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The Gene That Can Transform Mild Influenza in to a Life Threatening Disease

By Guest PostMarch 26, 2012Health, Scienceantiviral, cell, deenan pillay, disease, gene variant, genetic finding, greg towers, h1n1 pandemic influenza, hiv, ifitm3 gene, infection, influenza, life threatening, paul kellam, protein, sir mark walport, swine flu, ucl, variant, virus infection

A genetic finding could help to explain why influenza becomes a life-threatening disease for some people, and yet has only a mild effect on others. Collaborative research led by scientists at UCL and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute found that people who carry a particular variant of the IFITM3 gene are significantly more likely to be hospitalised when they fall ill with influenza than those who carry other variants.

The gene plays a critical role in protecting the body against infection with influenza and a rare version of it appears to make people more susceptible to severe forms of the disease. The results are published in the journal Nature. (more…)

Everest Expedition Suggests Nitric Oxide Benefits for Intensive Care Patients

By Guest PostOctober 8, 2011Health, Sciencebody response, caudwell xtreme everest, chemical compound, cxe expedition, denny levett, expedition to mount everest, heart, highlanders, hypoxia, infectious diseases, low oxygen levels, lowlanders, lungs, martin feelisch, nitric oxide, no, no production, oxygen level in human blood, regulation of blood pressure, sea level altitudes, shortage of oxygen, tibetan plateau, ucl, university of warwick, vascular system

The latest results from an expedition to Mount Everest that looked at the body’s response to low oxygen levels suggest that drugs or procedures that promote the body’s production of a chemical compound called nitric oxide (NO) could improve the recovery of critically ill patients in intensive care.

Many critically ill patients suffer from a shortage of oxygen (a condition known as ‘hypoxia’), which can be life-threatening. NO is produced by virtually every cell and organ in the body where it serves many important functions including the regulation of blood pressure, learning and memory formation, and protecting us from infectious diseases. (more…)

Names, Not Social Networks, Bind Us to Global Cultural and Ethnic Communities

By Guest PostSeptember 12, 2011Culture, Sciencecultural baggage, electoral registers, ethnic and linguistic communities, ethnic segregation, geographical factors, global networks, linguistic population, migrant integration, name dictionary, pablo mateos, research in population genetics, social science, social stratification, surnames and forenames, telephone directories, ucl, university of auckland

Links between hundreds of millions of names belonging to people all around the world have been analysed by geographers from UCL and the University of Auckland. The results reveal how our forenames and surnames are connected in distinct global networks of cultural, ethnic and linguistic communities.

The researchers’ methods could be of use to social scientists and health researchers investigating migration, identity and integration. (more…)

First Observational Test of the ‘Multiverse’

By Guest PostAugust 5, 2011Sciencealternative universes, big bang, bubble, bubble universes, cmb, cmb radiation, cmb sky, cosmic microwave background radiation, daniel mortlock, european space agency, hiranya peiris, modern theories of fundamental physics, multiverse, NASA, physicists, planck satellite, powerful computer algorithm, signs of bubble universe collisions, sky, stephen feeney, theory, ucl, universe, university college london, wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe, wmap

The theory that our universe is contained inside a bubble, and that multiple alternative universes exist inside their own bubbles – making up the ‘multiverse’ – is, for the first time, being tested by physicists.

Two research papers published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D are the first to detail how to search for signatures of other universes. Physicists are now searching for disk-like patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation – relic heat radiation left over from the Big Bang – which could provide tell-tale evidence of collisions between other universes and our own. (more…)

Crossing Your Arms Relieves Pain

By Guest PostJune 8, 2011Healthbrain, centre of the body, clinical therapies, crossed hands, eeg, electroencephalography, external space, giandomenico iannetti, hand, intensity of pain, laser, neuroscience, pain, painful stimulus, phenomenon, sensory stimuli, ucl

Crossing your arms reduces the intensity of pain you feel when receiving a painful stimulus on the hand, according to research by scientists at UCL.

Published in the current issue of the journal PAIN, the research shows that crossing your arms over the midline (an imaginary line running vertically down the centre of the body) confuses the brain and reduces the intensity of the pain sensation. (more…)

Tag Archives: ucl

The Gene That Can Transform Mild Influenza in to a Life Threatening Disease

Everest Expedition Suggests Nitric Oxide Benefits for Intensive Care Patients

Names, Not Social Networks, Bind Us to Global Cultural and Ethnic Communities

First Observational Test of the ‘Multiverse’

Crossing Your Arms Relieves Pain