All posts tagged: Diseases and Conditions

£50m UK centre to develop new inflammatory diseases treatments

£50m UK centre to develop new inflammatory diseases treatments

Published by skeptic

The UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is investing up to £50m in a new research centre focused on chronic inflammatory diseases. Led by the University of Birmingham, the centre will bring together scientists, clinicians and patient research partners from the UK and Japan. The new MRC Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Restorative Immunology will investigate why immune-mediated diseases (IMIDs) develop and, crucially, why inflammation persists in some people. Researchers will use this knowledge to develop therapies designed to address the underlying causes of disease rather than simply controlling symptoms. Over a 14-year programme, the researchers aim to develop treatments that restore immune balance and repair damaged tissues. The long-term ambition is to achieve lasting freedom from disease and reduce the need for lifelong medication for people living with debilitating inflammatory conditions. Professor Adam P Croft, Arthritis UK Chair of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology, emphasised the significance of the project: “While remarkable advances have been made in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory …

UC Davis research to investigate wildfire smoke health effects

UC Davis research to investigate wildfire smoke health effects

Published by skeptic

Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) have launched a multidisciplinary programme to investigate how wildfire smoke affects human health. The WE-CAIR initiative, short for Wildfire Exposure: Cardiovascular and Airway Inflammation Research, brings together 22 investigators from across UC Davis and collaborators at UC San Diego School of Medicine. The programme is supported by a five-year $14.05m grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Researchers will examine the biological and social factors that contribute to health decline after wildfire smoke exposure, aiming to identify biomarkers of risk and potential pathways for prevention and treatment. The work comes as exposure to extreme wildfire smoke has risen sharply. Studies estimate that the number of people experiencing at least one day of extreme wildfire smoke exposure each year has increased 27-fold over the past decade. While exposure is known to worsen cardiovascular and pulmonary disease in the short term, longer-term wildfire smoke health effects remain poorly understood. Investigating how wildfire smoke affects health WE-CAIR is built around …

Why the first 24 hours could be critical to survival

Why the first 24 hours could be critical to survival

Published by skeptic

Richard Stead, CEO of Qures, proposes a new approach to sepsis care in Africa designed to give clinicians more time to identify the cause of infection and deliver the treatment most likely to work. Sepsis can move faster than medicine. A critically ill patient can deteriorate from infection to shock, organ dysfunction and death while clinicians are still trying to establish what is wrong, identify the cause and determine which treatment is most likely to work. This presents a particular challenge for sepsis in Africa, where healthcare facilities can face limited laboratory capacity, shortages of critical-care beds, restricted access to oxygen and difficulties transferring patients to specialist centres. The response to sepsis has traditionally focused on recognising infection quickly and starting empirical antimicrobial treatment. That remains essential. But as antimicrobial resistance increases, the first treatment selected may not always be effective, while laboratory testing can take time to establish the organism responsible and its antimicrobial susceptibility. This creates a critical gap. A proposed new funding priority, known as The First 24 Hours of Sepsis, argues …

Hunting down the last cases of sleeping sickness

Hunting down the last cases of sleeping sickness

Published by skeptic

Sleeping sickness once killed tens of thousands of people every year. Now, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, EU-backed researchers are testing a simpler way to find and treat the last remaining cases and eliminate the disease for good. Sleeping sickness has been all but eradicated, but a couple of hundred cases still continue to appear across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the second-largest country in Africa. Missing even a few could allow the disease to flare back to life. To track these cases down, mobile health teams travel from village to village, searching for the last people carrying the parasite. During the 1990s, the insect-borne disease is thought to have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives across western and central Africa. In 1998 alone, over 34 000 cases were reported, but the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the true number of cases to be 10 times higher. Today, after decades of intensive screening, improved surveillance and better treatments, just 471 cases were reported worldwide in 2025, most of them in the DRC. For …

The growing wildfire health risks organisations cannot ignore

The growing wildfire health risks organisations cannot ignore

Published by skeptic

Dr Katherine O’Reilly, Regional Medical Director at International SOS, outlines the growing health risks wildfires pose to workers and why organisations need stronger preparedness measures. This summer, parts of Europe have experienced one of the most severe wildfire seasons on record, against a backdrop of record-breaking temperatures and widespread drought. While the impacts associated with wildfires are often damaged property and evacuations, there is another consequence that needs greater focus: the effects on human health, both short- and long-term. Wildfire health risks are also converging with wider security and operational challenges. According to International SOS’ Risk Outlook 2026, almost half (49%) of organisations say the convergence of health, security, and operational risks has increased over the past year. For organisations, this means wildfire preparedness must extend beyond evacuation and business continuity planning. Understanding and mitigating the direct and indirect health impacts is becoming an increasingly important part of protecting the workforce and fulfilling duty of care. The health threat extends beyond the flames Some of the most widespread health impacts of wildfires are from smoke …

.5m NIH studies probe PFAS link to liver and endometrial cancer

$7.5m NIH studies probe PFAS link to liver and endometrial cancer

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Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have secured $7.5m in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to investigate whether exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contributes to liver cancer and endometrial cancer. The two five-year R01 grants will support studies examining the relationship between exposure to the synthetic chemicals and cancer development. The endometrial cancer project, awarded $4.1m in June 2026, is expected to be the largest prospective study so far to investigate whether PFAS exposure is associated with the disease. Researchers will combine long-term health data and blood samples collected before cancer diagnoses with laboratory experiments. The aim is to determine whether PFAS exposure is linked to cancer risk and identify the biological mechanisms that could explain any association. Investigating PFAS before cancer develops PFAS are a large group of synthetic chemicals used in products including nonstick cookware, stain-resistant textiles and food packaging. Their resistance to degradation means they can persist in the environment and accumulate in the body. The chemicals have been detected …

Organ-on-a-chip technology could eradicate animal testing

Organ-on-a-chip technology could eradicate animal testing

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Researchers at the University of Rochester are developing an organ-on-a-chip platform designed to improve the prediction of dangerous side effects from cancer immunotherapies. The work, led by the university’s Translational Center for Barrier Microphysiological Systems (TraCe-bMPS), aims to provide drug developers with human-based testing tools that could eventually support regulatory submissions to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The team is using tissue chips containing human cells to investigate adverse immune reactions that conventional animal models can struggle to reproduce. The technology combines modular µSiM chips, developed by the Center’s director James McGrath, with integrated sensors developed by Benjamin Miller to measure barrier function and inflammatory signalling in real time. The project has reached an important regulatory milestone after being accepted into the FDA’s Innovative Science and Technology Approaches for New Drugs (ISTAND) programme. The programme is intended to help assess innovative drug development tools for potential regulatory use. If the Rochester platform ultimately achieves FDA qualification, pharmaceutical companies could use its data alongside other evidence when developing and seeking approval for new medicines. …

Seeking a lasting cure for hepatitis B

Seeking a lasting cure for hepatitis B

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For millions of people living with chronic hepatitis B, long term treatment has been the only option. EU funded researchers are joining forces to develop combination therapy that could one day free patients from lifelong medication. Hepatitis B is a chronic infection affecting roughly 254 million people worldwide and causing about 1.1 million deaths each year, mainly from cirrhosis and liver cancer. Although a preventive vaccine has been available for more than 40 years, there is still no cure for people already living with the disease. Current antiviral medicines can suppress the virus, but cannot eliminate it. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), around 3.6 million people in the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are chronically infected with hepatitis B. Many do not realise they are infected until serious liver damage has already occurred, leaving them on lifelong treatment. “People think we have solved the problem because we have a preventive vaccine. But for the millions already living with chronic hepatitis B, that is simply not true,” said Professor …

Early PFAS exposure linked to increased intestinal inflammation in children

Early PFAS exposure linked to increased intestinal inflammation in children

Published by skeptic

New research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has found that exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during pregnancy and early childhood is associated with higher levels of intestinal inflammation in childhood later in life. The study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, tracked children from three birth cohorts in the United States and Mexico for up to 11 years. Researchers found that higher exposure to PFAS before and shortly after birth was consistently linked to elevated levels of faecal calprotectin, a recognised biomarker of intestinal inflammation. The findings suggest that environmental exposure during critical stages of development could influence long-term gut health and potentially increase susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). While the study does not prove PFAS cause IBD, it strengthens evidence that early-life exposure may play a role in disease development. Researchers analysed PFAS exposure before birth PFAS, often referred to as “forever chemicals,” are widely used in consumer and industrial products including non-stick cookware, food packaging, stain-resistant textiles, and firefighting foams. Their resistance to degradation allows them …

NHS-backed AI screening tool to accelerate heart failure diagnosis

NHS-backed AI screening tool to accelerate heart failure diagnosis

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Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust have secured £1.3m in funding to advance a new AI system designed to improve the detection of heart failure. The technology, known as the Intelligent Heart Evaluation Framework (iHeF), aims to help clinicians identify patients at risk earlier while reducing pressure on NHS diagnostic services. The funding, awarded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation programme, will support further testing and development of the AI screening platform. Researchers will use the investment to gather evidence needed for regulatory approval and evaluate how the technology can be integrated into routine NHS care. If successful, the project could significantly reduce waiting times for heart failure assessments, lower healthcare costs, and improve patient outcomes by prioritising those who require urgent investigation and treatment. The research team expects the technology could be ready for clinical use by the end of 2028. Tackling a growing heart failure challenge Heart failure affects more than one million people across the UK, yet hundreds of …