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Department of Medicine

Read more at: Pioneering pneumonia test passes major milestone
Dr Andrew Conway-Morris

Pioneering pneumonia test passes major milestone

4 August 2026

Dr Andrew Conway Morris and colleagues have this month introduced into clinical practice their Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia test (VAP) to assist with treatment of critically ill patients in the John Farman Intensive Care Unit.


Read more at: GSK to open £400m R&D centre in Cambridge to strengthen immunology research

GSK to open £400m R&D centre in Cambridge to strengthen immunology research

28 July 2026

GSK today announced plans to establish a major new global R&D centre in Cambridge, UK, bringing more than 1,000 GSK scientists alongside world-leading researchers on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in the heart of the UK’s life sciences “Golden Triangle”. The new 300,000 square foot site will be home to GSK’s R&D...


Read more at: Houdini Bio to unlock DNA limits with £1.5m pre-seed round

Houdini Bio to unlock DNA limits with £1.5m pre-seed round

2 July 2026

Founded in 2025 as a spinout from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, the startup uses machine learning to analyse a therapy’s genetic sequence before it reaches patients. Its approach centres on a protein complex called HUSH, an epigenetic repressor complex made entirely of proteins, which was...


Read more at: COVID-19 vaccine boosters may help protect against future animal coronaviruses

COVID-19 vaccine boosters may help protect against future animal coronaviruses

1 July 2026

Grace West, Rebecca Morse and other scientists in the Gupta and Rihn laboratories at CITIID has shown that an individual’s first exposure to SARS-CoV-2 ‘locks in’ their immune response, impeding their ability to respond to future variants, even when vaccinated.


Read more at: Repurposed epilepsy drug could be used to boost vaccine protection among elderly

Repurposed epilepsy drug could be used to boost vaccine protection among elderly

30 June 2026

Professor Eoin McKinney and colleagues showed that the drug more than doubled the number of antibodies against flu and increased 10‑fold the number of flu-specific CD8 T cells, a type of white blood cell that kills cells infected by flu.


Read more at: Discovery of severe pneumonia subtypes could lead to tailored treatments for life-threating disease

Discovery of severe pneumonia subtypes could lead to tailored treatments for life-threating disease

23 June 2026

Dr Andrew Conway Morris and colleagues at Cambridge have shown that severe pneumonia has three different subtypes, helping explain why some patients in intensive care units (ICUs) recover from their illness faster than others, while for other patients the disease can be life-threatening.


Read more at: £6.7 million global award to prevent cardiovascular disease
Photo of Helle's group

£6.7 million global award to prevent cardiovascular disease

17 June 2026

A major international coalition co-led by the University of Cambridge and Stanford Medicine has secured a grant of $9 million (approximately £6.7 million) to develop new approaches for predicting and preventing heart attacks and strokes.


Read more at: New ‘universal vaccine’ technology could protect us from future virus outbreaks

New ‘universal vaccine’ technology could protect us from future virus outbreaks

11 June 2026

Professor Krishna Chatterjee and colleagues at Cambridge have developed a way to engineer better vaccines that could provide broad protection from thousands of variants of viruses - such as coronaviruses or Ebola - in a single vaccine. This represents a fundamental new vaccine technology that could prevent future pandemics...


Read more at: Cambridge researchers map the human endocrine system cell by cell

Cambridge researchers map the human endocrine system cell by cell

29 May 2026

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have constructed the most comprehensive map to date of where hormones are made and where they work – the Hormone Cell Atlas .


Read more at: John McCafferty: The antibody pioneer

John McCafferty: The antibody pioneer

27 May 2026

Newly elected both as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society , John McCafferty has spent more than 3 decades transforming antibodies from natural defenders into medicines that have improved millions of lives.


Researchers in the news

Clare Bryant (Medicine/Veterinary Medicine/Queens’ College) speaks to BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science about Google Co-Scientist. Clare was given early access to the AI system to hunt for molecular switches that cause severe diseases in humans when pathogens leap between species.


Clare Bryant (Medicine/Veterinary Medicine/Queens’ College) speaks to The Telegraph about inflammation, why it can cause problems and ways that we might lower levels of it in the body.


Ravi Gupta (Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease) talks to the Mirror about the new Covid-19 ‘Cicada’ variant, which appears to be better at evading the body’s immune defences.


Andrea Lavinio (Medicine) is to lead a trial to assess whether a targeted cooling collar can improve patients' recovery from traumatic brain injuries, according to BBC Online


Ian Wilkinson (Medicine) tells the Guardian that tackling high blood pressure earlier could give people many more years of healthy life. He argues that we should begin monitoring blood pressure in secondary school and encourage a reduction in people’s salt intake and obesity.


Ravi Gupta (CITIID) speaks to New Scientist about a person who was left HIV-free after a transplant of non-HIV resistant stem cells.


Miles Parkes and Nuru Noor (Medicine) led a study which showed that using biologic drugs soon after a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, rather than when symptoms worsen, is five times more effective at controlling the disease, as reported by the BBCRead more on the CUH website.


Clare Bryant (Medicine) spoke to the Financial Times about new research in which scientists have edited the genes of pigs to resist swine fever. She said that just as there is no will to vaccinate animals in some countries, there might also be reluctance to use gene editing.


Shuaib Nasser (Medicine) spoke to the Daily Mail about a new nasal spray developed to treat life-threatening allergic reactions that is now available in the UK, saying that its compactness and ease of use may make it more practical than current devices for administering adrenaline.


Sharon Peacock (PACE) appeared on the Naked Scientists Titans of Science podcast talking about her work on whole genome sequencing of pathogens such as MRSA and SARS CoV-2, and studies of antimicrobial resistance.


Mike Weekes (ImID) spoke to the Independent about the risks of warmer temperatures and altered rainfall patterns caused by climate change leading to a spread of tropical diseases to Europe and the UK.