̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto

Climate action scholarships for small island nation students launched in partnership with HRH ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales

sb726 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:17 +0000

̽��ֱ��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 ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales, Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� 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. “ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� 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. ̽��ֱ��launch of these new scholarships, in partnership with HRH ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales, who has long been a champion of environmental causes, is an extension of our ongoing commitment.

“ ̽��ֱ��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. ̽��ֱ��alumni of the programme will form a cohort of talented people who will become future leaders and ambassadors in sustainability.”

̽��ֱ��programme will see scholarships provided at the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto, the ̽��ֱ�� of Melbourne, McMaster ̽��ֱ�� and the ̽��ֱ�� of Montreal, which along with the ̽��ֱ�� 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 ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales Commonwealth Scholarships’ over the next two years, with the first recipients expected to take up their places at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in October 2022.

̽��ֱ��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 ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. His Royal Highness ̽��ֱ��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 ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales’ 70th birthday, the Cambridge Trust launched a programme of His Royal Highness ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales Scholarships. ̽��ֱ��scholarships funded ̽��ֱ�� 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.

̽��ֱ��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 ̽��ֱ��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 ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge
•   studying at postgraduate level for a Masters degree or PhD;
•   pursuing courses in subjects that engage with sustainability and climate change

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

For more information, contact the Cambridge Trust

Students from small island nations will be supported in their work to address climate change through new scholarships inspired by His Royal Highness ̽��ֱ��Prince of Wales and announced today by the Universities of Cambridge, Toronto, Melbourne, McMaster and Montreal.

̽��ֱ��alumni of the programme will form a cohort of talented people who will become future leaders and ambassadors in sustainability.

Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

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Cambridge attends U7+ Alliance global summit of Universities

plc32 — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 10:37:35 +0000

̽��ֱ��U7+ summit brought together 47 universities from G7 countries and beyond, who are committed to academic freedom and scholarly values and convinced of the key role of universities as global actors, to engage in discussions leading to concrete action to address pressing global challenges.

Professor Ferran was invited by U7+ Alliance organisers Sciences Po to be one of five ̽��ֱ�� presidents and representatives to carry conclusions from their discussion groups to a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who sponsored the summit as part of his preparations for the G7 summit in Paris later this year.

"It was a great honour for Cambridge to be invited to summarise some very stimulating discussions on how universities can help to confront the global challenges facing us all for a leader with an important voice at the G7," Ferran said.

̽��ֱ��summit provided a unique opportunity to discuss a common agenda and establish a framework for action in today’s global landscape, resulting in a 2019 Presidential Declaration, which included a mission statement and the adoption of six agreed principles.

̽��ֱ��principles included commitments to pursue joint action through the U7+, recognition of the responsibility to train and nurture responsible and active citizens, to address environmental challenges, to combat polarisation in society, to promote interdisciplinary research, and to consolidate and share best practices worldwide.

"It was inspiring to hear from so many other ̽��ֱ�� leaders who share Cambridge's determination to tackle the great challenges that lie before us in the 21st century," Ferran said. "We can all clearly see that collaboration is vital if we are to mitigate threats to humanity such as climate change and to ensure that rapid technological change works for the benefit of society."

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Relations Eilis Ferran attended the inaugural two-day Paris summit of the U7+ Alliance of universities from 18 countries across the globe this week.

It was inspiring to hear from so many other ̽��ֱ�� leaders who share Cambridge's determination to tackle the great challenges that lie before us in the 21st century

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Eilis Ferran

U7+ Alliance of world universities

Yes

Positive teacher-student relationships boost good behaviour in teenagers for up to four years

fpjl2 — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 09:15:32 +0000

A new study has found that having a positive relationship with a teacher around the age of 10-11 years old can markedly influence the development of ‘prosocial’ behaviours such as cooperation and altruism, as well as significantly reduce problem classroom behaviours such as aggression and oppositional behaviour.

̽��ֱ��research also found that beneficial behaviours resulting from a positive teacher-student relationship when a child is on the cusp of adolescence lingered for up to four years – well into the difficult teenage years.

Researchers found that students with a more positive relationship with their teacher displayed towards peers, on average, 18% more prosocial behaviour (and 10% more up to two years later), and up to 38% less aggressive behaviour (and 9% less up to four years later), over students who felt ambivalent or negative toward their teacher.

Positivity toward their teacher also resulted in students displaying an average of 56% less ‘oppositional defiant’ behaviour: such as argumentativeness and vindictiveness toward authority figures. This was still reduced by 22% up to three years later.

In fact, the researchers found the beneficial effect on behaviour was as strong, if not stronger, than that of established school-based ‘intervention programmes’ such as counselling and other anti-bullying therapies.

̽��ֱ��importance of good teacher relationships on infant behaviour was already known, and programmes have been designed to help preschool teachers improve relationships with pupils, which in turn improves pupil behaviour.

Researchers say the latest results suggest that developing similar programmes for those who teach students in early adolescence has the potential to promote better classroom behaviour in schools that may otherwise rely more on exclusionary practises – such as detentions, or being sent out of class – to manage student behaviour.

“Teachers play an important role in the development of children. Students who feel supported tend to be less aggressive and more prosocial, and we now have evidence that this is the case from preschool right through to adolescence,” said the study’s lead author Dr Ingrid Obsuth.

“Educational and school policies should take this into consideration when supporting teachers in fostering their relationships with students,” she said.

̽��ֱ��research was conducted by members of the Violence Research Centre at Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology, along with colleagues from ETH Zurich and the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto. ̽��ֱ��findings are published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

̽��ֱ��researchers analysed data from eight ‘waves’ of a major longitudinal study of culturally-diverse Swiss youth being schooled across Zurich. ̽��ֱ��latest study involved 1,067 students randomly sampled across 56 of the city’s schools.

Only students who experienced a change of teacher between ages 9 and 10 were used for the study, with data gathered from teachers, students and their parents on an annual and later biannual basis.

Using the multitude of data from interviews and surveys across the years*, the research team used an innovative statistical technique that enabled them to ‘score’ the children on over 100 different characteristics or experiences that could potentially account for good or bad behaviour – from background to past behaviour, parenting to student and teacher genders.

They then matched students in pairs with highly similar scores in all respects except one: how they felt about their teacher, and how the teacher felt about them. This allowed researchers to emulate a ‘randomised-controlled trial’ – the most rigorous way of establishing causal links. ̽��ֱ��only difference between the students in each pair was that one had the ‘treatment’ of a positive relationship with their teacher, and the other, the ‘control’, did not.

While the researchers approached data collection from both sides of the teacher-student relationship, they say that it is how the student perceives the relationship that is most important for behaviour. Students who saw themselves as having a more positive relationship with their teacher engaged in fewer aggressive behaviours right up to age 15.

Cambridge’s Prof Manuel Eisner, senior author on the study, said: “Most adults remember some teachers that they admired and that fit their learning needs, and others that they felt hard done-by. This is not necessarily only because they have more or less supportive teachers. Each child will respond differently to a teacher's style and personality. Our study shows that once a child develops an impression of a teacher, one way or the other, it can have significant long-term effects on their behaviour.”

“While this is the first study to look at the effect of teacher-student relationships on adolescents, our findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that bonds with prosocial others – whether peers, teachers or institutions – are a protective factor against children engaging in problem behaviours,” he said.

Added Obsuth: “Ideally, building healthy and supportive teacher-student relationships would become part of the curriculum in teacher training and intervention programmes as a way of improving adolescent well-being.”

̽��ֱ��first study to look at the impact of the relationship with teachers on adolescent behaviour finds that a positive teacher-student relationship can be as effective as anti-bullying programmes at improving wellbeing in young people.

Ideally, building healthy and supportive teacher-student relationships would become part of the curriculum in teacher training and intervention programmes as a way of improving adolescent well-being

Ingrid Obsuth

Sir James

Teenagers in Oslo, Norway

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Planets similar to Jupiter are likely able to form on orbits shorter than the Earth’s

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 13:48:18 +0000

Warm Jupiters are large, gas-giant exoplanets—planets found around stars other than the Sun. They are comparable in size to Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System. But unlike the Sun’s family of giant planets, Warm Jupiters orbit their parent stars at roughly the same distance that Mercury, Venus and the Earth circle the Sun. They take ten to two hundred days to complete a single orbit instead of decades. Their origin is heavily debated topic of research.

It is generally thought that Warm Jupiters cannot form on the orbits that we find them on today; they are too close to their parent stars to have accumulated enough mass, and sufficient gas. Instead, it appeared more likely that they had formed in the outer reaches of their planetary systems and had migrated inward to their current positions. However such a migratory history would also leave a trace. ̽��ֱ��large gravity of any migrating Warm Jupiter would have disturbed any neighbouring or companion planets, ejecting them from the system.

But, instead of finding “lonely”, companion-less Warm Jupiters, the team found that 11 of the 27 targets they studied have companions ranging in size from Earth-like to Neptune-like.

̽��ֱ��team’s analysis, published this week in the Astrophysical Journal, demonstrates the existence of two distinct types of warm Jupiters, each with their own formation and dynamical history.

̽��ֱ��two types include those that have smaller planetary companions and thus, likely formed near to where we find them today; and warm Jupiters without any companions indicating that they likely migrated to their current positions.

̽��ֱ��presence of many smaller sized planetary companions to warm Jupiters provides our strongest evidence that planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn can assemble on orbits shorter than the Earth’s. “And when we take into account that there is more analysis to come,” says lead-author Chelsea Huang, “the number of Warm Jupiters with smaller neighbours may be even higher. We may find that more than half have companions.”

This result came as a “surprise” according to Amaury Triaud, now a research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy, in Cambridge. “Before starting this study, we had not anticipated this remarkable result. This challenges our ideas about which conditions are sufficient for the formation of planets. It reinforces the view that planets form in richer and more diverse ways than what can be glimpsed from the sole study of the Solar system planets.”

Reference

Huang, C et al. Warm Jupiters are less lonely than Hot Jupiters: close neighbors. Astrophysical Journal; 6 July 2016; DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/98

Based on a press release prepared by the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto.

After analyzing four years of Kepler space telescope observations, astronomers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto, and of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have given us our clearest understanding yet of a class of exoplanets called “warm Jupiters”, showing that many have unexpected planetary companions.

We had not anticipated this remarkable result. This challenges our ideas about which conditions are sufficient for the formation of planets.

Amaury Triaud

Detlev Van Ravenswaay/Science Photo Library

An artist’s portrayal of a Warm Jupiter gas-giant planet (r.) in orbit around its parent star, along with smaller companion planets.

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Newly-discovered ‘ring of teeth’ helps determine what common ancestor of moulting animals looked like

sc604 — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:00:29 +0000

A new study of an otherworldly creature from half a billion years ago – a worm-like animal with legs, spikes and a head difficult to distinguish from its tail – has definitively identified its head for the first time, and revealed a previously unknown ring of teeth and a pair of simple eyes. ̽��ֱ��results, published today in the journal Nature, have helped scientists reconstruct what the common ancestor of everything from tiny roundworms to huge lobsters might have looked like.

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the Royal Ontario Museum and the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto have found that the creature, known as Hallucigenia due to its strange appearance, had a throat lined with needle-like teeth, a previously unidentified feature which could help connect the dots between it, modern velvet worms and arthropods – the group which contains modern insects, spiders and crustaceans.

Arthropods, velvet worms (onychophorans) and water bears (tardigrades) all belong to the massive group of animals that moult, known as ecdysozoans. Though Hallucigenia is not the common ancestor of all ecdysozoans, it is a precursor to velvet worms. Finding this mouth arrangement in Hallucigenia helped scientists determine that velvet worms originally had the same configuration – but it was eventually lost through evolution.

“ ̽��ֱ��early evolutionary history of this huge group is pretty much uncharted,” said Dr Martin Smith, a postdoctoral researcher in Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, and the paper’s lead author. “While we know that the animals in this group are united by the fact that they moult, we haven’t been able to find many physical characteristics that unite them.”

“It turns out that the ancestors of moulting animals were much more anatomically advanced than we ever could have imagined: ring-like, plate-bearing worms with an armoured throat and a mouth surrounded by spines,” said Dr Jean-Bernard Caron, Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum and Associate Professor in the Departments of Earth Sciences and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto. “We previously thought that neither velvet worms nor their ancestors had teeth. But Hallucigenia tells us that actually, velvet worm ancestors had them, and living forms just lost their teeth over time.”

Hallucigenia was just one of the weird creatures that lived during the Cambrian Explosion, a period of rapid evolutionary development starting about half a billion years ago, when most major animal groups first emerge in the fossil record.

At first, Hallucigenia threw palaeontologists for a bit of a loop. When it was identified in the 1970s, it was reconstructed both backwards and upside down: the spines along its back were originally thought to be legs, its legs were thought to be tentacles along its back, and its head was mistaken for its tail.

Right side up and right way round, Hallucigenia still looks pretty strange: it had pairs of lengthy spines along its back, seven pairs of legs ending in claws, and three pairs of tentacles along its neck. ̽��ֱ��animals were between 10 and 50 millimetres in length and lived on the floor of the Cambrian oceans.

More significantly, Hallucigenia’s unearthly appearance has made it difficult to link it to modern animal groups and to find its home in the Tree of Life. In 2014, research from Cambridge partially solved this problem by studying the structure of Hallucigenia’s claws, which helped definitively link it to modern velvet worms.

In the new work, researchers used electron microscopy to examine fossils from the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, definitively sorting Hallucigenia’s front from back, and making some surprising observations.

“Prior to our study there was still some uncertainty as to which end of the animal represented the head, and which the tail,” said Smith. “A large balloon-like orb at one end of the specimen was originally thought to be the head, but we can now demonstrate that this actually wasn’t part of the body at all, but a dark stain representing decay fluids or gut contents that oozed out as the animal was flattened during burial.”

Identifying this end as the tail led Caron to revisit the fossils and dig away the sediment that was covering the head: the animals died as they were buried in a mudslide, and their floppy head often ended up pointing down into the mud. “This let us get the new images of the head,” said Caron. “When we put the fossils in the electron microscope, we were initially hoping that we might find eyes, and were astonished when we also found the teeth smiling back at us!”

̽��ֱ��new images show an elongated head with a pair of simple eyes, which sat above a mouth with a ring of teeth. In addition, Hallucigenia’s throat was lined with needle-shaped teeth. ̽��ֱ��fossils originated in the Burgess Shale of Yoho National Park in western Canada, one of the world’s richest sources of fossils from the Cambrian period.

̽��ֱ��ring of teeth that surrounded Hallucigenia’s mouth probably helped to generate suction, flexing in and out, like a valve or a plunger, in order to suck its food into its throat. ̽��ֱ��researchers speculate that the teeth in the throat worked like a ratchet, keeping food from slipping out of the mouth each time it took another ‘suck’ at its food.

“These teeth resemble those we see in many early moulting animals, suggesting that a tooth-lined throat was present in a common ancestor,” said Caron. “So where previously there was little reason to think that arthropod mouths had much in common with the mouths of animals such as penis worms, Hallucigenia tells us that arthropods and velvet worms did ancestrally have round-the-mouth plates and down-the-throat teeth – they just lost or simplified them later.”

̽��ֱ��material for this study was collected between 1992 and 2000 and represents more than 165 additional Hallucigenia specimens – including many rare orientations and well-preserved specimens.

Parks Canada, which holds jurisdiction over the Burgess Shale sites located in Yoho and Kootenay national parks, is thrilled by this discovery and eager to share this exciting new piece of the ever-unfolding Burgess Shale story with their visitors.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by Clare College, Cambridge, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Royal Ontario Museum.

A new analysis of one of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever discovered has definitively sorted its head from its tail, and turned up a previously unknown ring of teeth, which could help answer some of the questions around the early development of moulting animals.

̽��ֱ��early evolutionary history of this huge group is pretty much uncharted

Martin Smith

Left: Jean-Bernard Caron Right: Danielle Dufault

Left: Hallucigenia sparsa from the Burgess Shale (Royal Ontario Museum 61513) ̽��ֱ��fossil is 15 mm long. Right: Colour reconstruction of Hallucigenia sparsa.

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New fossil find pinpoints the origin of jaws in vertebrates

sc604 — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 17:00:00 +0000

A key piece in the puzzle of the evolution of vertebrates has been identified, after the discovery of fossilised fish specimens, dating from the Cambrian period (around 505 million years old), in the Canadian Rockies. ̽��ֱ��fish, known as Metaspriggina, shows pairs of exceptionally well-preserved arches near the front of its body. ̽��ֱ��first of these pairs, closest to the head, eventually led to the evolution of jaws in vertebrates, the first time this feature has been seen so early in the fossil record.

Fish fossils from the Cambrian period are very rare and usually poorly preserved. This new discovery shows in unprecedented detail how some of the earliest vertebrates developed – the starting point of a story which led to animals such as later fish species, but also dinosaurs and mammals such as horses and even ourselves. ̽��ֱ��findings are published in the 11 June edition of the journal Nature.

Fossils of Metaspriggina were recovered from several locations including the Burgess Shale site in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, one of the richest Cambrian fossil deposits in the world. These fossils shed new light on the Cambrian ‘explosion’, a period of rapid evolution starting around 540 million years ago, when most major animal phyla originated.

Previously, only two incomplete specimens of Metaspriggina had been identified. During expeditions conducted by the Royal Ontario Museum in 2012, 44 new Burgess Shale fossils were collected near Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, which provide the basis for this study. Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Royal Ontario Museum/ ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto used these fossils, along with several more specimens from the eastern United States, to reclassify Metaspriggina as one of the first vertebrates.

̽��ֱ��fossils, which date from 505 million years ago, also show clearly for the first time how a series of rod-like structures, known as the gill or branchial arches, were arranged in the earliest vertebrates. These arches have long been known to have played a key role in the evolution of vertebrates, including the origin of jaws, and some of the tiny bones in the ear which transmit sound in mammals. Until now, however, a lack of quality fossils has meant that the arrangement of these arches in the first vertebrates had been hypothetical.

Vertebrates first appear in the fossil record slightly earlier than these finds, but pinpointing exactly how they developed is difficult. This is because fossils of such animals are rare, incomplete and open to varying interpretations, as they show soft tissues which are difficult to identify with complete certainty.

̽��ֱ��new fossils of Metaspriggina are remarkably well-preserved. ̽��ֱ��arrangement of the muscles shows these fish were active swimmers, not unlike a trout, and the animals saw the world through a pair of large eyes and sensed their surrounding environment with nasal structures.

“ ̽��ֱ��detail in this Metaspriggina fossil is stunning,” said lead author Professor Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “Even the eyes are beautifully preserved and clearly evident.”

But it is the branchial arches which makes this discovery so important. Previously, they were thought to exist as a series of single arches, but Metaspriggina now shows that they in fact existed in pairs. ̽��ֱ��anteriormost pair of arches is also slightly thicker than the remainder, and this subtle distinction may be the very first step in an evolutionary transformation that in due course led to the appearance of the jaw. “Once the jaws have developed, the whole world opens,” said Professor Conway Morris. “Having a hypothetical model swim into the fossil record like this is incredibly gratifying.”

“Obviously jawed fish came later, but this is like a starting post – everything is there and ready to go,” said the paper’s co-author Dr Jean-Bernard Caron, Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum and and associate professor in the Departments of Earth Sciences and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto. “Not only is this a major new discovery, one that will play a key role in understanding our own origins, but Marble Canyon, the new Burgess Shale locality itself has fantastic potential for revealing key insights into the early evolution of many other animal groups during this crucial time in the history of life.”

David Wilks, Member of Canadian Parliament for Kootenay-Columbia, noted, “ ̽��ֱ��Government of Canada is excited about this incredible fossil find. As an international leader in conservation and steward of the Burgess Shale, Parks Canada is pleased to provide its research partners with access to the fossils. Their remarkable discoveries inform the work we do to share this rich natural history through our popular guided hikes, and to protect this important Canadian heritage in a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site.”

A major fossil discovery in Canada sheds new light on the development of the earliest vertebrates, including the origin of jaws, the first time this feature has been seen so early in the fossil record

Having a hypothetical model swim into the fossil record like this is incredibly gratifying

Simon Conway Morris

Left: Illustration of Metaspriggina swimming. Right: Fossil of Metaspriggina from Marble Canyon – head to the left with two eyes, and branchial arches at the top.

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New funding to untangle Alzheimer’s disease

bjb42 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:24:18 +0000

Funding from the Wellcome Trust (WT) and Medical Research Council (MRC) has been announced for a £5 million research programme on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��programme, which is led by Professor Peter St George-Hyslop in the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, is a major collaborative effort involving 15 scientists from seven research departments across Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��programme also involves scientists from the ̽��ֱ�� of Bristol, the Max Planck Centre for Structural Molecular Biology in Germany and the ̽��ֱ�� of Toronto in Canada.

AD is an increasingly common neurodegenerative disease of the brain that affects individuals in mid-to-late life, impairing intellectual function and memory. ̽��ֱ��disease, which is incurable, results when certain proteins in the brain become misfolded and form tangled masses that are toxic. ̽��ֱ��resulting progressive loss of cells in the brain gradually incapacitates patients for up to a decade before death. ̽��ֱ��incidence of AD is on the increase as populations live longer: in the UK, 700,000 people currently live with dementia, half of whom have AD; in 30 years' time, the estimates are that this number will have hit 1.4 million and be costing the UK economy £50 billion per year.

Professor St George-Hyslop explained the unique challenge the disease poses: ‘Although AD has been known about for over a century, it’s such a complex disease that attempts to understand the underlying mechanism using conventional tools have yielded confusing and conflicting answers. As a consequence, there is currently no drug that can halt its progression.’

To plug the gaps in knowledge, the interdisciplinary research programme builds on a collaboration that has been growing for several years in Cambridge, as co-investigator Professor Chris Dobson from the Department of Chemistry explained: ‘A fascination with how the fundamental molecular events that underlie AD relate to what is happening in living systems has brought together a group of people with interests that range from theory to therapy.’ ̽��ֱ��consortium pulls in expertise from biochemistry, genetics, clinical neuroscience, medical genetics, chemistry, chemical engineering, neurophysiology, physics, biophysics and pathology.

̽��ֱ��programme aims to lay the basis for both the development of biological markers to detect disease at an early stage, before widespread damage has occurred, and the creation of effective therapeutics. ‘Already, the consortium is working well. ̽��ֱ��atmosphere takes alight as people throw in ideas about novel experimental approaches using tools from both physical and life sciences that would not have been possible until very recently,’ said Professor St George-Hyslop.

Professor Patrick Sissons, Head of the School of Clinical Medicine and Regius Professor of Physic, added: ‘This initiative exemplifies the power of collaboration between internationally leading investigators who can look beyond their individual spheres, and work at the boundaries of traditional disciplines to bring new insight to a notoriously complicated disease.’

For more information, please contact Professor St George-Hyslop (phs22@cam.ac.uk).

A major new drive to understand, diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s disease has begun in Cambridge.

Credt: orphicpixel from flickr

Tangled rope

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