UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

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.

Professor Eleanor Maguire (UCL Imaging Neuroscience) comments on how taxi drivers’ brains rewire while learning their way around London. Read: BBC News More: Nature Telegraph Times (£) Daily Mail Mirror

Study of gene therapy developed at UCL and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital offers first proof adults with haemophilia B benefit from treatment, reducing need for injections with clotting factor to prevent bleeds. 

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.

Dr Mark Lythgoe (UCL Centre for Biomedical Imaging) and Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) on how strokes can change personality and behaviour. Read: The Times (£)

Professor Uta Frith (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) talks about her pioneering work on autism and dyslexia. Listen: BBC Radio 4 The Life Scientific

A detailed look at the availability of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST), a course of activity sessions for dementia sufferers developed by Dr Aimee Spector (UCL Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology). Read: Daily Mail