News
- Age and gender impacts effectiveness of new gene therapy treatments for eye diseases, new study finds 11 February 2025 Older women could be vulnerable to harmful inflammation from new gene therapies to treat incurable eye diseases, new research has found. The University of Bristol-led study, published in Molecular Therapy, reveal how age and gender affects inflammation caused by gene therapy treatments and could cause damage to the eye. The findings could help improve the therapy’s effectiveness for eye conditions and highlights the need for personalised treatment to reduce risk and ensure a better outcome for all patients.
- New AI project will predict a patient’s hospital readmission risk to help ease pressure on NHS 29 January 2025 A new University of Bristol-led project aims to ease pressure on the NHS by developing an artificial intelligence (AI) model to predict and reduce a patient’s risk of readmission to hospital.
- NHS rolls out national genetic test to reduce risk of donor kidney failure 27 January 2025 Hundreds of potential kidney donors of Black African and Black Caribbean heritage can now get a simple blood test to help reduce the risk of kidney failure.
- Top expert calls for more research to address growing health risks of climate change 21 January 2025 A globally-renowned climate scientist has highlighted the need to better recognise and understand the many different adverse health effects posed by worsening climate change for current and future generations.
- Bristol researchers part of £50M research award to develop cutting-edge new therapies for heart disease 21 January 2025 Bristol’s heart scientists are involved in one of two new Medical Research Council Centres of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) that aims to develop new advanced therapeutics for currently untreatable diseases. Both Centres will receive up to £50 million each over 14 years.
- New online guide launched to support people affected by lichen sclerosus 17 January 2025 A new online guide has launched to support and empower people with vulval lichen sclerosus (LS) to learn about the condition, access the right treatment and live more comfortably. It is estimated that around 1 in 100 women have vulval LS. It can be diagnosed at any age, but it seems to happen most often after the menopause. Nobody knows exactly what causes LS.
- The Infection and Immunity Community's Early Career Researchers’ Symposium 2025 15 January 2025 The Elizabeth Blackwell Institute's Infection and Immunity Research Network hosted its 10th annual Early Career Researchers' (ECRs) symposium on 10 January 2024. The event showcased the extraordinary and diverse research in infection and immunity being conducted across Bristol and the South-West.
- Over 1 in 5 adults worldwide has a genital herpes infection 16 December 2024 Around 846 million people aged between 15 and 49 are living with genital herpes infections – more than 1 in 5 of this age-group globally - according to new estimates. At least 1 person each second – 42 million people annually - is estimated to acquire a new genital herpes infection.
- Child asthma deaths linked to air pollution, new report finds 12 December 2024 Of the 54 children who died of asthma between 2019 and 2023, more than 90 per cent were exposed to air pollution levels above World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, according to a new report published today [12 December] by the University of Bristol’s National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) team. The report uses the NCMD’s unique data on all child deaths in England to examine deaths due to asthma or anaphylaxis between April 2019 and March 2023.
- Reduce Blood Borne Virus (BBV) stigma: keep your organisation’s health and safety routines up to date 11 December 2024 People living with Blood Borne Viruses (BBVs) such as HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C frequently experience stigma at work and in the community (Aghaizu et al. 2023). Most people remain unaware that there have been extraordinary advances in treatments that make it possible to cure Hepatitis C completely, and make it impossible for people on HIV treatment to pass it on (Britain Thinks, 2021). This is reflected in continued fears of BBV exposure, despite very low to zero risk of transmission in most day-to-day interactions.
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