls for more inclusive, community-driven solutions in future health crises.

Lead author Stephanie Gillibrand from The University of Manchester and NIHR ARC-GM, said: “The important contribution of community engagement initiatives during the pandemic and vaccine rollout is made clear in this study. Not only did VCFSE organisations and community-led networks provide significant health and wellbeing support to people across Greater Manchester, but they also played a pivotal role in building trust within hard-to-reach communities to help boost vaccine uptake.

“The value of this work needs to be recognised and learned from so steps can be taken to remove the current barriers within the health system that are stifling effective joined-up working with VCFSEs.

“Our study underscores the need to create a broader, more inclusive system which allows and promotes cross-sector collaboration, with flexibility and adaptability at the heart of future service delivery.

“With the right mechanisms in place, there is real potential to harness capacity to tackle inequalities and build trust through shared learning and greater collaborative working.”

The qualitative study, which is published in , drew insights from interviews and focus groups with people from local marginalised communities, health and care system stakeholders and VCFSE representatives.

Community participants involved groups that had been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in England, including ethnic minority groups, young adults, and those with long-term physical and mental health conditions.

During the research, concerns were raised about inability to access health services during the pandemic, including GP and specialist services. Participants also described their fear of catching the virus if they did attend healthcare settings, as well as fear of insufficient care due to well-publicised pressures in NHS settings. 

The study also found that:

• Participants felt strongly that this increased support provided by the VCFSE sector and community networks remains under-recognised and under-valued by the health system and wider public.
• Operational and logistical barriers created dissonance between communities and the system. This included difficulties with decision-making and power-sharing between VCFSE and commissioning or clinical organisations, organisational cultural clashes, red-tape and bureaucracy, and complex systems and power structures to navigate.
• Health systems should engage with the full breadth of the VCFSE sector, encouraging the involvement of smaller scale and less formal organisations as partners.
• Traditional health and care partners such as the NHS and local authorities should consider how their ways of working may need to change to foster full VCFSE inclusion on an equal standing.

in BMC Health Services ����Ӱ�� at: https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-024-10921-4#Abs1