Researchers have developed a new kind of nanoelectronic device that could dramatically cut the energy consumed by artificial intelligence hardware by mimicking the human brain.

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, developed a form of hafnium oxide that acts as a highly stable, low‑energy ‘memristor’ — a component designed to mimic the efficient way neurons are connected in the brain. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

Current AI systems rely on conventional computer chips that shuttle data back and forth between memory and processing units. This constant movement consumes large amounts of electricity, and global demand is exploding as AI adoption expands across industries.

Brain-inspired, or neuromorphic, computing is an alternative way to process information that could reduce energy use by as much as 70% by storing and processing information in the same place, and doing so with extremely low power. Such a system would also be far more adaptable, in the same way our own brains are able to learn and adapt.

“Energy consumption is one of the key challenges in current AI hardware,” said lead author Dr Babak Bakhit, from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. “To address that, you need devices with extremely low currents, excellent stability, outstanding uniformity across switching cycles and devices, and the ability to switch between many distinct states.”

Most existing memristors rely on the formation of tiny conductive filaments inside metal oxide material. But these filaments behave unpredictably and typically require high forming and operating voltages, limiting their usefulness in large-scale data storage and computing systems.

The Cambridge team instead created a new type of hafnium-based thin film that switches states in a completely different way. By adding strontium and titanium and growing the film using a two‑step method, the researchers were able to form tiny electronic gates, or ‘p-n junctions’, inside the oxide where the layers meet. This allows the device to change its resistance smoothly by shifting the height of an energy barrier at the interface, rather than by growing or rupturing the filaments.

Bakhit, who is also affiliated with Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, said this mechanism overcomes one of the biggest challenges in developing memristor technology. “Filamentary devices suffer from random behaviour,” he said. “But because our devices switch at the interface, they show outstanding uniformity from cycle to cycle and from device to device.”

Using the hafnium-based devices, the researchers achieved switching currents about a million times lower than those of some conventional oxide-based devices. The memristors also produced hundreds of distinct, stable conductance levels, a key requirement for analogue ‘in-memory’ computing.

Laboratory tests showed the devices could reliably endure tens of thousands of switching cycles and store their programmed states for around a day. They also reproduced fundamental learning rules observed in biology, such as spike-timing dependent plasticity: the mechanism by which neurons strengthen or weaken their connections depending on when signals arrive.

“These are the properties you need if you want hardware that can learn and adapt, rather than just store bits,” said Bakhit.

However, there are still some challenges to overcome. The current fabrication process requires temperatures of around 700°C — higher than standard semiconductor manufacturing tolerances. “This is currently the main challenge in our device fabrication process,” said Bakhit. “But we’re now working on ways to bring the temperature down to make it more compatible with standard industry processes.”

Despite this, he believes the technology could ultimately be integrated into chip-scale systems. “If we can reduce the temperature and put these devices onto a chip, it would be a major step forward,” he said.

Bakhit, a materials physicist, said the breakthrough followed several years of unsuccessful experiments. The turning point came late last year when he tried a twist on the two‑stage deposition method, adding oxygen only after the first layer had been grown.

“I spent almost three years on this,” he said. “There were a huge number of failures. But at the end of November, we saw the first really good results. It’s still early days of course, but if we can solve the temperature issue, this technology could be game-changing because the energy consumption is so much lower and at the same time, the device performance is highly promising.”

The research was supported in part by the Swedish Research Council (VR), the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). A patent application has been filed by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm.

Reference:
Babak Bakhit et al. ‘HfO2-based memristive synapses with asymmetrically extended p-n heterointerfaces for highly energy-efficient neuromorphic hardware.’ Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec2324

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Published by Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy, based at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), the UK Innovation Report offers a detailed analysis of the UK’s innovation landscape, assessing the performance of key industrial sectors compared to global competitors.

The UK is one of the world’s leading innovation economies. It ranks fourth globally for scientific publications (behind only China, the USA, and India) and sits among the top countries for high-impact research and patents in critical technologies. It has also built one of the strongest startup ecosystems outside the United States. 

The latest UK Innovation Report finds that while the UK excels in research and early-stage innovation, it underperforms on innovation outcomes such as high-technology exports, technology scale-up, and global industrial market share.   

As the UK Government implements its national Industrial Strategy, the report provides new evidence on the UK’s innovation and industrial performance. The report highlights that competitiveness – measured at sector level through value-added, export performance, employment and global position – should become the central benchmark for success.  

A central feature of this year’s report is a deep-dive sectoral analysis of the Electronics and Electrical Equipment sectors. Recognised as Advanced Manufacturing sectors under the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, these sectors sit at the heart of electrification and the net-zero transition.  

On Thursday 19 March, policymakers, industry leaders, and experts gathered at the Institute for Government for the official launch of the Innovation Report 2026.

As the demand for stronger evidence in industrial and innovation policymaking increases, the UK Innovation Report 2026 makes a timely contribution by offering new data, analyses, and perspectives to support evidence-based policy development.

Read the report.

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Professor Grant Stewart has led the development of the first national guideline on improving the diagnosis and management of kidney cancer.

By offering more patients with a kidney lump a biopsy, clinicians can tell patients if the lesion is cancer or benign and if they need to consider a treatment like surgery, or if they can avoid these treatmentsGrant Stewart

The guideline, published today by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), promotes the gold standard approach to the management of kidney cancer across all stages of the disease.

The new recommendations aim to improve kidney cancer care across the NHS by helping healthcare professionals offer people the right treatments and support, while considering individual preferences.

Professor Grant Stewart, who co-directs the Urological Malignancies Virtual Institute at the University of Cambridge and is Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine at Selwyn College has been the clinical lead for developing the guideline on kidney cancer.

The guideline covers all stages of diagnosing and managing patients with renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. It includes recommendations on imaging, biopsy, active surveillance, risk prediction, surgical and non-surgical treatments, and drug therapy.

One of the key recommendations in the guideline is to offer biopsies to more people with suspected kidney cancer. This would mean more people with a small kidney lump – which is a mass measuring 4 centimetres or less – are offered a biopsy to confirm their diagnosis.

A biopsy is when a sample of abnormal cells is collected using a needle through the skin into the tumour in the kidney during a CT or ultrasound scan. The cells are then tested to confirm whether or not the lump is cancer, or in fact benign. The results help clinicians offer the best treatment options, possibly avoiding unnecessary surgery in people with benign or low-risk tumours.

This recommendation could double the number of biopsies undertaken on suspected kidney cancer patients. The committee acknowledged that some hospitals would need to adapt their clinical pathways to offer biopsies to more patients, but that reducing unnecessary surgeries would benefit patients and save surgical costs.

Professor Stewart, who is also Consultant Urological Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, said: “By offering more patients with a kidney lump a biopsy, clinicians can tell patients if the lesion is cancer or benign and if they need to consider a treatment like surgery, or if they can avoid these treatments which do have some risks associated with them.”

Another important recommendation is that patients should have access to a clinical nurse specialist with training and experience in kidney cancer to provide support and information, from their initial diagnosis through their treatment and follow-up.

The committee acknowledged that more clinical nurse specialists may need to be recruited, and specialist training provided, to be able to offer this support to all kidney cancer patients.

Professor Stewart added: “Access to a clinical nurse specialist, with training and experience in kidney cancer care, will ensure that patients have a single point of contact for all the questions at any time that arise during their care journey.”

Professor Stewart has long been championing practice-changing initiatives to improve the management and outcomes of kidney cancer patients.

He has already introduced a new kidney clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital where patients with suspected kidney cancer receive their diagnosis on the same day, reducing the anxiety of waiting days or weeks for test results.

Professor Stewart explained: “In Cambridge, we have developed a one-stop biopsy clinic for kidney cancer, so we can biopsy more patients while reducing the time patients wait between presentation and diagnosis to half the time for the traditional multi-appointment route.”

Adapted from a story from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

UK ministers have appointed University of Cambridge Professor Laura Díaz Anadón to the independent statutory body which advises their governments on greenhouse gas emissions targets and reports to parliament on climate progress.

The CCC has been a pioneering institution globally and I look forward to contributingProf Laura Díaz Anadón

Professor Anadón was appointed to the Climate Change Committee (CCC) for five years by ministers of the UK and Devolved Governments.

Anadón is the Chaired Professor of Climate Change Policy at Cambridge and a leading global expert on climate and energy policy.

The CCC is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. Its purpose is to advise the UK and devolved governments on emissions targets and to report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

“I am honoured to join the Climate Change Committee at this important moment for climate change mitigation,” Anadón said. “The CCC has been a pioneering institution globally and I look forward to contributing to further its role as a key provider of independent, evidence-based advice to the UK and devolved governments.”

Professor Anadón is also Director of the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (CEENRG) in the Department of Land Economy and a Fellow of St John’s College.

She is a founding member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate and a lead author for both the 6th and 7th IPCC Assessment Reports prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change.

The CCC is made up of two separate committees: one on mitigation (the Committee) and one on adaptation (the Adaptation Committee). The Act requires that the Committee comprises a Chair and not fewer than five but not more than eight other Members appointed by the national authorities (UK Government and the Devolved Governments).

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Small changes to aircraft flight paths to avoid the atmospheric conditions that create condensation trails – known as contrails – could reduce aviation’s global warming impact by nearly half, a new study suggests.

The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, suggests that changing cruising altitude by a few thousand feet, either up or down, could prevent contrails from forming. Reducing or avoiding contrail formation in this way would also be faster and cheaper than other climate mitigation measures for the aviation industry, since the practice can be adopted with existing aircraft and fuel.

However, the researchers say that time is of the essence and that the sooner airlines adopt contrail avoidance policies, the bigger the positive climate impact will be. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Contrails are the thin white streaks seen behind aircraft flying at high altitude, and form when hot exhaust gases mix with cold, humid air at cruising altitude. Under the right conditions, the water vapour freezes into ice crystals, forming clouds that can persist for hours.

Contrails also trap heat in the atmosphere. Aviation contributes around 2–3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, but its total climate impact is larger because of non-CO₂ effects such as contrails. Interest in contrail avoidance has grown rapidly in recent years as governments and airlines search for ways to reduce aviation’s climate impact while the sector transitions to lower-carbon fuels.

“Contrail avoidance can often be as simple as changing the flight paths,” said lead author Dr Jessie Smith, from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Often it’s even simpler than that – just moving slightly to a higher or lower altitude to avoid the areas of the atmosphere where contrails form.”

Smith and her colleagues modelled how altitude adjustments for contrail avoidance could affect aviation’s overall climate footprint. They found that such a programme, phased in between 2035 and 2045, could recover around 9% of the temperature budget the world has left before breaching the Paris Agreement’s 2°C limit.

However, they also found that if no action is taken, by 2050 aviation contrails will have added around 0.054°C of warming — 36% more than the warming attributable to aviation CO₂ over the same period.

“What surprised me was how quickly the temperature saving could be made,” said Smith. “Over a decade, you can take a really big chunk of aviation’s warming impact out very rapidly. That’s unusual in climate science, where most changes take a very long time.”

The researchers also found that while rerouting aircraft can increase fuel use slightly, the reduction in warming from fewer contrails would more than offset the extra carbon dioxide emissions.

Implementing contrail avoidance would require airlines and air traffic controllers to adjust routes dynamically based on atmospheric conditions. Some aviation experts have raised concerns about whether such changes could increase workload for air traffic management systems, but the researchers say the adjustments required may be relatively modest.

Flights already alter their routes or altitude to avoid turbulence or bad weather, meaning similar systems could potentially be used to avoid contrail-forming regions.

“It’s an operational change, not a technological one,” said Smith. “You don’t need to modify aircraft. You just need to work out how it will operate, and then the system is already built for it — pilots do these manoeuvres all the time. That’s why we have more hope for this than for other interventions like sustainable aviation fuels, which face enormous infrastructure and supply-chain hurdles.”

Using a climate model that tracks temperature responses across 10,000 simulated scenarios, the researchers found that beginning contrail avoidance in 2035 rather than 2045 produces a temperature reduction at 2050 that is equivalent to roughly a 78% improvement in effectiveness. “In other words, waiting a decade has roughly the same effect as making the programme almost five times less efficient,” said Smith.

While more work is needed to improve forecasts of the atmospheric conditions that cause contrails and to better understand their climate effects, the researchers say that imperfect avoidance — even at 25% effectiveness — still delivers a meaningful climate benefit, and that starting early matters more than waiting for the technology to be perfected.

Scaling up contrail avoidance will require coordination from pilots, air traffic controllers, weather forecasters and policymakers, however. “The first step is demonstrating this works on a large scale through testing,” said Smith. “Once that’s done, the policy can follow. But the modelling shows clearly that you do not want to wait for perfect conditions before you begin.”

Smith said the findings show the approach could play a major role in aviation’s climate strategy. “We’re not saying it solves everything,” she said. “But it could make a very big difference.”

Reference:
Jessie R Smith et al. ‘The climate opportunities and risks of contrail avoidance.’ Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-68784-8

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Published: 13 March 2026
Story: Tom Kirk

The first systematic study of how generative AI toys affect young children finds that they can misread emotions and struggle with developmentally important types of play.

AI-powered toys that “talk” with young children should be more tightly regulated and carry new safety kitemarks, according to a report that warns they are not always developed with children’s psychological safety in mind.

The recommendation appears in the initial report from AI in the Early Years: a University of Cambridge project and the first systematic study of how Generative AI (GenAI) toys capable of human-like conversation may influence development in the critical years up to age five.

The year-long project, at the university’s Faculty of Education, included structured scientific observations of children interacting with a GenAI toy for the first time.

The report captures the views of some early-years practitioners that, eventually, these toys could support aspects of children’s development, such as language and communication skills.

The researchers also found, however, that GenAI toys struggle with social and pretend play, misunderstand children, and react inappropriately to emotions.

For example, when one five-year-old told the toy, “I love you,” it replied: “As a friendly reminder, please ensure interactions adhere to the guidelines provided. Let me know how you would like to proceed.”

Although GenAI toys are widely marketed as learning companions or friends, their impact on early years development has barely been studied. The report urges parents and educators to proceed with caution. It recommends clearer regulation, transparent privacy policies and new labelling standards to help families judge whether toys are appropriate.

The research was commissioned by the children’s poverty charity, The Childhood Trust, and focused on children from areas with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage. It was undertaken by researchers from the Faculty’s Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL) Centre.

Researcher Dr Emily Goodacre said: “Generative AI toys often affirm their friendship with children who are just starting to learn what friendship means.

“They may start talking to the toy about feelings and needs, perhaps instead of sharing them with a grown-up. Because these toys can misread emotions or respond inappropriately, children may be left without comfort from the toy – and without emotional support from an adult, either.”

The study was kept deliberately small-scale to enable detailed observations of children’s play and capture nuances that larger-scale studies might miss.

The researchers surveyed early years educators to explore their attitudes and concerns, then ran more detailed focus groups and workshops with early years practitioners and 19 children’s charity leaders.

Working with Babyzone, an early years charity, they also video-recorded 14 children at London children’s centres playing with a GenAI soft toy called Gabbo, developed by Curio Interactive. After the play sessions, they interviewed each child and a parent, using a drawing activity to support the conversation.

Most parents and educators felt that AI toys could help develop children’s communication skills and some parents were enthusiastic about their learning potential. One told researchers: “If it’s sold, I want to buy it.”

Many worried, however, about children forming “parasocial” relationships with toys. The observations supported this: children hugged and kissed the toy, said they loved it and – in the case of one child – suggested they could play hide-and-seek together.

Goodacre stressed that these reactions might simply reflect children’s vivid imaginations but added that there was potential for an unhealthy relationship with a toy which, as one early years practitioner put it, “they think loves them back, but doesn’t”.

Children in the study often struggled with the toy’s conversation. It sometimes ignored their interruptions, mistook parents’ voices for the child and failed to respond to apparently important statements about feelings. Several children became visibly frustrated when it seemed not to be listening.

When one three-year-old told the toy: “I’m sad,” it misheard and replied: “Don’t worry! I’m a happy little bot. Let’s keep the fun going. What shall we talk about next?” Researchers note this may have signalled that the child’s sadness was unimportant.

The authors found that GenAI toys also perform poorly in social play, involving multiple children and/or adults, and pretend play – both of which are key during early childhood development. For example, when a three-year-old offered the toy an imaginary present, it responded: “I can’t open the present” – and then changed the subject.

Many parents worried about what information the toy might be recording and where this would be stored. When selecting a toy for the study, the researchers found that many GenAI toys’ privacy practices are unclear or lack important details.

Nearly 50% of early years practitioners surveyed said they did not know where to find reliable AI safety information for young children, and 69% said the sector needed more guidance. They also raised concerns about safeguarding and affordability, with some fearing AI toys could widen the digital divide.

The authors argue that clearer regulation would address many of these concerns. They recommend limiting how far toys encourage children to befriend or confide in them, more transparent privacy policies, and tighter controls over third party access to AI models.

“A recurring theme during focus groups was that people do not trust tech companies to do the right thing,” Professor Jenny Gibson, the study’s other co-author, said. “Clear, robust, regulated standards would significantly improve consumer confidence.”

The report urges manufacturers to test toys with children and consult safeguarding specialists before releasing new products. Parents are encouraged to research GenAI toys before buying, and to play with their children to create opportunities for discussing what the toy is saying and how the child feels about the toy.

The authors also recommend keeping AI toys in shared family spaces where parents can monitor interactions. The report will inform further PEDAL Centre studies and new guidance for early years practitioners.

Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive of The Childhood Trust said: “Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way children play and learn, yet we are only beginning to understand its effects on development and wellbeing.

“We believe it is essential that regulation keeps pace with innovation, ensuring that these technologies are designed, used, and monitored in ways that protect all children and prevent widening inequalities.”

George Looker, CEO of Babyzone, said: “Generative AI toys should only be marketed to parents where a robust evidence base exists and clear regulatory safeguards are in place. Anything less isn’t good enough for our youngest children.

“Parents need clear labelling, enforceable standards, and products that were actually tested with real children in mind. This report is a vital first step.”

The full report is available for download here.

Funding for the study was provided by the KPMG Foundation and Ethos Foundation.

---

Published 13 March 2026

<sub>Photographs:
Top: Gabbo and study participant Mya, age 3. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Middle #1: Gabbo in the study space. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Middle #2: Drawing of Gabbo by study participant. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
Middle #3: Gabbo and study participant Mya, age 3. Credit: Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</sub>

source: cam.ac.uk

The Right Honourable Lord Smith of Finsbury is installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

Chris Smith, Lord Smith of Finsbury, has been formally installed as the 109th Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, following his election in July 2025. The formal and ceremonial head of the University, in addition to presiding at major ceremonial occasions the Chancellor advises senior figures, supports fundraising and is an ambassador and advocate for the University and its mission.

Today’s Congregation in the Senate-House was attended by the principal University officers, Heads and staff of the thirty-one Colleges, students, alumni, Civic representatives and other invited guests. Lord Smith shared what Cambridge means to him.

He said: “Cambridge is in my blood. I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student here, reading English and then completing a PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge. I returned ten and a half years ago as Master of Pembroke, my own old College. And I never would have dreamed, as a young eighteen-year-old arriving in Cambridge for the first time, that I would now be standing here as Chancellor.”

Lord Smith also expressed a desire to uphold academic freedom and freedom of speech. He said: “We live in an age dominated by misinformation and “fake news”…It is precisely why academic freedom and freedom of speech are so fundamentally important to universities.”

Today’s installation follows an election by the Senate – a very large body made up of all those holding the Cambridge MA or any other master’s degree or doctorate, along with the members of the Regent House. This election was the first at which votes could be taken online as well as in person and more than 25,000 were registered.

The post of Chancellor dates back more than 800 years to the beginning of the University. The last installation ceremony to be held in 2012 was for Lord Sainsbury of Turville.

At today’s ceremony the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, confirmed Lord Smith’s election and administered the oath of office. Music was performed by student brass-players and by the Chapel Choir of Pembroke College.

Please accept marketing cookies to show embedded content(open cookie preferences)

Chris Smith arrived as an undergraduate student at Pembroke College in 1969, earning a first in English, and was elected President of the Cambridge Union Society in Michaelmas Term 1972.

Elected MP for Islington South and Finsbury in 1983, following the Labour victory of 1997 he served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport until 2001. The first openly gay MP and Cabinet minister, he left the Commons in 2005 and was made a life peer.

Among his other accomplishments outside parliament have been periods as Chair of the Advertising Standards Authority, of the Environment Agency and of the Wordsworth Trust. A founding director of the Clore Leadership Programme, Lord Smith is a keen hill-walker and former President of the Ramblers’ Association.

Published 16 March 2026

Photos: Lloyd Mann

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

source: cam.ac.uk

Cambridge University Boat Club has announced its Women’s and Men’s Blue Boats for The Boat Race 2026.

A mixture of Olympic, international and homegrown student rowing talent has been selected for the meeting on London’s iconic Championship Course, a 4.25-mile (6.8 km) stretch of tidal Thames from Putney to Mortlake, on Saturday 4 April.

More than 200,000 spectators are expected to watch along the riverbanks of the free-to-attend ‘Party by the River’ as Oxford and Cambridge meet in the 2026 chapter of nearly 200 years of competition. 

Cambridge Women, who are on a winning streak stretching back to 2017, will be led this year by President Gemma King (St John’s College), whose twin sister Catherine represents Oxford. 
Gemma will have fellow two-time winner and fifth-year medic Carys Earl (Gonville & Caius) to count on, along with a sprinkling of new recruits such as world champion Camille Vandermeer and Mia Freischem (Darwin). Mia will make history when she races against her sister Lilli who has been selected for the Oxford Blue Boat.

Gemma told the crew announcement at London’s Somerset House: “It’s such an honour to be able to represent Cambridge in the Boat Race.
“It is such a unique and historic event. We’ve got such a strong squad, there’s so much depth. To see the progress made throughout the year has been really exciting and I really can’t wait for the race.”

Cambridge Men have their eyes on a fourth successive victory in the Men’s Race. They will be led by French national Noam Mouelle (Hughes Hall). His Oxford counterpart Tobias Bernard has dual British/French nationality, marking the first time in Boat Race history that a pair of Frenchmen have led the Oxford and Cambridge Blue Boat crews. 

Noam said: “It’s an honour to make the Cambridge Men’s Blue Boat again and we’re taking nothing for granted. We know what it takes to win this race and I believe we have the perfect combination of experience and new blood to extend our winning run in three weeks’ time.”

Noam can call on the experienced Simon Hatcher (Peterhouse), while the selection of Gabriel Obholzer (Peterhouse) represents the continuation of a proud family tradition after his parents both competed in the 1991 event – with father Rupert going on to Olympic honours.  

The event is being broadcast live on Channel 4 and on Times Radio for the first time in its history. Broadcaster Clare Balding, who will anchor Channel 4’s coverage, told the crew announcement: “This is the most amazing sporting rivalry… it is a great event, but it is also a real showcase for how education and sport go hand in hand. You don’t have to be academic or sporty – you can be both.”

With 2025 seeing Cambridge win both the Men’s and Women’s Races, the overall records stand as 88-81 in favour of Cambridge Men and 49-30 in favour of Cambridge Women.

The crews selected for The Boat Race 2026 are as follows: 
 
Cambridge Women
Cox – Matt Moran (Emmanuel)
Stroke – Aidan Wrenn-Walz (Fitzwilliam)
7 – Mia Freischem (Darwin)
6 – Camille VanderMeer (Peterhouse)
5 – Antonia Galland (Peterhouse)
4 – Carys Earl (Gonville & Caius)
3 – Charlotte Ebel (Newnham)
2 – Isobel Campbell (Hughes Hall)
Bow – Gemma King (President) (St John’s)
 
Oxford Women 
Cox – Louis Corrigan 
Stroke – Heidi Long (President) 
7 – Sarah Marshall 
6 – Esther Briz Zamorano 
5 – Kyra Delray 
4 – Julietta Camahort 
3 – Lilli Freischem 
2 – Emily Molins 
Bow – Annie Anezakis 
 
Cambridge Men
Cox – Sammy Houdaigui (Fitzwilliam)
Stroke – Freddy Breuer (Lucy Cavendish)
7 – Will Klipstine (Hughes Hall)
6 – Alexander McClean (Hughes Hall)
5 – Gabriel Obholzer (Peterhouse)
4 – Patrick Wild (Peterhouse)
3 – Kyle Fram (Lucy Cavendish)
2 – Noam Mouelle (President) (Hughes Hall)
Bow – Simon Hatcher (Peterhouse)

Oxford Men
Cox- Tobias Bernard (President) 
Stroke – Harry Geffen 
7 – Alex Sullivan 
6 – Jamie Arnold 
5 – Alex Underwood 
4 – Fergus Pim 
3 – James Fetter 
2 – Julian Schöberl  
Bow – Felix Crabtree 
 

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Research led by the University of Cambridge and the RSPB shows that farming wetland-adapted crops on wetter peat – known as paludiculture – can support richer and more diverse bird communities than drained grassland.

This evidence is key to informing local and landscape level management decisions that balance environmental and human needs.Catherine Waite

Lowland peatlands, such as the East Anglian Fens and Somerset Levels, are rich in carbon and have been prized for their ability to support productive agriculture. Since the 1600s, some 90% of UK lowland peat has been drained to this end. This peatland also contributes an estimated 4% to the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. But by using wetland-adapted crops and machinery, soil can be farmed in a wetter state, helping to reduce peatland emissions while remaining economically productive and potentially benefitting nature.

In a new study published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, researchers have found that bird numbers in paludiculture sites are three times higher than on drained grasslands, and match those of natural wetlands. They surveyed bird communities in natural wetlands, paludiculture sites growing bulrush (Typha), and drained, grazed grasslands in the Netherlands. 

Birds that are wetland specialists including Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, and Sedge Warbler were recorded alongside typical grassland bird species – creating a unique and diverse bird community. The paludiculture sites also contained several bird species of European or global conservation concern, namely Eurasian Oystercatcher, Meadow Pipit, and Eurasian Coot. 

Although paludiculture does not replicate natural wetlands, the findings show it can function as an important habitat within wetland-grassland landscapes. This could provide more spaces for wetland specialist species if cutting and harvesting are timed to minimise disturbance during the breeding season.

Dr Catherine Waite in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and co-lead author of the study, said: “As pressures on land continue to grow, research like this provides vital insight into how different land management choices affect nature. This evidence is key to informing local and landscape level management decisions that balance environmental and human needs.”

Dr Joshua Copping, an RSPB Conservation Scientist and co-lead author, said: “We know that paludiculture can reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with farming on peat, but our findings show its potential for wildlife too. Farmed wetlands support bird communities simply not found on drained grasslands. As the sector develops, paludiculture could help deliver a just transition for farmers who wish to continue farming while contributing to a nature-rich landscape.”

Paludiculture could aid in the reduction of land use emissions from peatland, thereby contributing to the Net Zero ambition. This approach offers a way to continue productive farming while providing climate and nature benefits, potentially serving as a viable alternative to full peatland restoration in some areas. Paludiculture could also support food and fibre production, delivering social and economic value alongside environmental gains.

Unlocking paludiculture’s potential will require investment, advisory support, and strong markets for wetland crops. A project led by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) South West, in collaboration with the RSPB, is developing best practice for establishing and managing bulrush crops, including trials at RSPB Greylake, Somerset. Funded by Natural England’s Paludiculture Exploration Fund, this project is also testing whether bulrush can help remove excess nutrients from surrounding farmland, to improve wetland condition.

Alice Groom, RSPB Head of Sustainable Land Use Policy, who was not involved in this study, said: “To deliver nature recovery, reduce emissions, and support farm businesses, we must explore techniques like paludiculture. Drained peatlands are degrading fast, and we are running out of time to rely on current methods. Combined with wetland restoration, re-wetting peat through paludiculture offers a path to a more resilient farming future while tackling the climate and nature crises.”

Will Barnard, FWAG South West, who was not involved in this study, said: “As an entirely new agricultural sector within the UK, paludiculture inevitably requires vision and external support. If we can harness the boundless energy and innovation of the farming sector, it offers the rare opportunity to blend real commercial growth with lowering our environmental footprint and helping nature.”

The team says that with the right policy support, investment, and continued research, wetter farming could play a key role in creating nature-positive, climate-resilient landscapes while supporting communities and farmers through a just transition.

Reference: Copping, J P et al: ‘Typha-based paludiculture offers potential for greater bird species abundance and diversity than drained agricultural grassland.‘ Ecological Solutions and Evidence, Feb 2026. DOI: 10.1002/2688-8319.70169

Adapted from a press release by the RSPB.

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

The UK’s most powerful quantum computer, which will accelerate research and discovery in quantum science, engineering, and a range of other applications, will be based at the University of Cambridge as part of a new partnership with the quantum technology company IonQ. The collaboration is the University’s largest-ever corporate research partnership.

The partnership will support the creation of the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre to be based at the Ray Dolby Centre, the new home of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. The Centre will house a state-of-the-art IonQ 256-qubit quantum computer, which will be the most powerful quantum computer in the UK when it is installed.

As part of the collaboration, Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency and part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will provide access and computing time for UKRI’s National Quantum Computing Centre over three years. This support will enable researchers and early-stage companies from across the UK to make use of the enormous power of the first commercial-scale quantum computer at a UK university. 

The new IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre will host a research portfolio across quantum computing, quantum networks, quantum sensing, and quantum security. The partnership will also support new academic positions, postdoctoral fellows and PhD students at the University.

“Cambridge is already a critical player in the UK’s national quantum technology programme, and this partnership will supercharge that role,” said Professor Mete Atatüre, Head of the Cavendish Laboratory. “This is a true partnership, with long-term investment, shared research and co-development in all areas of quantum technology, bringing together physics, engineering, medicine, computer science, policy and more.”

Quantum computers harness quantum phenomena to achieve a level of performance which is otherwise unattainable, based on science which cannot be explained by classical physics. The shift from lab-scale quantum computers to truly application-focused systems could greatly accelerate the pace of discovery in a number of areas that will improve lives, such as ultra-secure communication networks, super-powerful computers, record-breaking quantum sensors and accelerated drug discovery.

Cambridge is home to one of the largest and most successful communities of quantum scientists and technologists in the world, working across the University. The Cavendish Laboratory has long been at the heart of this research community, and this partnership is the next chapter in that long legacy.

The IonQ partnership will support long-term research funding for quantum science and technology at Cambridge, as well as the co-development of new quantum network nodes and sensing capabilities across the University, including a strengthening of the existing Cambridge to Bristol UK quantum network.

“We’re proud that Cambridge is at the heart of the UK’s next computing revolution,” said Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. “This new and ambitious partnership is the first of its kind for a UK university. It’s not just a new facility for Cambridge — it’s one for the whole of the UK, and it will develop not only exciting new technologies but also the UK’s next generation of leaders in quantum science.”

“This historic agreement with Cambridge deepens IonQ’s commitment to the United Kingdom and accelerates our technology platform with novel research at one of the world’s most storied physics powerhouses,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “By establishing the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre, we are strengthening the bridge between academic discovery and commercial quantum advantage. We believe this partnership will contribute meaningfully to the UK to help advance scalable quantum computing, networking, sensing, and security.”

Unlike traditional models of siloed research stuck within disciplines, the Cambridge-IonQ partnership will bring researchers across multiple disciplines, industry partners, end users and policy experts together from the outset. This joined-up approach will ensure that scientific and technological advances are aligned with commercial and societal needs and are rapidly translated into real-world solutions.

“I am delighted that Innovate UK is supporting the University of Cambridge in establishing the Quantum Innovation Centre,” said Roger McKinlay, Challenge Director – Quantum Technologies at Innovate UK. “Back in 2020, Innovate UK awarded a small collaborative grant to Oxford Ionics — now acquired by IonQ — to help develop a UK industrial supply chain for commercial quantum computing. Just five years later, it is fantastic to see investment on this scale, which will catalyse progress in quantum, create UK jobs, and drive growth across many industrial sectors.”

“This exciting new partnership will support the UK’s National Quantum Strategy, helping the UK on its mission to become a leading quantum-enabled economy,” said Professor Sir Peter Knight, Chair of the National Quantum Technology Programme (NQTP) Strategic Advisory Board for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). “The NQTP has fostered a great collaborative enterprise over the past 12 years and the new IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre in Cambridge is a wonderful new component in our vision to realise the potential of this transformational science. The strong collaborative foundations of the new Quantum Innovation Centre will accelerate the development of this exciting new technology, which could revolutionise areas that benefit society and the economy, including new ways of developing drugs and diagnosing disease, more precise sensors to monitor critical infrastructure, and next-generation materials for the transition to net zero.”

“This is a significant moment for brilliant researchers at the University of Cambridge which cements the UK’s credentials as a world-leader in Quantum,” said Science Minister Lord Vallance. “It will help deliver new breakthroughs to some of our most pressing shared challenges while supporting more academics, PhD students and researchers in the process – ensuring we have a rich pool of Quantum talent for years to come.

“This partnership will ensure the UK stays at the cutting edge of research and innovation – delivering jobs, growth and advances that will improve lives across the country and around the world.”

The quantum computer will be managed by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm. Researchers working in quantum science and technology from across the University will be able to make use of the new quantum computer once it is fully operational.

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

The recreational drugs cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines significantly increase the risk of stroke – including among younger users – Cambridge researchers have concluded after analysing data from more than 100 million people.

Our analysis suggests that it is these drugs themselves that increase the risk of stroke, not just other lifestyle factors among usersEric Harshfield

Stroke is a major global health challenge – the third leading cause of death and disability combined. But it also a condition that, for the most part, results from modifiable risk factors, such as poor diet, lack of exercise and other lifestyle factors.

In 2024, 8.8% of adults aged 16 to 59 years in England and Wales – around 2.9 million individuals – reported having used a legal or illegal recreational drug in the past year. Recent data from the USA reports that over half of all those aged over 12 have used drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and opiates at least once.

There is increasing evidence that these drugs may increase the risk of stroke, but the evidence is often of differing quality and is observational only, meaning it is impossible to say whether the use of these drugs itself increases the risk of stroke, or whether this is purely a correlation.

To investigate this further, a team from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge first carried out a meta-analysis of studies encompassing more than 100 million people. A meta-analysis is a method for pooling and analysing cohort data from all of the published evidence. This approach allows researchers to bring together studies which, on their own may not provide sufficient evidence and sometimes disagree with each other, to provide more robust conclusions.

In findings published today in the International Journal of Stroke, the team found that the use of cocaine and amphetamines was associated with around double the risk of stroke (cocaine increased the risk by 96%, amphetamines by 122%), while cannabis use increased the risk by around 37%. The team found no statistically significant link between opioid use and stroke risk.

When the researchers restricted their analysis to individuals under 55 years, they found that amphetamine use almost tripled the risk of stroke (an increase of 174%); cannabis use increase stroke risk but by a smaller amount (14%), while cocaine use increased the risk by 97%.

To analyse these links further, the researchers used a statistical technique known as Mendelian randomisation, which looks at naturally occurring genetic variants related to risk factors and stroke and uses these to evaluate whether there is evidence to support a causal association with a particular risk factor.

This analysis showed that cocaine use disorders were particularly associated with brain haemorrhage and cardioembolic stroke (where a blood clot forms in the heart and travels to the brain, blocking blood flow and leading to damage of brain tissue). Cannabis use disorders were associated with stroke overall, particularly large artery stroke. This genetic evidence suggests a causal link, rather than just correlation.

Problematic alcohol use was linked to an increased risk of cardioembolic stroke and large artery stroke, while alcohol addiction increased the risk of stroke overall.

The researchers were unable to use Mendelian randomisation to look at associations with amphetamine as there are currently no large genetic datasets available with information on their usage.

The researchers suggest that possible reasons why these drugs are linked to an increased risk of stroke include sudden spikes in blood pressure, blood vessel spasm and constriction, heart rhythm problems, increased blood clotting (especially cannabis), and inflammation or vasculitis (especially amphetamines). These are all well-established pathways known to cause both ischaemic strokes, which result from blood clots, and haemorrhagic strokes.

Dr Megan Ritson from the Stroke Research Group at the University of Cambridge said: “This is the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted on recreational drug use and stroke risk and provides compelling evidence that drugs like cocaine, amphetamines, and cannabis are causal risk factors for stroke. These findings give us stronger evidence to guide future research and public health strategies.”

Dr Eric Harshfield, Alzheimer’s Society Research Fellow at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, said: “Our analysis suggests that it is these drugs themselves that increase the risk of stroke, not just other lifestyle factors among users. Taken together, our findings emphasise the importance of public health measures to reduce substance abuse as a way of helping also reduce stroke risk.”

The research was funded by the British Heart Foundation, with additional support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference

Ritson, M, et al. Does Illicit Drug Use Increase Stroke Risk? A Systematic review, Meta-Analyses and Mendelian Randomization analysis. International Journal of Stroke; 9 March 2026; DOI: 10.1177/17474930261418926

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Differences in cellular pathway activity flip the switch from nocturnality to diurnality and explain a major evolutionary change humans have undergone.

Early mammals were nocturnal, sleeping during the day while large predators were active. However, after the extinction of dinosaurs, several different lineages of mammals independently transitioned to become active during the day. Exactly how this dramatic change occurred has proved elusive. A new study, published in the journal Science, has revealed a cellular switch which holds the answer.

Led by researchers from the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, the study looked at how cells from a range of nocturnal (active at night) and diurnal (active in the day) mammals, like humans, respond to environmental signals.

Changes in temperature or osmolarity, as happens to the body throughout the day, caused the cells to respond in opposite ways, including in fundamental cellular functions. This divergence flips the timing of cellular activity, essentially acting as a day/night ‘switch’ at a molecular level.

The researchers pinpointed these differing responses to the mechanistic Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) and With-no-lysine (WNK) kinase pathways, central signalling networks in cells responsible for regulating several key functions, including protein synthesis. This suggested that modification of their activity could enable nocturnal mammals to switch to more diurnal activity.

To explore this hypothesis, the researchers administered diet-based treatments to mice to target the mTOR pathway, as mTOR activity is highly sensitive to nutrient levels. Once mTOR function was reduced, the mice began behaving more like diurnal animals, shifting their active hours into the daytime. This underlined that mTOR signalling goes beyond influencing metabolism; it also helps dictate when an animal is active.

The researchers then looked to contextualise this finding against the backdrop of mammalian evolution. After analysing genetic data across several species, co-author Matthew Christmas from Uppsala University found that genes regulating mTOR and WNK have evolved faster in diurnal mammals. This points to the importance these pathways have played in the shift from nighttime to daytime over millennia.

This discovery helps explain one of the most important evolutionary events in mammalian history and provides a piece of the puzzle for understanding human health.

To date, most explorations of pre-clinical biomedical research have depended on the mouse model, yet this study highlights that nocturnal rodents differ from humans in key cellular pathways linked to timing and metabolism. This study also carries clear implications for circadian medicine, a growing field that examines how the timing of treatments influences their effectiveness.

“That this radically different response of cellular ‘clocks’ to the same temperature shift seemed to be broadly true across mammalian species, when comparing those that are more active at night versus those that are more active during the day,” said co-author Dr Nina Rzechorzek, from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “We need more research to understand exactly how and why this happens, but it could teach us a lot about how biological clocks work and how they impact health and disease.”

Several of the key external factors harnessed in this study to influence animals’ circadian rhythms are vulnerable to environmental changes. As climate change disrupts temperature levels and food production capabilities, this work suggests mammals may change the time of day they are active in response. This will disrupt the fragile balance of relationships in our ecosystems and is an impact of climate change, which has perhaps been overlooked thus far.

This work was funded by UKRI MRC, UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, Wellcome and the Royal Society. The project was further supported by Blue Sky collaboration between AstraZeneca UK Limited and the Medical Research Council (BSF38).

Reference:
Andrew D. Beale et al. ‘A cellular basis for the mammalian nocturnal-diurnal switch.’ Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.ady2822

Adapted from an LMB media release.

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Experts are warning that far from being over-diagnosed, people with ADHD are waiting too long for assessment, support and treatment.

Overdiagnosis is not a problem, but misdiagnosis may be as people are driven into the private sector by long waits, and sadly, missed diagnoses remain commonTamsin Ford

In a paper, published today in the British Journal of Psychiatry, a group of experts say there is no robust evidence that ADHD is over-diagnosed in the UK. They refute the view that ‘nowadays everyone has ADHD’, which is gaining traction in public discourse and has been amplified by some leading politicians, as demand rises for NHS assessments and services.

Bringing together academics, clinicians, people with lived experience and carers, the group say this narrative risks misleading the public and policymakers and overshadows a more pressing concern – unmet need.

Professor Tamsin Ford, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, senior co-author on the paper, said: “While many more people with ADHD are being recognised and treated, we are failing to support many more. Overdiagnosis is not a problem, but misdiagnosis may be as people are driven into the private sector by long waits; and sadly, missed diagnoses remain common.”

Professor Samuele Cortese from the University of Southampton, the study’s first author, said: “Rather than focusing on increases or decreases in diagnostic rates, attention should be directed toward the extent to which those with ADHD are being adequately diagnosed and treated.

“While misdiagnosis and inappropriate diagnosis do occur, the available evidence indicates that under-diagnosis and under-treatment remain the predominant challenges.”

When standardised diagnostic criteria are applied, the prevalence of ADHD internationally is around 5 per cent in children and 3 per cent in adults.

While prevalence has increased over time, NHS administrative data in England remains substantially below these expected levels, suggesting that many people with ADHD are living without a diagnosis and adequate support.

The group acknowledge that misdiagnosis can occur in some cases, particularly where assessments rely heavily on self-reporting or where alternative conditions are not fully considered.

The researchers stress that the absence of biological diagnostic markers means that thorough, multidisciplinary clinical assessment is essential. Field trials show that when clinicians are properly trained, an ADHD diagnosis is amongst the most reliable for a mental health condition.

Professor Chris Hollis from the University of Nottingham, a co-author, said: “Similar to physiological traits, such as blood pressure or weight, ADHD symptoms are distributed along a continuum. But as with hypertension or obesity, there are diagnostic severity thresholds that determine health risks and what interventions should be used. Similarly, in ADHD a risk-stratified stepped-care approach may be useful.”

The team highlight significant pressure on UK services, with long waiting times and growing demand, especially among adults who were not diagnosed in childhood. They point to figures showing around 27 per cent children and young people diagnosed with ADHD reported waiting one to two years, while 14 per cent waited two to three years.

Evidence shows that untreated ADHD is associated with serious long-term risks, while effective treatments are available, backed by strong evidence, and generally well tolerated.

“The costs of untreated ADHD are often overlooked,” said Professor Cortese. “They include increased risk of academic failure, suicidal behaviour, substance abuse, criminality, injury and death. The failure to provide treatments which have been shown to reduce these risks represents a major ethical issue that needs to be urgently addressed.”

The authors call for improved funding, workforce training and a more balanced, evidence-based conversation to ensure accurate diagnosis while expanding access to care for those who need it.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital

The editorial highlights that a group of children where ADHD may tend to be missed or under diagnosed are those that have co-occurring conditions. One such group is children with long term physical health problems, who have elevated rates of ADHD. This is often under-detected and under-treated.

Cambridge Children’s Hospital aims to fully integrate physical and mental healthcare, including detecting and treating neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD in children who also have physical health needs.

Early detection and intervention have a positive impact on emotions, behaviour, educational attainment and peer relationships, as well as helping children cope with the health care they may need to receive, such as staying in hospital, procedures or operations.

Studies have shown that children with epilepsy have up to six times the population rate of ADHD, yet often have difficulty obtaining treatment but when they are successfully treated there is a significant improvement in functioning and quality of life.

Reference

Cortese, S et al. ADHD (over) diagnosis: fiction, fashion, and failure. British Journal of Psychiatry; 6 March 2026; DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2026.10546

Adapted from a press release from the University of Southampton

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

Robots are becoming increasingly capable in vision and movement, yet touch remains one of their major weaknesses. Now, researchers have developed a miniature tactile sensor that could give robots something much closer to a human sense of touch.

The technology, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, is based on liquid metal composites and graphene – a two-dimensional form of carbon. The ‘skin’ allows robots to detect not just how hard they are pressing on an object, but also the direction of applied forces, whether an object is slipping, and even how rough a surface is, at a scale small enough to rival the spatial resolution of human fingertips. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Materials.

Human fingers rely on multiple types of mechanoreceptors to sense pressure, force, vibration, and texture simultaneously. Reproducing this level of multidimensional tactile perception in artificial systems is a significant challenge, especially in devices that are both small and durable enough for practical use.

“Most existing tactile sensors are either too bulky, too fragile, too complex to manufacture or unable to accurately distinguish between normal and tangential forces,” said Professor Tawfique Hasan from the Cambridge Graphene Centre, who led the research. “This has been a major barrier to achieving truly dexterous robotic manipulation.”

To overcome this, the research team developed a soft, flexible composite material, combining graphene sheets, deformable metal microdroplets, and nickel particles, embedded in a silicone matrix.

Inspired by the microstructures found in human skin, the researchers shaped the material into tiny pyramids, some as small as 200 micrometres across. These pyramid structures concentrate stress at their tips, enabling the sensor to detect extremely small forces while maintaining a wide measurement range.

The result is a tactile sensor sensitive enough to detect a grain of sand. Compared with existing flexible tactile sensors, the new device improves size and detection limits by roughly an order of magnitude.

The sensor can also distinguish shear forces from normal pressure, a capability that allows it to detect when an object begins to slip. By measuring signals from four electrodes beneath each pyramid, the sensor can mathematically reconstruct the full three-dimensional force vector in real time.

In demonstrations, the team integrated the sensors into robotic grippers. The robots were able to grasp fragile objects, such as thin paper tubes, without crushing them. Unlike conventional force sensors, which rely on prior information about an object’s properties, the new system adapts in real time through slip detection.

At even smaller scales, microsensor arrays could identify the mass, geometry, and material density of tiny metal spheres by analysing force magnitude and direction. This opens the door to applications in minimally invasive surgery or microrobotics, where conventional force sensors are far too large.

Beyond robotics, the technology could have significant implications for prosthetics. Advanced artificial limbs increasingly rely on tactile feedback to provide users with a sense of touch. Highly sensitive, miniaturised 3D force sensors could enable more natural interactions with objects, improving control, safety, and user confidence.

“Our approach shows that bulky mechanical structures or complex optics are not required to achieve high-resolution 3D tactile sensing,” said lead author Dr Guolin Yun, a former Royal Society Newton International Fellow at Cambridge, and now Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China. “By combining smart materials with skin-inspired structures, we achieve performance that comes remarkably close to human touch.”

Looking ahead, the researchers believe the sensors could be miniaturised even further, potentially below 50 micrometres, approaching the density of mechanoreceptors in human skin. Future versions may also integrate temperature and humidity sensing, moving closer to a fully multimodal artificial skin.

As robots increasingly move out of controlled factory environments and into homes, hospitals, and unpredictable real-world settings, such advances in touch could be transformative — allowing machines not just to see and act, but to truly feel.

A patent application has been filed through Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s innovation arm. The research was supported by the Royal Society, the Henry Royce Institute, and the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). Tawfique Hasan is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. 

Reference:
Guolin Yun et al. ‘Multiscale-structured miniaturized 3D force sensors.’ Nature Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02508-7

Adapted from a story originally published on the Electrical Engineering website. 

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

A year after stopping taking weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, people regain on average 60% of their lost weight – but beyond this, their weight regain plateaus, with individuals managing to keep off 25% of the weight lost to treatment, say researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy act like brakes on our appetite. When people stop taking them, they are essentially taking their foot off the brake

Brajan Budini

It isn’t clear, however, whether the weight regain constitutes both fat and muscle, or mainly fat. Previous studies have suggested that lean body mass – including muscle – can constitute up to 40% of total weight lost during treatment.

More than a billion people worldwide are living with obesity, which increases the risk of diseases such as 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Weight loss can help mitigate these complications, but losing weight through diet and exercise alone can prove challenging.

In the past few years, a new generation of weight loss drugs has emerged that target a protein known as the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R). These drugs help control blood sugar and reduce appetite, and clinical trials have shown they can lead to weight losses of 15 to 20%.

Approximately half of all patients who begin taking these drugs discontinue their use within the first year, however, and three-quarters have stopped after two years. This is likely to be due to their potential side effects and to limited access under insurance coverage policies and national prescribing guidelines.

A team of students at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, has investigated the impact of stopping the medication, modelling the trajectory of weight regain over 12 months and beyond. Their findings are published today in eClinicalMedicine.

The team first carried out a systematic review of existing scientific and medical literature, identifying and summarising all the relevant evidence. They followed this with a meta‑analysis, which pools the results of multiple studies to estimate an overall effect. This approach allowed them to draw more robust conclusions from studies which, on their own, may provide insufficient evidence and sometimes disagree with each other.

In total, the team examined 48 relevant studies, comprising 36 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and 12 non-randomised studies.

As most of these studies only followed patients for a few weeks after stopping the drugs, the team selected the six RCTs (comprising more than 3,200 individuals in total) that followed patients for up to 52 weeks after discontinuation of the weight loss drugs. They used these to model the trajectory of weight regain, including to extrapolate beyond 52 weeks.

The model estimated that when individuals stopped taking the medication, they underwent rapid initial weight regain, which slowed progressively. By 52 weeks, individuals had regained 60% of their original weight loss.

At 60 weeks, weight regain begins to plateau and is projected to taper off at 75% of the original weight loss. This means that 25% of the initial weight loss may be sustained in the long term. For an individual who had lost a fifth of their weight while on the drugs, this would correspond to a sustained weight reduction of around 5%.

Weight regain trajectories appeared broadly similar for the different types of weight loss drugs targeting GLP-1R.

Brajan Budini, a medical student at the School of Clinical Medicine and Trinity College, University of Cambridge, said: “Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy act like brakes on our appetite, making us feel full sooner, which means we eat less and therefore lose weight. When people stop taking them, they are essentially taking their foot off the brake, and this can lead to rapid weight regain.”

The researchers say there are several reasons why people may not return to their original weight even a year after stopping the medications. One reason is that by reducing appetite, these drugs may help individuals develop healthier eating habits, such as reduced portion sizes or more nutritionally-balanced meals, and these habits may persist even after treatment is discontinued. The drugs may also affect the body long-term, altering hormone levels and ‘resetting’ the brain’s appetite control mechanisms.

Steven Luo, also a medical student at the School of Clinical Medicine and Trinity College, said: “When stopping weight loss drugs, doctors and patients should be aware of the potential for weight regain and consider ways to mitigate this risk.

“It’s important that people are given advice on improving their diet and exercise, rather than relying solely on the drugs, as this may help them maintain good habits when they stop taking them.”

There are significant concerns about the long-term consequences of GLP-1R drugs on body composition, with studies indicating that 40 to 60% of the weight lost during treatment is muscle. It was not clear whether individuals regain both fat and muscle.

Budini added: “Our projections show that even though people regain most of the weight they have lost, they still maintain some of the weight loss, but what we currently don’t know is if the same proportion of lean mass is recovered. If the regained weight is disproportionately fat, individuals may ultimately be worse off than before in their fat-to-lean mass ratio, which may have adverse consequences for their health.”

The researchers say there are several limitations to their study. Most importantly, the trial data used to fit their model only extended to 52 weeks after cessation. They also restricted their analysis to studies reporting at least 3kg on-treatment average weight loss.

Reference

Budini, B & Luo, S et al. Trajectory of weight regain after cessation of GLP-1 receptor agonists: a systematic review and nonlinear meta-regression. eClinicalMedicine; 4 Mar 2026; DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2026.103796

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

It is an enormous privilege to be given the opportunity to lead child health research in CambridgeSam Behjati

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

These are a fundamental and underappreciated component of human health.Alexandre Almeida

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discovering the ‘hidden microbiome’

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

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

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

Three lines of evidence

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

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

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

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

Therapeutic possibilities

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

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

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

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

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out more about the partnership and get involved

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adapted from a UK government press release

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

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

When there is a medical need to boost testosterone, the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks, but this might not necessarily be the case when taken to boost performanceEmily Morbey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reference

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk

In a career defined by constant questioning, self-doubt can become an occupational hazard. Now, for the first time, a group of Cambridge scientists reveal the personal struggles they’ve faced – and continue to face – as they strive for success.

Hidden behind every successful career story is the reality that progression isn’t often a smooth and easy path. Rejections, setbacks, and the doubts they seed are rarely shared – leaving us to believe that they don’t happen to other people the way they happen to us.

“Unless we’re part of the story, we don’t see the failures that line the path to success,” says Adrian Liston, Professor of Pathology at the University of Cambridge. “You don’t want to tell people that you feel like you’re failing, so you keep it inside and you think you’re the only one. But everyone around you is doing that too.”


Liston is a successful scientist who has run a research lab, together with Professor James Dooley, for almost twenty years. He’s come to see self-doubt as an occupational hazard of a scientific career, in a world where people are working at the boundaries of knowledge and constantly trying to disprove their ideas.

“Science is a very weird career in that we’re judged entirely on those rare successful days, the journal publications, which might come after years of failure. From the outside, people simply look at our successful days and celebrate those,” says Liston.

“But a scientific career is all about trying to understand the unknown, and 95% of the time our experiments will fail. This can be very disorientating when all you see of other people is their success,” he adds.

In a new book published today Liston has brought together personal tales, including his own, to reveal the insecurities and fears felt by scientists at various stages of their careers.

The accounts – from past and present members of his lab group – are honest, surprising, and could help us all.

“Over and over again during my mentoring and tutoring I hear worries like: ‘what if everyone else is smarter than me? What if I can’t do it?’,” says Liston, who is also Equalities Fellow and Postgraduate Welfare Tutor at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

Some of the stories he shares in the book are inspirational: written by people who overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges to become scientists, from chronic health issues to restrictive cultural norms. Others are contributed by people earlier in their careers who are still grappling with doubts about their abilities – but refuse to give up.

“I’d love it if people got inspiration from some of these stories,” says Liston. “But the most important thing for me is that people realise they’re not alone when they’re doubting their abilities – it’s a common part of the scientific experience, you just learn to deal with it.”

Liston’s experience is in biomedical sciences, but he suspects the problem of self-doubt is much more widely experienced. Like everyone else, he’s had his share of challenges and failures. Unlike others, he – and his fellow scientists – are willing to share them.

---

Among those who share their personal stories are:

Professor James Dooley, Department of Pathology

Following a childhood of mental and physical abuse Dooley lived in foster care for over a decade, and slept rough on the streets of Seattle, before trying to get into college without having finished high school.

“I want to show people that you can come from a place where you don’t have any advantages in life and still be successful. While my doubts and desire to be invisible have become quieter over time, they’ve never fully gone away. But now I know how to keep going in spite of them.”

“You have to put the effort in, but once you take the first step it might not be as hard as you think. I met people who saw more potential in me than I saw in myself – I think if people see you’re trying, they want to help.”

Dr Ntombizodwa Makuyana, Postdoctoral Scientist, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Jesus College

Makuyana grew up in rural Zimbabwe and was expected to prioritise learning how to run a house, in preparation for marriage, over her education. But at school she became fascinated by science and resolved to forge a different future for herself. She shares the doubts she had about taking her own path, and how she balanced these with the drive to change her situation – which led to opportunities she’d never known existed.

“The majority of my female friends got married before we finished secondary school – it’s just how society is where I come from. I want young girls to know that you don’t have to give in to your doubts. You can challenge yourself and be much more than people expect of you.”

“From a young age I often questioned myself, and while I still do at times, I have improved in managing my doubts. Being in Cambridge and seeing women achieve remarkable things is always encouraging and serves as a reminder of my potential and what is possible for me.”

Stavroula Piliou, PhD student, Department of Pathology and Lucy Cavendish College

Following a family move to the UK from Greece when she was young, Piliou’s poor English meant she struggled at school, and later, the challenge of dealing with a chronic autoimmune condition pushed her to question her ability to follow a scientific path. Yet she absolutely refused to quit and now holds a Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship, awarded to the most talented students from around the world.

“I think it’s important not to let your disability or your background define you. Being diagnosed with a chronic condition can make young people think they need to stop working, or can’t achieve their dreams.”

“I still regularly ask myself if I can do this, but it’s very important not to quit. If you really try, and you don’t give up, you can achieve great things and contribute to society.”

Dr Lydia Makaroff, Chief Executive, Multiple Sclerosis International Federation

Makaroff says when she was finally awarded PhD, that moment of success hid a drawn-out struggle – with an unsupportive supervisor, lack of research funding, and minimal guidance on her work. Her move to a new lab in a different country, and the camaraderie she found there, helped her realise that self-doubt was actually a strength in a scientific career.

“We keep self-doubt to ourselves because we think it’s a sign of weakness, or it means we’re not suited to science. It’s a bit taboo to talk about it in a place like Cambridge where it seems so easy for everyone else. But we all have struggles, and we do all belong.”

“People carry their own insecurities, and often project them outward. When someone tells you that you fall short, it may say as much about their own fears as about your work.”

---

World-class scientists, like the rest of us, face challenges, failures and rejections throughout their careers. What makes a person successful is that they learn to deal with their doubts, and don’t give up on their ambitions.

“Isolation is one of the most harmful aspects of self-doubt, but fortunately it’s the one we can most easily act on – we just need to share our stories,” says Lison. His book, ‘Self-Doubt: An Anthology of Experiences in the Biomedical Sciences’, is published on 30 January 2026 and available from Amazon and The Great British Bookshop.

Published 29 January 2026

Illustration (top) by Natalie Ng. Photographs by Jacqueline Garget.

^{The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License}

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

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

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

The new Cambridge Fellows are:

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

Professor Anne-Christine Davis OBE is the Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Physics (1967) at Cambridge and Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. She was the first female Professor in the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge. She has held positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, CERN, Imperial College and Durham University. Her work over a number of years has been in the area of dark energy and theoretical cosmology. She was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday honours in 2024.

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

Professor Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb is Professor of Applied Mathematics, Head of the Cambridge Image Analysis group and a Fellow of Jesus College. Her current research interests focus on variational methods, partial differential equations and machine learning for image analysis, image processing and inverse imaging problems, and the mathematical foundations of machine learning. Her research has been acknowledged by scientific prizes, among them the LMS Whitehead Prize 2016, the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2017, the Calderon Prize 2019, a Royal Society Wolfson fellowship in 2020, and an ELLIS fellowship in 2025. She convened the European Women in Mathematics Association between 2016 and 2020 and chaired the Committee for Applications and Interdisciplinary Relations (CAIR) of the European Mathematical Society from 2021 to 2025.

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

source: cam.ac.uk