UCL FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES

The UCL News podcast gives you the opportunity to listen to the latest news and research from around UCL every fortnight. Split up into three parts, you can either listen to the podcast all in one go, or save features for later listening. 

Building works for a new research centre at UCL will begin later this month, following the formal signing of contracts worth in excess of £70 million with Kier Construction.

An international collaborative study to map the genome of a South American butterfly has identified the secret behind its mimetic nature.

Imanova, a new state-of-the-art imaging centre co-owned by the Medical Research Council and three of London’s leading universities, has been formally launched at a showcase event attended by representatives from the founding organisations and Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science.

Fears that sex-linked chromosomes, such as the male Y chromosome, are doomed to extinction have been refuted in a new genetic study which examines the sex chromosomes of chickens.

The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), looked at how genes on sex-linked chromosomes are passed down generations and linked to fertility, using the specific example of the W chromosome in female chickens. 

Professor David Bogle (Head of UCL Graduate School) gave evidence on 24 April to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry into higher education in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Older people are a benefit, rather than a burden, to the economy and society according to a new report from the UCL School of Pharmacy.

Researchers in the UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research have made a discovery which could help the development of analgesic drugs able to treat nerve damage-related pain.

UCL News has launched a new podcast to give you the opportunity to listen to the latest news and research from around UCL every fortnight. Split up into three parts, you can either listen to the podcast all in one go, or save features for later listening. 

The theory that pigeons’ famous skill at navigation is down to iron-rich nerve cells in their beaks has been disproved by a new study published in Nature.

All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.

UCL scientists were involved in an event that celebrated leading women in science from across the world, held on International Women´s Day (8 March) at the Science Museum's Dana Centre.

Antibodies that block the process of synapse disintegration in Alzheimer’s disease have been identified, raising hopes for a treatment to combat early cognitive decline in the disease. 

UCL News has launched a new podcast to give you the opportunity to listen to the latest news and research from around UCL every fortnight. Split up into three parts, you can either listen to the podcast all in one go, or save features for later listening. 

Familiarity with your partner is usually thought to promote teamwork, but new research has found that on coral reefs at least, female cleaner fish are more cooperative with unfamiliar males than their breeding partner.

UCL has led a successful multi-institutional bid for £5.4 million to fund new PhD studentships in a competition run by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Thomas Deane, an A-level student and member of an interdisciplinary team from UCL, has been awarded an Exscitec Platinum Award for his work in the annual International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) competition in Amsterdam. Although Deane won the award, the achievement would not have been possible without the work of the rest of the UCL undergraduate iGEM team.

At any one time a million people in England are living with long term pain which could have been prevented or be being significantly better treated, according to a joint UCL School of Pharmacy and UK Clinical Pharmacy Association report published today.

The School of Pharmacy, University of London, today merged with UCL.

The School is now a part of UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, and will officially be known as the UCL School of Pharmacy. The School will continue to provide undergraduate and postgraduate education in pharmaceutical science as well as undertaking world-leading research focused on advancing and understanding medicines and healthcare, and on creating new medicines. 

The past year at UCL has seen a landmark larynx transplant, a lecture from Noam Chomsky, simulated missions to Mars and a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, among many other groundbreaking developments. UCL Communications has created the digital review of the year below: click on the images to discover more.

A new centre dedicated to the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases will be established at UCL following the award of a £20million grant from the Wolfson Foundation, it was announced today.

The 2011 UCL Research Strategy calls for a transformation of the understanding of the role of our comprehensive research-intensive university in the 21st century.

Why are there two sexes? It’s a question that has long perplexed generations of scientists, but researchers from UCL have come up with a radical new answer: mitochondria.

Three new locations for Crohn’s Disease genes have been uncovered by scientists at UCL using a novel gene mapping approach.

UCL reports with great sadness the death on 28 November of Jon Driver, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, and one of the world’s leading psychologists and neuroscientists.