sciences research council

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) A new research initiative launched Feb. 9 aims to bring academic researchers together with industry in order to deliver bigger yields of better quality fruits and vegetables for the consumer through more sustainable farming practices.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have shown one way in which poor nutrition in the womb can put a person at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and other age-related diseases in later life.

This finding could lead to new ways of identifying people who are at a higher risk of developing these diseases and might open up targets for treatment.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Researchers have made a discovery, reported this July 24 in Nature, that explains how an organism can create a biological memory of some variable condition, such as quality of nutrition or temperature.

The discovery explains the mechanism of this memory -- a sort of biological switch -- and how it can also be inherited by offspring.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Researchers have discovered that the ultraviolet (UV) light that causes the temporary but painful condition of snow blindness in humans is life-saving for reindeer in the Arctic.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Scientists have published results that will forever change the way researchers view the interplay between gene expression, DNA replication and the prevention of DNA damage.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Professor Fiona Watt will today give the Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science meeting and will detail a new approach to screening for drugs that target stem cells.

To begin with, this is being developed for adult skin stem cells, giving hope for new drugs to promote wound healing and aid the use of stem cells to, for example, treat severe burns.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) New research being presented today at the UK National Stem Cell Network Annual Science Meeting in Nottingham shows that adding fat to mouse stem cells grown in the lab affects their response to the signals that push them to develop into one or other of the main types of fat storage cells -- subcutaneous (under the skin) or visceral (around the organs).

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) New research published today, June 17, in the journal Current Biology shows that malaria is tens of thousands of years older than previously thought.

This has the potential to inform new control strategies for the disease. Using DNA techniques scientists have found that the potentially deadly tropical disease evolved alongside anatomically modern humans and moved with our ancestors as they migrated out of Africa around 60-80,000 years ago.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) A promising cancer drug, first discovered in a mushroom commonly used in Chinese medicine, could be made more effective thanks to researchers who have discovered how the drug works.

The research is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and was carried out at The University of Nottingham.

(Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) The UK leads the world when it comes to investment in energy efficient technologies research, but Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Chief Executive Dave Delpy believes that more is needed: "Scientific and engineering research has already brought us fuel cells, marine, wind and solar power solutions, but more investment is needed to develop the capabilities of different solutions if we are to meet our carbon emission targets by 2020 and limit the impact of climate change."