Category: Research in Edinburgh

With so many contradicting headlines declaring the devastating health effects of coffee or its limitless health benefits, it can all get very confusing. Fortunately, there is now enough data  available for us to begin unpicking the truth. That is what researchers from the universities of Southampton and Edinburgh have set out to do. They have…

University of Edinburgh researchers have set out to create a treatment for the Western world’s most common cause of irreversible blindness – and has just raised $42.5m in venture capital funding to help them reach this goal. University of Edinburgh’s Professor Paul Barlow and Dr Andy Herbert are scientific founders of Gemini therapeutics, based in…

Myself and a large majority of my friends are scientists. We trust in scientific consensus: we believe that climate change is man-made, that genetic modification has potential and that vaccines save lives. It is easy, as scientists, to forget that not everyone agrees and to believe that if only the topics were properly explained, anyone…

As we age, the brain coordinates the responses of thousands of cells to new psychological and social stimuli. This coordination becomes particularly relevant when considering psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Until a few years ago, the onset of schizophrenia was thought to be due to environmental stress or damage. But many studies have now shown…

Spent nuclear fuel must be treated and managed safely and securely to ensure that it poses no risk to people or the environment, now or in the future. But what’s the best way to do this? A research group under the supervision of Professor Andy Mount (based at King’s Buildings, Edinburgh) are investigating the fabrication…

Several diseases within the autistic spectrum are often linked to genetic mutations that affect protein synthesis in neurons. An example of this type of disease , affecting as many as 1 in 4000 males and 1 in 6000 females in the UK alone, is the so called fragile X syndrome. Mutations in the FMR1 gene,…

As concerns regarding climate change and finite fossil fuel deposits continue to mount, renewable energy is becoming increasingly important in the modern world. We are very familiar with the massive wind turbines and wave energy machines that harness energy, both above and below the water’s surface. Their scale can be awe-inspiring, as can the costs…

Professor Neil Mabbott and his group at the Roslin Institute have contradicted data that was originally published more than 20 years ago by showing that the progression of the prion diseases is not influenced by the composition of the mammalian microbiota. The prion diseases are a group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases that affect humans and…