To protect the Amazon and support the wellbeing of its people, its economy needs to shift from environmentally harmful production to a model built around the diversity of indigenous and rural communities, and standing forests.
A group of conservationists from Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, the US and the UK say that current conservation and development efforts will never sustain or scale without systemic changes in how economies are designed.
Despite extensive destruction of the Amazon in the name of economic development, Amazonian communities have seen little improvement in income, life expectancy, and education. The researchers have proposed a new model and associated policy changes that could create fair and sustainable futures for the Amazon and its people by improving infrastructure, supply chains, and social organisations.
Their results, reported in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, are focused on the Amazon, however the researchers say similar economic models could be implemented around the world if the political will exists.
The Amazon basin is home to the world’s largest tropical rainforest, representing over half of the world’s remaining rainforest, and stores vast amounts of carbon. However, decades of large-scale deforestation, as well as the increased risk of fires and floods due to climate change, has put much of the Amazon rainforest under threat. In addition to what the loss of the Amazon would mean for global carbon emissions, the rainforest is also home to many indigenous peoples and thousands of species of plants and animals.
“We need a different vision for the Amazon if we’re going to protect it,” said lead author Professor Rachael Garrett from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Geography and the Conservation Research Institute. “Half a century of deforestation and exploitation of the Amazon has not resulted in widespread development, and now the economic value of deforested areas is threatened, not to mention the threats to the global climate and water security.”
Working with colleagues from the Amazonian region, Garrett has proposed building on the success of indigenous and traditional communities to develop new economies, which could protect much of the Amazon while also improving the livelihoods, health, and food security of the many people who live there. These economic models are known as socio-bioeconomies, or SBEs.
“Conventional economic models can result in short-term gains, but over the longer term, the people and resources of the Amazon basin have been exploited by powerful interests, while there has been an underinvestment in education, innovation, and sustainable infrastructure,” said Garrett. “The conventional economic model is simply not sustainable.”
The SBE model is focused on using and restoring Amazonian and other ecosystems sustainably, and supporting indigenous and rural communities. An SBE economy might include eco-friendly tourism, or the sustainable harvest and processing of plant products into valuable foods, beverages, clothing, and medicines.
“A limited range of interests are controlling the development agenda in most countries,” said Garrett. “The only way we can change that is improving the rights and representation of the people who are not benefiting from the systems and are being harmed by ongoing environmental destruction. We believe it is possible to have win-wins for humanity and conservation, but not if we continue to consume products that have a massively negative impact. SBEs can help put these win-wins into policy and practice.”
Garrett cites the footwear brand Veja as an example of such a win-win. The French company buys the rubber for its trainers from small-scale Amazonian rubber farmers, and purchases 100% of the responsibly harvested native rubber in Brazil. As part of its sustainability efforts, the company focuses on building communities of small-scale farmers and has been financially successful without traditional advertising.
Garrett and her collaborators are calling for massive increases in social mobilisation, technology and infrastructure to support SBEs. Under an SBE model, governmental subsidies would be redirected away from agribusiness and toward smaller-scale sustainable development. The researchers also outline how to build connections between rural and urban policies in SBEs. An example is the establishment of public procurement programmes where healthy and sustainably produced foods are purchased directly from indigenous and small farming communities and served in school lunch programmes and hospitals, instead of supporting large-scale agribusiness engaged in degrading practices.
Other policy changes that could support an SBE model include redirecting finance to conservation and restoration activities, supporting community enterprises, and ensuring participatory processes to ensure inclusive, long-term benefits.
“It’s possible to have an economy that is strong and works for everyone when we dare to develop new models and visions that recognise the interconnectedness of people and nature,” said Garrett. “By popularising these ideas, investing in people and businesses who are making a difference, and supporting research into SBE innovation we can support a transformation in both conservation and development in the Amazon.
“The SBE model could help protect the Amazon and its people while avoiding climate and biodiversity disasters, but there needs to be the political will to make it happen.”
Rachael Garrett is the incoming director of the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute and a Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. She is a council member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and serves on the UN Science Panel for the Amazon.
Astronomers have discovered that red dwarf stars can produce stellar flares that carry far-ultraviolet (far-UV) radiation levels much higher than previously believed.
The discovery suggests that the intense UV radiation from these flares could significantly impact whether planets around red dwarf stars can be habitable.
“Few stars have been thought to generate enough UV radiation through flares to impact planet habitability. Our findings show that many more stars may have this capability,” said first author Vera Berger, who led the research while based at the University of Hawai’i and who is now based at the University of Cambridge.
Berger and her team used archival data from the GALEX space telescope to search for flares among 300,000 nearby stars. GALEX is a now-decommissioned NASA mission that simultaneously observed most of the sky at near-and far-UV wavelengths from 2003 to 2013. Using new computational techniques, the team mined insights from the data.
“Combining modern computer power with gigabytes of decades-old observations allowed us to search for flares on thousands and thousands of nearby stars,” said co-author Dr Michael Tucker from Ohio State University.
According to researchers, UV radiation from stellar flares can either erode planetary atmospheres, threatening their potential to support life, or contribute to the formation of RNA building blocks, which are essential for the creation of life.
The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, challenges existing models of stellar flares and exoplanet habitability, showing that far-UV emission from flares is on average three times more energetic than typically assumed, and can reach up to twelve times the expected energy levels.
“A change of three is the same as the difference in UV in the summer from Anchorage, Alaska to Honolulu, where unprotected skin can get a sunburn in less than 10 minutes,” said co-author Benjamin J. Shappee from the University of Hawai’i.
The exact cause of this stronger far-UV emission remains unclear. The team believes it might be that flare radiation is concentrated at specific wavelengths, indicating the presence of atoms like carbon and nitrogen.
“This study has changed the picture of the environments around stars less massive than our Sun, which emit very little UV light outside of flares,” said co-author Jason Hinkle.
According to Berger, now a Churchill Scholar at Cambridge, more data from space telescopes is needed to study the UV light from stars, which is crucial for understanding the source of this emission.
“Our work puts a spotlight on the need for further exploration into the effects of stellar flares on exoplanetary environments,” said Berger. “Using space telescopes to obtain UV spectra of stars will be crucial for better understanding the origins of this emission.”
A new study takes a tour of the history of research into human embryology and development to show the “cycles of attention” that led to major scientific breakthroughs.
Analysing the past sheds light on the present resurgence of research on human development. That’s the lesson of a new study by Professor Nick Hopwood, from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, that is published in the Journal of the History of Biology. The paper discusses the flourishing of human embryology a century ago, its drop in popularity after World War II, and especially its revival since the late twentieth century.
“Every journal article and news story about human development includes a bit of history, but it’s often narrow, rarely informative and not always accurate”, Hopwood says. “I wanted to stand back and see a bigger picture, then dig down to find out how and why there has been such a surge of attention. Working in Cambridge made that easier.”
The University has been at the forefront of innovation, from the first test-tube baby to the extended culture of early embryos, organoids and other stem-cell models. The networking through Cambridge Reproduction of expertise in science and medicine, humanities and social sciences helped Hopwood reconstruct the genesis of these advances. This took a combination of research in libraries and archives and interactions with scientists, including interviews, sharing of documents, attending conferences and giving talks, here and elsewhere.
“Human development has long been of special interest as evidence of our origins and for its medical relevance, but is hard to study”, Hopwood explains. “Historically there have been two main approaches. Either deciding that it’s too difficult to research human embryos because they’re usually hidden in pregnant bodies, so we should study other animals and hope results will transfer. That’s an indirect approach. Or trying for the best possible results from the few human specimens that can be obtained. That’s a direct approach. My article analyses the rise of research directly on human material as part of the changing politics of choosing a species to study. I explore how researchers distanced themselves from work on animal models but even human studies depended on this.”
Interest in human embryos grew in the later 19th century, following debates about evolution. Darwinists pointed to the similarity of humans and other animals at early stages as evidence of common descent. Critical anatomists responded by setting up networks of physicians to collect material, mainly from women’s pregnancy losses. New techniques such as serial sectioning and wax modelling from the slices made details of internal structure visible in 3-D.
This led to a watershed moment: the establishment by the Carnegie Institution of Washington of a Department of Embryology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Founded in 1914, the first research institution devoted specifically to embryology focused on human embryos, now also increasingly recovered from aseptic operations for various conditions. Important discoveries include elucidation of the timing of ovulation in the menstrual cycle, initially in rhesus macaques. Human embryos from the first two weeks after fertilization were described for the first time.
Flies, frogs and chicks
After World War II human embryology ran out of steam. A new field, developmental biology, focused on model organisms, such as flies, frogs, chicks and, as the exemplary mammal, mice.
“To make progress, the argument went, it was necessary to work on species where more could be done more easily”, Hopwood explains. “That meant micromanipulation, enough material to do biochemistry and molecular biology, and genetic tools.” This approach demonstrated its power in the 1980s, when mechanisms of development were found to be more conserved across the animal kingdom than researchers had imagined. Yet from around the same time interest revived in using human material.
“There was not a steadily rising curve of research on human development through the twentieth century”, Hopwood contends. “Instead, human embryos have gone through cycles of attention and neglect. As opportunities opened up and the balance of power shifted between researchers invested in different organisms, so the politics of species choice have changed. Over the last four decades we’ve seen a renewal of research directly on human development. This is in the first place because of changes in supply and demand.”
The achievement of human in-vitro fertilisation, with a live birth in 1978, gave access to embryos before implantation in the uterus. After much debate the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 permitted donated embryos to be kept in vitro, under strict regulations, for up to 14 days from fertilization. Though only in 2016 was that limit approached. Meanwhile, biobanks, notably the Human Developmental Biology Resource in Newcastle and London, provided ethical supplies of post-implantation stages from terminations of pregnancy.
There has been opposition from anti-abortion activists, and many fewer embryos are donated for research than scientists (and some patients) would like. But the field was transformed. As in the years around 1900, new technologies eased the study of human embryos. Only now the advances were in digital communication, molecular analysis and imaging methods. Optical slices and computer graphics replaced microscope slides and wax models.
Beyond mice
To obtain human embryos with permission and funding to study them, researchers had to make the case for studying our own species. They stimulated demand by arguing that it would no longer do simply to extrapolate from mice. Knowledge and skills from the mouse model could be applied, but the differences as well as the similarities had to be explored. That was crucial before clinical application, as in fertility treatments. It was also desirable in discovering what makes us human—or at least not mice. Funders were keen to support medically relevant research or “translational science”.
In the last fifteen years another kind of model has transformed the politics of species choice. Subject to ongoing ethical negotiations, stem-cell-based embryo models have enabled fresh kinds of experiment on human development. Some researchers even argue that, for investigating fundamentals of vertebrate development, these human systems are now the model. Mice remain a crucial resource, with almost every innovation made on them first. But since their development is rather peculiar, other laboratories are promoting comparisons with species that develop more like humans.
Around ten years ago, all this inspired the organization of a new sub-field, human developmental biology, not least through a series of conferences. Major research programmes, such as the Human Developmental Biology Initiative, bring together scientists working, in different ways, on various aspects of embryogenesis.
Questions remain. Hopwood’s historical research concentrated on the USA and the UK, with nods to continental Europe and Japan. It would be good to explore other countries’ histories, he suggests, especially since differences in reproductive politics and infrastructure mean that access to material is uneven.
More generally, Hopwood argues, “history can contribute by showing how we got here and clarifying the arguments that have been used”. “It helps stakeholders see why there are now such opportunities for research on human development, and that, because arrangements are fragile, it will take work to gain and keep public support.” So a long-term perspective can assist researchers and funders in thinking about what might happen next.
“Interest in human development has risen and fallen and risen again. Are we now going through another cycle of attention, or could interest be maintained? Will the balance shift back to animal models or will we see an ever greater focus on humans, at least in the form of stem-cell models? How might present actions shape choice of species in the future?”
The research was part-funded by a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. Story by Edward Grierson from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences communications team.
Researchers have identified an entirely new type of wood that does not fit into either category of hardwood or softwood.
Scientists from the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge University and Jagiellonian University, Poland made the discovery while undertaking an evolutionary survey of the microscopic structure of wood from some of the world’s most iconic trees and shrubs.
They found that Tulip Trees, which are related to magnolias and can grow over 30 metres (100 feet) tall, have a unique type of wood. This discovery may explain why the trees, which diverged from magnolias when earth’s atmospheric CO2 concentrations were relatively low, grow so tall and so fast. This opens new opportunities to improve carbon capture and storage in plantation forests by planting a fast-growing tree more commonly seen in ornamental gardens, or breeding Tulip Tree-like wood into other tree species.
The discovery was part of an evolutionary survey of the microscopic structure of wood from 33 tree species from the Cambridge University Botanic Garden’s Living Collections. The survey explored how wood ultrastructure evolved across softwoods (gymnosperms such as pines and conifers) and hardwoods (angiosperms including oak, ash, birch, and eucalypts).
The wood samples were collected from trees in the Botanic Garden in coordination with its Collections Coordinator. Fresh samples of wood, deposited in the previous spring growing season, were collected from a selection of trees to reflect the evolutionary history of gymnosperm and angiosperm populations as they diverged and evolved.
Using the Sainsbury Laboratory’s low temperature scanning electron microscope (cryo-SEM), the team imaged and measured the size of the nanoscale architecture of secondary cell walls (wood) in their native hydrated state.
Microscopy Core Facility Manager at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Dr Raymond Wightman, said: “We analysed some of the world’s most iconic trees like the Coast Redwood, Wollemi Pine and so-called ‘living fossils’ such as Amborella trichopoda, which is the sole surviving species of a family of plants that was the earliest still existing group to evolve separately from all other flowering plants.
“Our survey data has given us new insights into the evolutionary relationships between wood nanostructure and the cell wall composition, which differs across the lineages of angiosperm and gymnosperm plants. Angiosperm cell walls possess characteristic narrower elementary units, called macrofibrils, compared to gymnosperms.”
The researchers found the two surviving species of the ancient Liriodendron genus, commonly known as the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and Chinese Tulip Tree (Liriodendron chinense) have much larger macrofibrils than their hardwood relatives.
Hardwood angiosperm macrofibrils are about 15 nanometres in diameter and faster growing softwood gymnosperm macrofibrils have larger 25 nanometre macrofibrils. Tulip Trees have macrofibrils somewhere in between, measuring 20 nanometres.
Lead author of the research published in New Phytologist, Dr Jan Łyczakowski from Jagiellonian University, said: “We show Liriodendrons have an intermediate macrofibril structure that is significantly different from the structure of either softwood or hardwood. Liriodendrons diverged from Magnolia Trees around 30-50 million years ago, which coincided with a rapid reduction in atmospheric CO2. This might help explain why Tulip Trees are highly effective at carbon storage.”
The team suspect it is the larger macrofibrils in this ‘midwood’ or ‘accumulator-wood’ that is behind the Tulip Trees’ rapid growth.
Łyczakowski added: “Both Tulip Tree species are known to be exceptionally efficient at locking in carbon, and their enlarged macrofibril structure could be an adaptation to help them more readily capture and store larger quantities of carbon when the availability of atmospheric carbon was being reduced. Tulip Trees may end up being useful for carbon capture plantations. Some east Asian countries are already using Liriodendron plantations to efficiently lock in carbon, and we now think this might be related to its novel wood structure.”
Liriodendron tulipifera are native to northern America and Liriodendron chinense is a native species of central and southern China and Vietnam.
Łyczakowski said: “Despite its importance, we know little about how the structure of wood evolves and adapts to the external environment. We made some key new discoveries in this survey – an entirely novel form of wood ultrastructure never observed before and a family of gymnosperms with angiosperm-like hardwood instead of the typical gymnosperm softwood.
“The main building blocks of wood are the secondary cell walls, and it is the architecture of these cell walls that give wood its density and strength that we rely on for construction. Secondary cell walls are also the largest repository of carbon in the biosphere, which makes it even more important to understand their diversity to further our carbon capture programmes to help mitigate climate change.”
This research was funded by the National Science Centre Poland and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen has been awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine, in recognition of his contribution to health, healthcare and medicine.
Although I’m receiving this honour, I’m really here because of the work of the team of researchers at the Autism Research CentreSimon Baron-Cohen
Professor Baron-Cohen is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university’s Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of Trinity College.
The honorary fellowships were granted at a ceremony at the RSM’s central London home.
Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Baron-Cohen said: “Although I’m receiving this honour, I’m really here because of the work of the team of researchers at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge. I want to thank them for all their hard work into both basic science into trying to understand the cause of autism but also applied research to evaluate what kinds of support might help autistic people and their families.”
The Society also bestowed honours upon Baron Adebowale CBE, Major General Timothy Hodgetts CB, Professor Martin McKee CBE, Professor Dame Robina Shah and Professor Irene Tracey CBE.
Adapted from a news story by the Royal Society of Medicine.
The incidence of heart attacks and strokes was lower after COVID-19 vaccination than before or without vaccination, according to a new study involving nearly the whole adult population of England.
This research further supports the large body of evidence on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, which has saved millions of lives worldwideSamantha Ip
The study, published today in Nature Communications, showed that the incidence of arterial thromboses, such as heart attacks and strokes, was up to 10% lower in the 13 to 24 weeks after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Following a second dose, the incidence was up to 27% lower after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and up to 20% lower after the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine.
The incidence of common venous thrombotic events – mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis – followed a similar pattern.
Research led by the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Edinburgh and enabled by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK analysed de-identified health records from 46 million adults in England between 8 December 2020 and 23 January 2022. Data scientists compared the incidence of cardiovascular diseases after vaccination with the incidence before or without vaccination, during the first two years of the vaccination programme.
Co-first author Dr Samantha Ip, Research Associate at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, said: “We studied COVID-19 vaccines and cardiovascular disease in nearly 46 million adults in England and found a similar or lower incidence of common cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, following each vaccination than before or without vaccination. This research further supports the large body of evidence on the safety of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, which has been shown to provide protection against severe COVID-19 and saved millions of lives worldwide.”
Previous research found that the incidence of rare cardiovascular complications is higher after some COVID-19 vaccines. For example, incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported following mRNA-based vaccines such as the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine, and vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia following adenovirus-based vaccines such as the AstraZeneca vaccine. This study supports these findings, but importantly it did not identify new adverse cardiovascular conditions associated with COVID-19 vaccination and offers further reassurance that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risk.
Incidence of cardiovascular disease is higher after COVID-19, especially in severe cases. This may explain why incidence of heart attacks and strokes is lower in vaccinated people compared with unvaccinated people, but further explanations are beyond the scope of this study.
Professor William Whiteley, Associate Director at the BHF Data Science Centre and Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The COVID-19 vaccination programme rollout began strongly in the UK, with over 90% of the population over the age of 12 vaccinated with at least one dose by January 2022.
“This England-wide study offers patients reassurance of the cardiovascular safety of first, second and booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. It demonstrates that the benefits of second and booster doses, with fewer common cardiovascular events include heart attacks and strokes after vaccination, outweigh the very rare cardiovascular complications.”
The research team used de-identified linked data from GP practices, hospital admissions and death records, analysed in a secure data environment provided by NHS England.
Co-last author Dr Venexia Walker, Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, said: “Given the critical role of COVID-19 vaccines in protecting people from COVID-19, it is important we continue to study the benefits and risks associated with them. The availability of population-wide data has allowed us to study different combinations of COVID-19 vaccines and to consider rare cardiovascular complications. This would not have been possible without the very large data that we are privileged to access and our close cross-institution collaborations.”
New study proposes a framework for “Child Safe AI” following recent incidents which revealed that many children see chatbots as quasi-human and trustworthy.
When not designed with children’s needs in mind, Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have an “empathy gap” that puts young users at particular risk of distress or harm, according to a study.
The research, by a University of Cambridge academic, Dr Nomisha Kurian, urges developers and policy actors to make “child-safe AI” an urgent priority. It provides evidence that children are particularly susceptible to treating AI chatbots as lifelike, quasi-human confidantes, and that their interactions with the technology can often go awry when it fails to respond to their unique needs and vulnerabilities.
The study links that gap in understanding to recent cases in which interactions with AI led to potentially dangerous situations for young users. They include an incident in 2021, when Amazon’s AI voice assistant, Alexa, instructed a 10-year-old to touch a live electrical plug with a coin. Last year, Snapchat’s My AI gave adult researchers posing as a 13-year-old girl tips on how to lose her virginity to a 31-year-old.
Both companies responded by implementing safety measures, but the study says there is also a need to be proactive in the long-term to ensure that AI is child-safe. It offers a 28-item framework to help companies, teachers, school leaders, parents, developers and policy actors think systematically about how to keep younger users safe when they “talk” to AI chatbots.
Dr Kurian conducted the research while completing a PhD on child wellbeing at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She is now based in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge. Writing in the journal Learning, Media and Technology, she argues that AI has huge potential, which deepens the need to “innovate responsibly”.
“Children are probably AI’s most overlooked stakeholders,” Dr Kurian said. “Very few developers and companies currently have well-established policies on how child-safe AI looks and sounds. That is understandable because people have only recently started using this technology on a large scale for free. But now that they are, rather than having companies self-correct after children have been put at risk, child safety should inform the entire design cycle to lower the risk of dangerous incidents occurring.”
Kurian’s study examined real-life cases where the interactions between AI and children, or adult researchers posing as children, exposed potential risks. It analysed these cases using insights from computer science about how the large language models (LLMs) in conversational generative AI function, alongside evidence about children’s cognitive, social and emotional development.
LLMs have been described as “stochastic parrots”: a reference to the fact that they currently use statistical probability to mimic language patterns without necessarily understanding them. A similar method underpins how they respond to emotions.
This means that even though chatbots have remarkable language abilities, they may handle the abstract, emotional and unpredictable aspects of conversation poorly; a problem that Kurian characterises as their “empathy gap”. They may have particular trouble responding to children, who are still developing linguistically and often use unusual speech patterns or ambiguous phrases. Children are also often more inclined than adults to confide sensitive personal information.
Despite this, children are much more likely than adults to treat chatbots as if they are human. Recent research found that children will disclose more about their own mental health to a friendly-looking robot than to an adult. Kurian’s study suggests that many chatbots’ friendly and lifelike designs similarly encourage children to trust them, even though AI may not understand their feelings or needs.
“Making a chatbot sound human can help the user get more benefits out of it, since it sounds more engaging, appealing and easy to understand,” Kurian said. “But for a child, it is very hard to draw a rigid, rational boundary between something that sounds human, and the reality that it may not be capable of forming a proper emotional bond.”
Her study suggests that these challenges are evidenced in reported cases such as the Alexa and MyAI incidents, where chatbots made persuasive but potentially harmful suggestions to young users.
In the same study in which MyAI advised a (supposed) teenager on how to lose her virginity, researchers were able to obtain tips on hiding alcohol and drugs, and concealing Snapchat conversations from their “parents”. In a separate reported interaction with Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, a tool which was designed to be adolescent-friendly, the AI became aggressive and started gaslighting a user who was asking about cinema screenings.
While adults may find this behaviour intriguing or even funny, Kurian’s study argues that it is potentially confusing and distressing for children, who may trust a chatbot as a friend or confidante. Children’s chatbot use is often informal and poorly monitored. Research by the nonprofit organisation Common Sense Media has found that 50% of students aged 12-18 have used Chat GPT for school, but only 26% of parents are aware of them doing so.
Kurian argues that clear principles for best practice that draw on the science of child development will help companies keep children safe, since developers who are locked into a commercial arms race to dominate the AI market may otherwise lack sufficient support and guidance around catering to their youngest users.
Her study adds that the empathy gap does not negate the technology’s potential. “AI can be an incredible ally for children when designed with their needs in mind – for example, we are already seeing the use of machine learning to reunite missing children with their families and some exciting innovations in giving children personalised learning companions. The question is not about banning children from using AI, but how to make it safe to help them get the most value from it,” she said.
The study therefore proposes a framework of 28 questions to help educators, researchers, policy actors, families and developers evaluate and enhance the safety of new AI tools.
For teachers and researchers, these prompts address issues such as how well new chatbots understand and interpret children’s speech patterns; whether they have content filters and built-in monitoring; and whether they encourage children to seek help from a responsible adult on sensitive issues.
The framework urges developers to take a child-centred approach to design, by working closely with educators, child safety experts and young people themselves, throughout the design cycle. “Assessing these technologies in advance is crucial,” Kurian said. “We cannot just rely on young children to tell us about negative experiences after the fact. A more proactive approach is necessary. The future of responsible AI depends on protecting its youngest users.”
Late detection is the biggest worry in relation to cancer diagnosis, with 55% of people wanting to see future advances in early cancer detection
The public overwhelmingly support the use of AI to tackle cancer
43% of people recognise the major impact universities can have on reducing deaths from cancer
Two-thirds of the public say they are very or somewhat worried about being told they have the disease – higher than for any other medical condition, including dementia and having a heart attack – according to polling released today.
The survey, carried out among 2,000 UK adults by Public First on behalf of the University of Cambridge, highlights the concerns that people have over a cancer diagnosis. It suggests that late diagnosis – too late to treat their cancer – is the biggest concern in relation to a cancer diagnosis (70%) followed by the impact on one’s family and those around them (52%).
When asked which transformative development they would like to see in the future – including eradicating diseases such as malaria, self-driving cars becoming commonplace, and genetically engineered crops enabling us to end famine – 55% of respondents chose “being able to detect and treat cancer early enough so that no-one dies of the disease”. Only eliminating poverty came anywhere close, with 23% of respondents.
The University of Cambridge and its partner Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) are working to build Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a revolutionary new type of hospital that promises to change the story of cancer. The specialist cancer facility is bringing world-leading scientists within the walls of a new NHS hospital – for the first time – to detect cancer earlier and deliver personalised healthcare and precision cancer medicine to patients.
Artist’s impression of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus
“Cancer affects one in two of us and understandably induces fear in patients and their families. People are worried that treatments won’t work or that the side-effects will be terrible, but also what their diagnosis will mean to their family.
“At Cambridge we believe it’s possible to imagine a world where there is no longer a fear of cancer. It’s an ambitious goal that we – along with many other researchers around the world – are working hard to realise.”
Professor Richard Gilbertson, Director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre
Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald demonstrates the capsule sponge for early detection of oesophageal cancer
When asked what would concern them most about receiving a cancer diagnosis, the most commonly selected worry was that the cancer would be detected too late to treat (70%). 52% of respondents were concerned about the impact on their family or those around them, 41% about getting access to the right treatment, and 36% about the side-effects of treatments.
Asked what would make them less afraid of being diagnosed with cancer, 61% replied “Knowing that the form of cancer I have is treatable”. Highlighting once again the importance of early detection, over half of respondents (51%) said “Knowing we are better at catching cancer early enough to treat”.
“Outcomes can be completely transformed – better survival and less invasive treatments – if the cancer is diagnosed early enough. That’s why a lot of our focus now is on understanding cancer at its very earliest stage – years before an individual will develop any symptoms.
“That way, it may even be possible to prevent the disease in the first place, or at least catch it when it can be treated easily.”
Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, Director of the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute
Knowing that a lot of people – including organisations such as the University of Cambridge – are researching how we prevent, diagnose and treat cancer is reassuring, the poll suggests. A third of respondents (32%) said this would make them less afraid of a cancer diagnosis. 43% of respondents believe cancer research at universities will have a big impact on reducing deaths from cancer (though perhaps unsurprisingly, 64% thought the biggest impact on reducing cancer deaths would come by reducing NHS waiting times).
Professor Steve Jackson, who developed the life-saving cancer drug olaparib
“Cambridge is really leading the way on transforming our understanding of cancer and how we can prevent it and treat it. This brilliant work will save and transform lives locally, nationally, and around the world, such as being able to sequence a tumour’s DNA at speed right through to developing revolutionary new cancer drugs such as olaparib. It is world-leading work which makes me extremely proud.”
Professor Deborah Prentice, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge
Dr Raj Jena, who has pioneered the use of AI in preparing radiolotherapy scans, saving many hours of doctors’ time
The public were asked their views on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve diagnosis and treatment of cancer. An overwhelming majority were in favour of its application, with just 8% saying we shouldn’t use AI for cancer diagnosis and treatment. 55% thought it was acceptable to use AI to speed up research into new treatments, 47% to help a doctor diagnose their cancer and 41% to help their doctor decide which treatment would work best.
At the University of Cambridge, scientists are developing AI tools with the potential to transform cancer treatments, by speeding up diagnosis, personalising therapy, and reducing costs. As part of this work, researchers are using AI to predict how patients will respond to a particular treatment before they receive it, allow them to start treatment sooner, target hard-to-treat cancers, and enable screening of cancers that at the moment would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
When presented with a number of undesirable future events, a cancer diagnosis was second only to the death of a close relative in terms of being most worrying (64% verses 72%) – higher than nuclear war (56%), terrorism (53%) and being a victim of crime (52%). Surprisingly, older age groups were significantly less likely to say they were “very worried” about cancer compared to younger age groups – 14% of over 65s compared to 26% of 18-24 years olds and 29% of 25-34 year olds.
The University of Cambridge is currently fundraising for the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. To support this, it is launching a month-long focus on its cancer research, including a look at the new hospital, meeting researchers studying the earliest stages of cancer, finding out how AI is helping in the fight against the disease, and meeting some of the patients who are playing a key role in groundbreaking cancer research.
Architect’s image of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital
Work will begin soon on a new hospital that will transform how we diagnose and treat cancer. Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital will treat patients across the East of England, but the research that takes place there promises to change the lives of cancer patients across the UK and beyond.
Professor Richard Gilbertson
Dr Hugo Ford
Standing on the rooftop of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Professor Richard Gilbertson points to an unassuming car park below, nestled between the institute and global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
“That’s where the new hospital will be,” he says.
It’s hard to envisage that in just a few years’ time, this will be the location of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, a radical new hospital that promises to change the story of cancer forever. It will be funded two-thirds by Government and one-third by philanthropy, with £100m to be raised jointly by the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust.
The Hospital – a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust – will have 77 single inpatient rooms, along with a significantly expanded outpatient department and larger day patient unit.
But what really sets it apart is that in the same building, alongside the patients and their medical teams, will be academic and industry researchers, focused on delivering solutions that will transform the lives of millions of cancer patients – not just in the Cambridge and the East of England, but worldwide.
“At the moment, cancer affects one in two of us and is a diagnosis that induces fear in patients and their families,” says Gilbertson, Director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre and Research Lead for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. He is responsible for ensuring that research is at the heart of everything that takes place there.
“But imagine a world where there is no longer a fear of cancer. That’s the world we’re trying to create.”
Dr Hugo Ford, Head of Cancer Services at CUH and Clinical Lead for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, says that bringing academics and doctors together is about “maximising the clinical benefits, the real world benefits of the research that’s done. And we’re trying to bring in other communities from industry, from biotech, from other university departments, to build a much wider community.”
Catching cancer early
One of the main focus areas for the new hospital is an area in which Cambridge has built unique expertise: early detection and intervention.
“We know that for a lot of cancers there is a latency period where they’re either in a precancerous stage or in an early cancer stage before it can ever be diagnosed by conventional methods,” says Ford. Are there ways to detect the cancer at this early stage and intervene?
Gilbertson says such an approach will present a ‘win-win’ for both patients and the NHS. “If you detect the cancer early, the survival chances are much better and the treatment needed is generally easier and more straightforward. This is better for patients and much less expensive for the NHS.”
The top floor of the future hospital will house the Early Cancer Institute Research Clinic, headed by Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, a clinical researcher who spends part of her time looking after patients with oesophageal cancer, a cancer that is difficult to treat if not caught early.
“We’re being much more proactive,” says Fitzgerald. “We’re trying to predict who needs more careful monitoring or preventative action ahead of them even knowing they’ve got a problem.”
This will make Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital the only hospital in the UK that has space specifically aimed at preventing cancer, she says. “It’s really a testament to putting faith in the fact that we think there are different ways of doing things for the future.”
Fitzgerald already heads the Early Cancer Institute across the Campus, which is undergoing redevelopment as the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute to enable world-class fundamental research aimed at understanding how cancers emerge and develop, finding biomarkers to detect it, and developing new strategies to find people at risk and to intervene.
She says the new Research Clinic in the hospital will enable them to translate their discoveries into clinical practice. On the top floor it will have space for healthy and pre-symptomatic individuals to take part in studies as well as a “hotel type of arrangement” where researchers from across Cambridge and beyond – often from disciplines outside medicine, such as physics, engineering and maths – are able to spend a period of time working in partnership with patients to develop and test their innovations.
“The best way to really get research done in the most efficient way is to have it right alongside the patient,” she says. “The closer you can bring these things together, to really embed it in the whole ecosystem, it makes it easier for the researchers, it makes it easier for the patients.”
Developing a diagnostic test can be a long and laborious process. Fitzgerald knows this only too well. Her capsule sponge for diagnosing Barrett’s oesophagus, a condition that greatly increases the risk of oesophageal cancer, is in the final stages of testing before being rolled out across the NHS, but it has taken two decades to reach this stage.
The hospital has carried out economic modelling that shows how having researchers in geographically dispersed locations – even just across the city, as is the case with Cambridge – can significantly hamper innovation.
“Even for some of the more straightforward inventions that we’ve invented here, particularly in early detection, could have been developed years faster had scientists been located next to patients,” says Gilbertson, who is also Chair of the NHS Innovation External Advisory Board, and so is familiar with the challenges of bringing innovations into the NHS.
“To change the story of cancer, there needs to be a seamless integration between research and NHS care,” he explains. “We’re seeking to take the very best of Cambridge science and make sure it’s ‘NHS ready’, ensuring it can be readily deployed in York, Hartlepool, Stockport, wherever, patients need it.”
Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald with the capsule on a string
Professor Jean Abraham
Kinder, faster treatments
While the ambition is to catch cancer early enough to cure it – and ultimately, to intervene early enough to prevent it – there will always be patients needing more intensive or longer-term treatment.
In the past, cancer treatments brought with them extremely unpleasant side-effects, but thanks to new generations of medicines and therapies – including so-called PARP inhibitors developed here in Cambridge – treatments can be much more targeted, making them more effective and with fewer side-effects.
Professor Jean Abraham directs the Precision Breast Cancer Institute, which will move into Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. Abraham and her team use the latest advances in genomics to better match treatment to particular changes in DNA that give rise to the tumour. Once a patient is undergoing treatment, they hope to monitor almost in real time how the tumour is responding – is it shrinking in response to the drugs, for example – and adjust as necessary.
“One of the great things that will happen when we get into the hospital is that we’ll have the Precision Breast Cancer Institute and side-by-side to that will be our NHS Breast Cancer Unit for our patients,” she says.
Equally exciting, she says, is that next to these will be the Integrated Cancer Medicine Institute. There, researchers will look for ways to bring together the many different data sets collected from cancer patients – from DNA to blood tests and biopsies to medical imaging, for example – and apply artificial intelligence (AI) to guide treatment options.
Gilbertson says this will help them completely transform the currently “very clunky” patient pathway that starts with the patient noticing something is wrong and getting referred by their GP to their local hospital where doctors will run a number of tests.
“Those tests are like a hand of cards,” he says. “Doctors currently hold in their hands a bunch of x-rays, blood tests, DNA sequencing, histology, and clinical information and try to compare these to make decisions.
“Comparing these very different pieces of information is hard, and currently involves a group of very smart and very busy people sitting in a room – nurses, doctors, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists – spending many hours trying to make sense of these data for 50 or so patients at a time. You can imagine that this takes hours and is very inefficient.”
Multiply this process across the NHS and it creates “massive workforce issues and inefficiencies. But if we could harness the power of AI to read scans, read histology reports, look at genomic data, and importantly integrate all this data, then this could transform the speed, accuracy and efficiency to make real time clinical decisions for 40 of those 50 patients.
“This doesn’t take the doctor out of the picture. Most likely it will provide rapid answers for the 30-40 patients who have more straightforward treatment options, freeing the team to discuss the mode complex and difficult cases.”
Listening to the voices of patients
Crucial to the development of Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital has been the involvement of patients – after all, its entire ethos is about improving their lives.
Ensuring that their voices are heard is the responsibility of Elaine Chapman, the Lead Advisory Nurse on the project and herself a person living with breast cancer.
“I see very much part of my role as helping us work out how we’re going to make this building work in practice on a day-to-day basis. So for patients, that’s about thinking what experience, what things they might be feeling and thinking when they’re coming to the buildingand how can we have an environment that will help them to feel comfortable?”
Chapman is the liaison with the Patient Advisory Group, co-chaired by Fiona Carey and Neil Stutchbury.
“We’re trying to change the experience for cancer patients and make it better,” says Carey, who took early retirement in 2012 following her third major surgery, which was for kidney metastases in the pancreas, which took a huge toll on her. “You wouldn’t build a Cineplex without talking to people who are going to use it. If you have your patients around the table from the beginning, you’re going to avoid costly mistakes.”
Patients have been heavily involved in the design and building of the new hospital from the start, sitting on all the working groups, alongside the professionals.
“We see things clinicians don’t see,” says Carey. “We know things they don’t know. And patients aren’t just patients. They have skills and expertise. They might be engineers, architects, accountants, artists – we all bring stuff into the room beyond what would have been there without us.”
Patients groups have been involved in the hospital project since very early on. This has resulted in important changes to the proposed design, such as having changing rooms and procedure rooms connected by a door rather than across a public corridor.
“We all know about gowns,” says Carey. “The whole thing is really awkward. Should I wear shoes and socks? Is my bum hanging out the back? Now the design has been changed to remove that problem.”
Chapman says there is great enthusiasm for the project among the patients she speaks to. “This new way of doing things, having those University institutes integrated into the building so that research can go from a thought straight to a patient is incredibly inspiring.”
Fiona Carey
Elaine Chapman
Great expectations
Work will begin imminently on the new specialist hospital within the burgeoning Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which is itself located at the heart of the UK’s and Europe’s leading life sciences cluster.
It’s anticipated that Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital will open its doors to patients, doctors and researchers in 2029. For everyone involved, it cannot come soon enough.
“We already do amazing things in Cambridge,” says Chapman. “But by having a new building that has been designed in partnership with patients, clinicians and the University, we’ll improve the experience for those working in there and for our patients coming to it.”
Ford believes that the atmosphere that they will create in the new hospital will make it feel like “a place that people want to come and work at, and feel that what they do is changing people’s lives“.
As a practising clinician, he says that for the first time in his career, he looks forward to being able to offer people treatment in an environment that genuinely contributes to their health and well-being.
There’s a lot of evidence about the impact of the environment on the patients, he says. “It makes a difference to how they feel about their treatments and it makes a big difference to the way that the staff approach their work. Ultimately, the environment makes a major contribution to successful patient outcomes.“
The ambition is for the hospital’s impact to resonate far beyond its four walls, says Abraham.
“We can change the outcomes and the way we care for our breast cancer and other cancer patients, both here and around the world,” she says. “What we want to develop are tools and ways in which we can help not just local patients, but regional, national and international patients. We know we can deliver this because of networks of centres who have worked with us nationally and internationally on a variety of studies who we will partner with to increase our global impact.”
All of this is possible, says Gilbertson, because Cambridge is “a magnet for brilliance” that spans across the disciplines and from which the Hospital can draw expertise.
“By uniting the brilliance of Cambridge with our patients, we can totally transform the way we practice medicine,” he says. “Cambridge is a special place. In fact, it’s a special place for the country and beyond. Our vision is not just for the NHS – it reaches to other countries. It’s a unique time to achieve that.”
The University would be grateful to hear from people, trusts and foundations interested in providing significant philanthropic support for the hospital. Please contact Mary Jane Boland, Director of Development, Cambridge University Health Partners.
Illustration of T cells (purple) attacking cancer cells (green)
Our immune system has billions of ‘T cells’ which recognise and destroy cells that might pose a threat to our wellbeing, such as those that show specific hallmarks of infection and disease. But these remarkable cells appear to be outwitted by cancer cells, which evade detection and grow uncontrollably.
CAR-T is a type of immunotherapy that provides a way round this by turning a patient’s own T cells into a battalion of highly targeted killers.
In 2020, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, became one of only a small number of centres in England equipped to provide this complex treatment.
For some of these patients, the treatment has cured them of their cancer.
“CAR-T cell therapy is a ‘living treatment’ in that once the cells are given to a patient, they persist for many months or even years, ready to attack the cancer cells should they pop up again,” explains Dr Ben Uttenthal, clinical lead for immune effector cell therapies at Addenbrooke’s and the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Centre’s Cancer Immunology Programme.
“For some types of aggressive cancer we are finding that we can cure more than double the number of patients using CAR-T cell therapy.It’s been a game-changing treatment – and we’re only just scratching the surface of what’s possible.
“All the parts of the jigsaw are now coming together to develop newer and better therapies in Cambridge so that we can get more people back into the life they want to live.”
What is CAR-T cell therapy?
Blood is collected from the patient and their T cells are isolated.
The T cells are then reprogrammed to carry a protein called the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which recognises certain cancer cells.
These modified CAR-T cells are then grown into large numbers and given back to the patient.
When the CAR-T cell spots a cancer cell, it starts to multiply and attract other parts of the immune system to attack and kill the cancer.
“I was basically told there was nothing else that could be done [for my leukaemia] as far as conventional medicines were concerned. It was at this point my consultant told me about a new trial that was taking place known as CAR-T cell therapy. For me it was the last chance saloon,” said Steve Johnson.
“Having the treatment is not pleasant – I had a number of fevers and temperature spikes for two weeks after the CAR-T cells were put back in, but I have absolutely no doubt this treatment saved my life.”
So far, only some types of blood cancers have been approved for CAR-T cell therapy by the NHS, explains Uttenthal: “The pioneering treatment is currently being offered to patients with aggressive forms of blood cancer called B-cell lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who have either relapsed or not responded well to chemotherapy or stem cell treatment.”
One such patient was a 54-year-old woman with a B-cell lymphoma which had shown no response to several different types of chemotherapy.
“After we infused the CAR-T cells back into her, the cells became activated and attacked her lymphoma,” says Uttenthal.
“The reaction was so vigorous that at one point we needed to give an antidote to damp down the immune response. She needed intensive monitoring for a time, but after a couple of weeks she improved and she’s now completely recovered. The last time we spoke she was away on a golfing trip in the Mediterranean!”
The number of patients who can benefit from CAR-T cell therapy is increasing, explains Uttenthal: “That’s partly because the success of CAR-T cells has meant that they are being brought to earlier lines of treatment.
“But we want to increase this yet further by implementing CAR-T cell therapy for other kinds of cancer, and by making CAR-T cells that have fewer side effects so that they can be given in less specialist centres.”
To improve CAR-T cell therapy further needs experts like Dr Mike Chapman, whose work at the MRC Toxicology Unit in Cambridge has focussed on identifying new targets and reducing toxicity.
New targets, less toxicity
Dr Mike Chapman is an expert in proteomics – the study of the interactions and structures of proteins and their cellular activities – and is the “academic driver behind what we do” says Uttenthal.
One focus of Chapman’s work has been myeloma, a cancer of a type of white blood cell called plasma cells. “Although CAR-T cells have been developed for this cancer, they haven’t yet given the long-term responses that we have seen in other blood cancers,” he explains.
Taking samples of tumour from patients with myeloma, Chapman has been using proteomic techniques to map and quantify the many thousands of proteins on the surface of these cells – and then using computational approaches to prioritise and select them as potential targets.
Having multiple targets will be better than just one, adds Chapman, “otherwise, the cancer will always find ways to escape.”
He is currently working with CRUK’s innovation arm, Cancer Research Horizons, to progress the most advanced of the targets he’s identified into effective treatments for cancer patients.
“There’s a predictability about CAR-T cell therapy,” adds Chapman.
“With blood cancers, if you know the target on the cancer cell and you can make the CAR-T cell that will target it, then these living therapies are essentially curative. And we also know that if some off-target killing of normal blood cells happens then the patient’s blood system copes well.”
But, in the case of myelomas, current therapies have run into problems whereby the CAR-T cell accidentally targets cells in the brain tissue. Chapman is working on a potential solution: ‘on-off gates’.
“We can make CAR-T constructs clever enough to switch themselves off if they recognise a marker that identifies it as the wrong cell to kill – like a brain cell,” he explains.
“But we’re taking this a stage further by re-wiring the cell to attack cancer cells that express only low levels of the target. It’s a complicated system but the great thing about CAR-T cells is it’s a ‘rational therapy’ – what you predict happens actually does happen.”
Making CAR-T ‘in house’
CAR-T therapy is expensive because both the engineering of the cells and the manufacturing is carried out by specialist companies. Sarah Albon is looking to bring this home.
Albon is the director of the Cambridge Cellular Therapy Laboratory (CCTL) at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. She leads a team with expertise in immunotherapies and delivering bone marrow and stem cell transplants across the whole of the East of England.
“That’s CCTL’s ‘bread-and-butter’ job,” she says. “But we also act as a regulated cell handler for a number of other novel cell therapy products – particularly those that have just come onto the market like CAR-T cells.”
Currently, the CAR-T cell therapies are manufactured by large pharmaceutical companies. Albon’s team delivers the patient cells to the manufacturer and then receives and stores the final T cell product ready for when the patient needs it.
“These novel products are made specifically for each patient from their own cells, so we have to be 100% sure they are what we think they are to make sure that each patient receives the correct treatment. This is why the work we do in CCTL is highly regulated.”
A state-of-the-art clean room suite is being built on the Addenbrooke’s site that will expand the facilities of CCTL significantly. The aim is to deliver more treatments to more patients for more cancers, in readiness for the planned Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital being built.
The expansion will also mean a greater capacity to be involved in clinical trials.
“A CAR-T might be licenced for use in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia for example, but in order for that same product to be used in a different malignancy, it would have to undergo a clinical trial in that patient population. Then the manufacturer gathers the data and applies for a licence,” she explains.
“We already work closely with the Cambridge Clinical Trials Centre at Addenbrooke’s on CAR-T trials and we will be expanding this once the new labs are up and running.
“Our ultimate goal is to manufacture our own CAR-Ts in our own laboratories here in Cambridge. The expertise and infrastructure are in place, and our new expanded facilities will enable us to do that. It’s now within reach.”
The drug olaparib has now been used to treat over 140,000 patients globally, changing the outlook for people with breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers.
Wetalk to Professor Sir Steve Jackson about chance, risk, curiosity and shots-on-goal in the journey of his discovery.
Steve admits he can be a bit evangelical about DNA repair.
For the past 35 years in Cambridge, he and his team have explored how our cells are able to deal with damage to our DNA.
Thanks to his and others’ work we now know that an orchestrated network of ‘molecular police’ patrol, recognise and repair mistakes in our DNA caused either by accident or by agents like UV light or carcinogens. DNA repair keeps our genetic material intact so that it can carry on encoding the functions necessary for life.
But Steve’s fundamental curiosity about the nitty-gritty of DNA repair also led him in what he describes as “wonderfully unforeseen directions”.
After a chance observation and a leap of thinking, he realised that it was possible to switch off certain DNA repair mechanisms in cancer cells, causing them to die, while normal cells “just shrugged their shoulders and carried on growing and dividing”.
This led to him setting up a team of scientists in 1999 that created olaparib, a new class of cancer drug, which has now been used to treat over 140,000 patients globally. One of these patients is Jackie van Bochoven.
Jackie’s story
Jackie was diagnosed with BRCA1 breast cancer in February 2019. She was having yearly mammograms because of her family history of cancer and her tumour was caught early. But, although it was small, the cancer was very aggressive. She tells us what happened next:
“When I had the diagnosis, I was shocked and numb. There were so many things going through my head. I thought about my children. And I thought about my mum and my sister who had both been diagnosed with breast cancer.
After the initial biopsy, I met Professor Jean Abraham at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and she thought I was a good candidate for a new trial for breast cancer involving a combination of chemotherapy and olaparib.
I felt it was a fantastic opportunity. I was thinking about my family and future generations. I felt it was important to be part of the trial.
Five years on, I’ve just found out this week [April 2024] that the trial’s been very successful. I’m back at work. I’m enjoying life. The trial has made a huge difference, and the success rate has been really positive for me. I’m taking every day as it comes and taking every opportunity that I can.”
Steve’s story
What excites Steve is understanding how biology works and why it sometimes goes wrong. But what galvanises him, he says, is knowing there are people alive today as a result of his “counterintuitive” discovery of how to create a cancer drug:
I’m a scientist so I haven’t tended to come into contact with patients who my work has helped. But it’s such a privilege when I have. One lady I met a few years ago stays in my mind. Her ovarian cancer had returned and she was offered olaparib as part of a trial. She described how frightening it was to be trying something so new but felt it was her only hope. The drug worked and when we met, she had no signs of the cancer.
She said that I’d given her life back to her. I don’t tend to think of myself as a lifesaver but it’s probably no surprise that I consider the development of olaparib as the most meaningful outcome in my career so far.
When I started out as an independent group leader in Cambridge, nearly everything my group touched seemed to turn to gold. And then a reviewer’s comment made me stop and think. I had brilliant people in my lab at the Gurdon Institute, where I was based when I moved to Cambridge in 1991. We were working in new areas, studying how genes are transcribed into RNA to make proteins and we also had first insights into other cellular processes. We had a brilliant review from our funders at the end of the first five years, but one of the comments questioned whether it was relevant for cancer patients.
I was concerned that great research on its own might not be fundable. We needed to find translational opportunities that would potentially benefit patients.
Meanwhile I’d stumbled across something new and interesting: an enzyme that was activated by breaks in DNA. It took a little time for the penny to drop but, when it did, I realised that something activated by broken DNA is probably involved in DNA repair. The enzyme was part of a ‘molecular police force’ that patrols, spots damage and triggers the fixing processes.
“My Eureka moments?
A counterintuitive idea and a late-night conversation in a bar.”
This started cogs whirring in my brain. I knew that radiation and chemotherapies kill cancer cells by generating DNA damage. Could we make drugs that stop the molecular police from repairing the damage?
I couldn’t get people to buy into the idea… why would you want to inhibit DNA repair? We needDNA repair. It was counterintuitive to think about knocking it out.
One of the great things about Cambridge is that there are lots of examples of very successful biotech start-ups. I thought, if they can do it, why can’t I? And that’s the story of KuDOS, the company I set up in 1997. I was a young professor in Cambridge and the science was new, but a small set of venture capital groups had the confidence to back me in my ideas. Crucially I also had the support of my funders (the predecessors of Cancer Research UK) and the Tech Transfer Office (now Cambridge Enterprise).
The game plan was to go all-out and develop drugs against DNA repair enzymes, including against a protein family called poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) which we knew helped repair broken DNA. Out of this programme came olaparib, a potent PARP inhibitor.
“There’s something about the environment here in Cambridge that not only creates great science. It also really nurtures people and connections.”
And then came the second Eureka moment. I was at a conference in a late night bar talking to Professor Alan Ashworth who at the time was at the Institute for Cancer Research in London. He was working on cells with mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, which commonly occur in people with cancer.
DNA repair is so important to our survival that we have evolved a backup mechanism in case PARP fails. One such process is called homologous recombination and it involves DNA being exchanged between identical pieces of DNA to repair it.
Alan and others had figured out that BRCA1 and BRCA2 are very important for homologous recombination. We speculated that if you block the PARP repair mechanism in people with cancers caused by BRCA1/2 defects, their healthy cells might revert to their backup and survive but, because the tumour cells have no BRCA1 or 2, they may have no backup and so would die. This is exactly what scientists in our groups found.
This was the answer. It meant that the PARP inhibitors that KuDOS had developed could be used to treat patients who had BRCA1/2-mutated cancers. Sure enough, when we tested this, the BRCA-deficient cells dropped dead when you gave them a PARP inhibitor at concentrations where normal cells just shrugged their shoulders and carried on growing and dividing.
We published our work in the journal Nature in 2005. It took us almost 18 months to get it through the reviewers. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe it. They were saying – at least for a while – was this really all that exciting and interesting?
Meanwhile, work was moving fast at KuDOS. Olaparib had already gone into healthy volunteers. The next stages of clinical trials were going to be very expensive. The best way forward would be either to partner with a pharmaceutical company to share the risk and share the benefit, or to be acquired by a pharma company, which is what we did. AstraZeneca bought KuDOS in 2006 for $210m.
“I consider olaparib as the most meaningful outcome in my career so far.”
This year marks 10 years since the European Commission granted approval for olaparib, marketed as Lynparza (the trade-name of olaparib) by AstraZeneca, to treat ovarian cancer patients who have BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. The drug has been jointly developed and commercialised by AstraZeneca and MSD, and is now approved in several countries across multiple tumour types including forms of breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer.
Then, in 2023,the NHS agreed a deal to roll-out the drug to treat advanced prostate cancer and a form of early breast cancer.
I’m now based at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute, which is next door both to AstraZeneca’s European headquarters and Addenbrooke’s Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. I pass clinicians in the Institute corridor who prescribe olaparib for their patients. It’s nearly 35 years since I set up my lab in Cambridge and I oscillate between thinking the time has gone in a flash to thinking it’s been a long slog which nearly did me in!
One thing I’ve learned is that ideas need people to drive them over lines. In particular my KuDOS colleagues Niall Martin, Graeme Smith, Keith Menear and Barrie Ward, as well as Mark O’Connor who brought huge continuity to the drug’s development when he moved to AstraZeneca from KuDOS when it was acquired, and Susan Galbraith at AstraZeneca who had the insight and gravitas to allow the programme to progress. There’s something about the environment here in Cambridge that not only creates great science. It also really nurtures people and connections.
Curiosity is also hugely important. There are a great many things we don’t know and many things we don’t even know we don’t know. The possibility of scientific discovery is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
Science is moving ever more quickly now. I’m hopeful that more of these kinds of drugs will find their way to the right patients in combinations that could be curative for some. Right now, PARP inhibitors are fairly expensive but when they fall off their patent cliff, maybe usage could go from hundreds of thousands to millions of people.
In my view, the future of cancer will also increasingly involve early diagnosis. It’s intriguing to think that, for some patients, it might be possible to take olaparib or other drugs as a preventative treatment to wipe out rogue cells before they even get a chance to become a fully grown cancer.
What’s my advice for early career researchers? Take calculated risks. It’s a shots-on-goal thing: think about the approach, understand the biology, stay curious, and when things do not work out, try again and try something different.
Professor Sir Steve Jackson works at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. His work has been funded by Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, European Union, European Research Council, Worldwide Cancer Research, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and other organisations.
Published:
With thanks to Jackie van Bochoven Words: Louise Walsh Photography: StillVision
Academics and staff from the University of Cambridge are featured in the King’s Birthday Honours 2024, which recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK, from all walks of life.
Professor Tony Kouzarides, Professor of Cancer Biology, Senior Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute and Director and Co-Founder of the Milner Institute, has been awarded a Knighthood for his services to Healthcare Innovation and Delivery. Professor Kouzarides said:“I am delighted to receive this honour, which reinforces the importance of translating basic research into therapies by engaging academic researchers with healthcare businesses.”
Professor Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology in the Department of Psychiatry and a Fellow at Clare Hall, receives a CBE. Professor Sahakian, who is known for her research aimed at understanding the neural basis of cognitive, emotional and behavioural dysfunction in order to develop more effective pharmacological and psychological treatments, is honoured for her services to Research in Human Cognitive Processes. Professor Sahakian said:“I am delighted to receive this prestigious award, which recognises my research on human cognitive processes in health, psychiatric disorders and neurological diseases. I am grateful to my PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and colleagues for their collaboration.”
Professor Christine Holt, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience, receives a CBE for services to Neuroscience. Professor Holt said: “I’m surprised and thrilled to receive this honour. It’s a marvellous recognition of the research that has involved a whole team of talented, dedicated and inspiring colleagues over many years.”
Professor David Menon, founder of the Neurosciences Critical Care Unit (NCCU) at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, has been awarded a CBE. Professor Menon, who is noted for his national and global clinical and research leadership in traumatic brain injury, is honoured for his services to Neurocritical Care. He said: “I am deeply honoured to be nominated for a CBE and accept it on behalf of all those who have worked with me, during what has been – and continues to be – a very rewarding career.”
Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of School of Clinical Medicine, receives a CBE for services to Medical Research.
Professor Peter John Clarkson, Director of Cambridge Engineering Design Centre and Co-Director of Cambridge Public Health, receives a CBE. Professor Clarkson, who is known for his research in health and care improvement, inclusive design and systems design, is honoured for his services to Engineering and Design. Professor Clarkson said “I am delighted to receive this honour and thank all those extraordinary people I have had the pleasure to work with over the years who have supported me in so many interesting and transformative projects.”
Alexandra Bolton, Director of the Climate Governance Initiative, is awarded an OBE for services to the Built and Natural Environment. Alexandra said: “This wonderful and humbling recognition makes me in turn recognise the talented people who, throughout my career, have selflessly given me support, guidance and advice. I am enormously grateful for the honour, and for all those who have helped me along the way.”
Professor Anne-Christine Davis, Professor of Mathematical Physics, receives an OBE for services to Higher Education and to Scientific Research. Professor Davis said: “I am amazed and overwhelmed to receive this honour. I could not have done it alone and wish to thank my wonderful students and collaborators over the years. I would like to dedicate this honour to those women in STEMM who came before me and did not receive the recognition they deserved.”
Professor Shruti Kapila, Professor of History and Politics receives an OBE for services to Research in Humanities.
Details of University alumni who are recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours will be published on www.alumni.cam.ac.uk.
The University extends its congratulations to all academics, staff and alumni who have received an honour.
Video footage of Iceland’s 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption is providing researchers from the University of Cambridge with rare, up-close observations of volcanic ash clouds — information that could help better forecast how far explosive eruptions disperse their hazardous ash particles.
When Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, it ejected roughly 250 million tonnes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere: much of which was blown over Europe and into flight paths. With planes grounded, millions of air passengers were left stranded.
Forecasts of how ash will spread in the aftermath of an explosive eruption can help reduce impacts to aviation by informing decisions to shut down areas of airspace. But these forecasts require knowledge of what is happening at the volcano, information that often can’t be obtained directly and must instead be estimated.
In the new study, the researchers split a 17-minute film into time segments to understand how the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud grew upwards and outwards as the eruption ensued.
“No one has previously observed the shape and speed of wind-blown ash clouds directly,” said Professor Andy Woods, lead author of the study from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences and Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows. Their new video analysis method was reported in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.
By comparing characteristics of the ash cloud, such as its shape and speed, at time intervals through the video, the researchers were able to calculate the amount of ash spewed from the volcano.
That rate of ash flow, called eruption rate, is an important metric for forecasting ash cloud extent, said Woods. “The eruption rate determines how much ash goes up into the atmosphere, how high the ash cloud will go, how long the plume will stay buoyant, how quickly the ash will start falling to the ground and the area over which ash will land.”
Generally, the higher the ash plume, the wider the ash will be dispersed, and the smaller the ash particles are, the longer they stay buoyant. This dispersal can also depend on weather conditions, particularly the wind direction.
Volcanoes across the world are increasingly monitored via video, using webcams or high-resolution cameras. Woods thinks that, if high frame rate video observations can be accessed during an eruption, then this real-time information could be fed into ash cloud forecasts that more realistically reflect changing eruption conditions.
During the 17-minute footage of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the researchers observed that the eruption rate dropped by about half. “It’s amazing that you can learn eruption rate from a video, that’s something that we’ve previously only been able to calculate after an eruption has happened,” said Woods. “It’s important to know the changing eruption rate because that could impact the ash cloud dispersal downwind.”
It’s usually challenging for volcanologists to take continuous measurements of ash clouds whilst an eruption is happening. “Instead, much of our understanding of how ash clouds spread in the atmosphere is based on scaled-down lab models,” said Dr Nicola Mingotti, a researcher in Woods’ group and co-author of this study. These experiments are performed in water tanks, by releasing particle-laden or dyed saline solutions and analysing footage of the plume as it dissipates.
Woods and his collaborators have been running lab experiments like these for several years, most recently trying to understand how eruption plumes are dragged along by the wind. But it’s a big bonus to have video measurements from a real eruption, said Woods, and the real observations agree closely with what they’ve been observing in the lab. “Demonstrating our lab experiments are realistic is really important, both for making sure we understand how ash plumes work and that we forecast their movements effectively.”
Study uncovers how the brain simulates possible future actions by drawing from our stored memories.
In pausing to think before making an important decision, we may imagine the potential outcomes of different choices we could make. While this ‘mental simulation’ is central to how we plan and make decisions in everyday life, how the brain works to accomplish this is not well understood.
An international team of scientists has now uncovered neural mechanisms used in planning. Their results, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggest that an interplay between the brain’s prefrontal cortex and hippocampus allows us to imagine future outcomes to guide our decisions.
“The prefrontal cortex acts as a ‘simulator,’ mentally testing out possible actions using a cognitive map stored in the hippocampus,” said co-author Marcelo Mattar from New York University. “This research sheds light on the neural and cognitive mechanisms of planning—a core component of human and animal intelligence. A deeper understanding of these brain mechanisms could ultimately improve the treatment of disorders affecting decision-making abilities.”
The roles of both the prefrontal cortex—used in planning and decision-making—and hippocampus—used in memory formation and storage—have long been established. However, their specific duties in deliberative decision-making, which are the types of decisions that require us to think before acting, are less clear.
To illuminate the neural mechanisms of planning, Mattar and his colleagues—Kristopher Jensen from University College London and Professor Guillaume Hennequin from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering —developed a computational model to predict brain activity during planning. They then analysed data from both humans and rats to confirm the validity of the model—a recurrent neural network (RNN), which learns patterns based on incoming information.
The model took into account existing knowledge of planning and added new layers of complexity, including ‘imagined actions,’ thereby capturing how decision-making involves weighing the impact of potential choices—similar to how a chess player envisions sequences of moves before committing to one. These mental simulations of potential futures, modelled as interactions between the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, enable us to rapidly adapt to new environments, such as taking a detour after finding a road is blocked.
The scientists validated this computational model using both behavioural and neural data. To assess the model’s ability to predict behaviour, the scientists conducted an experiment measuring how humans navigated an online maze on a computer screen and how long they had to think before each step.
To validate the model’s predictions about the role of the hippocampus in planning, they analysed neural recordings from rodents navigating a physical maze configured in the same way as in the human experiment. By giving a similar task to humans and rats, the researchers could draw parallels between the behavioural and neural data—an innovative aspect of this research.
“Allowing neural networks to decide for themselves when to ‘pause and think’ was a great idea, and it was surprising to see that in situations where humans spend time pondering what to do next, so do these neural networks,” said Hennequin.
The experimental results were consistent with the computational model, showing an intricate interaction between the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. In the human experiments, participants’ brain activity reflected more time thinking before acting in navigating the maze. In the experiments with laboratory rats, the animals’ neural responses in moving through the maze resembled the model’s simulations.
“Overall, this work provides foundational knowledge on how these brain circuits enable us to think before we act in order to make better decisions,” said Mattar. “In addition, a method in which both human and animal experimental participants and RNNs were all trained to perform the same task offers an innovative and foundational way to gain insights into behaviours.”
“This new framework will enable systematic studies of thinking at the neural level,” said Hennequin. “This will require a concerted effort from neurophysiologists and theorists, and I’m excited about the discoveries that lie ahead.”
Astronomers have detected carbon in a galaxy just 350 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest detection of any element in the universe other than hydrogen.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge observed a very young galaxy in the early universe and found that it contained surprising amounts of carbon, one of the seeds of life as we know it.
In astronomy, elements heavier than hydrogen or helium are classed as metals. The very early universe was almost entirely made up of hydrogen, the simplest of the elements, with small amounts of helium and tiny amounts of lithium.
Every other element that makes up the universe we observe today was formed inside a star. When stars explode as supernovas, the elements they produce are circulated throughout their host galaxy, seeding the next generation of stars. With every new generation of stars and ‘stardust’, more metals are formed, and after billions of years, the universe evolves to a point where it can support rocky planets like Earth and life like us.
The ability to trace the origin and evolution of metals will help us understand how we went from a universe made almost entirely of just two chemical elements, to the incredible complexity we see today.
“The very first stars are the holy grail of chemical evolution,” said lead author Dr Francesco D’Eugenio, from the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at Cambridge. “Since they are made only of primordial elements, they behave very differently to modern stars. By studying how and when the first metals formed inside stars, we can set a time frame for the earliest steps on the path that led to the formation of life.”
Carbon is a fundamental element in the evolution of the universe, since it can form into grains of dust that clump together, eventually forming into the first planetesimals and the earliest planets. Carbon is also key for the formation of life on Earth.
“Earlier research suggested that carbon started to form in large quantities relatively late – about one billion years after the Big Bang,” said co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino, also from the Kavli Institute. “But we’ve found that carbon formed much earlier – it might even be the oldest metal of all.”
The team used the JWST to observe a very distant galaxy – one of the most distant galaxies yet observed – just 350 million years after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago. This galaxy is compact and low mass – about 100,000 times less massive than the Milky Way.
“It’s just an embryo of a galaxy when we observe it, but it could evolve into something quite big, about the size of the Milky Way,” said D’Eugenio. “But for such a young galaxy, it’s fairly massive.”
The researchers used Webb’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) to break down the light coming from the young galaxy into a spectrum of colours. Different elements leave different chemical fingerprints in the galaxy’s spectrum, allowing the team to determine its chemical composition. Analysis of this spectrum showed a confident detection of carbon, and tentative detections of oxygen and neon, although further observations will be required to confirm the presence of these other elements.
“We were surprised to see carbon so early in the universe, since it was thought that the earliest stars produced much more oxygen than carbon,” said Maiolino. “We had thought that carbon was enriched much later, through entirely different processes, but the fact that it appears so early tells us that the very first stars may have operated very differently.”
According to some models, when the earliest stars exploded as supernovas, they may have released less energy than initially expected. In this case, carbon, which was in the stars’ outer shell and was less gravitationally bound than oxygen, could have escaped more easily and spread throughout the galaxy, while a large amount of oxygen fell back and collapsed into a black hole.
“These observations tell us that carbon can be enriched quickly in the early universe,” said D’Eugenio. “And because carbon is fundamental to life as we know it, it’s not necessarily true that life must have evolved much later in the universe. Perhaps life emerged much earlier – although if there’s life elsewhere in the universe, it might have evolved very differently than it did here on Earth.”
The research was supported in part by the European Research Council, the Royal Society, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Reference: Francesco D’Eugenio et al. ‘JADES: Carbon enrichment 350 Myr after the Big Bang.’ Astronomy & Astrophysics (in press). DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2311.09908
Assumptions that tropical forest canopies protect from the effects of climate change are unfounded, say researchers.
A severe risk is that species are no longer able to survive within tropical forests as climate change intensifies, further exacerbating the global extinction crisis and degrading rainforest carbon stocks.David Edwards
Crucial strongholds for biodiversity are under threat as temperatures are rising in tropical forests, the world’s most diverse terrestrial ecosystems, a new study reveals.
It has been long assumed that the forest subcanopy and understorey – where direct sunlight is reduced – would be insulated from the worst climate change impacts by the shielding effect of the forest canopy.
This showed that between 2005 and 2019, most of the world’s undisturbed tropical forests experienced climate conditions at least partially outside the range of historic conditions. Many areas had transitioned to almost entirely new temperature averages.
Until recently, temperatures beneath the canopy in rainforests have remained relatively stable, meaning that the wildlife that lives there has evolved within a narrow range of temperatures. This leaves it poorly adapted to deal with temperatures outside this range.
The study found pronounced shifts in climate regimes in a significant proportion of tropical forests, including globally important national parks, indigenous reserves, and large tracts of ecologically unfragmented areas.
Recent studies in largely undisturbed, or primary lowland tropical forests have found changes in species composition and significant declines in animal, insect, and plant populations. These changes are attributed to warming temperatures and are consistent with the findings of the new research.
“Tropical forests are the true powerhouses of global biodiversity, and the complex networks of species they contain underpin vast carbon stocks that help to mitigate climate change. A severe risk is that species are no longer able to survive within tropical forests as climate change intensifies, further exacerbating the global extinction crisis and degrading rainforest carbon stocks,” said Professor David Edwards at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, a study co-author.
“Our study challenges the prevailing notion that tropical forest canopies will mitigate climate change impacts and it helps us understand how to prioritise conservation of these key areas of biodiversity effectively,” said Dr Alexander Lees, Reader in Biodiversity at Manchester Metropolitan University, a study co-author.
He added: “It is paramount that distant, wealth-related drivers of deforestation and degradation are addressed and that the future of those forests acting as climate refuges is secured by effecting legal protection, and by empowering indigenous communities.
“Notwithstanding the fundamental need for global carbon emission reductions, the prioritisation and protection of refugia and the restoration of highly threatened forests is vital to mitigate further damage to global tropical forest ecosystems.”
“Tropical forests, home to many of the world’s highly specialised species, are particularly sensitive to even small changes in climate,” said Dr Brittany Trew, Conservation Scientist for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and lead author of the study.
She added: “Our research shows that climate change is already impacting vast areas of pristine tropical forest globally. To provide species with the best chance to adapt to these changes, these forests must be protected from additional human-induced threats.”
“The world’s rainforests are incredible reservoirs of biodiversity, harbouring species that live in micro-environments in which climate conditions are generally stable. Thus, they are particularly sensitive to any changes brought about by climate change. It is vital that we take measures to safeguard these ecosystems from human pressures,” said Ilya Maclean, Professor of Global Change Biology at the University of Exeter and senior author of the study.
The study was made possible through a global collaboration that included researchers at Mountains of the Moon University, Uganda; Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil; the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation and Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Perú. It was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Two decades of cuckoo research have helped scientists to explain how battles between species can cause new species to arise
This exciting new finding could potentially apply to any pairs of species that are in battle with each other…the coevolutionary arms race could cause new species to emerge – and increase biodiversity on our planetRebecca Kilner
The theory of coevolution says that when closely interacting species drive evolutionary changes in each other this can lead to speciation – the evolution of new species. But until now, real-world evidence for this has been scarce.
Now a team of researchers has found evidence that coevolution is linked to speciation by studying the evolutionary arms race between cuckoos and the host birds they exploit.
Bronze-cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of small songbirds. Soon after the cuckoo chick hatches, it pushes the host’s eggs out of the nest. The host not only loses all its own eggs, but spends several weeks rearing the cuckoo, which takes up valuable time when it could be breeding itself.
Each species of bronze-cuckoo closely matches the appearance of their host’s chicks, fooling the host parents into accepting the cuckoo.
The study shows how these interactions can cause new species to arise when a cuckoo species exploits several different hosts. If chicks of each host species have a distinct appearance, and hosts reject odd-looking nestlings, then the cuckoo species diverges into separate genetic lineages, each mimicking the chicks of its favoured host. These new lineages are the first sign of new species emerging.
“This exciting new finding could potentially apply to any pairs of species that are in battle with each other. Just as we’ve seen with the cuckoo, the coevolutionary arms race could cause new species to emerge – and increase biodiversity on our planet,” said Professor Kilner in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, a co-author of the report.
The striking differences between the chicks of different bronze-cuckoo lineages correspond to subtle differences in the plumage and calls of the adults, which help males and females that specialise on the same host to recognise and pair with each other.
“Cuckoos are very costly to their hosts, so hosts have evolved the ability to recognise and eject cuckoo chicks from their nests,’’ said Professor Naomi Langmore at the Australian National University, Canberra, lead author of the study.
She added: “Only the cuckoos that most resemble the host’s own chicks have any chance of escaping detection, so over many generations the cuckoo chicks have evolved to mimic the host chicks.”
The study revealed that coevolution is most likely to drive speciation when the cuckoos are very costly to their hosts, leading to a ‘coevolutionary arms race’ between host defences and cuckoo counter-adaptations.
A broad scale analysis across all cuckoo species found that those lineages that are most costly to their hosts have higher speciation rates than less costly cuckoo species and their non-parasitic relatives.
“This finding is significant in evolutionary biology, showing that coevolution between interacting species increases biodiversity by driving speciation,” said Dr Clare Holleley at the Australian National Wildlife Collection within CSIRO, Canberra, senior author of the report.
The study was made possible by the team’s breakthrough in extracting DNA from eggshells in historical collections, and sequencing it for genetic studies.
The researchers were then able to combine two decades of behavioural fieldwork with DNA analysis of specimens of eggs and birds held in museums and collections.
The study involved an international team of researchers at the University of Cambridge, Australian National University, CSIRO (Australia’s national science agency), and the University of Melbourne. It was funded by the Australian Research Council.
The two earliest and most distant galaxies yet confirmed, dating back to only 300 million years after the Big Bang, have been discovered using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers today announced.
These galaxies join a small but growing population of galaxies from the first half billion years of cosmic history where we can really probe the stellar populations and the distinctive patterns of chemical elements within themFrancesco D’Eugenio
Found in a region near the Hubble Ultra Deep Field by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) team, these galaxies mark a major milestone in the study of the early Universe.
“These galaxies join a small but growing population of galaxies from the first half billion years of cosmic history where we can really probe the stellar populations and the distinctive patterns of chemical elements within them,” said Dr Francesco D’Eugenio of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, one of the team behind the discovery.
Because of the expansion of the Universe, the light from distant galaxies stretches to longer wavelength as it travels, an effect known as redshift. In these galaxies, the effect is extreme, stretching by a factor of 15, and moving even the ultraviolet light of the galaxies to infrared wavelengths where only JWST has the capability to see it.
Modern theory holds that galaxies develop in special regions where gravity has concentrated the cosmic gas and dark matter into dense lumps known as ‘halos’. These halos evolved quickly in the early Universe, rapidly merging into more and more massive collections of matter. This fast development is why astronomers are so eager to find yet earlier galaxies: each small increment moves our eyes to a less developed period, where luminous galaxies are even more distinctive and unusual.
The two newly discovered galaxies have been confirmed spectroscopically. In keeping with the collaboration’s standard naming practice, the galaxies are now known as JADES-GS-z14-0 and JADES-GS-z14-1, the former being the more distant of the two.
In addition to being the new distance record holder, JADES-GS-z14-0 is remarkable for how big and bright it is. JWST measures the galaxy at over 1,600 light-years in diameter. Many of the most luminous galaxies produce the bulk of their light via gas falling into a supermassive black hole, producing a quasar, but at this size JADES-GS-z14-0 cannot be this. Instead, the researchers believe the light is being produced by young stars.
The combination of the high luminosity and the stellar origin makes JADES-GS-z14-0 the most distinctive evidence yet found for the rapid formation of large, massive galaxies in the early Universe. This trend runs counter to the pre-JWST expectations of theories of galaxy formation. Evidence for surprisingly vigorous early galaxies appeared even in the first JWST images and has been mounting in the first two years of the mission.
“JADES-GS-z14-0 now becomes the archetype of this phenomenon,” said Dr Stefano Carniani of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, lead author on the discovery paper. “It is stunning that the Universe can make such a galaxy in only 300 million years.”
Despite its luminosity, JADES-GS-z14-0 was a puzzle for the JADES team when they first spotted it over a year ago, as it appears close enough on the sky to a foreground galaxy that the team couldn’t be sure that the two weren’t neighbours. But in October 2023, the JADES team conducted even deeper imaging—five full days with the JWST Near-Infrared Camera on just one field—to form the “JADES Origins Field.” With the use of filters designed to better isolate the earliest galaxies, confidence grew that JADES-GS-z14-0 was indeed very distant.
“We just couldn’t see any plausible way to explain this galaxy as being merely a neighbour of the more nearby galaxy,” said Dr Kevin Hainline, research professor at the University of Arizona.
Fortunately, the galaxy happened to fall in a region where the team had conducted ultra-deep imaging with the JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument. The galaxy was bright enough to be detected in 7.7 micron light, with a higher intensity than extrapolation from lower wavelengths would predict.
“We are seeing extra emission from hydrogen and possibly even oxygen atoms, as is common in star-forming galaxies, but here shifted out to an unprecedented wavelength,” said Jakob Helton, graduate student at the University of Arizona and lead author of a second paper on this finding.
These combined imaging results convinced the team to include the galaxy in what was planned to be the capstone observation of JADES, a 75-hour campaign to conduct spectroscopy on faint early galaxies. The spectroscopy confirmed their hopes that JADES-GS-z14-0 was indeed a record-breaking galaxy and that the fainter candidate, JADES-GS-z14-1, was nearly as far away.
Beyond the confirmation of distance, the spectroscopy allows further insight into the properties of the two galaxies. Being comparatively bright, JADES-GS-z14-0 will permit detailed study.
“We could have detected this galaxy even if it were 10 times fainter, which means that we could see other examples yet earlier in the Universe—probably into the first 200 million years,” says Brant Robertson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and lead author of a third paper on the team’s study of the evolution of this early population of galaxies. “The early Universe has so much more to offer.”
Clare Hall, Cambridge and LUT University, Finland, establish a Visiting Fellowship programme and joint Global Prize for Solutions to Climate Change Threats. Please read more about this story here
We very much look forward to welcoming high-flying academics from LUT over the years to come to our unique interdisciplinary research communityClare Hall President Alan Short
The University of Cambridge has received £5 million funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to support its world-class cardiovascular disease research over the next five years, the charity has announced.
This is a fantastic achievement from the whole Cambridge team. This award will support our multiple research programmes.Martin Bennett
The funding will support the university to cultivate a world-class research environment that encourages collaboration, inclusion and innovation, and where visionary scientists can drive lifesaving breakthroughs.
Professor Martin Bennett, BHF Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Cambridge, said: “This is a fantastic achievement from the whole Cambridge team. This award will support our multiple research programmes identifying new targets and treatments for vascular disease and heart failure, new ways to reduce the consequences of diabetes and obesity, and how we can get our research used to treat patients.”
The Cambridge award is part of a £35 million boost to UK cardiovascular disease research from the British Heart Foundation. It comes from the charity’s highly competitive Research Excellence Awards funding scheme. The £5 million award to the University of Cambridge will support researchers to:
Combine their expertise to work on cardiovascular diseases and in populations with high unmet need.
Identify new markers and disease targets for a wide range of cardiovascular diseases, and test new drugs in clinical trials.
Develop new ways to diagnose cardiovascular disease and harness the power of artificial intelligence from imaging and health records to identify people at highest risk.
Generate user-friendly risk communication and management tools to improve the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease.
Professor Bryan Williams, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We’re delighted to continue to support research at the University of Cambridge addressing the biggest challenges in cardiovascular disease. This funding recognises the incredible research happening at Cambridge and will help to further its reputation as a global leader in the field.
“With generous donations from our supporters, this funding will attract the brightest talent, power cutting-edge science, and unlock lifesaving discoveries that can turn the tide on the devastation caused by heart and circulatory diseases.”
Research Excellence Awards offer greater flexibility than traditional research funding, allowing scientists to quickly launch ambitious projects that can act as a springboard for larger, transformative funding applications.
The funding also aims to break down the silos that have traditionally existed in research, encouraging collaboration between experts from diverse fields. From clinicians to data scientists, biologists to engineers, the funding will support universities to attract the brightest minds, nurture new talent and foster collaboration to answer the biggest questions in heart and circulatory disease research.
The University of Cambridge has previously been awarded £9 million funding through the BHF’s Research Excellence Awards scheme. This funding has supported research that will lay the foundations for future breakthroughs, including:
Research showing that low doses of a cancer drug could improve recovery after a heart attack. The drug boosts activity of anti-inflammatory immune cells that can cause harmful inflammation in blood vessels supplying the heart. It’s currently being tested in clinical trials to see if it benefits patients.
A new risk calculator to enable doctors across the UK and Europe predict who is at risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years with greater accuracy. The calculator has been adopted by the European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice.
Developing imaging and artificial intelligence tools to improve diagnosis of heart and vascular disease by enhancing analysis of scans for disease activity and high-risk fatty plaques. These tools can be rapidly implemented to support diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
A study investigating whether an epilepsy medication could help to prevent strokes in people with a common gene variant. The change in the gene HDAC9 can cause it to become ‘overactive’ and increase stroke risk. The epilepsy medication sodium valproate blocks the HDAC9 activity, so could reduce stroke risk in people with the variant.
Discovery of rare and common changes in the genetic code that influences proteins and small molecules in the blood, helping us understand the development of cardiovascular diseases and identify novel drug targets.
3D reconstructions suggest that simple marine animals living over 560 million years ago drove the emergence of more complex life by mixing the seawater around them
It’s exciting to learn that the very first animals from 580 million years ago had a significant impact on their environment, despite not being able to move or swim.Emily Mitchell
A study involving the University of Cambridge has used virtual recreations of the earliest animal ecosystems, known as marine animal forests, to demonstrate the part they played in the evolution of our planet.
Using state-of-the-art computer simulations of fossils from the Ediacaran time period – approximately 565 million years ago – scientists discovered how these animals mixed the surrounding seawater. This may have affected the distribution of important resources such as food particles and could have increased local oxygen levels.
Through this process, the scientists think these early communities could have played a crucial role in shaping the initial emergence of large and complex organisms prior to a major evolutionary radiation of different forms of animal life, the so-called Cambrian ‘explosion’.
Over long periods of time, these changes might have allowed life forms to perform more complicated functions, like those associated with the evolution of new feeding and movement styles.
The study was led by the Natural History Museum and is published today in the journal Current Biology.
Dr Emily Mitchell at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, a co-author of the report, said: “It’s exciting to learn that the very first animals from 580 million years ago had a significant impact on their environment, despite not being able to move or swim. We’ve found they mixed up the water and enabled resources to spread more widely – potentially encouraging more evolution.”
Scientists know from modern marine environments that nutrients like food and oxygen are carried in seawater, and that animals can affect water flow in ways that influence the distribution of these resources.
To test how far back this process goes in Earth’s history, the team looked at some of the earliest examples of marine animal communities, known from rocks at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada. This world-famous fossil site perfectly preserves early life forms thanks to a cover of volcanic ash (sometimes referred to as an ‘Ediacaran Pompeii’).
Although some of these life forms look like plants, analysis of their anatomy and growth strongly suggests they are animals. Owing to the exceptional preservation of the fossils, the scientists could recreate digital models of key species, which were used as a basis for further computational analyses.
First author Dr Susana Gutarra, a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, said: “We used ecological modelling and computer simulations to investigate how 3D virtual assemblages of Ediacaran life forms affected water flow. Our results showed that these communities were capable of ecological functions similar to those seen in present-day marine ecosystems.”
The study showed that one of the most important Ediacaran organisms for disrupting the flow of water was the cabbage-shaped animal Bradgatia, named after Bradgate Park in England. The Bradgatia from Mistaken Point are among some of the largest fossils known from this site, reaching diameters of over 50 centimetres.
Through their influence on the water around them, the scientists believe these Ediacaran organisms might have been capable of enhancing local oxygen concentrations. This biological mixing might also have had repercussions for the wider environment, possibly making other areas of the sea floor more habitable and perhaps even driving evolutionary innovation.
Dr Imran Rahman, lead author and Principal Researcher at the Natural History Museum, said: “The approach we’ve developed to study Ediacaran fossil communities is entirely new in palaeontology, providing us with a powerful tool for studying how past and present marine ecosystems might shape and influence their environment.”
The research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the US National Science Foundation.
An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, has used the James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.
Massive black holes have been shaping the evolution of galaxies from the very beginningHannah Übler
Astronomers have found supermassive black holes with masses of millions to billions times that of the Sun in most massive galaxies in the local Universe, including in our Milky Way galaxy. These black holes have likely had a major impact on the evolution of the galaxies they reside in. However, scientists still don’t fully understand how these objects grew to become so massive.
The finding of gargantuan black holes already in place in the first billion years after the Big Bang indicates that such growth must have happened very rapidly, and very early. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope is shedding new light on the growth of black holes in the early Universe.
The new Webb observations have provided evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was just 740 million years old. The system is known as ZS7.
Massive black holes that are actively accreting matter have distinctive spectrographic features that allow astronomers to identify them. For very distant galaxies, like those in this study, these signatures are inaccessible from the ground and can only be seen with Webb.
“We found evidence for very dense gas with fast motions in the vicinity of the black hole, as well as hot and highly ionised gas illuminated by the energetic radiation typically produced by black holes in their accretion episodes,” said lead author Dr Hannah Übler of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and Kavli Institute for Cosmology. “Thanks to the unprecedented sharpness of its imaging capabilities, Webb also allowed our team to spatially separate the two black holes.”
The team found that one of the two black holes has a mass that is 50 million times the mass of the Sun. “The mass of the other black hole is likely similar, although it is much harder to measure because this second black hole is buried in dense gas,” said team member Professor Roberto Maiolino, also from the Kavli Institute.
“Our findings suggest that merging is an important route through which black holes can rapidly grow, even at cosmic dawn,” said Übler. “Together with other Webb findings of active, massive black holes in the distant Universe, our results also show that massive black holes have been shaping the evolution of galaxies from the very beginning.”
The team notes that once the two black holes merge, they will also generate gravitational waves. Events like this will be detectable with the next generation of gravitational wave observatories, such as the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, which was recently approved by the European Space Agency and will be the first space-based observatory dedicated to studying gravitational waves.
This discovery was from observations made as part of the Galaxy Assembly with NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy programme. The team has recently been awarded a new Large Programme in Webb’s Cycle 3 of observations, to study in detail the relationship between massive black holes and their host galaxies in the first billion years. An important component of this programme will be to systematically search for and characterise black hole mergers. This effort will determine the rate at which black hole merging occurs at early cosmic epochs and will assess the role of merging in the early growth of black holes and the rate at which gravitational waves are produced from the dawn of time.
These results have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Ten outstanding Cambridge researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.
The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering and medicine.
The Society’s fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.
This year, over 90 researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science. Nine of these are from the University of Cambridge.
Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.
“This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry.
“From visualising the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, their diverse range of expertise is furthering human understanding and helping to address some of our greatest challenges. It is an honour to have them join the Fellowship.”
The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.
The new Cambridge fellows are:
Professor Sir John Aston Kt FRS
Aston is the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life at the Statistical Laboratory, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, where he develops techniques for public policy and improves the use of quantitative methods in public policy debates.
From 2017 to 2020 he was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office, providing statistical and scientific advice to ministers and officials, and was involved in the UK’s response to the Covid pandemic. He was knighted in 2021 for services to statistics and public policymaking, and is a Fellow of Churchill College.
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci FRS
Blakemore is the Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health.
Blakemore has been awarded several national and international prizes for her research, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the American Association of Psychological Science and the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Patrick Chinnery FMedSci FRS
Chinnery is Professor of Neurology and head of the University’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. He was appointed Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council last year, having previously been MRC Clinical Director since 2019.
His principal research is the role of mitochondria in human disease and developing new treatments for mitochondrial disorders. Chinnery is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow with a lab based in the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit and jointly chairs the NIHR BioResource for Translational Research in Common and Rare Diseases. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald OBE FMedSci FRS
Fitzgerald is Professor of Cancer Prevention in the Department of Oncology and the inaugural Director of the University’s new Early Cancer Institute, which launched in 2022. She is a Fellow of Trinity College.
Her pioneering work to devise a first-in-class, non-endoscopic capsule sponge test for identifying individuals at high risk for oesophageal cancer has won numerous prizes, including the Westminster Medal, and this test is now being rolled out in the NHS and beyond by her spin-out Cyted Ltd.
Professor David Hodell FRS
Hodell is the Woodwardian Professor of Geology and Director of the Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research in the Department of Earth Sciences, and a Fellow of Clare College.
A marine geologist and paleoclimatologist, his research focuses on high-resolution paleoclimate records from marine and lake sediments, as well as mineral deposits, to better understand past climate dynamics. Hodell is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Milutin Milankovic Medal.
Professor Eric Lauga FRS
Lauga is Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where his research is in fluid mechanics, biophysics and soft matter. Lauga is the author, or co-author, of over 180 publications and currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Physical Review Fluids.
He is a recipient of three awards from the American Physical Society: the Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics, the François Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics and the Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Trinity College.
Professor George Malliaras FRS
Malliaras is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the Department of Engineering, where he leads a group that works on the development and translation of implantable and wearable devices that interface with electrically active tissues, with applications in neurological disorders and brain cancer.
Research conducted by Malliaras has received awards from the European Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the US National Science Foundation among others. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Professor Lloyd Peck FRI FRSB FRS
Peck is a marine biologist at the British Antarctic Survey and a fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge.
He identified oxygen as a factor in polar gigantism and identified problems with protein synthesis as the cause of slow development and growth in polar marine species. He was awareded a Polar Medal in 2009, the PLYMSEF Silver medal in 2015 and an Erskine Fellowship at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch in 2016-2017.
Professor Oscar Randal-Williams FRS
Randal-Williams is the Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.
He has received the Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society, a Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Oberwolfach Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and was jointly awarded the Clay Research Award.
Randal-Williams is one of two managing editors of the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, and an editor of the Journal of Topology.
Professor Mihaela van der Schaar FRS
Van der Schaar is the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Engineering and Medicine.
She is the founder and director of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine, and a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. Her work has received numerous awards, including the Oon Prize on Preventative Medicine, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the IEEE Darlington Award.
Van der Schaar is credited as inventor on 35 US patents, and has made over 45 contributions to international standards for which she received three ISO Awards. In 2019, a Nesta report declared her the most-cited female AI researcher in the UK.
The college is sad to announce that our Bye-Fellow Jack Lang died on Tuesday 23 April after a long illness.
Jack matriculated in 1966 and had been, at various times, our Director of Studies in Computer Science and in Management Studies. He was appointed a Bye-Fellow in 2003.
Jack was a serial entrepreneur and business angel. Interested in ‘computer science and how the brain works’, his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Sciences led to a Computer Science diploma and a spell as Demonstrator in the Computer Laboratory. He left the University to found, with Professor Shon Ffowcs-Williams, the consulting company TopExpress, one of whose projects was designing some of the software for the BBC Microcomputer.
Jack also founded Electronic Share Information Ltd, which was acquired by E*Trade Inc in 1995, and was a founder of Netchannel Ltd, which was acquired in 1998 by ntl, for whom he subsequently became Chief Technologist. He was also co-founder of Raspberry Pi in 2012, which achieved its aim of putting high-performance, low-cost, general-purpose computing platforms in the hands of enthusiasts and engineers all over the world. Over 60 million computers have been sold in the last decade and the Raspberry Pi Foundation enables young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. Jack was one of the most significant figures in computing education in the UK.
He was author of ‘The High Tech Entrepreneurs Handbook’ (2002) and taught courses in Business Studies, Entrepreneurship and Ecommerce for the University of Cambridge Computer Science Laboratory. He was Entrepreneur in Residence at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at the Judge Business School.
Jack was a keen sourdough baker, a passionate cook and a caring owner of a very productive apple orchard. A side project was as founder (and sometime chef) of Midsummer House Restaurant, Cambridge’s only Michelin starred restaurant. And in keeping with his polymath nature, having mastered the art of designing and making fireworks at a relatively young age, he also became the architect of, and long-term champion for, the Cambridge fireworks display.
He will be much missed and long remembered by many around the world.
Researchers have developed tiny, flexible devices that can wrap around individual nerve fibres without damaging them.
The ability to make an implant that can change shape through electrical activation opens up a range of future possibilities for highly targeted treatmentsGeorge Malliaras
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, combined flexible electronics and soft robotics techniques to develop the devices, which could be used for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of disorders, including epilepsy and chronic pain, or the control of prosthetic limbs.
Current tools for interfacing with the peripheral nerves – the 43 pairs of motor and sensory nerves that connect the brain and the spinal cord – are outdated, bulky and carry a high risk of nerve injury. However, the robotic nerve ‘cuffs’ developed by the Cambridge team are sensitive enough to grasp or wrap around delicate nerve fibres without causing any damage.
Tests of the nerve cuffs in rats showed that the devices only require tiny voltages to change shape in a controlled way, forming a self-closing loop around nerves without the need for surgical sutures or glues.
The researchers say the combination of soft electrical actuators with neurotechnology could be an answer to minimally invasive monitoring and treatment for a range of neurological conditions. The results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.
Electric nerve implants can be used to either stimulate or block signals in target nerves. For example, they might help relieve pain by blocking pain signals, or they could be used to restore movement in paralysed limbs by sending electrical signals to the nerves. Nerve monitoring is also standard surgical procedure when operating in areas of the body containing a high concentration of nerve fibres, such as anywhere near the spinal cord.
These implants allow direct access to nerve fibres, but they come with certain risks. “Nerve implants come with a high risk of nerve injury,” said Professor George Malliaras from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “Nerves are small and highly delicate, so anytime you put something large, like an electrode, in contact with them, it represents a danger to the nerves.”
“Nerve cuffs that wrap around nerves are the least invasive implants currently available, but despite this they are still too bulky, stiff and difficult to implant, requiring significant handling and potential trauma to the nerve,” said co-author Dr Damiano Barone from Cambridge’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences.
The researchers designed a new type of nerve cuff made from conducting polymers, normally used in soft robotics. The ultra-thin cuffs are engineered in two separate layers. Applying tiny amounts of electricity – just a few hundred millivolts – causes the devices to swell or shrink.
The cuffs are small enough that they could be rolled up into a needle and injected near the target nerve. When activated electrically, the cuffs will change their shape to wrap around the nerve, allowing nerve activity to be monitored or altered.
“To ensure the safe use of these devices inside the body, we have managed to reduce the voltage required for actuation to very low values,” said Dr Chaoqun Dong, the paper’s first author. “What’s even more significant is that these cuffs can change shape in both directions and be reprogrammed. This means surgeons can adjust how tightly the device fits around a nerve until they get the best results for recording and stimulating the nerve.”
Tests in rats showed that the cuffs could be successfully placed without surgery, and formed a self-closing loop around the target nerve. The researchers are planning further testing of the devices in animal models, and are hoping to begin testing in humans within the next few years.
“Using this approach, we can reach nerves that are difficult to reach through open surgery, such as the nerves that control, pain, vision or hearing, but without the need to implant anything inside the brain,” said Barone. “The ability to place these cuffs so they wrap around the nerves makes this a much easier procedure for surgeons, and it’s less risky for patients.”
“The ability to make an implant that can change shape through electrical activation opens up a range of future possibilities for highly targeted treatments,” said Malliaras. “In future, we might be able to have implants that can move through the body, or even into the brain – it makes you dream how we could use technology to benefit patients in future.”
The research was supported in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Cambridge Trust, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
