Pseudomonas aeruginosa – an environmental bacteria that can cause devastating multidrug-resistant infections, particularly in people with underlying lung conditions – evolved rapidly and then spread globally over the last 200 years, probably driven by changes in human behaviour, a new study has found.

A Cambridge institute dedicated to improving cardiovascular and lung health has received a £16 million gift from Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Dr Victor Dahdaleh.

A team of engineers has identified the ‘violent’ physical processes at work inside the lungs which cause wheezing, a condition that affects up to a quarter of the world’s population.

‘Mini-lungs’ grown from tissue donated to Cambridge hospitals have provided a team of scientists from South Korea and the UK with important insights into how COVID-19 damages the lungs. Writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the researchers detail the mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 infection and the early innate immune response in the lungs.

As many as one in 100 patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 develop a pneumothorax – a ‘punctured lung’ – according to a study led by Cambridge researchers.

A University of Cambridge spin-out company has raised £7 million in new funding, which will help in the development of treatments for liver and lung disease. 

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have successfully created ‘mini-lungs’ using stem cells derived from skin cells of patients with cystic fibrosis, and have shown that these can be used to test potential new drugs for this debilitating lung disease.

Discovery could lead to new treatments for this genetic disorder.

New discoveries by Cambridge scientists about a molecular waste-disposal process that ‘eats’ bacteria are influencing the clinical management of cystic fibrosis, and could be the basis of innovative new treatments to fight off bacteria.