Topic description and stories

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

Tired looking woman

Biological ‘fingerprints’ of long COVID in blood could lead to diagnostic test, say Cambridge scientists

19 Jul 2021

Markers in our blood – ‘fingerprints’ of infection – could help identify individuals who have been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that...

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Key mutations in Alpha variant enable SARS-CoV-2 to overcome evolutionary weak points

29 Jun 2021

One of the key mutations seen in the ‘Alpha variant’ of SARS-CoV-2 – the deletion of two amino acids, H69/V70 – enables the virus to overcome cracks...

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Scanning electron microscope image of SARS-CoV-2 (orange) emerging from the surface of cells (green) cultured in the lab.

Targeting cellular response to SARS-CoV-2 holds promise as new way to fight infection

17 Jun 2021

A new treatment approach focused on fixing cell damage, rather than fighting the virus directly, is effective against SARS-CoV-2 in lab models. If...

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Participants at London's annual LGBT Pride march

England on track to achieve elimination of HIV transmission by 2030 as model shows sharp decrease in HIV incidence

10 Jun 2021

The annual number of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men in England is likely to have fallen dramatically, from 2,770 in 2013 to 854...

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Conservationists may be unintentionally spreading pathogens between threatened animal populations

12 Apr 2021

Moving endangered species to new locations is often used as part of species conservation strategies, and can help to restore degraded ecosystems. But...

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Widespread use of control measures such as facemasks is vital to suppress the pandemic as lockdown lifts, say scientists

31 Mar 2021

A new mathematical model suggests that the easing of lockdown must be accompanied by wider and more effective use of control measures such as...

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Hunting for COVID-19 variants

22 Mar 2021

Professor Sharon Peacock explains the story behind the UK's world-leading SARS-CoV-2 genomics capability.

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Horse

Study highlights ‘unbridled globetrotting’ of the strangles pathogen in horses

09 Mar 2021

In the largest ever study of its kind into an equine pathogen, scientists in 18 countries used the latest DNA sequencing techniques to track the...

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UK Emergency Medical Team paediatric nurse checks a girl for symptoms of Diphtheria in the Kutapalong refugee camp, Bangladesh

Diphtheria risks becoming ‘major global threat’ again as it evolves resistance to antimicrobials

08 Mar 2021

Diphtheria – a relatively easily-preventable infection – is evolving to become resistant to a number of classes of antibiotics and in future could...

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Genomics study identifies routes of transmission of coronavirus in care homes

03 Mar 2021

Genomic surveillance – using information about genetic differences between virus samples – can help identify how SARS-CoV-2 spreads in care home...

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Coronavirus

Single dose of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine reduces asymptomatic infections and potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission

26 Feb 2021

New data from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge suggests that a single dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can reduce by 75% the number of...

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Surgeons at work in an operating theatre

Scientists launch a pre-emptive strike on deadly post-transplant infection

23 Feb 2021

A potential new treatment to protect immunosuppressed patients from human cytomegalovirus ( HCMV ) has been discovered by scientists at the...

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