Topic description and stories

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

Water sample in test tube

Study reveals why highly infectious cholera variant mysteriously died out

05 Jul 2022

Scientists say continuous monitoring of the cholera bug genome is key to preventing outbreaks of new variants.

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Pig farm

Highly antibiotic-resistant strain of MRSA that arose in pigs can jump to humans

28 Jun 2022

A new study has found that a highly antibiotic-resistant strain of the superbug MRSA – methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus – has emerged in...

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Portrait of young woman farmer holding fresh eggs in hands

Intensive farming may actually reduce risk of pandemics, experts argue

24 Jun 2022

Scientists evaluate the evidence that intensive livestock farming is causing pandemics, and find that intensive farming could actually reduce the...

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3d digital image corona virus on planet Earth in Africa

Scientists publish first real-world data from Africa looking at immune response to AZ/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

11 May 2022

Scientists have released the first real-world data from Africa on the effectiveness of two doses of AstraZeneca/ChaAd0x-1 COVID-19 vaccination...

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Professor Jonathan Heeney

Cambridge vaccine expert in $42million partnership to develop 'future-proofed' coronavirus vaccines

08 Mar 2022

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that DIOSynVax, a biotech spinout of the University of Cambridge, will receive $42 million (about £32 million...

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Airplane wing

Genomic study shows that England’s travel quarantine measures were effective – up to a limit

23 Feb 2022

Fourteen-day quarantine measures imposed on incoming travellers returning to England in summer 2020 helped prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus...

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Woman Puts on KN95 Face Mask

Testing the effectiveness of KN95 and surgical mask ‘fit hacks’

02 Feb 2022

Researchers have tested a variety of popular hacks for improving the fit of KN95 and surgical masks, and found that while some hacks do improve fit...

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Covid-19 seen under the microscope. SARS-CoV-2, 3D rendering

Omicron may be significantly better at evading vaccine-induced immunity, but less likely to cause severe disease

20 Dec 2021

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 may be significantly better than previous variants at evading vaccine-induced antibodies, according to new research...

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Cambridge COVID vaccine in clinical trials

14 Dec 2021

Safety trials are underway for a vaccine developed by Cambridge researchers that could be used as a booster targeting COVID-19 virus variants and...

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Reducing the rise of antibiotic resistance

22 Nov 2021

Rising resistance to antibiotics is a worrying prospect, but a success story happening across the farms of the UK gives hope that something can be...

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The microbiologist tackling humanity’s next biggest killer

17 Nov 2021

Since childhood Stephen Baker says he had a grim fascination with poo. He caught the bug for microbiology and spent 12 years in Vietnam researching...

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Coronavirus

Air filter significantly reduces presence of airborne SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 wards

16 Nov 2021

When a team of doctors, scientists and engineers at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the University of Cambridge placed an air filtration machine in COVID-...

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