Latest University of Nottingham Stories
Researchers at The University of Nottingham are hoping to find out if inflammation of the knee could be an early sign of osteoarthritis "” a condition which leads to pain, stiffness, swelling and disability.Up to six million people in the UK suffer from osteoarthritis in the knee. Now 200 patients, over the age of 55, from GP practices across Nottingham are to take part in a study led by research physiotherapist Michelle Hall in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy.Mrs...
When the lunar module took off from the surface of the moon 40 years ago Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were relying on 4 cubic tons of N2O4 "” one of the most important rocket propellants ever developed "” to return them to lunar orbit and rendezvous with the Apollo Command and Service Module.It was a short but crucial journey for the men involved "” and it had its origins in PhD research carried out at The University of Nottingham 20 years earlier.By 1969 Nottingham was already well...
A microscopic single-celled organism, adapted to survive in some of the harshest environments on earth, could help scientists gain a better understanding of how cancer cells behave.Experts at The University of Nottingham were astonished to discover that the archaeon Haloferax volcanii was better at repairing DNA damage if enzymes, that are widely considered to be critically important in coordinating the repair of DNA, were mutated.Dr Thorsten Allers, from the Institute of Genetics, said:...
Drifting across the world's oceans are a group of unicellular marine microorganisms that are not only a crucial source of food for other marine life "” but their fossils, which are found in abundance, provide scientists with an extraordinary record of climatic change and other major events in the history of the earth. Now, planktonic foraminifera "” single-celled shell building members of the marine microplankton community "” have given up a secret of their very own.A team of experts,...
They are a group of drugs which millions of people rely on to keep pain at bay but they can have unwanted side-effects which are sometimes more serious than the original health problem. Now scientists at The University of Nottingham are taking part in the largest-ever study on the safety of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS) that has ever been performed. The project is called SOS (Safety Of non-Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and will study the medical information of 35...
An independent external validation of QRISK® "” a new score for predicting a person's risk of heart disease "” has shown that it performs better than the existing test and should be recommended for use in the United Kingdom by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).The University of Nottingham and leading healthcare systems supplier EMIS worked together, through the not-for-profit partnership QResearch, to develop the ground-breaking formula which has been...
Plant roots provide the crops we eat with water, nutrients and anchorage. Understanding how roots grow and how hormones control that growth is crucial to improving crop yields, which will be necessary to address food security and produce better biofuels. Now an international group of scientists, led by the Center for Plant Integrative Biology at The University of Nottingham, has shed light on how a plant hormone is crucial in controlling the growth of plant roots.Plant growth is driven by an...
Discovered back in the 1600s quinine was the first effective treatment in the fight against malaria "“ and it continues to be a commonly used treatment against this devastating disease. But the drug is associated with a long list of side effects which can range from sickness and headaches to blindness, deafness and in rare cases death "” and until now no one knew why.Scientists at The University of Nottingham have made a discovery that may explain many of the adverse side-effects...
Researchers have found that the anti-malarial drug quinine can block a cell's ability to take up the essential amino acid tryptophan, a discovery that may explain many of the adverse side-effects associated with quinine. Once confirmed, these findings would suggest that dietary tryptophan supplements could be a simple and inexpensive way to improve the performance of this important drug.Quinine is a very commonly used anti-malarial drug, yet to this day the principal mode of quinine action...
In December 2007 a team of experts, led by The University of Nottingham, unveiled an extraordinary set of high-resolution images that gave an insight into the plan of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund in Norfolk.The new research demonstrated that Caistor is a site of international importance "” and tomorrow there will be an event to showcase the work and to clarify some of the mysteries of this buried roman town and highlight the impact of the research in developing...
