Category: Newcastle University
Almost half of UK women could be suffering from a lack of vitamin A due to a previously undiscovered genetic variation, scientists at Newcastle University have found.
The team, led by Dr Georg Lietz, has shown that almost 50 per cent of women have a genetic variation which reduces their ability to produce sufficient amounts of vitamin A from beta-carotene.
Houses on stilts, small scale energy generation and recycling our dishwater are just some of the measures that are being proposed to prepare our cities for the effects of global warming.
Analysis of a rock type found only in the world's oldest oceans has shed new light on how large animals first got a foothold on the Earth.
Computer scientists at Newcastle University are about to give office workers a perfect excuse to play games: it's all in the name of research.
Dr Jeff Yan, together with his PhD student Su-Yang Yu, has created 'Magic Bullet' as an effective solution to a problem which no known computer algorithm can yet solve.
Human sperm have been created using embryonic stem cells for the first time in a scientific development which will lead researchers to a better understanding of the causes of infertility.
Four of the biologists who described the underlying causes of aging will soon share their findings with an international audience during a symposium at the upcoming World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics, taking place from July 5-9, 2009, in Paris, France.
A blood-pressure medicine has been shown to reverse the effects of early-stage liver failure in some patients.
Newcastle University researchers analysed a small clinical trial of losartan, a drug normally prescribed for hypertension, on 14 patients in Spain, who had Hepatitis C.
Chicago (June 1, 2009) ? The International Serious Adverse Events Consortium (SAEC) announced today initial results from its research designed to discover genetic markers that may predict individuals at risk for serious drug induced liver injury (DILI).
A new mathematical formula that could be used to give advance warning of where a tsunami is likely to hit and how destructive it will be has been worked out by scientists at Newcastle University.
More than 250 new examples of England's finest array of prehistoric rock art carvings, sited close to the Scottish border, have been discovered by archaeologists compiling a unique database. Now over one thousand of the 'cup and ring' carvings can be admired on a new website, which carries 6,000 images and is said to be the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. The site, which goes live today, includes the 250 panels unearthed during a two-and-a-half year trawl of some of England's remotest countryside, in the expansive moorlands of Northumberland.
Results of laboratory tests by a team from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne found that green and black tea inhibit the activity of certain enzymes in the brain which are associated with memory. The findings, which are published in the academic journal, Phytotherapy Research, may lead to the development of a new treatment for a form of dementia which affects an estimated ten million people worldwide, Alzheimer's Disease.
Dental experts have developed a new sedation procedure which could relieve pressure on hospitals and allow patients to avoid potentially risky general anaesthetics. Clinical trials on more than 600 children with extreme dental problems who would usually attend hospital for a general anaesthetic for dental treatment, found the new procedure was completely successful in 93 per cent of cases. The results showed that giving patients a sedative known as midazolam and a measured amount of two gases with normal local anaesthetic was a viable alternative to a GA for dental procedures.
A special licensing committee of the UK Human Fertilization & Embryology Authority (HFEA) met on June 16 in London to decide whether to grant a license to scientists at The Center for Life at Newcastle University. If approved, this will be the first license to begin research involving cell nuclear replacement (therapeutic cloning), focusing on the treatment of diabetes in the UK and will be a first in Europe.
Archaeologists have found a trio of extraordinary stone carvings while charting the phenomenon of prehistoric rock markings in Northumberland, close to the Scottish border in the United Kingdom. Records and examples of over 950 prehistoric rock art panels exist in Northumberland, which are of the traditional 'cup and ring' variety, with a typical specimen featuring a series of cups and concentric circles pecked into sandstone outcrops and boulders. However, archaeologists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who are studying prehistoric rock carvings, are baffled by three unusual markings found carved into rocks at separate locations.
A hoard of Roman coins discovered by metal-detecting enthusiasts on a farm near Longhorsley, Northumberland, could be evidence that entrepreneurial native Northumbrian settlers were recycling old bronze coins and making trinkets to sell back to soldiers in the Roman army, according to experts. The hoard of 70 Roman coins ? 61 sesterii and 9 dupondii ? dates from the reign of the Emperors Vespasian to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (AD69-180 ? a period when the Antonine Wall, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and not Hadrian's Wall, marked the frontier of the Roman Empire, and for a short period, Northumberland, which had until then been barbarian territory, became part of the Roman Empire.
