Talks, panel discussions and networking events are taking place across the University and colleges to mark International Women’s Day 2022, including events at the Museum of Zoology and the Institute of Astronomy. 

The Women’s Staff Network (WSN) is celebrating by hosting a discussion with Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Kamal Munir to discuss the working lives of women at the University, where things are going well and where improvements can be made.  The WSN is also co-hosting a panel discussion, ‘Gender Equality, Cambridge and Me!’, involving members from a number of diversity networks, the University’s Gender Equality Champions and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team. 

Jenny Rampling, Chair of the University of Cambridge Women’s Staff Network, said: “International Women’s Day (IWD) provides an opportunity to highlight the many extraordinary women amongst our staff, students and alumni, who continue to push for equality in all its forms. However, it is also a call to action as we still have a significant gender pay gap at Cambridge driven by an unequal distribution of women across staff pay grades and more needs to be actioned to resolve this.”

Sarah Colvin and Liz Hide, University Gender Champions, said: “International Women’s Day is a time to look honestly at where women are. At Cambridge many women are now looking at cuts to their USS pension which mean – in the context of a gender pay gap that looks likely to persist for around another 40 years – that they will not only work their entire careers for less, but are more likely to suffer hardship in old age. 

“Women at the University have been particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, not only but also because childcare duties while schools and nurseries were closed fell overwhelmingly on women. As University Gender Champions we look forward to critical, open conversations – for example at the International Women’s Day event ‘Gender Equality, Cambridge and Me!’ We encourage you to join us.”

The Women’s Staff Network is open to all staff who self-identify as women working for the University, a College or an associated institution. It seeks to represent, inspire, support, and empower, through events, advocacy, and sharing experiences via its members. To join the WSN you can subscribe to the mailing list to receive information about news and events - Women's Staff Network website.

This year’s International Women’s Day events include:

A celebration of the experiences and motivations that can shape a scientist's career – Jesus College

Tuesday 8 March, 9.30am to 12.45pm 
Online and in-person event
Is there only one way to be a scientist? How can broader life experiences impact science? What challenges exist in achieving your goals? Our expert panel will discuss their career paths, overcoming challenges, and lives outside of research. 
The event is open to all staff and will take place simultaneously on Zoom and in person, with a series of talks and interviews followed by a panel discussion. 

More information here.

A discussion with Professor Kamal Munir, Pro-Vice Chancellor (University Community and Engagement) - Women’s Staff Network

Tuesday, 8 March, 11am to 12.30pm
Online event
The Women’s Staff Network (WSN) would like to invite our members to a discussion with Professor Kamal Munir to share our thoughts and discuss how we can work together to improve the working lives of women at the university. Kamal is keen to hear our experiences, where things are going well and where we can make improvements.  This event is only open to WSN members. 

More information here.

International Women’s Day at the Institute of Astronomy

Tuesday 8 March, from 11.30am
Online and in-person event
Join us for the global day of celebration as we honour the scientific contributions made by women at the Institute of Astronomy. International Women’s Day 2022 (IWD22) is a half day event with keynote address by Professor Belinda Wilkes, a careers panel, an observatory tour and an IWD lunch.

More information here.

Gender Equality, Cambridge and Me! Past to Present - Chaired by Liz Hide, University Gender Equality Champion STEMM  

Tuesday, 8 March, 1pm to 2pm
Online event
Come and take part in this lunchtime discussion where we will consider gender equality in relation to what matters to us, what the bigger picture is for gender equality at the University and if/how the issues of gender equality have changed over the years. Panellists include:  

• Anjum Nahar, Postgraduate President, Cambridge Students’ Union 
• George Cronin, LGBT+ Network 
• Jennifer Skinner, Co-Chair, Race Equality Network (REN) 
• Jenny Rampling, Chair, Women's Staff Network (WSN) 
• Miriam Lynn, Equality Diversity and Inclusion 
• Sarah Colvin, University Gender Equality Champion AHSSB&L  

Everyone is very welcome to attend - post questions to the panel and join the discussion. 

More information here.

International Women’s Day 2022: Women at the Leading Edge of the Pandemic Response - School of Clinical Medicine

Tuesday, 8 March, 1.15pm to 2.15pm
Online event
A timely response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been vital to reducing its adverse impacts. Professors Charlotte Summers and Sharon Peacock have been at the forefront of the pandemic response, making significant contributions nationally and globally. In this session, they will discuss their scientific contributions and their impacts, and in turn the impact of working on the pandemic response on their own lives. More broadly they will also cover aspects of gender and the media and will discuss what next for women in science in the wake of the pandemic. 

More information here.

WeCREATE Launch Event

Tuesday 8 March, 4pm to 5pm
Online event
No-one should be discouraged from studying or working in engineering, computer science, applied maths or related areas. This is the driving idea behind WeCREATE, a series of free, interactive engagement sessions aiming to encourage and inspire female students and young professionals to embrace creative careers in engineering, computer science, applied maths, and beyond. We hope to do this by dispelling widely-held myths, and by putting creative female role models firmly in the spotlight. 

More information here.
 

Women and the Future of Work: a fireside chat and networking event – Cambridge Judge Business School

Tuesday 8 March, 6pm to 7pm
Online and in-person event
Join us, in person or online, as Professor Mauro Guillén, Dean of Cambridge Judge Business School, hosts a fireside discussion with special guests on the impact of the pandemic and what can be done.

Guests:

• Dr Bola Grace, Founder, Orishi; Visiting Scholar, Cambridge Judge Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre (EMBA 2019)
• Maxine Nwaneri, Founder & Principal Consultant, The Future is Greater (MBA 2007)
• Dr Vanessa Dekou, Managing Director, Clinical Services International, (MBA 2002)

More information here.

International Women’s Day at the Museum of Zoology

Tuesday 8 March, 7pm to 8pm 
Online event
To celebrate International Women's Day 2022, the Museum of Zoology will be joined by a panel of four amazing female scientists introducing their research and answering your questions. For details of the panel, please visit the events page. 

More information here.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used 3D printing to create grids of high-rise ‘nano-housing’ where sun-loving bacteria can grow quickly. The researchers were then able to extract the bacteria’s waste electrons, left over from photosynthesis, which could be used to power small electronics.

Other research teams have extracted energy from photosynthetic bacteria, but the Cambridge researchers have found that providing them with the right kind of home increases the amount of energy they can extract by over an order of magnitude. The approach is competitive against traditional methods of renewable bioenergy generation and has already reached solar conversion efficiencies that can outcompete many current methods of biofuel generation.

Their results, reported in the journal Nature Materials, open new avenues in bioenergy generation and suggest that ‘biohybrid’ sources of solar energy could be an important component in the zero-carbon energy mix.

Current renewable technologies, such as silicon-based solar cells and biofuels, are far superior to fossil fuels in terms of carbon emissions, but they also have limitations, such as a reliance on mining, challenges in recycling, and a reliance on farming and land use, which results in biodiversity loss.

“Our approach is a step towards making even more sustainable renewable energy devices for the future,” said Dr Jenny Zhang from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, who led the research.

Zhang and her colleagues from the Department of Biochemistry and the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy are working to rethink bioenergy into something that is sustainable and scalable.

Photosynthetic bacteria, or cyanobacteria, are the most abundant life from on Earth. For several years, researchers have been attempting to ‘re-wire’ the photosynthesis mechanisms of cyanobacteria in order to extract energy from them.

“There’s been a bottleneck in terms of how much energy you can actually extract from photosynthetic systems, but no one understood where the bottleneck was,” said Zhang. “Most scientists assumed that the bottleneck was on the biological side, in the bacteria, but we’ve found that a substantial bottleneck is actually on the material side.”

In order to grow, cyanobacteria need lots of sunlight – like the surface of a lake in summertime. And in order to extract the energy they produce through photosynthesis, the bacteria need to be attached to electrodes.

The Cambridge team 3D-printed custom electrodes out of metal oxide nanoparticles that are tailored to work with the cyanobacteria as they perform photosynthesis. The electrodes were printed as highly branched, densely packed pillar structures, like a tiny city.

Zhang’s team developed a printing technique that allows control over multiple length scales, making the structures highly customisable, which could benefit a wide range of fields.

“The electrodes have excellent light-handling properties, like a high-rise apartment with lots of windows,” said Zhang. “Cyanobacteria need something they can attach to and form a community with their neighbours. Our electrodes allow for a balance between lots of surface area and lots of light – like a glass skyscraper.”

Once the self-assembling cyanobacteria were in their new ‘wired’ home, the researchers found that they were more efficient than other current bioenergy technologies, such as biofuels. The technique increased the amount of energy extracted by over an order of magnitude over other methods for producing bioenergy from photosynthesis.

“I was surprised we were able to achieve the numbers we did – similar numbers have been predicted for many years, but this is the first time that these numbers have been shown experimentally,” said Zhang. “Cyanobacteria are versatile chemical factories. Our approach allows us to tap into their energy conversion pathway at an early point, which helps us understand how they carry out energy conversion so we can use their natural pathways for renewable fuel or chemical generation.”

The research was supported in part by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Cambridge Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust and the European Research Council. Jenny Zhang is BBSRC David Phillips Fellow in the Department of Chemistry, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Reference:
Xiaolong Chen et al. ‘3D-printed hierarchical pillar array electrodes for high performance semi-artificial photosynthesis.’ Nature Materials (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-022-01205-5

The investment from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will support the development of an mRNA vaccine. DIOSynVax, led by Professor Jonathan Heeney, Head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics, University of Cambridge, will design and select the lead antigen through proof-of-concept preclinical studies, and undertake initial clinical development through Phase I/II studies.

DIOSynVax uses the combination of protein structure, computational biology and immune-optimisation to maximise the protection that vaccines can provide against global threats including existing and future virus outbreaks. Its vaccine candidates can be deployed in a variety of vaccine delivery and manufacturing platforms.

The DIOSynVax pipeline includes vaccine candidates for haemorrhagic fever viruses, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2, the latter of which is currently in clinical trials.

If DIOSynVax’s novel antigen design is successfully deployed using the intended mRNA platform, it could potentially be used to enable rapid development of vaccines against so-called Disease X – unknown pathogens with pandemic potential that have yet to emerge.

Professor Jonathan Heeney, Cambridge, said: "We are excited to be working with CEPI on its ground-breaking mission to leverage revolutionary science and technology to outmanoeuvre and minimise future pandemic threats.

"Our approach is to be ahead of the next pandemic - to deliver custom designed, immune selected vaccine antigens – which is ideal to prevent diseases caused by complex viruses such as the large and diverse family of coronaviruses. If successful, it will result in a safe, affordable NextGen vaccine for widespread use.”

CEPI, DIOSynVax and the University of Cambridge are committed to enabling global equitable access to the vaccines developed through this partnership. Under the terms of the funding agreement, DIOSynVax has committed to achieving equitable access to the outputs of this project.

Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, said: “The UK Government and the country’s world-leading scientific institutions have been pivotal to the global response to COVID-19. From the development of the CEPI-supported Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – which is used in more countries than any other – to the ground-breaking Recovery trial to evaluate life-saving treatments like dexamethasone, British science has played a leading role in protecting the world from COVID-19.

“I am excited to further strengthen CEPI’s strong ties to British science through this partnership with DIOSynVax, Cambridge, to develop a vaccine with the potential to protect against variants of SARS-CoV-2 and other Betacoronaviruses in the future. Coronaviruses have now proven their pandemic potential, so it’s imperative for global health security that we invest in R&D now to future-proof the world against the threat of coronaviruses.”

The announcement was made today at the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit, which brings together a unique mix of leaders across governments, international agencies, science and academia, industry, philanthropy, and civil society to explore how to collectively prepare for future viral threats and mobilise critical resources and political support for CEPI’s work.

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.

Professor Heeney is a Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge.

Adapted from a press release from CEPI

There are many different types of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which are characterised by the build-up of different toxic proteins in different parts of the brain. This means that the symptoms of dementia vary, and can include problems with memory, speech, behaviour or vision. But one symptom seen across every type of dementia is a difficulty in responding to unexpected situations.

Dr Thomas Cope from the MRC Cognition and Brain Science Unit and Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge said: “At the heart of all dementias is one core symptom, which is that when things change or go unexpectedly, people find it very difficult. If people are in their own environment and everything is going to plan, then they are OK. But as soon as the kettle’s broken or they go somewhere new, they can find it very hard to deal with.”

To understand why this happens, Dr Cope and colleagues analysed data from 75 patients, all of whom are affected by one of four types of dementia that affect different areas of the brain. The patients, together with 48 healthy controls, listened to changing sounds while their brain activity was recorded by a magnetoencephalography machine, which measures the tiny magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brain. Unlike traditional MRI scanners, these machines allow very precise timing of what is happening in the brain and when. The results of their experiment are published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.

During the scan, the volunteers watched a silent film – David Attenborough’s Planet Earth, but without its soundtrack – while listening to a series of beeps. The beeps occurred at a steady pattern, but occasionally a beep would be different, for example a higher pitch or different volume.

The team found that the unusual beep triggered two responses in the brain: an immediate response followed by a second response around 200 milliseconds – a fifth of a second – a later.

The initial response came from the basic auditory system, recognising that it had heard a beep. This response was the same in the patients and healthy volunteers.

The second response, however, recognised that the beep was unusual. This response was much smaller among the people with dementia than among the healthy volunteers. In other words, in the healthy controls, the brain was better at recognising that something had changed.

The researchers looked at which brain areas activated during the task and how they were connected up, and combined their data with that from MRI scans, which show the structure of the brain. They showed that damage to areas of the brain known as ‘multiple demand networks’ was associated with a reduction in the later response.

Multiple demand networks, which are found both at the front and rear of the brain, are areas of the brain that do not have a specific task, but instead are involved in general intelligence – for example problems solving. They are highly evolved, found only in humans, primates and more intelligent animals. It is these networks that allow us to be flexible in our environment.

In the healthy volunteers, the sound is picked up by the auditory system, which relays information to the multiple demand network to be processed and interpreted. The network then ‘reports back’ to the auditory system, instructing it whether to carry on or to attend to the sound.

“There's a lot of controversy about what exactly multiple demand networks do and how involved they are in our basic perception of the world,” said Dr Cope. “There's been an assumption that these intelligence networks work ‘above’ everything else, doing their own thing and just taking in information. But what we've shown is no, they're fundamental to how we perceive the world.

“That's why we can look at a picture and immediately pick out the faces and immediately pick out the relevant information, whereas somebody with dementia will look at that scene a bit more randomly and won't immediately pick out what’s important.”

While the research does not point to any treatments that may alleviate the symptom, it reinforces advice given to dementia patients and their families, said Dr Cope.

“The advice I give in my clinics is that you can help people who are affected by dementia by taking a lot more time to signpost changes, flagging to them that you’re going to start talking about something different or you’re going to do something different. And then repeat yourself more when there's a change, and understand why it’s important to be patient as the brain recognises the new situation.”

Although their study only looked at patients with dementia, the findings may explain similar phenomena experienced by people living with conditions such as schizophrenia, where brain networks can become disrupted.

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research, with additional support from Wellcome, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the James S McDonnell Foundation.

Dr Cope is a fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.

Reference
Cope, TE at al. Causal Evidence for the Multiple Demand Network in Change Detection: Auditory Mismatch Magnetoencephalography across Focal Neurodegenerative Diseases. JNeuro; 8 March 2022; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1622-21.2022

Seabirds such as kittiwakes and puffins are being put at higher risk because of a disconnect between conservation efforts on the ground, and research knowledge of the threats to these birds from climate change. However, a new study has found that better integration of the two is possible to safeguard biodiversity.

The study, published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, involved leading conservation experts at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the University of Cambridge, BirdLife International, RSPB and the IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group.

It revealed that the climate change threats highlighted by European seabird conservation groups are often poorly understood. In addition, almost one third of possible conservation interventions aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change on seabirds have conflicting or lack of evidence on their effectiveness.

The team has proposed an approach for connecting conservation research and management, which they call a ‘pressure-state-response framework.’ This provides a platform for identifying missing information and areas where connections need to be tightened to improve conservation outcomes.

Co-author Dr Silviu Petrovan - a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology - said: “Climate change is happening at frightful pace, but our understanding and testing of practical responses for protecting biodiversity are lagging behind. This must change if we are to make substantive improvements - and seabirds are an urgent example.”

Lead author and ZSL Institute of Zoology post-doctoral fellow, Henry Hakkinen said: “There is a real opportunity here to identify missing information, and marry existing research on the risks of climate change with effective conservation and wildlife management.”

"Through our work we have identified several climate change threats and conservation actions that are well understood, but also several threats that are poorly understood and several actions that have very limited or mixed evidence on their effectiveness. These gaps urgently need addressing if we want to work out how we can best help seabirds adapt to climate change and survive.

“Seabirds in Europe are heavily researched and receive quite a lot of conservation attention. They are also heavily impacted by climate change, so are a good species group to start with."

For the study, the team sent a series of surveys to more than 180 seabird conservation practitioners across Western Europe. They identified major knowledge gaps and began tallying up ways in which conservation action could address some of the major threats posed to the species by climate change.

For example, 45% of those surveyed said that disease risk from climate change was a serious threat to seabird populations, but the study showed that more needed to be done to monitor the effectiveness of conservation tools available to practitioners to address this. Hand rearing and vaccinations are suggested tools that could help.

“We need to be pragmatic and evidence-based - but also bold, and explore new approaches including, where appropriate, supporting colonisations of new habitat or even creating new habitats or breeding structures for seabirds. Bridging climate change research and conservation action has never been more important,” said Petrovan.

Seabirds represent one of the most threatened groups of birds in the world, with almost half of all species in decline. They are also significantly directly and indirectly threatened by climate change – for example by heatwaves, extreme wind and rain, and changes in food availability in response to changing climatic conditions, which lead to lack of fish for chicks during the nesting season.

Frameworks that link pressures on the environment, their effect on biodiversity and ways society can respond are often used in global policy-making to translate research to action. The team suggests that their ‘pressure-state-response framework’ could be applied to specific groups of species or ecosystems to identify existing gaps between research and conservation solutions for wildlife most at risk.

ZSL Senior Research Fellow and senior author Dr Nathalie Pettorelli said: “Our study provides an easily transferable approach for identifying missing information, and areas where connections between research and management need to be tightened to improve conservation outcomes.”

This research was funded by Stichting Ave Fenix Europa.

Reference

Hakkinen, H. et al: ‘Linking climate change vulnerability research and evidence on conservation action effectiveness to safeguard seabird populations in Western Europe.’ Journal of Applied Ecology, March 2022. 

Adapted from a press release by the Zoological Society of London.

The reimagined world map of agriculture includes large new farming areas for many major crops around the cornbelt in the mid-western US, and below the Sahara desert. Huge areas of farmland in Europe and India would be restored to natural habitat.

The redesign - assuming high-input, mechanised farming - would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71%, by allowing land to revert to its natural, forested state. This is the equivalent of capturing twenty years’ worth of our current net CO2 emissions. Trees capture carbon as they grow, and also enable more carbon to be captured by the soil than when crops are grown in it.

In this optimised scenario, the impact of crop production on the world’s biodiversity would be reduced by 87%. This would drastically reduce the extinction risk for many species, for which agriculture is a major threat. The researchers say that croplands would quickly revert back to their natural state, often recovering their original carbon stocks and biodiversity within a few decades.

The redesign would eliminate the need for irrigation altogether, by growing crops in places where rainfall provides all the water they need to grow. Agriculture is currently responsible for around 70% of global freshwater use, and this causes drinking water shortages in many drier parts of the world.

The researchers used global maps of the current growing areas of 25 major crops, including wheat, barley and soybean, which together account for over three quarters of croplands worldwide. They developed a mathematical model to look at all possible ways to distribute this cropland across the globe, while maintaining overall production levels for each crop. This allowed them to identify the option with the lowest environmental impact.

The study is published today in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

“In many places, cropland has replaced natural habitat that contained a lot of carbon and biodiversity – and crops don’t even grow very well there. If we let these places regenerate, and moved production to better suited areas, we would see environmental benefits very quickly,” said Dr Robert Beyer, formerly a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, and first author of the study. Beyer is now based at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany.

Previous studies have identified priority areas for ecological restoration, but this is the first to plot the relocation of agricultural land to maximise long-term environmental benefits without compromising food security.

While a complete global relocation of cropland is clearly not a scenario that could currently be put into practice, the scientists say their models highlight places were croplands are currently very unproductive, but have potential to be hotspots for biodiversity and carbon storage.

Taking a pared-back approach and only redistributing croplands within national borders, rather than globally, would still result in significant benefits: global carbon impact would be reduced by 59% and biodiversity impact would be 77% lower than at present.

A third, even more realistic option of only relocating the worst-offending 25% of croplands nationally would result in half of the benefits of optimally moving all croplands.

“It’s currently not realistic to implement this whole redesign. But even if we only relocated a fraction of the world’s cropland, focusing on the places that are least efficient for growing crops, the environmental benefits would be tremendous,” said Beyer.

The study finds that the optimal distribution of croplands will change very little until the end of the century, irrespective of the specific ways in which the climate may change.

“Optimal cropping locations are no moving target. Areas where environmental footprints would be low, and crop yields high, for the current climate will largely remain optimal in the future,” said Professor Andrea Manica in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, senior author of the paper.

The researchers acknowledge that relocating cropland must be done in a way that is acceptable to the people it affects, both economically and socially. They cite examples of set-aside schemes that give farmers financial incentives to retire part of their land for environmental benefit. Financial incentives can also encourage people to farm in better suited locations.

The model generated alternative global distribution maps depending on the way the land is farmed – ranging from advanced, fully mechanised production with high-yielding crop varieties and optimum fertiliser and pesticide application, through to traditional subsistence-based organic farming. Even redistribution of less intensive farming practices to optimal locations would substantially reduce their carbon and biodiversity impacts.

While other studies show that if we moved towards more plant-based diets we could significantly reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture, the researchers say that in reality diets aren’t changing quickly. Their model assumed that diets will not change, and focused on producing the same food as today but in an optimal way.

Many of the world's croplands are located in areas where they have a huge environmental footprint, having replaced carbon-rich and biodiversity-rich ecosystems, and are a significant drain on local water resources. These locations were chosen for historical reasons, such as their proximity to human settlements, but the researchers say it is now time to grow food in a more optimal way.

This research was funded by the European Research Council.

Reference

Beyer, R.M. et al: ‘Relocating croplands could drastically reduce the environmental impacts of global food production.’ Nature Communications Earth & Environment, March 2022. DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00360-6

The climate action awards are being launched to coincide with Commonwealth Day, and recognise the disproportionate effects of climate change on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), many of which are part of the Commonwealth.

Working with HRH The Prince of Wales, Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, developed the initiative that will widen access by supporting students on courses that engage with sustainability, helping them develop their existing skills and knowledge to address the effects of climate change in the countries they come from. 

“Climate change is a global challenge and we all have a role to play, as individuals and as organisations,” said Professor Toope. “The University of Cambridge is responding to the climate emergency on many fronts – through research and policy expertise, and by developing solutions that work for our lives and for our planet. The launch of these new scholarships, in partnership with HRH The Prince of Wales, who has long been a champion of environmental causes, is an extension of our ongoing commitment.

“The students who these new scholarships are aimed at are likely to have experienced first-hand the severe effects of climate change, including flooding and erosion in their own countries and communities. These awards will support their vital work around climate change, which will undoubtedly have an added and hugely personal significance for them. The alumni of the programme will form a cohort of talented people who will become future leaders and ambassadors in sustainability.”

The programme will see scholarships provided at the University of Toronto, the University of Melbourne, McMaster University and the University of Montreal, which along with the University of Cambridge have come together to address this critical issue.

In Cambridge, the programme of awards will be offered by the Cambridge Trust, which will be awarding 10 fully-funded ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Commonwealth Scholarships’ over the next two years, with the first recipients expected to take up their places at the University of Cambridge in October 2022.

The Cambridge Trust was established in the 1980s with the specific objective of providing scholarships to students from the Commonwealth and wider world who lacked the means to fund their studies at the University of Cambridge.  His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, himself a Cambridge alumnus having graduated from Trinity College in 1970, has been involved in the work of the Trust for many years, serving as Patron since 2010.

Back in 2018, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth and to mark The Prince of Wales’ 70th birthday, the Cambridge Trust launched a programme of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Scholarships. The scholarships funded University of Cambridge postgraduate applicants from Commonwealth nations whose studies focused on practical themes affecting the future of those nations, such as climate change, the blue economy and sustainability.  As part of the three-year programme, 20 fully-funded scholarships were awarded to applicants from around the Commonwealth, for both Masters and PhD studies.

The Trust was delighted to be able to continue this work by joining this new initiative.  

Speaking about the scheme, Helen Pennant, the Trust’s Director, said: “I hope that these scholarships will make a difference both to the students who receive them and to their countries as they grapple with the many challenges of climate change.  I would like to thank HRH The Prince of Wales for his support of this important initiative.”

Scholarships at Cambridge will be available to students:

•    who are citizens of or normally resident in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as defined by the United Nations;
•    who hold a conditional offer of admission to the University of Cambridge
•    studying at postgraduate level for a Masters degree or PhD;
•    pursuing courses in subjects that engage with sustainability and climate change

The HRH Prince of Wales Commonwealth Scholarship is fully-funded and will include tuition fees and maintenance.

For more information, contact the Cambridge Trust

Update (16 March): Prof Weller has now published a Possible Draft of a Framework Agreement on the Restoration of Peaceful Relations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

Cambridge, 14 March – A “finely balanced formula” in which the disputed Donbas regions have increased self-governance but remain Ukrainian, and a tacit “status quo” for Crimea is agreed along with rights for minority groups, could help provide an “off-ramp” for both sides in Russia’s war on Ukraine.      

This is according to a proposed settlement designed by Marc Weller, Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and leading legal expert, who has mediated in a wide range of conflicts for the United Nations and others, including Kosovo, Syria, Yemen and Russian-occupied Transnistria.

Weller’s suggested deal would see NATO maintain its “open door” policy but grant Russia medium-term assurances on an effective moratorium for Ukraine, and possibly Moldova and Georgia, while allowing Sweden and Finland access if wished.

While nuclear arms controlled by the United States remain in Europe, the peace plan compels a return to negotiations on limitations of intermediate-range nuclear weapons on both sides, as part of several “confidence-building” steps.   

Importantly, Weller argues that no agreement should intrude on pursuing Russian accountability for the horrific war crimes witnessed by the world in recent weeks, which may ultimately see demands for trillions of dollars in reparations to Ukraine.

His proposal is published by international law forum Opinio Juris in the form of a draft outline agreement.

“A settlement will only be possible when victory is unlikely, or when losses imposed upon either side by a continuation of conflict become truly unbearable,” said Weller. “That moment may come sooner or later, but in any event, we be must be ready to help establish peace.”

“The sense of outrage and injustice on the part of Ukraine will be difficult to overcome. It is vital the Ukrainian government is not pressured into accepting outcomes that reward a war of aggression.”

Moscow demands recognition of the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, the “states” in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region recognised by Russia at the outset of the conflict.

Their supposed independence was cynically used by Russia to argue a right of self-defence of these purportedly sovereign states, says Weller. He argues that these are “non-states”, and backing for purported statehood is not possible under international law.

Weller advocates a revised version of 2015’s Minsk II agreement that Russia has long complained was never fully implemented – one offering plenty of autonomy to both districts yet keeping them within Ukraine’s sovereign territory.

His proposed compromise, a form of “asymmetrical federation”, would see overall claims of statehood abandoned, but areas – or Oblasts – within the Donbas that have ethnic or linguistic majorities be given greatly enhanced local self-governance.

“Unless Donetsk and Luhansk walk back their unfeasible claims to statehood, they will remain trapped in the twilight of international isolation, even with Russia propping them up,” said Weller.

“A settlement that keeps them as Ukrainian provinces but in an environment of self-government – almost virtual statehood – will allow both Oblasts authority over all their territory, rather than just the third taken by force in 2014,” he said.

“This would be balanced by internationally guaranteed rights to genuine local elections and safeguards for the right of minority populations – whether Russian speaking or Ukrainian.”  

International observers should be maintained throughout to reassure populations of all backgrounds, says Weller, as should the possibility of cross-border links to the Russian Federation to placate separatist groups.

While cease-fire and retreat of forces – along with full humanitarian access – are conditions that underpin the settlement, Russian withdrawal from the Donbas regions could be subject to a “transitional phase”. “However, Ukraine must not suffer de-facto division forever more as a consequence of turning the invasion into a frozen conflict,” Weller said.

Crimea cannot be formally recognised as part of Russia, Weller contends, regardless of Kremlin demands. However, both sides could pledge not to challenge the “territorial status quo” of the situation as of 23 February 2022 forcibly or perhaps in general terms, for the sake of hostility cessation.

This balancing act would require international cooperation to secure rights for Crimea’s non-Russian speakers, and see the region’s Tatars – a mainly Muslim population persecuted during the Soviet years – benefit from a restoration of the ethnic minority “special protection” they once had.  

While NATO’s “open door” policy will remain unshakeable in principle, Washington has already floated possible moratoria on Ukraine membership. Any settlement could adapt this into a self-imposed limitation by Ukraine for a given period of time – expressed through a legally binding unilateral declaration. Weller argues that such commitments could extend to Georgia and Moldova if needed.

He also outlines “Cooperative European Security Architecture” strategies to help reassure eastern European states that will not join NATO in the medium-term.

This would draw on existing arrangements as well as establish further steps to build transparency and keep regional tensions in check: rules for military flights toward national borders; prior notice agreements for military manoeuvres; arms limitations in key areas, supported by third-party verification.  

Read more about the proposed settlement from Marc Weller in the Scotsman. 

Implantable electronic medical devices are already widely used for a number of applications, but they also offer the prospect of transforming the treatment of intractable conditions, such as the use of neural electrical stimulators for spinal injury patients.

There is one major problem, however: our body recognises, attacks and surrounds these implants with a dense, ‘protective’ capsule of scar tissue that prevents electrical stimulation reaching the nervous system.

This so-called ‘foreign body reaction’ is driven by an inflammatory response against the implant. First, immune cells known as macrophages attack and try to destroy the device. Then a more long-term response kicks in, again coordinated by the macrophages, which leads to the build-up of a collagen-rich capsule to separate it from the surrounding tissue. This response then persists until the implant is removed from the body.

The mechanisms by which foreign body reaction occurs are poorly understood, meaning that there are no effective methods to prevent it without interfering with the tissue repair mechanisms, for example after nerve damage.

First author Dr Damiano Barone from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge said: “Foreign body reaction is currently an unavoidable complication of implantation and is one of the leading causes of implant failure. At the moment, the only way we have of preventing it is to use broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory drugs such as dexamethasone. But these are problematic – they may stop the scarring, but they also stop the repair.”

In a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists implanted an electrical device into mice to compensate for sciatic nerve damage and compared the response within the surrounding tissue to that in mice who did not receive an implant. As well as using normal mice, the researchers used mice whose genes controlling the inflammatory response had been ‘knocked out’, preventing a response.

This allowed the team to see how the body’s inflammatory response generated the foreign body reaction, and which genes were involved. In turn, this showed that a particular molecule known as NLRP3 plays a key role.

The researchers then added a small molecule known as MCC950 to the device coating and tested its effect in the mice. MCC950 has previously been shown to inhibit the activity of NLRP3. They found that this prevented the foreign body reaction without affecting tissue regeneration. This contrasted with dexamethasone treatment, which prevents the foreign body reaction but also blocks nerve regeneration.

NLRP3 inhibitors are being developed for a number of clinical applications including inflammatory disease, cancer, sepsis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. They are already being tested in clinical trials for certain conditions.

Joint senior author Professor Clare Bryant from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge said: “There’s a lot of excitement around this new class of anti-inflammatory drugs. Once they’ve been through clinical trials and have been shown to be safe to use, we should be in a good position to integrate them into the next generation of implantable devices.

“Combining these drugs with different materials and softer coatings for devices could transform the lives of individuals who need long-term implants to overcome serious disability or illness. In particular, this could make a huge difference to neuroprosthetics – prosthetics that connect to the nervous system – where the technology exists, but scarring has not yet made their widespread use viable.”

The research was supported by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome.

Reference
Barone, DG et al. Prevention of the foreign body response to implantable medical devices by inflammasome inhibition. PNAS; 14 March 2022; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2115857119

This comes on the back of an Equality and Human Rights Commission report in June 2020 that warned that the CJS is failing those with learning disabilities and autistic people. However, there is almost no research investigating how autistic defendants are being treated within the CJS.

The team set out to fill this gap by conducting a survey of 93 defence lawyers about autistic people they have represented in the last five years to find out about their defendants’ experiences of navigating the CJS. In their study, published today in Autism Research, the researchers found the CJS is failing autistic people.

The study found that only half of autistic people (52%) were considered by the police to be vulnerable adults, even though the law recognises all autistic people as vulnerable.

Over a third (35%) of autistic defendants were not given an ‘appropriate adult’ during police investigations, even though their diagnosis was known to police, and despite all autistic people being entitled under the law to have an appropriate adult present when being interviewed by the police. A further 18% did not have an ‘appropriate adult’ present because their diagnosis was not known to the police.

Appropriate adults act to safeguard the interests and rights of vulnerable defendants by ensuring that they are treated in a just manner and are able to participate effectively during an investigation.

Only a quarter (25%) of autistic people were given ‘reasonable adjustments’, with 38% not given any even though lawyers stated that this would have been beneficial. This is despite all autistic people being entitled to reasonable adjustments under the law. A further 33% did not receive any adjustments because their autism diagnosis was unknown at the time. Of the autistic people whose case went to trial, more than one in five (22%) were not given any reasonable adjustments even though their lawyers stated that this would have been helpful.

Reasonable adjustments, such as using visual aids to assist with communication and allowing extra time to process information, can be made by the police to assist the detainee.

Dr Rachel Slavny-Cross, who led the study, said: “Our research shows quite clearly that autistic adults are not receiving fair treatment within the criminal justice system. Without reasonable adjustments or support, this could place them at a significant disadvantage.”

In just under half of the cases that included a trial by jury (47%), the jury was not informed that the defendant was autistic. 59% of prosecution barristers and 46% of judges or magistrates said or did something during the trial that made them concerned that they did not have an adequate understanding of autism.

Dr Carrie Allison, a member of the research team, said: “It’s vital that jurors are provided with information about a defendant’s autism and its implications, otherwise they are likely to misinterpret atypical behaviour exhibited by the defendant in court. Similarly, judges may fail to take into consideration mitigating factors that might otherwise influence sentencing.”

The study found that lawyers were more likely to be concerned that their autistic clients would engage in self-harm behaviours, compared with their non-autistic clients, and were more likely to report that their autistic clients experienced ‘meltdowns’ as a result of their involvement in the CJS.

Dr Sarah Griffiths. another member of the research team, said: “Autistic adults are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, such as stress and heightened anxiety, with many autistic people experiencing meltdown and shutdown as a result. This is likely to have shaped their interactions with the criminal justice system and their ability to cope with the stress of being subject to criminal proceedings.”

The study also found that those working within the CJS may be unaware that an individual is autistic, or of the implications of an autism diagnosis. They found that many autistic people do not disclose their diagnosis at the point of police contact or are themselves unaware they are autistic. However, as the study shows, even autistic defendants who disclose their diagnosis are failing to receive reasonable adjustments.

However, a positive finding was that, in cases where their client was found to have committed a crime, 60% of judges saw the defendant’s autism as a mitigating factor, and in these cases the majority of autistic people were given a suspended or reduced sentence.

Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge and a member of the research team, added: “There’s an urgent need across the criminal justice system for increased awareness about autism. The police, lawyers, judges and jurors should be given mandatory training to be aware of how autism affects an individual’s behaviour, so that autistic defendants are treated fairly within the criminal justice system.”

Funding for this project was provided by the Autism Centre of Excellence.

Reference
Slavny-Cross, R et al. Autism and the criminal justice system: An analysis of 93 cases. Autism Research; 15 March 2022; DOI: 10.1002/aur.2690

In many countries, ageing infrastructure - such as roads, bridges and tunnels - remains in use beyond its design life and intended capacity. 

In order to get more out of these assets using minimal resources, the construction industry needs to better understand how they are performing. Assessing their condition can be difficult, however. There are logistical challenges—visually inspecting remote and hard to access assets can be expensive and hazardous. Even in new construction, it is important to ensure safe environments and understand the short- and long-term environmental impact of a site.

Recently COVID-19 has compounded these challenges by limiting the number of people allowed onsite. In the longer term, the industry is facing pressures associated with the climate crisis and extreme weather events, which add strain to the condition and structural health of assets, making assessing their condition increasingly important.

The BKwai software platform brings together data from multiple sources—onsite sensors, environmental data, and remote satellite data—providing a comprehensive view of an asset as well as its surrounding environment. Bkwai applies advanced data techniques to help engineers sift through huge volumes of data to find patterns, identify early warning signs, and predict what could happen. The platform puts this insight into the site engineer’s hands quickly and in real time, helping construction companies and asset owners to make more timely, cost-effective, and safe decisions.

BKwai’s founder, Sakthy Selvakumaran, said: "The proliferation of new sensors and satellite technology has the potential to fuel a revolution in monitoring the built environment. Data can be used to make smarter, safer, more economical decisions - from planning to construction, and operation to maintenance. In an industry rooted in spreadsheets and manual interventions, however, it is difficult to find key insights and values. The industry is crying out for better tools to help us understand the complex challenges facing our built environment. That's where we step in. We can provide data-driven engineering insights, to find the right solutions and take action."

Selvakumaran has over a decade of international experience in design, construction, and maintenance of infrastructure assets. She combines this with a PhD and academic research in satellite monitoring and data analysis methods in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering.  

Although only founded in 2019, BKwai is already used by some of the biggest names in UK construction and on existing major infrastructure assets. Current customers include Thames Tideway, Laing O’Rourke, Kier, WSP, and Highways England.The company is also supported by Geovation, part of Ordnance Survey, UK.

Quite aside from the deadly and disorienting consequences for Ukraine’s citizens, Russia’s invasion places unique pressure on its doctors and nurses.

Cardiac arrests, caesareans and appendectomies are now often accompanied by injuries that should be relatively rare: gunshot and shrapnel wounds, third-degree burns, double or triple amputations, loss of sight, brain and spinal cord injuries. Were chemical weapons to ever be deployed, one can add blistering, convulsions and muscle paralysis. Then there are decisions unimaginable to many of us but unavoidable when resources are scarce: who will live and who will not.

With advance notice, medical staff can stock up on vast blood supplies, platelet-rich plasma and refrigerators. They can hone the specialist skills required for resuscitating and then repairing what war destroys. During the long war in Afghanistan, for example, military medical staff from allied forces underwent rigorous training before deployment. British surgeons and anaesthetists were required to complete a five-day military operational surgical training course at the Royal College of Surgeons where they practised damage control surgery on human cadavers, deliberately “wounded” to mimic typical injuries sustained during war.

From London, they’d move to an old aeroplane hanger outside the ancient English cathedral city of York to reappear, as if by magic, in a replica of Camp Bastion field hospital in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Here, they relied on actual amputees and theatrical makeup artists to reenact the patient journey from a helicopter to an intensive care unit. Even the thumping of an approaching Chinook was played over the sound system as doctors and nurses rolled up their sleeves.

Given the speed at which the conflict is advancing, Ukraine’s doctors make do instead with a 12-hour online equivalent designed and run by Dr David Nott and Dr Henry Marsh. Nott has 30 years’ experience working in conflict and disaster zones as a general and vascular surgeon and, through his David Nott Foundation, offers lifesaving treatment for victims by better equipping local doctors who care for them.

Unseen injuries

Other challenges facing doctors and nurses are more subtle, longer lasting, and more personal. War can be deeply traumatising, even for doctors and nurses not in the line of fire, meaning that rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are often as high for medical staff as for those at immediate risk of injury or death.

Until recently, the causes of PTSD were not well understood. We now know more about the extent to which cultural expectations, professional role identity, and organisational protocol (or formal rules) can exacerbate feelings of senselessness, futility, and surreality, and threaten people’s existential grounding.

This is because these contexts can trigger and amplify repeated experiences of senselessness (or the inability to justify war and its consequences), of futility (or the inability for medics to live up to their own expectations of “making a difference” as “compassion fatigue” sets in), and of surreality (or the inability to reconcile the absurdities of war with “life as normal”).

Senselessness, futility and surreality characterise the experience of war for many who are exposed to it. And when these experiences are sustained, they can dislocate a person’s sense of what they consider “meaningful”, “good” and “normal” to the point where they become an existential threat. They are war’s invisible injuries.

To compensate for this sense of dislocation, doctors and nurses have been observed to resort to innovative coping strategies. For example, they will refrain from publicly criticising the war effort for fear of hurting morale. They avoid emotional engagement by not attending funerals. They use humour to deflect and manage constant exposure to the cruelty of war. They establish enclaves of normality by importing home comforts (for example, in Camp Bastion, doctors organised Friday night pizzas and Sunday morning pancakes). They create improvised spaces in which to temporarily withdraw from war and catch up on Netflix. They grow flowers in the most uninhabitable spaces.

Sadly, the unintended consequence of this is often that it makes war even more surreal and cruel and the ability to help turn the tide more difficult.

Under circumstances such as those facing doctors and nurses in Ukraine today, the best prevention may be to accept that war is ugly, indiscriminate and savage. It is also a reminder of what is lost and what we must now work hard to preserve and repair.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Disney Research, developed a holobrick proof-of-concept, which can tile holograms together to form a large seamless 3D image. This is the first time this technology has been demonstrated and opens the door for scalable holographic 3D displays. The results are reported in the journal Light: Science & Applications.

As technology develops, people want high-quality visual experiences, from 2D high-resolution TV to 3D holographic augmented or virtual reality, and large true 3D displays. These displays need to support a significant amount of data flow: for a 2D full HD display, the information data rate is about three gigabits per second (Gb/s), but a 3D display of the same resolution would require a rate of three terabits per second, which is not yet available.

Holographic displays can reconstruct high-quality images for a real 3D visual perception. They are considered the ultimate display technology to connect the real and virtual worlds for immersive experiences.

“Delivering an adequate 3D experience using the current technology is a huge challenge,” said Professor Daping Chu from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who led the research. “Over the past ten years, we’ve been working with our industrial partners to develop holographic displays which allow the simultaneous realisation of large size and large field-of-view, which needs to be matched with a hologram with a large optical information content.”

However, the information content of current holograms information is much greater than the display capabilities of current light engines, known as spatial light modulators, due to their limited space bandwidth product.

For 2D displays, it’s standard practice to tile small size displays together to form one large display. The approach being explored here is similar, but for 3D displays, which has not been done before. “Joining pieces of 3D images together is not trivial, because the final image must be seen as seamless from all angles and all depths,” said Chu, who is also Director of the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE). “Directly tiling 3D images in real space is just not possible.”

To address this challenge, the researchers developed the holobrick unit, based on coarse integrated holographic displays for angularly tiled 3D images, a concept developed at CAPE with Disney Research about seven years ago.

Each of the holobricks uses a high-information bandwidth spatial light modulator for information delivery in conjunction with coarse integrated optics, to form the angularly tiled 3D holograms with large viewing areas and fields of view.

Careful optical design makes sure the holographic fringe pattern fills the entire face of the holobrick, so that multiple holobricks can be seamlessly stacked to form a scalable spatially tiled holographic image 3D display, capable of both wide field-of-view angle and large size.

The proof-of-concept developed by the researchers is made of two seamlessly tiled holobricks. Each full-colour brick is 1024×768 pixels, with a 40° field of view and 24 frames per second, to display tiled holograms for full 3D images.

“There are still many challenges ahead to make ultra-large 3D displays with wide viewing angles, such as a holographic 3D wall,” said Chu. “We hope that this work can provide a promising way to tackle this issue based on the currently limited display capability of spatial light modulators.”

Reference:
Jin Li; Quinn Smithwick; Daping Chu. ‘Holobricks: Modular Coarse Integral Holographic Displays.’ Light: Science & Applications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-022-00752-7

The Global Neurotrauma Outcomes Study, funded by the NIHR, is published in The Lancet Neurology and provides data to assist in decision making and improving outcome for patients with traumatic brain injury globally.

The paper focuses on types of cases, the way they are managed, and death rates, and was compiled using data submitted by 159 hospitals in 57 countries to a central database, which the researchers then analysed. The researchers stratified countries into four tiers (very high, high, medium, low) according to their Human Development Index (HDI), which takes account of factors like life expectancy, education, and income.

The prospective study determined that patients in the low HDI tier were often young and tended to suffer skull fractures due to assault but were classified as ‘mild’ traumatic brain injury (TBI).

In the medium and high HDI tiers, patients were also young, but most had moderate to severe TBI caused by a road traffic collision and extradural haematoma – a bleed on the outside of the dura mater, the membrane covering of the brain.

In the very high tier, patients tended to be older and presented with a moderate or severe TBI associated with a fall and acute subdural haematoma - a bleed on the inner surface of the dura mater.

Image: Map showing most common causes of traumatic brain injury: fall, road traffic collision (RTC), and assault.

Quality of care was generally less favourable in lower HDI settings, including delays to surgery and a lack of postoperative monitoring equipment and intensive care. The very high HDI tier had the highest proportion of operations in which the most senior surgeon present in the operating theatre was a fully qualified neurosurgeon, while the medium HDI tier had the lowest proportion. The study also found significant variations between hospitals in the outcome of patients.

Angelos Kolias, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and NIHR Global Neurotrauma Research Group associate director, said: “The results show that overall mortality is low, reflecting the life-saving nature of surgery for traumatic brain injuries. Many of these patients would have died without an operation. However, we also need to address deficits in pre-hospital management and long-term rehabilitation.”

David Clark, a trainee neurosurgeon and University of Cambridge research fellow, said: “A particularly important finding is that outcome is influenced more by hospital characteristics than country of origin, which raises the possibility that changing the systems and processes of care in individual hospitals might be able to improve mortality. The paper sows the seeds for discussion and change.”

The research was funded by the NIHR using UK government aid to support global health research.

Alexis Joannides, Consultant Neurosurgeon at CUH and NIHR Global Neurotrauma Research Group informatics lead, added: “The contribution of several clinicians and researchers from several hospitals across the world has been possible due to the infrastructure and collaborations supported by the NIHR.

“The database and data management process used in the study have now laid the foundation for a global registry of traumatic brain injuries that we have established to support ongoing quality improvement and research in the field of traumatic brain injury.”

Peter Hutchinson, Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Cambridge and Director of the NIHR Global Neurotrauma Research Group, said: “This is the largest study in the world looking at the surgical management of head injuries and will be of practical value to clinicians and others planning strategies for the future.

“The collaboration across such a vast number of hospitals and countries, together with the support of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies and continental neurosurgical societies, has been phenomenal.”

Reference
Clark, D et al. Casemix, management, and mortality of patients receiving emergency neurosurgery for traumatic brain injury in the Global Neurotrauma Outcomes Study: a prospective observational cohort study. The Lancet Neurology; 17 March 2022; DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(22)00037-0

Adapted from a press release from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute used a personalised blood test for patients, which is a type of liquid biopsy that can pick up tiny fragments of DNA that are released into the blood as tumours grow. This DNA, called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), can reveal the state of the tumour, its location and potentially its weaknesses, which could be used to select the best treatments.

The results from the Lung Cancer Circulating Tumour DNA (LUCID-DNA) study, funded by Cancer Research UK, have been published today in the Annals of Oncology.

Many patients who are treated for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer can be cured with either surgery, radiotherapy or sometimes (chemo)radiotherapy.

After treatment, lung cancer patients are carefully followed up with tests including CT scans to find out if the treatment has removed the tumour, but scans won’t pick up tiny quantities of cancer cells known as minimal residual disease (MRD) which could still regrow into further tumours.

By finding signs that lung cancer cells might still be present and active after treatment, using methods such a liquid biopsy, doctors might be able make better choices about treating patients, aiming to improve the chances of survival for patients who are at higher risk while reducing side effects for patients who are at a lower risk group. 

The LUCID-DNA study aimed to find out if circulating DNA can be detected in early stage lung cancers. It used a liquid biopsy, called RaDaR™, which analyses up to 48 different mutations that are unique to each patient’s tumour. RaDaR™ was developed by Inivata, a biotech company co-founded by Dr Rosenfeld, and is based on technologies developed initially by his lab at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.

Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld, group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Chief Scientific Officer of Inivata and co-lead author of the study, said: “If cancer cells remain in the body after treatment a tumour can regrow. If that happens, it is a big setback for patients and the doctors treating them.

“Liquid biopsy can be used to detect tiny amounts of residual cancer after treatment, flagging those patients who have signs that their tumour may not have been eradicated completely with treatment. We’re hoping that this technology could help doctors decide when additional rounds of treatment are needed, and could save lives.”

To find out if liquid biopsy could find lung cancer patients with MRD, the LUCID-DNA study team enrolled 88 patients who were treated at Royal Papworth Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). NSCLC accounts for over 85% of all lung cancer cases.

The research team extracted DNA from tumour samples provided by the patients and sequenced the DNA to find combinations of mutations unique to each patient’s lung cancer. Using this genetic “fingerprint”, Inivata created a blood test which was personalised to the patient’s tumour.

The liquid biopsies were then used to detect tumour DNA in blood samples collected before treatment, and for up to 9 months after treatment. The researchers found that patients who had tumour DNA present between two weeks and four months after treatment were much more likely to have their lung cancer come back or to die from it.

Professor Robert Rintoul, Professor of Thoracic Oncology at the University of Cambridge, Honorary Respiratory Physician at Royal Papworth Hospital and co-lead author of the study, commented:

“We need to study these liquid biopsies further to find the best ways to deploy them, but these results clearly show that they can potentially be an effective tool to help decide which patients need further treatment.

“Being able to offer patients personalised monitoring and treatment will ultimately save more lives and help us to beat cancer sooner.”

Lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the UK. Every year, around 48,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer and every year around 35,100 people die from the disease in the UK.

Aart Alders participated in the LUCID-DNA observational clinical study at Royal Papworth Hospital following his lung cancer surgery.  

“I was first diagnosed with an early-stage lung cancer about five years ago and underwent a surgical operation to remove it,” he said. “Although some people need further treatment with chemotherapy, I have been very fortunate and my original lung cancer has not returned.

“I was very pleased to be able to help with the LUCID-DNA research study. By trying to develop a blood test to help doctors predict whether a lung cancer might come back or not, we will increase the chance of curing more people.”

Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, said:“Lung cancer is one of the biggest killers in the UK. The earlier it is caught, the more likely it is to be treated successfully.

“Detecting signs of cancer before or after treatment without the need for invasive surgery has huge potential for both patients and doctors.

“I look forward to seeing more research that will develop liquid biopsy further, which will and ultimately make it much easier for doctors to offer treatment that best matches the patient’s needs, increasing their chance of survival.”

Reference
Gale, D, Heider, K, Ruiz-Valdepenas, A, et al. Residual ctDNA after treatment predicts early relapse in patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Annals of Oncology; 17 March 2022

Adapted from a press release from Cancer Research UK

Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute used a personalised blood test for patients, which is a type of liquid biopsy that can pick up tiny fragments of DNA that are released into the blood as tumours grow. This DNA, called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), can reveal the state of the tumour, its location and potentially its weaknesses, which could be used to select the best treatments.

The results from the Lung Cancer Circulating Tumour DNA (LUCID-DNA) study, funded by Cancer Research UK, have been published today in the Annals of Oncology.

Many patients who are treated for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer can be cured with either surgery, radiotherapy or sometimes (chemo)radiotherapy.

After treatment, lung cancer patients are carefully followed up with tests including CT scans to find out if the treatment has removed the tumour, but scans won’t pick up tiny quantities of cancer cells known as minimal residual disease (MRD) which could still regrow into further tumours.

By finding signs that lung cancer cells might still be present and active after treatment, using methods such a liquid biopsy, doctors might be able make better choices about treating patients, aiming to improve the chances of survival for patients who are at higher risk while reducing side effects for patients who are at a lower risk group. 

The LUCID-DNA study aimed to find out if circulating DNA can be detected in early stage lung cancers. It used a liquid biopsy, called RaDaR™, which analyses up to 48 different mutations that are unique to each patient’s tumour. RaDaR™ was developed by Inivata, a biotech company co-founded by Dr Rosenfeld, and is based on technologies developed initially by his lab at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.

Dr Nitzan Rosenfeld, group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Chief Scientific Officer of Inivata and co-lead author of the study, said: “If cancer cells remain in the body after treatment a tumour can regrow. If that happens, it is a big setback for patients and the doctors treating them.

“Liquid biopsy can be used to detect tiny amounts of residual cancer after treatment, flagging those patients who have signs that their tumour may not have been eradicated completely with treatment. We’re hoping that this technology could help doctors decide when additional rounds of treatment are needed, and could save lives.”

To find out if liquid biopsy could find lung cancer patients with MRD, the LUCID-DNA study team enrolled 88 patients who were treated at Royal Papworth Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital for early stage non-small cell lung cancer. This type of cancer accounts for over 85% of all lung cancer cases.

The research team extracted DNA from tumour samples provided by the patients and sequenced the DNA to find combinations of mutations unique to each patient’s lung cancer. Using this genetic “fingerprint”, Inivata created a blood test which was personalised to the patient’s tumour.

The liquid biopsies were then used to detect tumour DNA in blood samples collected before treatment, and for up to 9 months after treatment. The researchers found that patients who had tumour DNA present between two weeks and four months after treatment were much more likely to have their lung cancer come back or to die from it.

Professor Robert Rintoul, Professor of Thoracic Oncology at the University of Cambridge, Honorary Respiratory Physician at Royal Papworth Hospital and co-lead author of the study, said: “We need to study these liquid biopsies further to find the best ways to deploy them, but these results clearly show that they can potentially be an effective tool to help decide which patients need further treatment.

“Being able to offer patients personalised monitoring and treatment will ultimately save more lives and help us to beat cancer sooner.”

Lung cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the UK. Every year, around 48,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer and every year around 35,100 people die from the disease in the UK.

Aart Alders participated in the LUCID-DNA observational clinical study at Royal Papworth Hospital following his lung cancer surgery.  

“I was first diagnosed with an early-stage lung cancer about five years ago and underwent a surgical operation to remove it,” he said. “Although some people need further treatment with chemotherapy, I have been very fortunate and my original lung cancer has not returned.

“I was very pleased to be able to help with the LUCID-DNA research study. By trying to develop a blood test to help doctors predict whether a lung cancer might come back or not, we will increase the chance of curing more people.”

Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Lung cancer is one of the biggest killers in the UK. The earlier it is caught, the more likely it is to be treated successfully.

“Detecting signs of cancer before or after treatment without the need for invasive surgery has huge potential for both patients and doctors.

“I look forward to seeing more research that will develop liquid biopsy further, which will and ultimately make it much easier for doctors to offer treatment that best matches the patient’s needs, increasing their chance of survival.” 

Adapted from a press release by Cancer Research UK

Cambridge received the most awards of any UK institution, alongside University College London, which also received five awards.

The Cambridge winners are among 313 winners of the latest round of Consolidator Grants, backed with some €632 million. Part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, this new round of grants will create an estimated 1,900 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other staff at 189 host institutions.

Dr Ana Cvejic from the Department of Haematology was awarded a grant for her CONTEXT project (Aneuploidy and Its Impact on Blood Development: Context Matters). The focus of her research is to understand how blood cells develop and how their development and their ultimate function is influenced by their environment and environmental cues. The aim is to use this knowledge to develop new ways to treat disease and improve human health.

Professor Nikku Madhusudhan from the Institute of Astronomy was awarded a grant for his SUBNEPTUNES project (Probing Exoplanetary Atmospheres in the Sub-Neptune Regime). His research is focused on the atmospheres, interiors and formation mechanisms of exoplanets. In 2021, he identified a new class of exoplanet, dubbed Hycean planets, which could greatly accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System.

Professor Ulrich Schneider from the Cavendish Laboratory was awarded a grant for his KAGOME project (A quantum gas microscope for the Kagome lattice). Schenider studies ‘many-body’ phenomena at the interface between quantum optics and solid state physics.

Dr Philippa Steele from the Faculty of Classics was awarded a grant for her VIEWS project (Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems). Her research focuses on the relationships between Aegean writing systesm and the development of the early Greek alphabet.

Dr Laura Torrente Murciano from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology was awarded funding for her RESTARTNH3 project (Energy functional processes and materials for storage of renewable energy in ammonia). Her research focuses on the integration of processes and development of novel catalytic routes for sustainable technologies.

President of the ERC Professor Maria Leptin said: ”Even in times of crisis and conflict and suffering, it is our duty to keep science on track and give our brightest minds free reign to explore their ideas. We do not know today how their work might revolutionise tomorrow - we do know that they will open up new horizons, satisfy our curiosity and most likely help us prepare for unpredictable future challenges. So, I am thrilled to see a new group of ERC grant winners funded for their scientific journey. I wish them the best of luck on their way to push the frontiers of our knowledge!”

Like some people, AI systems often have a degree of confidence that far exceeds their actual abilities. And like an overconfident person, many AI systems don’t know when they’re making mistakes. Sometimes it’s even more difficult for an AI system to realise when it’s making a mistake than to produce a correct result.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oslo say that instability is the Achilles’ heel of modern AI and that a mathematical paradox shows AI’s limitations. Neural networks, the state-of-the-art tool in AI, roughly mimic the links between neurons in the brain. The researchers show that there are problems where stable and accurate neural networks exist, yet no algorithm can produce such a network. Only in specific cases can algorithms compute stable and accurate neural networks.

The researchers propose a classification theory describing when neural networks can be trained to provide a trustworthy AI system under certain specific conditions. Their results are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Deep learning, the leading AI technology for pattern recognition, has been the subject of numerous breathless headlines. Examples include diagnosing disease more accurately than physicians or preventing road accidents through autonomous driving. However, many deep learning systems are untrustworthy and easy to fool.

“Many AI systems are unstable, and it’s becoming a major liability, especially as they are increasingly used in high-risk areas such as disease diagnosis or autonomous vehicles,” said co-author Professor Anders Hansen from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “If AI systems are used in areas where they can do real harm if they go wrong, trust in those systems has got to be the top priority.”

The paradox identified by the researchers traces back to two 20th century mathematical giants: Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel. At the beginning of the 20th century, mathematicians attempted to justify mathematics as the ultimate consistent language of science. However, Turing and Gödel showed a paradox at the heart of mathematics: it is impossible to prove whether certain mathematical statements are true or false, and some computational problems cannot be tackled with algorithms. And, whenever a mathematical system is rich enough to describe the arithmetic we learn at school, it cannot prove its own consistency.

Decades later, the mathematician Steve Smale proposed a list of 18 unsolved mathematical problems for the 21st century. The 18th problem concerned the limits of intelligence for both humans and machines.

“The paradox first identified by Turing and Gödel has now been brought forward into the world of AI by Smale and others,” said co-author Dr Matthew Colbrook from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “There are fundamental limits inherent in mathematics and, similarly, AI algorithms can’t exist for certain problems.”

The researchers say that, because of this paradox, there are cases where good neural networks can exist, yet an inherently trustworthy one cannot be built. “No matter how accurate your data is, you can never get the perfect information to build the required neural network,” said co-author Dr Vegard Antun from the University of Oslo.

The impossibility of computing the good existing neural network is also true regardless of the amount of training data. No matter how much data an algorithm can access, it will not produce the desired network. “This is similar to Turing’s argument: there are computational problems that cannot be solved regardless of computing power and runtime,” said Hansen.

The researchers say that not all AI is inherently flawed, but it’s only reliable in specific areas, using specific methods. “The issue is with areas where you need a guarantee, because many AI systems are a black box,” said Colbrook. “It’s completely fine in some situations for an AI to make mistakes, but it needs to be honest about it. And that’s not what we’re seeing for many systems – there’s no way of knowing when they’re more confident or less confident about a decision.”

“Currently, AI systems can sometimes have a touch of guesswork to them,” said Hansen.“You try something, and if it doesn’t work, you add more stuff, hoping it works. At some point, you’ll get tired of not getting what you want, and you’ll try a different method. It’s important to understand the limitations of different approaches. We are at the stage where the practical successes of AI are far ahead of theory and understanding. A program on understanding the foundations of AI computing is needed to bridge this gap.”

“When 20th-century mathematicians identified different paradoxes, they didn’t stop studying mathematics. They just had to find new paths, because they understood the limitations,” said Colbrook. “For AI, it may be a case of changing paths or developing new ones to build systems that can solve problems in a trustworthy and transparent way, while understanding their limitations.”

The next stage for the researchers is to combine approximation theory, numerical analysis and foundations of computations to determine which neural networks can be computed by algorithms, and which can be made stable and trustworthy. Just as the paradoxes on the limitations of mathematics and computers identified by Gödel and Turing led to rich foundation theories — describing both the limitations and the possibilities of mathematics and computations — perhaps a similar foundations theory may blossom in AI.

Matthew Colbrook is a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. Anders Hansen is a Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. The research was supported in part by the Royal Society.

Reference:
Matthew J. Colbrook, Vegard Antun, and Anders C. Hansen. ‘The difficulty of computing stable and accurate neural networks – On the barriers of deep learning and Smale’s 18th problem.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107151119

Diverse native forests store more above-ground carbon, provide more water to nearby streams, and better support biodiversity and prevent soil erosion than simple tree plantations, a major new study published today in Science has found – but plantations have an advantage in wood production.

The study looked at the relative benefits of restoring native forests versus establishing a range of simple tree plantations in terms of biodiversity conservation and four key functions of value to humans - or ‘ecosystem services’ - provided by a forest: carbon storage, soil erosion control, water provisioning, and wood production.

Forest restoration is gathering pace worldwide, in part as a way to tackle climate change: deforestation is a major source of carbon emissions, and forest restoration can be a ‘nature-based climate solution’ to counter global warming. In many cases, forest restoration is also conducted for the water provisioning and flood regulation functions of forests, and as a means to prevent soil erosion and produce wood products.

“Establishing a tree plantation is useful for producing wood – but not so good for restoring biodiversity. This is a huge missed opportunity for conservation,” said Dr Fangyuan Hua, a researcher previously based in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, and first author of the paper. Hua now works at Peking University’s Institute of Ecology in China.

She added: “When the goal of a forest restoration scheme includes wood production, then there’s a trade-off to be made between environmental and production outcomes.”

Forest restoration schemes aimed at providing ecosystem services tend to involve tree plantations of just one or a small number of tree species, rather than the restoration of diverse native forests, based on an implicit assumption that tree plantations are just as effective in delivering these services. But the authors say there is no robust scientific evidence for this.

The current synthesis involved an international, cross-disciplinary team of researchers from seven countries, and it is based on an unprecedentedly large database consisting of almost 26,000 records from 264 studies conducted in 53 countries.

“This is the first time that the relative performance of different forest restoration approaches in delivering forests’ most salient services has been assessed simultaneously. We can now begin to understand the synergies and trade-offs across different restoration goals, and so help inform decision-making,” said Professor Andrew Balmford in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, senior author of the paper.

The study found that as with biodiversity, all three environment-oriented ecosystem services – aboveground carbon storage, soil erosion control, and water provisioning – are delivered better by native forests than by tree plantations. Soil erosion control in particular has the most to lose from plantation-style forest restoration, and the shortfall of plantations in water provisioning is more serious in drier climates – precisely where water is scarcer.

“When restoration goals are about environmental benefits, even if not specifically for the sake of biodiversity conservation, we should aim to restore native forests – and biodiversity will gain as a co-benefit,” said Hua.

However, for wood production, the limited evidence available showed that tree plantations can outperform native forests, highlighting a critical trade-off.

Tree plantations worldwide typically use fast-growing species like pines, firs, and Eucalyptus. These trees tend to grow tall and straight, and in actively managed plantations their growth is often enhanced by fertilisers and weeding to prevent other plants competing for nutrition and light.

In contrast, native forests contain a mix of different tree, shrub, and herbaceous species, and they tend not to be managed for growth. This provides a more suitable habitat with diverse food and other resources for a range of plants and animals to thrive, but also means that wood production may be less efficient.

“The trade-off between the environmental and production benefits a forest can provide has not been discussed much before. Restoration probably cannot meet all goals at once,” said Professor David Edwards at the University of Sheffield’s School of Biosciences and another senior author of the study.

In addition to a need to weigh competing goals, this finding also means that plantations might indirectly provide environmental benefits, by allowing other, higher-biodiversity forests to be ‘spared’ from being cut down for wood production.

“Plantations need to be integrated into a coherent land-use plan, so that their better performance at producing wood gets translated into improved conservation of environmentally valuable forests elsewhere,” Balmford added.

The study also found that for many old or abandoned plantations across the world that seem no longer used for wood production, their environmental performance falls short of native forests. Given that these plantations seem to be common, there are probably significant environmental benefits to be gained from restoring them to native forests.

The United Nations (UN) have declared 2021-2030 the ‘UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’. Along with many other climate-related initiatives, this promotes the scaling-up of restoration efforts on a global scale to breathe new life into our degraded ecosystems, including the restoration of forests on millions of hectares of deforested and degraded land across the world. Such restoration efforts have the potential to generate immense environmental and social benefits – but only if they are guided by a robust understanding of their consequences for environmental and other outcomes.

This research was funded by the Newton Fund of the Royal Society (UK) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (Brazil).

Reference

Hua, F. et al: ‘The biodiversity and ecosystem service contributions and trade-offs of forest restoration approaches.’ Science, March 2022. DOI: 10.1126/science.abl4649

Co-authors of this study are based at 11 institutions in seven countries: University of Cambridge, Peking University, King’s College London, Yunnan University, University of São Paulo, Universidad de La Frontera, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, University of New South Wales, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, University of Aberdeen, and University of Sheffield.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, conducted a retrospective analysis of the health records of nearly 30,000 patients from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. The patients were all over the age of 50 and accessed NHS mental health services between 2005 and 2019.

The analysis suggested that patients who received lithium were less likely to develop dementia than those who did not, although the overall number of patients who received lithium was small.

Their findings, reported in the journal PLoS Medicine, support the possibility that lithium could be a preventative treatment for dementia, and could be progressed to large randomised controlled trials.

Dementia is the leading cause of death in elderly Western populations, but no preventative treatments are currently available: more than 55 million people worldwide have dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease the most common form.

“The number of people with dementia continues to grow, which puts huge pressure on healthcare systems,” said Dr Shanquan Chen from Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry, the paper’s first author. “It’s been estimated that delaying the onset of dementia by just five years could reduce its prevalence and economic impact by as much as 40 percent.”

Previous studies have proposed lithium as a potential treatment for those who have already been diagnosed with dementia or early cognitive impairment, but it is unclear whether it can delay or even prevent the development of dementia altogether, as these studies have been limited in size.

Lithium is a mood stabiliser usually prescribed for conditions such as bipolar affective disorder and depression. “Bipolar disorder and depression are considered to put people at increased risk of dementia, so we had to make sure to account for this in our analysis,” said Chen.

Chen and his colleagues analysed data from patients who accessed mental health services from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2019. Patients were all over 50 years of age, received at least a one-year follow-up appointment, and had not been previously diagnosed with either mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

Of the 29,618 patients in the study cohort, 548 patients had been treated with lithium and 29,070 had not. Their mean age was just under 74 years, and approximately 40% of patients were male.

For the group that had received lithium, 53, or 9.7%, were diagnosed with dementia. For the group that had not received lithium, 3,244, or 11.2%, were diagnosed with dementia.

After controlling for factors such as smoking, other medications, and other physical and mental illnesses, lithium use was associated with a lower risk of dementia, both for short and long-term users. However, since the overall number of patients receiving lithium was small and this was an observational study, larger clinical trials would be needed to establish lithium as a potential treatment for dementia.

Another limitation of the study was the number of patients who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is normally associated with an increased risk of dementia. “We expected to find that patients with bipolar disorder were more likely to develop dementia, since that is the most common reason to be prescribed lithium, but our analysis suggested the opposite,” said Chen. “It’s far too early to say for sure, but it’s possible that lithium might reduce the risk of dementia in people with bipolar disorder.”

This paper supports others which have suggested lithium might be helpful in dementia. Further experimental medicine and clinical studies are now needed to see if lithium really is helpful in these conditions.

The research was supported in part by the UK Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference:
Shanquan Chen et al. ‘Association between lithium use and the incidence of dementia and its subtypes: A retrospective cohort study.’ PLoS Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003941