Topic description and stories

Combating infectious diseases and the threat of antimicrobial resistance remains one of the greatest global challenges.

Patient receives Covid-19 vaccine

Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant were more likely to be admitted to hospital compared to patients with Alpha variant

31 Aug 2021

Largest study to date analysing more than 40,000 COVID-19 cases finds a two-fold increased risk of hospitalisation from delta versus alpha variant...

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Mink farm

Farmed carnivores may become ‘disease reservoirs’ posing human health risk

24 Aug 2021

Carnivorous animals lack key genes needed to detect and respond to infection by pathogens, a study has found.

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The virologist helping us to stay one step ahead of infectious diseases

10 Aug 2021

An established virologist specialising in the field of HIV drug-resistance, Ravi Gupta pivoted his expertise to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Over...

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Llamas

Llama ‘nanobodies’ could hold key to preventing deadly post-transplant infection

22 Jul 2021

Scientists have developed a ‘nanobody’ – a small fragment of a llama antibody – that is capable of chasing out human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) as it...

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Tired looking woman

Biological ‘fingerprints’ of long COVID in blood could lead to diagnostic test, say Cambridge scientists

19 Jul 2021

Markers in our blood – ‘fingerprints’ of infection – could help identify individuals who have been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that...

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Man walking past Stay Alert/Save Lives artwork

Key mutations in Alpha variant enable SARS-CoV-2 to overcome evolutionary weak points

29 Jun 2021

One of the key mutations seen in the ‘Alpha variant’ of SARS-CoV-2 – the deletion of two amino acids, H69/V70 – enables the virus to overcome cracks...

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Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 (orange) emerging from the surface of cells (green) cultured in the lab.

Targeting cellular response to SARS-CoV-2 holds promise as new way to fight infection

17 Jun 2021

A new treatment approach focused on fixing cell damage, rather than fighting the virus directly, is effective against SARS-CoV-2 in lab models. If...

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Participants at London's annual LGBT Pride march

England on track to achieve elimination of HIV transmission by 2030 as model shows sharp decrease in HIV incidence

10 Jun 2021

The annual number of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men in England is likely to have fallen dramatically, from 2,770 in 2013 to 854...

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River mussel

Conservationists may be unintentionally spreading pathogens between threatened animal populations

12 Apr 2021

Moving endangered species to new locations is often used as part of species conservation strategies, and can help to restore degraded ecosystems. But...

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Man putting on a facemask

Widespread use of control measures such as facemasks is vital to suppress the pandemic as lockdown lifts, say scientists

31 Mar 2021

A new mathematical model suggests that the easing of lockdown must be accompanied by wider and more effective use of control measures such as...

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Hunting for COVID-19 variants

22 Mar 2021

Professor Sharon Peacock explains the story behind the UK's world-leading SARS-CoV-2 genomics capability.

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Horse

Study highlights ‘unbridled globetrotting’ of the strangles pathogen in horses

09 Mar 2021

In the largest ever study of its kind into an equine pathogen, scientists in 18 countries used the latest DNA sequencing techniques to track the...

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