Meat-heavy diets not only risk our health but that of the planet, as livestock farming on a massive scale destroys habitats and generates greenhouse gases.

Conservationists at the University of Cambridge are investigating ways of “nudging” people towards eating more plants and less meat, to help curb the environmental damage caused by excessive consumption of animal products.

The researchers experimented on customers in the cafeterias of two Cambridge colleges to find out whether the position of vegetarian options influences the uptake of plant-based dining.

They collected and analysed data from 105,143 meal selections over a two-year period, alternating the placement of meat and veg dishes every week, and then changing the pattern to every month.

The size of the study is unprecedented. A previous review of various studies using “choice architecture” to reduce meat intake only reached a combined total of 11,290 observations.    

The researchers found that simply placing veggie before meat in the order of meal options as people entered the serving area did little to boost green eating in one of the colleges.

In the other college, however, the sales of plant-based dishes shot up by a quarter (25.2%) in the weekly analysis, and by almost 40% (39.6) in the monthly comparison.

The difference: almost a metre of added distance between the vegetarian and meat options, with an 85cm gap in the first college compared to a 181cm gap in the second. The findings are published today in the journal Nature Food.

“Reducing meat and dairy consumption is one of the simplest and most impactful choices we can make to protect the climate, environment and other species,” said study lead author Emma Garnett, a conservationist from Cambridge’s Department of Zoology.

“We’ve got to make better choices easier for people. We hope to see these findings used by catering managers and indeed anyone interested in cafeteria and menu design that promotes more climate friendly diets.”

The latest research follows on from work by Garnett and colleagues published last autumn, which showed that adding an extra veggie option in cafeterias cuts meat consumption without denting overall sales.

Livestock and aquacultures behind meat, fish, dairy and eggs are responsible for some 58% of the greenhouse gas created by global food, and take up 83% of farmland despite contributing to just 18% of the world’s calorie intake.

Recently, Cambridge researchers recommended eating less meat to reduce the risk of future pandemics, and the UK’s public sector caterers pledged to cut the amount of meat used in schools and hospitals by 20%.

The experiments were conducted across two colleges – one with 600 students and one with 900 students – where cafeteria customers were presented with vegetarian and meat options in differing orders for weekday lunch and dinner.

College members take a tray, view the meals on offer, and then ask serving staff to dish up their preferred options. Food is purchased by swiping a university card, and the researchers gathered anonymised data on main meal selections only (sandwiches and salads went uncounted).

While the catering managers helped to set the experiments up, the diners remained unaware.

The researchers had expected to see a difference in vegetarian sales through order alone, but it was only in the college with the extra metre – the 181cm gap – between food options that recorded an uptick when arranged “Veg First”.

To confirm the findings, researchers reduced the gap in this cafeteria to just 67cm, and vegetarian sales fell sharply. In fact, with such a small gap, vegetarian dishes fared even worse when put first in line (falling almost 30% compared to “Meat First” days).

“We think the effect of the metre may be down to the additional effort required to seek out meat. If the first bite is with the eye, then many people seem perfectly happy with an appetising veggie option when meat is harder to spot,” said Garnett.

“All cafeterias and restaurants have a design that ‘nudges’ people towards something. So it is sensible to use designs that make the healthiest and most sustainable food options the easiest to pick without thinking about it,” she said.

“We know that information alone is generally not enough to get us to change damaging habits. More research is needed on how to set up our society so that the self-interested default decision is the best one for the climate.”

Garnett’s research has contributed to food policy at the University of Cambridge, where the catering service has worked to reduce the amount of meat it uses.

Last year, University cafeterias (separate from the colleges) announced a 33% reduction in carbon emissions per kilogram of food purchased, and a 28% reduction in land use per kilogram of food purchased.

It has been a highly unusual year for A-level students, but today is a day for celebration for those heading to the University of Cambridge. 

Safa Al-Azami studied A-levels at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, in South Manchester, and received A*A*A*A. She will arrive in Cambridge in October to study HSPS at Pembroke College. She said: "The last few months have felt like a long time, and it's still surreal that exams were cancelled. But I'm still so happy about this result because I think it did reflect my ability and I'm so excited to join Cambridge and study a course I'm so passionate about."

Matthew Gursky, from Doncaster, is the first member of his immediate family to go to University and will study History and Politics at Trinity College. He received 3A*s after studying A-levels at Hall Cross Academy. He said: “It’s quite a relief getting the results after all this time; it felt like things were a little out of our control. I first visited Cambridge last summer as part of a residential scheme by the Linacre Institute, which works to get more students from northern state schools to leading universities. The teaching looked incredible, and that’s when I made up my mind I wanted to apply.”

Congratulations Emily, former pupil of ⁦@Hope_Academy⁩ , off to ⁦@Cambridge_Uni⁩ to read Psychology - what an achievement ⁦@WigToday⁩ ⁦@SFCA_info⁩ ⁦@EducateMag⁩ pic.twitter.com/SHIKF4Vy3g

— Winstanley College (@winstanleycoll) August 13, 2020

Emily, from Winstanley College in Wigan, Greater Manchester, will be studying Psychology at Cambridge in the new term. Fifteen students from the school will be going on to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Louise Tipping, Principal, said: "We are so proud of all our resilient students who, with the amazing support of their caring teacher,s have battled all the odds this year to get to where they want to go."

Matthew Offeh, who went to St George’s School in Harpenden, received 4A*s. Before applying to Cambridge he took part in Target Oxbridge’s mentoring programme. He will be studying Engineering at Magdalene College. He said, modestly: ‘I’m quite happy with my results - going to Cambridge has been a lifelong dream of mine so I’m happy to finally be able to attend.”

Caitlin McCracken, who studied at the Redhill Academy in Nottingham, will be joining Girton to study Psychology, after receiving A*AA. Before applying she received support from HE+, a collaborative programme between the University of Cambridge and its Colleges, working together with groups of state schools. She said: “I would like to thank all my teachers for their help and support - if it wasn’t for HE+ I wouldn’t have considered myself a Cambridge candidate” 

Emily Bell received A*A*AA and will read French and Spanish at Fitzwilliam College. She studied at St Philomena’s High School for Girls in Carshalton, Surrey. She said: “What once seemed like an impossible opportunity has now become a reality! I’m so grateful to all my teachers who got me where I need to be, supporting and encouraging me throughout. I can’t wait to find out what my life at Cambridge holds and definitely try rowing! (But, how early can ‘early mornings’ really be?)."

A stunning achievement by Akira:A*A*AA. Akira is going to Cambridge to study Engineering. Well done Akira and best wishes for the future. pic.twitter.com/htd5n1oug4

— Brampton Manor (@BramptonManor1) August 13, 2020

More than 40 students from Brampton Manor Academy in East Ham, London, will be heading to Oxford and Cambridge. Many of them will be the first in their family to attend university. Akira, whose parents both came to the UK as migrants without a formal education, will study Engineering at Trinity College. She described receiving the offer as “unbelievable". She said: "Back when I first thought of applying to Cambridge, I wasn’t doing well enough academically – having Cambridge as a motivation inspired me to keep working hard to exceed my target grades at both GCSE and A-level." 

Josh Cole, from Hull, studied at Sirius Academy West. With his A*A*A he will be studying Physical Natural Sciences at Jesus College. He is the first member of his family to attend university. He said: “This year has been full of uncertainties, but thankfully it all worked out for me and hopefully for the majority of others too. I couldn’t be more excited to start my degree and jump into university life.” 

Congratulations to Ali (A*A*AA) and Amier (A*A*A) for securing places at @Cambridge_Uni to study Maths. Everyone @chelseaacademy is so proud of you! pic.twitter.com/XD3osRb6ST

— ChelseaAcad6thForm (@ChelseaAcad6th) August 13, 2020

Amier and Ali, from Chelsea Academy in London, are both on their way to Cambridge to study Maths. Amier received A*A*A, and Ali received A*A*AA. Matt Williams, Principal​, said ‘These are a great set of results and destinations for a group of young people that worked so hard and then had the summer exams cancelled when they were ready to shine. We are celebrating the significant number of students that got into Oxbridge but also all of those that have done well and are now moving onto the next stage of their education journey or into the world of work."

The engineers, from the Institute of Manufacturing and the Whittle Laboratory, are among the 19 winners announced today for exceptional engineering achievements in tackling COVID-19 in the UK. In addition, two Cambridge alumni, Dr Ravi Solanki and Raymond Siems, were recognised for their work with the HEROES charity. In less than two days, their team turned an idea into a platform with genuine impact: a secure website through which more than 543,000 items of much-needed support have been provided to NHS workers, from sustainable PPE to counselling services and child care.

The awards have been made to teams, organisations, individuals, collaborations and projects across all technical specialities, disciplines and career stages within the UK engineering community who have contributed to addressing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Open Ventilator System Initiative

The team behind the Open Ventilator System Initiative was recognised for their development of a high-performance ventilator for manufacture in low and middle-income countries that became the first intensive care quality ventilator to be manufactured in Africa.

In March 2020, as Covid-19 infection rates were rising dramatically in Europe, the number of infections in many low- and medium-income countries remained low. However, it was predicted that towards the summer these rates would start to increase. This was especially worrying due to the low number of ventilators available in the developing world.

In response to these fears, a team at the University of Cambridge and a number of companies within the Cambridge cluster designed a high-performance intensive care ventilator for manufacture in low and middle-income countries. The aim was to develop a ventilator with a price point that was a factor of 10 lower than what was currently available, which could be manufactured from readily available components and which could be manufactured in-country. The result was the first clinical grade ventilator to be manufactured in Africa.

An engineering team led by Dr Tashiv Ramsander at Cambridge Aerothermal Ltd was quickly assembled at the Whittle Laboratory, and comprised people from several departments at the University of Cambridge and a range of local companies including Cambridge Aerothermal, Beko R&D, Cambridge Instrumentation and Interneuron.

Together, this multidisciplinary team was able to solve problems such as the design of a pressure relief valve, inspired by the mixing nozzles on the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 aircraft engine. The design removed flow instabilities, resulting in a more stable operation than any commercially available valve.

The clinically driven design was developed with the help of two senior intensive care clinicians with experience of treating COVID-19. They argued that a design for developing countries needed to be more versatile than the UK government specification and the final design can operate in non-invasive, mandatory or patient-triggered ventilation modes.

For more than eight years the Whittle Laboratory has been developing a rapid technology development process for the aerospace and power generation sectors. During the pandemic this process was switched to develop a clinical grade ventilator within a week and allowing a rapid response to design changes driven by the pandemic, cost reduction and clinical demand.

The final Open Ventilator design can be manufactured mostly from standard parts, anywhere in the world that it is needed.

The reach and impact of COVID-19 in developing countries is not yet known, but this new design - the first intensive care quality ventilator to be manufactured in Africa - could prove to be a gamechanger when it comes to a host of conditions including pneumonia, as well as COVID-19. Childhood pneumonia killed 162,000 children in Nigeria alone in 2018.

There are very few ventilators in Africa, due to their high cost, inability to operate in harsh environments and a lack of local maintenance expertise. The team realised these problems could be solved by manufacturing the equipment in Africa. The Cambridge engineering team assembled a wider manufacturing team that includes Defy and Denel Land Systems in South Africa, Beko R&D and Prodrive in the UK and Arçelik in Turkey. This team delivered the first 20 preproduction ventilators in South Africa in June.

“The result is a design that will save countless lives in the developing world where ventilators are scarce and many that exist cannot achieve the quality of performance that the Open Ventilator offers,” said Professor Richard Prager, head of the Department of Engineering. “It is a scalable solution. The high-performance open-source design will enable companies across the world to make systems wherever they are needed, and at a price that is compatible with the local healthcare systems.”

Institute for Manufacturing

The IfM team helped local hospitals to make the best use of their resources, streamlining logistics for sourcing and storing vital PPE, informing decision-making on emergency demand, and developing a ventilator sharing system to be used in emergencies. 

As hospitals scrambled to make the necessary operational changes needed to accommodate COVID-19 patients, a team of staff and students from the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) at the University of Cambridge was there to help. Working with clinicians and senior healthcare managers to assess the immediate and emerging operational challenges facing local hospitals, they identified where these could be addressed through the application of engineering capabilities and coordinated the roll-out of solutions.

The IfM team addressed three groups of tasks between March and May in the areas of hospital logistics, personal protective equipment (PPE) delivery and intensive care unit (ICU) equipment development.

In the hospital logistics area, the team applied industrial engineering approaches to COVID-related challenges including modelling in-hospital patient flows, redesigning COVID-19 testing procedures and managing oxygen supplies to the wards.

Understanding oxygen flow through the local hospital involved examining pipes and their layout, then analysing usage by ventilator type and patient need, as well as modelling supply and demand. The in-depth work of the IfM team enabled the hospital’s clinical and estates teams to identify and address various bottlenecks and improve operational efficiency.

The team also looked at the design, setup and management of a temporary logistics hub for coordinating the delivery of millions of items of donated PPE and assessed the production capabilities of local manufacturers to increase flexibility of PPE supplies for local hospitals.

In conjunction with anaesthetists at Royal Papworth Hospital, they also devised an active ventilator sharing system in case there were not enough ventilators available during the COVID-19 outbreak. This involved the accelerated design, prototyping and in-hospital testing of an active ventilator sharing system in just four weeks.

Duncan McFarlane, Professor of Industrial Information Engineering at the IfM, led the team as they engaged with senior clinical and management teams within local hospitals to understand their needs and implement effective and collaborative ways of working. This involved joining the hospital's regular operations planning meetings and running daily project reviews with key hospital personnel during the peak COVID-19 surge, as well as working directly with clinicians in areas such as COVID-19 test processes, ward oxygen supply, and equipment design.

The IfM team helped local hospitals make the best use of their resources and streamlined logistics for sourcing and storing vital PPE and other issues, enabling healthcare providers who were already feeling the strain to address pressing operational challenges.

In addition, the IfM provided analytical approaches for informing decision making at Cambridge University Hospital (CUH) on emergency demand. The Trust is also using the team’s findings to forecast changes to demand for beds, equipment and staff when social distancing measures are relaxed or modified further. The hospital said the engineers brought diversity of perspective and a joint CUH–IfM panel has been initiated so that the hospitals and the IfM can continue working together for mutual benefit after the pandemic.

“The team gave key support efficiently and skilfully when it was most needed, with no fuss and maximum impact: engineering at its best,” said Professor Prager. “The team found a way to work with the clinicians without taking up too much clinical time. They found the problems that needed solving and got on with solving them. They stepped up when they were needed and made a real difference. For this, we should be proud of them.”

Professor Tim Minshall, Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation and Head of the Institute for Manufacturing, said: “It makes me so proud to see the way in which our students and staff – academic, research and administrative – were able to rapidly understand and help address the operational challenges facing the amazing teams at Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth during this crisis.

“We are also delighted that there is such enthusiasm from both CUH and the IfM to build upon this experience and to develop ongoing collaboration in applying industrial engineering capabilities to healthcare system needs.”

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Donate to support COVID-19 research at Cambridge

The findings could help explain why age is major risk factor for dying from COVID-19, with people over 70 years at greatest risk, and why the disease can cause heart complications in severe cases, including heart failure and inflammation of the heart.

“When this novel coronavirus first emerged, we expected it to be primarily a respiratory illness, as the virus usually takes hold first in the lungs,” said Professor Anthony Davenport from the Department of Medicine. “But as the pandemic has progressed, we’ve seen more and more COVID-19 patients – particularly older patients – affected by heart problems. This suggests that the virus is capable of invading and damaging heart cells and that something changes as we age to make this possible.”

Professor Davenport led an international team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, Maastricht University, KU Leuven and Karolinska Institute to investigate the link between COVID-19 and heart failure. The researchers examined cells known as cardiomyocytes to see how susceptible they were to infection by the coronavirus. Cardiomyocytes make up the heart muscle and are able to contract and relax, enabling the heart to pump blood around the body. Damage to these cells can affect the ability of the heart muscles to perform, leading to heart failure

To cause damage, the virus must first enter the cell. SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus – spherical in shape with ‘spike’ proteins on its surface, which it uses to gain entry. The spike protein binds to ACE2, a protein receptor found on the surface of certain cells. The virus is also able to hijack other proteins and enzymes, including TMPRSS2 and Cathepsins B and L to gain entry.

The researchers compared cardiomyocytes from five young (19-25 year old) males and five older (63-78 year old) males and found that the genes that give the body instructions to make these proteins were all significantly more active in cardiomyocytes from the older males. This suggests that there is likely to be an increase in the corresponding proteins in aged cardiomyocytes.

“As we age, the cells of our heart muscles produce more of the proteins needed by the coronavirus to break into our cells,” said Dr Emma Robinson from Maastricht University and KU Leuven. “This makes these cells more vulnerable to damage by the virus and could be one reason why age is a major risk factor in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.”

Some of the proteins encoded by the genes can be inhibited by existing medicines. For example, the anti-inflammatory drug camostat inhibits TMPRSS2 and has been shown to block SARS-CoV-2 entry in cells grown in the laboratory. The study also suggests new targets for medicines that could be developed such as compounds blocking binding of the virus to ACE2 that may be beneficial in protecting the heart.

“The more we learn about the virus and its ability to hijack our cells, the better placed we are to block it, either with existing drugs or by developing new treatments,” said Professor Davenport.

The study was funded by grants including from Wellcome, the British Heart Foundation and Dutch Heart Foundation.

Reference
Robinson, EL et al. Genes Encoding ACE2, TMPRSS2 and Related Proteins Mediating SARS-CoV-2 Viral Entry are Upregulated with Age in Human Cardiomyocytes. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology; 18 Aug 2020: DOI: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2020.08.009

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Donate to support COVID-19 research at Cambridge

Babies that experience low oxygen levels in the womb due to pregnancy complications often go on to develop heart disease in adulthood. A study using sheep has discovered that a specialised antioxidant called MitoQ can prevent heart disease at its very onset. The results are published today in the journal Science Advances.

Genetics, and their interaction with lifestyle risk factors such as smoking and obesity, play a role in determining heart disease risk in adults. But there is also strong evidence that the environment experienced during sensitive periods of fetal development directly influences long-term cardiovascular health - a process known as ‘developmental programming.’ 

Low oxygen in the womb - known as chronic fetal hypoxia - is one of the most common complications in human pregnancy. In a process termed ‘oxidative stress,’ low oxygen to the developing fetus can cause damage to its heart and blood vessels. Fetal hypoxia can be diagnosed when a scan during pregnancy shows the baby is not growing properly.

“Many people may be predisposed to heart disease as adults because of the low level of oxygen they received in the womb. By providing a specific mitochondria-targeted antioxidant supplement to mothers whose pregnancy is complicated by fetal hypoxia, we can potentially prevent this,” said Professor Dino Giussani from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, who led the study.

Chronic hypoxia is common to many complications of pregnancy. It can be caused by a number of conditions including pre-eclampsia, infection of the placenta, gestational diabetes or maternal obesity. 

Oxidative stress largely originates in the cells’ mitochondria - the ‘batteries’ that power our cells -  where the processes of respiration and energy production occur. To target mitochondria the Cambridge team used MitoQ, developed by Professor Mike Murphy and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s MRC-Mitochondrial Biology Unit. MitoQ selectively accumulates within  mitochondria, where it works to reduce oxidative stress. 

Having established the safety of the treatment, the researchers gave MitoQ to pregnant sheep under low oxygen conditions. They found that the mitochondrial therapy protects against fetal growth restriction and high blood pressure in the offspring as adults. Using chicken embryos they also showed that MitoQ protects against mitochondria-derived oxidative stress. 

“MitoQ has already been used in a number of human trials, for example it was shown to lower hypertension in older subjects. It is very exciting to see the potential to use MitoQ to treat a baby during a problematic pregnancy and prevent problems arising far later in life. There's still a long way to go before this can be used by pregnant mothers, but our work points to new possibilities for novel treatments," said Professor Murphy, who was also involved in the study.

This is the first time that MitoQ has been tested during sheep pregnancy. Sheep are animals whose cardiovascular development resembles that of a human baby more closely than laboratory rats and mice. Chicken embryos were also used to isolate the direct effects of MitoQ therapy on the embryonic heart independent of any influence on the mother or placenta.

“Our cardiovascular health is influenced by the lifestyle choices we make in adult life, but can also be traced back to the conditions we experienced when developing inside the womb,” said Professor James Leiper, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation.

He added: “This study reveals a plausible way to reduce the future risk of high blood pressure and consequent heart disease in babies from complicated pregnancies. Further research is now needed to translate these findings from animals to humans and identify the most effective time in development to give the MitoQ supplement to ‘at risk’ babies - whether that’s a particular point during pregnancy or soon after birth. Overcoming this next hurdle will enable it to be tested in clinical trials.”

Cardiovascular disease is a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels that can cause heart attacks and strokes. It claims the life of one in three people, and costs the United States and Canada US$130 billion and the United Kingdom over £30 billion every year. The majority of these costs are for treatments that improve outcomes, but do not cure the disease. 

There are increasing calls within the public health community to change the focus of cardiovascular disease research from treatment to prevention. By looking at the specific circumstances that increase the risk of developing heart disease, interventions can be made as early as possible rather than waiting until disease has become irreversible.

“If we want to reduce the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, we need to think of prevention rather than a cure. Applying this concept to pregnancy complications, we can bring preventative medicine all the way back into the womb - it’s treatment before birth. It completely changes our way of thinking about heart disease,” said Giussani.

This research was funded by The British Heart Foundation, and the programme of work was approved by the University of Cambridge Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Board.

Reference
Botting, K.J. et al: ‘Translatable mitochondria-targeted protection against programmed cardiovascular dysfunction.’ Science Advances, 19 August 2020. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abb1929

I work for the Medical Research Council (MRC) Biostatistics Unit (BSU), a department in the University’s School of Clinical Medicine. I am a Programme Leader and Deputy Director of the Unit. The Unit is physically based at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. However since lockdown, all members of the Unit - including myself - have been working from home. 

My research focuses on developing and applying statistical methods to characterise epidemics, using information on different aspects of the disease. This includes estimating transmission, severity (eg. the proportion of infected individuals who die), and reconstructing and predicting epidemics’ evolution. The goal is to provide accurate and timely quantitative support to the implementation and evaluation of public health policies. Historically we have worked on HIV, hepatitis and influenza, but since January this year our expertise has been used to understand the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the most critical aspects of our COVID-19 work is to provide regular ‘now-casts’ and ‘forecasts’.‘Now-casts’ refer to estimates of the current level of key epidemiological quantities, in our case, estimates of ongoing transmission and the number of new infections. ‘Forecasts’ mean estimates of future levels, in this instance, of the future number of deaths. Our results feed directly to the Scientific Pandemic Influenza sub-group on Modelling (SPI-M), a SAGE sub-group, and to regional Public Health England (PHE) teams.

I build models that allow us to reconstruct the pandemic and predict its future course. Our work on nowcasting and forecasting uses a model of disease transmission, data on daily COVID-19 deaths of infected individuals (by NHS region and age group), published information on the risk of dying and the time from infection to death, and data on antibodies levels in the population. This allows us to reconstruct the number of new COVID-19 infections and estimate changes in transmission (the famous reproduction number R) over time; and predict the number of COVID-19 deaths in different NHS regions and age groups.

I think the biggest challenge in dealing with COVID-19 is to understand what drives transmission of infection, and how to best use this knowledge to keep the pandemic under control - including when to introduce social restrictions and when to lift them. It is also important to use communication effectively, to build public understanding and trust so that people can react responsibly to the advice and recommendations given by the government and the scientific community.

There has been an enormous effort from the whole scientific community to contribute to the understanding of this pandemic. However, often these efforts have not been well coordinated and there are still lots of aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 infection that are not understood. We need to develop a more collaborative approach to working, building multidisciplinary teams where expertise is shared for a faster advancement of science. 

I would like to see the creation of infrastructures that enable effective sharing of sensitive data. So much time has been spent in this pandemic waiting for authorised access to information that in an emergency situation should be available to any group with relevant expertise. It’s an important lesson to have learned, and we need to be better prepared for similar challenges in the future.

This has been one of the most challenging and exciting times to be in scientific research. I am glad to be playing a role in understanding this pandemic and making a difference to public health. Tracking COVID-19 will continue to be a major priority for my team at the BSU. The many important questions that still remain will keep us busy for years.

When the pandemic is over I’m looking forward to a nice holiday, and going back to normal life to enjoy the company of family and friends!

Professor Daniela De Angelis is Deputy Director of the MRC Biostatistics Unit. Read more about the Unit’s Nowcasting and Forecasting of COVID-19 here.

How you can support Cambridge’s COVID-19 research

Ice cores from Antarctica show that, in the span of less than two centuries, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide jumped repeatedly at the end of the last ice age, when the Atlantic was continuously disturbed by melting ice sheets.

Whether these CO₂ jumps might occur in today’s conditions, when we are already seeing the impact of human-driven CO₂ emissions and rapidly melting polar ice sheets, has remained unknown.

The study, published in the journal Science and led by the Universities of Cambridge and Bern, reveals that rapid CO₂ jumps also occurred during a period from 450,000 to 330,000 years ago, a key time in Earth’s history covering more than a full glacial cycle.

“By looking back further in time, to previous glacial and interglacial conditions, we find the same CO₂ jumps - irrespective of whether the climate was cold or warm,” said first author Dr Christoph Nehrbass-Ahles from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, who conducted the research while based at the University of Bern.

These rapid CO₂ rises seem to be a common feature of the carbon cycle in the past. But, said Nehrbass-Ahles, human activities are releasing carbon a rate ten times faster than during CO₂ increases in the past. “What is unclear is how a future jump in carbon may interact with or exacerbate anthropogenic carbon emissions,” he said.

Central to the team’s finding was their detailed analysis of Antarctic ice from the EPICA (The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) Dome C ice core.

“Our previous understanding of rapid CO₂ changes has been hampered by a lack of detailed data over this interval – so these events were often missed,” said Nehrbass-Ahles. Thanks to a new gas extraction method and detailed sampling campaign, the team was able to identify subtle changes occurring at centennial timescales.

The study marks an important step in understanding what causes such abrupt increases and possible feedbacks in the Earth’s climate system. “Scientists are uncertain as to the mechanism behind the CO₂ jumps, but think a combination of factors, including ocean circulation, changing wind patterns, and terrestrial processes, are likely responsible,” said co-author Professor David Hodell, also from the Department of Earth Sciences.

The researchers combined the new ice core data with detailed information on ocean circulation from marine sediments collected off the coast of Portugal. The site, which was drilled as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), is unique for its high accumulation of sediments and is ideally situated for monitoring the changes in ocean circulation triggered when ice sheets collapsed.

The isotopic signal of the marine sediments showed the same pattern as the ice cores. “The abrupt changes are clearly represented in both the marine and ice records, telling us that they must be connected to major changes in the surface and deep circulation of the Atlantic Ocean,” said Hodell.

According to Nehrbass-Ahles, the key is the high resolution of the ice and marine sediments records, making observations of these rapid changes in both records possible. “Understanding these centennial-scale changes is crucial because they operate at a similar pace to the anthropogenic changes altering our planet,” he said.

Reference:
C. Nehrbass-Ahles et al. ‘Abrupt CO2 release to the atmosphere under glacial and early interglacial climate conditions.’ Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aay8178

The Last Glacial Period, between 115,000 and 11,700 years ago, was punctuated by a series of severe climate changes: warm periods where temperatures in Greenland spiked by 8-16°C over the course of a decade.

Data from the Greenland and Antarctic ice cores suggests that these warming events, known as Greenland Interstadials, occurred at least 25 times over this period. Their imprint has also been observed in climate records collected from mid to low latitudes, leading scientists to question whether these widespread changes were simultaneous, or whether warming in some regions lagged behind others.

But resolving this question has proved challenging because precisely dated records of past climate are relatively rare. And dating is key. If scientists could exactly pinpoint the relative timing of warming in different regions, they could answer whether the climate changed synchronously. 

The study, published in the journal Science and led by University of Melbourne PhD student Ellen Corrick, uses detailed climate data from stalagmites (speleothems) to compare the timing of climate changes between regions. Stalagmites take in detailed information on regional temperature and rainfall as they grow, and they can also be dated accurately, often to decadal resolution, using the uranium-thorium technique.

Corrick compiled climate data from 63 speleothem records collected from caves across Asia, Europe and South America - a dataset amounting to 20 years’ of published research from scientific teams around the world. The onset of many Greenland Interstadials was clearly recognisable in the speleothem data, each event marked by a shift in the contents of stable oxygen isotope, δ18O.

To test if the changes were synchronous, the team used statistical methods to compare the age of onset for the interstadials. Once they were sure that intraregional changes were simultaneous, the team looked at the relative timing of interstadials between Asia, Europe and South America. The wider comparison showed that, out of the 25 interstadials studied, 23 were synchronous.

According to co-author Professor Eric Wolff from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, the findings “provide confirmation of a persistent but, until now, unsubstantiated assumption that climate changes between the tropics and the Arctic were synchronous.”

The team went on to compare their speleothem data with model simulations of future abrupt climate changes. “An interesting feature of this study is how well the climate model outputs agree with the stalagmite data. This gives us increased confidence in the climate models we’ve built,” said co-authro Professor Xu Zhang from Lanzhou University China, who conducted model experiments at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

The findings shed light on the patterns and timing of these warming phases, also known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events. But their cause, whether external factors, such the ice sheet height, greenhouse gases, meltwater and volcanism, or internal oscillations in Atlantic Ocean circulation, remains, as yet, an open question.

Reference:
E. Corrick et al.‘Synchronous timing of abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period.’ Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.aay5538

Adapted from a press release by The University of Melbourne

The University of Cambridge is one of the partners in a major new £32.4m Productivity Institute, announced today by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It is the largest economic and social research investment ever in the UK.

Productivity – the way ideas and labour are transformed into products and services that benefit society – has been lacklustre in the UK over recent decades, with limited growth stalled further by the global financial crisis of 2008-9 and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

To address the urgent challenge, the new Institute will bring together institutions and researchers from across the country to tackle questions of job creation, sustainability and wellbeing, as the UK looks to a post-pandemic future full of technological and environmental upheaval.

Professor Diane Coyle, co-director of the University’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy will be one of the new Institute’s Directors and leading one of its eight major research themes. She will be heading up the strand on Knowledge Capital: the ideas that drive productivity and progress.

Professor Anna Vignoles from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education will helm another of the main research strands, on Human Capital: the cultivation of people’s skills and abilities. Both lead academics will be supported by a host of other Cambridge researchers from a variety of departments, including POLIS, Psychology, Economics, and the Institute for Manufacturing.

The Productivity Institute will be headquartered at the University of Manchester, and, along with Cambridge, other members of the leading consortium include the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and the universities of Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff and Warwick. The new Institute is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation). 

“Productivity is economic jargon for something fundamentally important,” said Professor Coyle. “This is the question of what will enable people’s lives everywhere to improve sustainably over time, ensuring new technologies, along with business and policy choices, bring widespread benefits.”

“Productivity is key to the creation of decent work and the provision of high quality education and healthcare. Its growth offers people sustainable improvements in their standard of living,” she said. 

The Knowledge Capital theme, led by Coyle, will investigate the way that ideas and know-how – “intangible assets” not easily defined or measured – permeate our society and the economy. 

“We want to understand better the links between productivity and things that are important but hard to pin down, whether that’s how businesses adopt new technologies and ideas or the role of social networks in determining how well different areas perform,” said Coyle.

Professor Vignoles will lead a team considering the importance of individuals’ wellbeing and productivity, which will include Cambridge psychologist Dr Simone Schnall. It remains an open question as to whether greater wellbeing can increase the productivity of individuals, and what the implications of this might be for both national policy and firms’ strategies.

“Increasing productivity is a pressing priority for the UK and understanding whether policies to improve individuals’ wellbeing are also likely to improve their productivity is crucial,” Professor Vignoles said.

The fulcrum for Cambridge’s involvement in the new Productivity Institute will be the University’s recently established Bennett Institute for Public Policy, where Professor Coyle is based. 

Since its launch in 2018, the Bennett Institute has been concentrating on the “challenges posed by the productivity puzzle” in the UK, says the Institute’s Director Professor Michael Kenny, with a focus on ensuring notions of “place” are brought to the fore.

“We are delighted to be contributing to this major new initiative,” said Kenny. “Under the leadership of Professor Coyle, we have been working to understand the many different factors and dynamics which explain the well-springs of, and obstacles to, productivity growth.”

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “I am thrilled that the University will be playing a pivotal role in the new Productivity Institute.”

“The knowledge generated by universities such as ours is a fuel for productivity, and will be fundamental to the resilience of the United Kingdom, and the opportunities afforded its citizens, in a post-pandemic world.”

The study, by Dr Blanka Grzegorczyk at the University of Cambridge, charts the emergence over almost two decades since 9/11 of a distinctive sub-genre in British children’s literature, focusing on themes of terrorism and counter-terror. Many of its authors, she argues, are “writing, rather than fighting, back”: against the simplistic and frequently racist terms in which extremism, immigration and Islam are often framed by politicians and the media.

This writing includes the novels of established and emerging writers such as Malorie Blackman, Muhammad Khan, and Anna Perera. The books themselves often confront young readers with depictions of violence, perpetrated both by terrorists and the state, and feature young protagonists who are variously victims, witnesses or participants in wars linked to terror.

Grzegorczyk, a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, argues that these books are encouraging a generation of young people who will become adults in the 2020s to challenge the cultural paranoia of the post-9/11 Britain in which they have grown up.

“One achievement of these authors has been to create a safe space for children to get past the kind of thinking, popularised by successive governments, that the natural consequence of terrorism is constantly having to be vigilant to and to fear the enemy ‘other’ against whom the state is therefore justified to mobilise,” Grzegorczyk said.

“These are books that often expose the inequalities and prejudices that lie behind that. They invite the post-terror generation to think about what needs to change and why, and how to resist the racism and Islamophobia that have been rampant in British society since before they were born. It’s writing as activism, and it invites an activist response.”

Other research has documented how the wars on terror, as well as more recent atrocities such as the Manchester Arena bombing, have preyed on the minds of a generation of young people now on the verge of adulthood. A study in 2018 by the research company Childwise, for example, found that one in three children aged nine to 16 worried about war, terrorism and global conflict more than anything else.

Grzegorczyk’s book, Terror and Counter-Terror in Contemporary Children’s Literature is the first study which examines the impact of a deliberate effort by children’s publishers following 9/11 and 7/7 to commission novels dealing with those themes.

It analyses dozens of titles: among them Anna Perera’s Guantanamo Boy, about an ordinary boy from Rochdale who is torn from his family and incarcerated without charge; and An Act Of Love by Alan Gibbons, which follows the divergent paths of two childhood friends into the British Army and terrorism.

Many books also explore the overlap between extremism, discriminatory profiling, and gender and social inequality. They include Muhammad Khan’s I Am Thunder, about a British Asian girl whose sense of marginalisation leaves her vulnerable to radicalisation; Nikesh Shukla’s Run, Riot, about a group of teenagers who are pursued by the police after one of them films the politically-sanctioned murder of an ethnic minority youth; and Rachel Anderson’s Asylum: a 2011 novel which prefigures the Grenfell tragedy with its depiction of a condemned London tower block crowded with asylum seekers, migrants and poor families.

Grzegorczyk’s analysis found that a recurrent theme of this literature is that it presents violence as the ‘common language’ of terrorists and governments. The novels often feature young protagonists who must form alliances across racial, cultural, religious or national divides to confront the limits of such vocabulary and give expression to a common humanity.

She argues that this encourages readers not only to imagine a future based on shared values, but to think critically about the forces that have shaped the violence, fear and suspicion endemic in British society post-9/11 and 7/7.

The survey also argues that this politically engaged and charged wave of literature – through its vivid depictions of aggression, retaliation and prejudice – has offered a generation of young readers who have endured the ‘slow terror’ of constant exposure to atrocities in the media a way to handle that creeping trauma while  empathising with those who have experienced it directly.

As a result, Grzegorczyk says, the novels frequently underscore the inequalities between wealthy, privileged, white young Britons – who typically only witness violence and prejudice through the media – and those from other communities and ethnicities, in Britain and elsewhere, for whom it is ever-present.

In addition, she suggests, such writing may add fresh momentum and inspiration to a new wave of youth activism, seen in movements such as Fridays For Future, American youth campaigns against gun violence, and Black Lives Matter – which involve similar expressions of cross-cultural solidarity as those found in the novels themselves.

“At one level this fiction is writing, rather than fighting, back against a resurgence of racist and anti-immigrant sentiment in British culture in the context of terrorism,” Grzegorczyk added.

“But it also positions young people as the agents of that resistance, and energises readers to take action. At a time when we are seeing a young generation speaking up, these books are pointing them towards a new kind of connectedness across cultures that moves us on from previous generations’ fixation with ‘us against them’.”

Terror and Counter-Terror in Contemporary Children’s Literature is published by Routledge.

The ‘Stay Safe Cambridge Uni’ campaign has been developed by University, College and student representatives, and is based on the latest public health guidance. Additionally, Dr Simone Schnall from the Department of Psychology surveyed students and staff from across the University and Colleges to determine which messages were most effective.

A variety of resources, including University-specific guidance, and videos, are being made available to new and returning students and staff, to support them in keeping themselves, the University and the city as safe as possible during the pandemic.

Most of the measures being put in place by the University and Colleges will be familiar as part of a plan to reduce the risk of community spread of the coronavirus. Face coverings will be required in most buildings, and social distancing for people from different households will be encouraged. For most Colleges, a household will be classified as students living together and sharing communal facilities, such as toilets and showers. The University and Colleges will also advise students of their responsibilities while out and about in Cambridge and keep them up to date on the latest public health guidance.

The University has its own dedicated COVID-19 testing capacity, which is free to any member of the University displaying symptoms, along with members of their household. Testing is currently available at either Addenbrooke’s Hospital or the Department of Engineering.

“This year’s group of students – whether they are coming to Cambridge for the first time or returning to continue their studies – have been through an incredibly stressful few months, both because of the disruption caused by the pandemic and the confusion around exam results,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toope. “This academic year will be unlike any other, and it will be challenging for all of us, but we will do everything we can to make sure our students feel safe and supported while they are here.”

“We don’t yet know how long we will all be living with COVID-19, but we do know that our success in controlling the virus will depend on everyone playing their part,” said Professor Graham Virgo, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education. “We all have a responsibility to minimise the spread of COVID-19. We are members of a wider community and take our responsibility to others in Cambridge and beyond very seriously.”

The ‘Stay Safe Cambridge Uni’ campaign has been developed to complement Cambridge City Council’s ‘Stay Safe Cambridge’ campaign, which was introduced following the relaxation of lockdown in early July.

Cllr Lewis Herbert, Leader of Cambridge City Council, said: “The successful and safe return of students and university staff to Cambridge this autumn is vital for them and for our whole city. We have, as councils, been working in close partnership with our universities, so that everything is in place to protect people and to share sound advice to newcomers.

“Ensuring younger people keep safe as well as have fun and make the most of their time in Cambridge will boost our local fight to beat coronavirus and avoid the ongoing risks of both a fresh surge and the need for a lockdown in Cambridge. This is why we unequivocally endorse the efforts of our two University #StaySafe campaigns and the considerable thought and planning taking place, so that we and everyone in Cambridge can successfully deliver our #StaySafeCambridge campaign.”

Many postgraduate students, especially those whose research is lab-based, have already returned to Cambridge. Most undergraduate students will return at the start of Michaelmas term, which begins on 8 October. Many Colleges will be staggering student arrivals, so that social distancing can be maintained, especially for Colleges based in the city centre.

The Stay Safe Cambridge Uni webpages can be found at: www.cam.ac.uk/staysafecambridgeuni.

The researchers, from the Universities of Cambridge and Liverpool, and the Diamond Light Source, have identified one of the reasons why state-of-the-art ‘nickel-rich’ battery materials become fatigued, and can no longer be fully charged after prolonged use.

Their results, reported in the journal Nature Materials, open the door to the development of new strategies to improve battery lifespans.

As part of efforts to combat climate change, many countries have announced ambitious plans to replace petrol or diesel vehicles with electric vehicles (EVs) by 2050 or earlier.

The lithium-ion batteries used by EVs are likely to dominate the EV market for the foreseeable future, and nickel-rich lithium transition-metal oxides are the state-of-the-art choice for the positive electrode, or cathode, in these batteries.

Currently, most EV batteries contain significant amounts of cobalt in their cathode materials. However, cobalt can cause severe environmental damage, so researchers have been looking to replace it with nickel, which also offers higher practical capacities than cobalt. However, nickel-rich materials degrade much faster than existing technology and require additional study to be commercially viable for applications such as EVs.

“Unlike consumable electronics which typically have lifetimes of only a few years, vehicles are expected to last much longer and therefore it is essential to increase the lifetime of an EV battery,” said Dr Chao Xu from Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry, and the first author of the article. “That’s why a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of how they work and why they fail over a long time is crucial to improving their performance.”

To monitor the changes of the battery materials in real time over several months of battery testing, the researchers used laser technology to design a new coin cell, also known as button cell. “This design offers a new possibility of studying degradation mechanisms over a long period of cycling for many battery chemistries,” said Xu. During the study, the researchers found that a proportion of the cathode material becomes fatigued after repetitive charging and discharging of the cell, and the amount of the fatigued material increases as the cycling continues.

Xu and his colleagues dived deep into the structure of the material at the atomic scale to seek answers as to why such fatigue process occurs. “In order to fully function, battery materials need to expand and shrink as the lithium ions move in and out,” said Xu. “However, after prolonged use, we found that the atoms at the surface of the material had rearranged to form new structures that are no longer able to store energy.”

What’s worse is that these areas of reconstructed surface apparently act as stakes that pin the rest of the material in place and prevent it from the contraction which is required to reach the fully charged state. As a result, the lithium remains stuck in the lattice and this fatigued material can hold less charge.

With this knowledge, the researchers are now seeking effective countermeasures, such as protective coatings and functional electrolyte additives, to mitigate this degradation process and extend the lifetime of such batteries.

The research, led by Professor Clare P Grey from the Chemistry Department at Cambridge, has been supported by the Faraday Institution Degradation Project.

Reference:
Chao Xu et al. ‘Bulk fatigue induced by surface reconstruction in layered Ni-rich cathodes for Li-ion batteries.’ Nature Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-0767-8

The device, developed by a team from the University of Cambridge, is a significant step toward achieving artificial photosynthesis – a process mimicking the ability of plants to convert sunlight into energy. It is based on an advanced ‘photosheet’ technology and converts sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and formic acid – a storable fuel that can be either be used directly or be converted into hydrogen.

The results, reported in the journal Nature Energy, represent a new method for the conversion of carbon dioxide into clean fuels. The wireless device could be scaled up and used on energy ‘farms’ similar to solar farms, producing clean fuel using sunlight and water.

Harvesting solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuel is a promising way to reduce carbon emissions and transition away from fossil fuels. However, it is challenging to produce these clean fuels without unwanted by-products.

“It’s been difficult to achieve artificial photosynthesis with a high degree of selectivity, so that you’re converting as much of the sunlight as possible into the fuel you want, rather than be left with a lot of waste,” said first author Dr Qian Wang from Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry.

“In addition, storage of gaseous fuels and separation of by-products can be complicated – we want to get to the point where we can cleanly produce a liquid fuel that can also be easily stored and transported,” said Professor Erwin Reisner, the paper’s senior author.

In 2019, researchers from Reisner’s group developed a solar reactor based on an ‘artificial leaf’ design, which also uses sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to produce a fuel, known as syngas. The new technology looks and behaves quite similarly to the artificial leaf but works in a different way and produces formic acid.

While the artificial leaf used components from solar cells, the new device doesn’t require these components and relies solely on photocatalysts embedded on a sheet to produce a so-called photocatalyst sheet. The sheets are made up of semiconductor powders, which can be prepared in large quantities easily and cost-effectively.

In addition, this new technology is more robust and produces clean fuel that is easier to store and shows potential for producing fuel products at scale. The test unit is 20 square centimetres in size, but the researchers say that it should be relatively straightforward to scale it up to several square metres. In addition, the formic acid can be accumulated in solution, and be chemically converted into different types of fuel.

“We were surprised how well it worked in terms of its selectivity – it produced almost no by-products,” said Wang. “Sometimes things don’t work as well as you expected, but this was a rare case where it actually worked better.”

The carbon-dioxide converting cobalt-based catalyst is easy to make and relatively stable. While this technology will be easier to scale up than the artificial leaf, the efficiencies still need to be improved before any commercial deployment can be considered. The researchers are experimenting with a range of different catalysts to improve both stability and efficiency.

The current results were obtained in collaboration with the team of Professor Kazunari Domen from the University of Tokyo, a co-author of the study.

The researchers are now working to further optimise the system and improve efficiency. Additionally, they are exploring other catalysts for using on the device to get different solar fuels.

“We hope this technology will pave the way toward sustainable and practical solar fuel production,” said Reisner.

Reference:
Qian Wang et al. ‘Molecularly engineered photocatalyst sheet for scalable solar formate production from carbon dioxide and water.’ Nature Energy (2020). DOI:10.1038/s41560-020-0678-6

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge
The University of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new environment and climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the University’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our biosphere.

Primates are the group of mammals that includes monkeys, apes, lemurs – and humans. There is far more research and conservation funding for non-human primates than other animal species, due largely to their charisma and their close relationship with humans. Despite this, about 60 percent of primate species are now threatened with extinction and 75 percent have declining populations.

In a study published today in the journal BioScience, a team of experts in 21 countries examined 13,000 primate studies. They found a severe lack of evidence for the effectiveness of primate conservation measures. 

The team found only 80 primate studies that investigated the effectiveness of conservation measures. In addition, only 12 percent of threatened primates and 14 percent of all known primate species were covered by these intervention studies. The studies focused on large-bodied primates and Old World monkeys, particularly great apes, but left out entire families such as tarsiers and night monkeys. 

Despite the taxonomic biases, the authors also found that primate studies were biased towards specific geographic regions and interventions. Fewer than half of the 162 possible primate conservation activities identified by primate experts were evaluated quantitatively. 

Likewise, almost 80 percent of tested interventions were of unknown effectiveness. This was due to studies lacking quantitative data, difficulties in undertaking post-implementation monitoring of populations or individuals, or implementing several interventions at once. 

“Our findings imply that many primate conservation activities are carried out without demonstrably knowing if they have worked or not in other similar situations. This is alarming, given the urgent need for effective conservation measures for these species. Primate conservationists need to showcase the most effective actions for others to learn from,” said Dr Silviu Petrovan in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who co-led the research.

“Whether a species was threatened or not played no role for the scientists in the choice of their studied species. We therefore lack the evidence-based information necessary to effectively protect and manage many vulnerable species,” said Dr Jessica Junker at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA), who co-led the research with Dr Petrovan.  

The study outlines several reasons for the lack of evidence on what works in primate conservation. These include the pattern of survival and reproduction events typical for members of this taxonomic group, also referred to as life history traits. 

“Primates tend to occur at low densities, have slow life histories, and their tree-dwelling habits make them difficult to count. This requires innovative methods and intense monitoring over long periods, specific knowledge and hard-to-obtain long-term funding,” said Hjalmar Kühl at iDiv, MPI-EVA, senior author of the study. 

The authors say there is another disincentive for primate researchers to conduct evaluations of their primate conservation work: publishing can be extremely time and resource intensive, and difficult to achieve in high impact science journals, especially when the results show that a conservation measure was not effective. 

They propose several measures to improve the evidence-base for primate conservation. These include: raising resources for intervention-effectiveness testing and publication, developing guidelines for primate conservation activities, shifting the research focus to threatened species and understudied regions, and seeking long-term collaborations with stakeholders.

The study was led by researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and the University of Cambridge.

Adapted from a press release by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv). 

Reference
Junker, J. & Petrovan, S. O., ‘Severe Lack of Evidence Limits Effective Conservation of the World’s Primates.’ BioScience, 2020. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaa082

Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency, has provided the funding for a collaboration between Cambridge spin-out company DIOSynVax (which is contributing an additional £400,000 to the trial), the University of Cambridge and the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.

SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus, a class of virus named after their appearance: spherical objects, on the surface of which sit ‘spike’ proteins. The virus uses these spikes to attach to and invade cells in our body. One vaccine strategy is to block this attachment; however, not all immune responses against this virus and against this spike protein are protective – antibodies to the wrong part of the spike protein have been implicated in triggering hyper-inflammatory immune responses causing life-threatening COVID-19 disease. Added to this, SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and changes in the virus spike protein during the COVID-19 pandemic have already been observed to be widespread.

To develop their new vaccine candidate – DIOS-CoVax2 – the team use banks of genetic sequences of all known coronaviruses, including those from bats, the natural hosts of many relatives of human coronaviruses. The team have developed libraries of computer-generated antigen structures encoded by synthetic genes that can train the human immune system to target key regions of the virus and to produce beneficial anti-viral responses. These immune responses include neutralising antibodies, which block virus infection, and T-cells, which remove virus-infected cells. This ‘laser-specific’ computer generated approach is able to help avoid the adverse hyper-inflammatory immune responses that can be triggered by recognition of the wrong parts on the coronavirus’s surface.

Professor Jonathan Heeney, head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge, and founder of DIOSynVax, said: “Our approach involves 3D computer modelling of the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s structure. It uses information on the virus itself as well as its relatives – SARS, MERS and other coronaviruses carried by animals that threaten to ‘spill-over’ to humans again to cause future human epidemics.

“We’re looking for chinks in its armour, crucial pieces of the virus that we can use to construct the vaccine to direct the immune response in the right direction. Ultimately we aim to make a vaccine that will not only protect from SARS-CoV-2, but also other related coronaviruses that may spill over from animals to humans.

“Our strategy includes targeting those domains of the virus’s structure that are absolutely critical for docking with a cell, while avoiding the parts that could make things worse. What we end up with is a mimic, a synthetic part of the virus minus those non-essential elements that could trigger a bad immune response.”

While most vaccines use RNA or adenoviruses to deliver their antigens, DIOSynVax’s is based around DNA. These synthetic gene inserts are very versatile and can also be placed within a number of different vaccine delivery systems that other companies are using. Once an antigen is identified, the key piece of genetic code that the virus uses to produce the essential parts of its structure is inserted into a DNA parcel known as a vector. The body’s immune cells take up the vector, decode the DIOS-vaccine antigen and use the information to program the rest of the immune system to produce antibodies against it.

This DNA vector has already been shown to be safe and to be effective at stimulating an immune response against other pathogens in multiple phase I and early phase II trials.

The proposed vaccine can be freeze-dried as a powder and is therefore heat stable, meaning that it does not need to be cold-stored. This makes transport and storage much more straightforward – which is particularly important in low- and middle-income countries where the infrastructure to make this possible can be costly. The vaccine can be delivered pain-free without a needle into the skin, using the PharmaJet Tropis ® intradermal Needle-free Injection System, which delivers the vaccine in less than a 1/10th of a second by spring-powered jet injection. 

Dr Rebecca Kinsley, Chief Operating Officer of DIOSynVax and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, added: “Most research groups have used established approaches to vaccine development because of the urgent need to tackle the pandemic. We all hope the current clinical trials have a positive outcome, but even successful vaccines are likely to have their limitations – they may be unsuitable for vulnerable people, and we do not know how long their effects will last for, for example.

“Our approach – using synthetic DNA to deliver custom designed, immune selected vaccine antigens – is revolutionary and is ideal for complex viruses such as coronavirus. If successful, it will result in a vaccine that should be safe for widespread use and that can be manufactured and distributed at low cost.”

The UKRI funding will allow the team to take the vaccine candidate to clinical trial, which will take place at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Southampton Clinical Research Facility at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and could begin as early as late autumn this year.

Professor Saul Faust, Director of the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, said: “It is critical that different vaccine technologies are tested as part of the UK and global response to the pandemic as at this stage no one can be sure which type of vaccine will produce the best and most long-lived immune responses.

“It is especially exciting that the clinical trial will test giving the vaccine through people’s skin using a device without any needles as together with stable DNA vaccine technology this could be a major breakthrough in being able to give a future vaccine to huge numbers of people across the world.”

Phil Packer, Innovation Lead for AMR and Vaccines at Innovate UK, said: “Innovate UK is excited to fund the development of DIOS-CoVax and its assessment in Phase I Clinical Trials. The rapid identification of the DIOS-CoVax2 vaccine was made possible because DIOSynVax were able to rapidly utilise its vaccine platform technology previously developed for an Ebola/ Marburg/Lassa fever vaccine.

“That was delivered by Innovate UK as part of DHSC’s Global Health Security Programme, which saw £110m invested in a new UK Vaccine Network charged with developing new vaccines and technologies to tackle diseases with epidemic potential.”

DIOSynVax is a spin-out company from the University of Cambridge, set up in 2017 with the support of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm.

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Donate to support COVID-19 research at Cambridge

The study is one of three new UK-wide studies receiving a share of £8.4 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The Humoral Immune Correlates of COVID-19 (HICC) consortium will study the humoral immune response - molecules produced by the immune system to fight infection, including antibodies – by focusing on two cohorts: NHS workers - in collaboration with SIREN - to track immunity over 12 months, and hospitalised patients.

It will look in detail at the role of antibodies in immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and characterize the antibody response in people who have mild or asymptomatic infection versus those who develop moderate or severe COVID-19 disease. The researchers want to better understand the differences between beneficial - or protective - antibody responses versus those that cause disease. This will help to determine why early indications suggest that people with stronger antibody responses may have had more life-threatening disease and what types of antibody responses are more effective in preventing severe infection.

The results from the study will help to develop better tests to diagnose protective immunity as well as determine how long protective antibodies persist after exposure to the virus. The researchers also hope the study will inform treatments for COVID-19 patients at different stages and with different severities of the disease, including whether targeting the overactivation of the innate humoral immune response – known as the ‘complement system’ – to SARS-CoV-2, could provide a unique approach to reducing severe COVID-19 related disease and death.

The consortium is a collaboration led by Professor Wilhelm Schwaeble and Professor Jonathan Heeney at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Helen Baxendale at the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Trust.

“Understanding the role of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, and the role that the overactivation of the immediate innate immune response to the virus plays through complement activation in the initiation and maintenance of inflammatory disease, is critical to improve the clinical management of life-threatening cases of COVID-19,” said Dr Baxendale.

“In critical care, we know most patients have high levels of antibody to SARS-CoV-2 however what we don’t know is whether these antibodies are helpful. Pilot data has shown that many of our NHS staff have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, but we need to find out whether this means they are protected from further infection either in the short or the long term, or may be at risk of disease in the future. Understanding the different types of antibody responses will allow us to determine beneficial antibodies from dangerous ones.

“Collaborating nationally with other UK COVID-19 projects and supported by clinical research networks and scientists across the country, we are delighted to receive this investment to answer these fundamentally important questions.”

HICC has been given urgent public health research status by the Department of Health and Social Care, to prioritise its delivery by the health and care system.

Chief Medical Officer for England and Head of the NIHR Professor Chris Whitty said: “Understanding how our immune systems respond to COVID-19 is key to solving some of the important questions about this new disease, including whether those who have had the disease develop immunity and how long this lasts, and why some are more severely affected.

“This investment by the NIHR and UKRI will help immunology experts to discover how our immune systems respond to SARS-CoV-2, including our T cell response. This is vital information to help prevent and treat the disease.”

Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: “Thanks to the brilliant work of our world-leading scientists and researchers, we continue to gain greater knowledge and understanding of coronavirus, enabling us to rapidly develop new treatments, as well as potential new vaccines.”

Professor Vignoles is a highly distinguished academic whose research has focused on issues of equity and value in education – in particular the relationship between educational achievement and social mobility and the role played by education and skills attainment in the economy and society. Much of her work focuses on how we can improve students’ academic achievements and help them to develop skills that they will need in the labour market. She has published widely on these and many other themes.

Her work consistently links research with policy and practice and she has advised numerous government departments, including the Department for Education, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and HM Treasury. She has also acted as a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation, Member of Council of the Economic and Social Research Council, and Member of the Advisory Board of the Sutton Trust. Professor Vignoles was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017 and awarded a CBE in 2019 for services to social sciences. She is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Head of the Faculty of Education Professor Susan Robertson said: “This is not only a wonderful opportunity for Anna but a superb appointment that will benefit research and education in the UK and beyond. She will be an outstanding Director of the Leverhulme Trust and I know that she will relish and excel in the opportunity it brings to enable and support meaningful, change-making academic research.”

“At the same time this is bittersweet news for the Faculty because Anna is not simply a great scholar, but a generous colleague and friend. We will miss her a great deal in the Faculty and across the University of Cambridge.”

The Leverhulme Trust provides funding across a range of academic disciplines, including arts, sciences, engineering and social sciences, with the aim of supporting talented individuals to realise their potential vision in research and professional training. Professor Vignoles will replace the outgoing Director, Gordon Marshall.

Professor Vignoles said: “The Leverhulme Trust plays a unique role in the funding landscape and its commitment to fund curiosity-driven research has never been more vital. I look forward to working with the Leverhulme team to support research that is genuinely ground-breaking and pushes disciplinary boundaries.”

“I am so grateful for the many opportunities that I have had at Cambridge and for the wonderful support that I have had from my brilliant colleagues in the Faculty and at Jesus College. I shall miss them all greatly.”

Niall FitzGerald, Chairman of the Leverhulme Trust, said: “The challenge for the Trustees has been to find an exceptional academic leader and talent to succeed Gordon. We are fortunate that Anna Vignoles stood out in a very strong field of candidates, including several serving Vice-Chancellors. She brings all the requisite experience and skills but also values closely aligned with the special ethos of the Leverhulme Trust. I very much look forward to welcoming Anna and supporting her in what will be challenging years for academic research in the UK.”

When acts of violence are reported in London, New York, or the Middle East, people often wonder what role religion might have played. Especially if Muslims are involved, there can also be a tendency to point fingers at the Qur’an. These knee-jerk reactions are not very helpful, the authors of Scripture and Violence suggest, and can lead to increased polarization in society, as well as unwarranted animosity against Muslims and people of other faiths.

Bringing together scholars from the University of Cambridge and other institutions around the world, the contributors to Scripture and Violence set out to clarify the relationship between violent-sounding passages from the Bible and the Qur’an and the actions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the real world. They concluded that there is much less cause for alarm than many people think.

Contrary to popular belief, scriptures are rarely a significant motivating factor when acts of violence occur, the researchers found. One researcher interviewed potential and actual ISIS recruits, and discovered that the Qur’an had not played a significant role in motivating them to join. A desire to be involved in “bad-ass-do-goodery” was much more influential.

Another researcher analysed Muslim debates about suicide attacks, and found that while some Islamic scholars had cited verses from the Qur’an to argue that suicide attacks are permissible in certain limited contexts, other Islamic scholars had used the Qur’an to argue that Muslims are prohibited from carrying out such attacks at all. These scholars all treated the Qur’an as sacred, but they disagreed about what actions were permissible. Political arguments were also much more prominent in the debates than discussion of the Qur’an, which played only a marginal role.

The authors of Scripture and Violence also argue that there is no need to be afraid of scary-looking scriptural passages.

“Some people think that the best strategy for preventing violence is to pretend certain scriptural passages don’t exist,” explains co-editor and New Testament scholar Julia Snyder. “But that’s counterproductive. Instead, find out how people within these religious traditions actually understand these scriptures.

“When the Qur’an or the Bible talks about violence, religious people most often understand that as linked to specific historical contexts. Or they say that very specific conditions would have to be met for violent action to be taken. They don’t think these passages call for violence now – even people who view their scriptures as the Word of God.”

Clearing up misunderstandings about these issues will help overcome existing divisions within society, the researchers hope, and enable people of all faiths and none to focus on tackling urgent economic and social issues together.

“As lockdowns end and societies open up again, and as we seek to rebuild our communities together, it’s important not to let unwarranted anxiety about people of other backgrounds or religious faiths get in the way,” emphasizes co-editor Daniel H. Weiss from Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity. “This is a great time to let go of polarizing and inaccurate ideas about how religion and scripture actually work. In fact, within these religious traditions, active grappling with tough passages can generate creative new solutions for dealing with present-day concerns.”

According to the researchers, addressing fears about scripture and violence can enable people to recognize other prominent aspects of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scriptures – such as concern for the underprivileged and an emphasis on justice – and use scripture to reflect and debate together about what a good society would look like. 

Scripture and Violenceis available from 1 September 2020. Published by Routledge, the book includes contributions from international experts on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim texts and traditions, who discuss key issues in interpretation of the Bible and the Qur’an, and highlight the diverse ways in which Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities understand scriptural texts. A variety of contexts are visited, from British India to Nazi Germany, from the Jerusalem Pride Parade to American evangelicals and the US military, and from CNN to European university classrooms. 

Point-of-care testing – in other words, testing patients as soon as they arrive at the hospital – is essential for enabling healthcare workers to rapidly diagnose patients and direct those who test positive for infection to dedicated wards. A recent study showed that SAMBA II, a new point-of-care PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 developed by Cambridge researchers, was able to dramatically reduce time spent on COVID-19 ‘holding’ wards – allowing patients to be treated or discharged far quicker than with current lab testing set-ups.

PCR tests involve extracting a miniscule amount of RNA from the virus and copying it millions of times, creating an amount large enough to confirm presence of the virus. The virus is captured through a swab inside the nostrils and at the back of the throat. However, it can take as long as 14 days for an individual to show symptoms of COVID-19, by which time the virus may have moved away from the nose and throat and into the lungs and other tissues and organs, making it harder to detect via a swab test. As a result, studies have shown that PCR tests can miss as many as a half of infected patients five days after infection.

Antibody tests provide an alternative way of identifying infected individuals, but antibodies – molecules produced by our immune system in response to infection – generally do not appear until at least six days after infection.

Professor Ravi Gupta from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease at the University of Cambridge said: “We still do not have a gold standard test for diagnosing COVID-19. This poses a challenge to healthcare workers who need to make quick and safe decisions about how and where to treat patients.

“The two main types of test – PCR and antibody tests – both have limitations because of the nature of coronavirus infection and how our body responds. But we’ve shown that if you combine them and carry out both at point of care, their reliability can be hugely increased.”

Professor Gupta led a team that used the approach of combining rapid point-of-care PCR and antibody tests to diagnose 45 patients at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The results of this peer-reviewed study are published in Cell Reports Medicine.

The patients, each of whom had suspected moderate to severe COVID-19 disease, provided nose/throat swabs for the tests detecting nucleic acid (virus genetic material) and blood serum for antibody testing an average (median) of seven days after the onset of illness.

The authors designed a gold standard reference test made of two parts, either of which could be positive to confirm COVID-19. The first part was an in vitro test where artificial SARS-CoV-2 viruses were made and mixed with serum from patients to see whether the serum contained neutralising antibodies. The second part of the gold standard was the standard Public Health England laboratory test looking for genetic viral material in nose/throat swabs. Using this gold standard, 24 of the patients had COVID-19.

Professor Gupta’s team used SAMBA II machines, developed by Cambridge spinout company Diagnostics for the Real World, for the nucleic acid tests, and a combination of two finger prick antibody tests, both of which test for antibodies against the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Overall, the nucleic acid tests could identify eight out of ten patients with COVID-19, but when combined with the rapid antibody tests, 100% of the COVID-19 patients were correctly identified. Among the 21 patients who did not have COVID-19, there were four false positive results with one antibody test and only one false positive with the second antibody test, demonstrating that one performed better than the other.

“Combining point-of-care PCR and antibody testing could be a game-changer for rapidly identifying those patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infection,” said Professor Gupta. “This could prove extremely useful, particularly in the event of a second wave arising during flu season, when it will not be immediately clear whether the patients had COVID-19 or seasonal flu.”

Professor Gupta envisages that hospitals deploying this approach would carry out a finger prick blood test and nose/throat swab at the same time on admission to hospital. The antibody test result is available within 15 minutes, but might benefit from confirmation with a second point-of-care antibody test. Importantly the study showed that the antibody tests can detect antibodies against a mutated form of SARS-CoV-2, D614G in spike protein, that has now become the dominant strain worldwide.

This approach could be particularly beneficial in low resource settings where centralised virology laboratories are scarce and the pandemic is expanding, said Professor Gupta. In addition, it removes the need for repeated nose/throat swabbing when the first test is negative and suspicion of COVID-19 is high, which may generate aerosols and lead to transmission.

The research was mainly funded by Wellcome and supported by the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit.

Reference
Micochova, P et al. Combined point of care SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid and antibody testing in suspected moderate to severe COVID-19 disease. Cell Reports Medicine; 1 Sept 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2020.100099

The observational study involving more than 1,300 people was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of Malawi College of Medicine and University of Cambridge.

It found most patients admitted to hospital knew their HIV status, and that 90% were taking antiretroviral therapy. However, approximately one-third of patients established on HIV treatment had significant levels of HIV in their blood, and more than 80% of these patients had resistance to two or more of their HIV antiretroviral drugs.

Patients with multidrug resistant HIV were 70% more likely to die within two months of being admitted to hospital than those without drug resistance.

This is the first study reporting such data in hospitalised patients, as access to HIV drug resistance testing is not widely available in high HIV burden African settings.

Dr Ankur Gupta-Wright from LSHTM and project lead said: “There has been an unprecedented scale-up of antiretroviral therapy in high-HIV prevalence settings in sub-Saharan Africa. However, HIV remains a common cause of admission to hospital, with a high risk of death. Our results show drug resistance is an important cause.”

Distinguishing HIV drug resistance from alternative explanations for progressive illness whilst taking antiretroviral (HIV) treatment, such as patients not sticking to required dosage or stopping treatment altogether, is not usually possible. Patients who develop advanced HIV while established on ART often go undetected.

Most available data on HIV drug resistance come from outpatient clinics, where failing HIV treatment is much less common. However, hospitalised patients represent a key target group for intensified interventions, given their relatively high risks of treatment failure, advanced immunosuppression, and high short-term mortality.

This study was based on patients living with HIV who were admitted to hospital in Zomba, southern Malawi. Samples were collected at the time of hospital admission to test for the amount of HIV virus in the blood, to see if patients were responding to their HIV antiretroviral medication.

By sequencing the virus and looking for mutations, patients with high levels of HIV in their blood were tested for resistance to HIV drugs. After two months, the team compared whether patients failing ART and/or with HIV drug resistance were more likely to die.

Of 237 patients with HIV drug resistance results available, 195 (82%) had resistance to lamivudine, 128 (54%) to tenofovir, and 219 (92%) to efavirenz (all first-line drugs used to treat HIV at the time of the study).

Dr Gupta-Wright said: “These are worrying results. ART changes and saves lives, but drug resistance is threatening this progress. Timely diagnosis and management of ART failure and drug resistance in this patient population could improve individual patient outcomes and contribute to the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets set for 2030. Rapid HIV-1 viral load tests for hospital inpatients need to be implemented, so results are available quickly and patients can be switched to alterative antiretroviral therapy.

“This could potentially save the lives of many patients living with HIV on treatment who are admitted to hospital.”

Professor Ravi Gupta, from Cambridge University and senior author on the study said: ‘’These important findings highlight the threat posed by drug resistant HIV and call for rapid tests for drug resistant virus that could aid in determining treatments and interventions for patients in hospital.’’

The authors acknowledge limitations of this study including the introduction of a new antiretroviral drug in Malawi last year called Dolutegravir, which may overcome some of the resistance found in this study.

The study was funded by the Joint Global Health Trials Scheme of the Medical Research Council, UK Department for International Development, and Wellcome.

Reference
Gupta-Wright, A, et al. Virological failure, HIV-1 drug resistance, and early mortality in adults admitted to hospital in Malawi: an observational cohort study. Lancet HIV; 1 Sept 2020; DOI: 10.1016/S2352-3018(20)30172-7

Adapted from a press release from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine