Author: Laura Hemming Here at the University of Manchester, we aim to ensure that our research in the faculty of biology, medicine and health is in line with our social responsibility priorities. This led me to develop a patient and public involvement group to assist with my PhD research into understanding prisoner suicide and aggression. … Continue reading “That’s when my mental health started to get cloudy”: Becoming an expert by experience
Author: Jo Sharpe It is hard to avoid the sensational headlines popping up here, there, and everywhere: “Blocking brain inflammation 'halts Alzheimer's disease'”, “The foods that might help with dementia”, and my personal favourites “Dementia: Drinking wine can cut risk of brain inflammation” and “Turmeric health benefits: Curry spice could hold key to combating Alzheimer’s”. … Continue reading Putting out the fire: Manchester leads the fight against neuroinflammation
Author: Paul Humphreys Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide and although survival rates are increasing year after year, the majority of stroke survivors live with a major disability as a result of severe brain damage. Ischemic stroke is the most common form of stroke where a blockage, or occlusion, in a blood … Continue reading How can we limit the damage to the brain after a stroke?
Author: Paul Humphreys The human body can be compared to a well-oiled machine with tissues acting as individual components that function both independently and harmoniously. However, this comparison is only apt if the hypothetical machine performs certain tasks more efficiently at certain times of day and shuts down completely if you attempt to leave it … Continue reading Can our body clock help to repair injuries or cure disease?
Why do people have to be this lonely? What's the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking to others to satisfy them, yet isolating themselves. Why? Was the earth put here just to nourish human loneliness? - Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart Author: Jason Chu The epidemic of … Continue reading Lost in Isolation
Research by a team of psychologists at the University of Manchester has the potential to help people suffering from psychosis take control of their mental health through the use of a smartphone app. Author: Jo Sharpe The term “psychosis” refers to experiences in which an individual interprets reality in a different way to other people, … Continue reading Could smartphones hold the answer to the mental health crisis?
With one in three people affected at some point in their lives cancer is a condition we’re all acquainted with. However, one cancer that may not be familiar is oesophageal aka cancer of the food pipe (the tube used to carry food from our mouths to our stomachs). Over the last quarter of a century … Continue reading Researcher Spotlight: Connor Rogerson
Author: Jo Sharpe Parkinson’s disease is a devastating illness that is progressive, incurable, and notoriously difficult to diagnose. It is caused by the death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra - an area of the midbrain. Defective dopamine signalling results in severe motor defects in patients, which manifest as tremors, muscle cramps and lethargy, in … Continue reading Parkinson’s Disease: Manchester paves the way for new treatments and diagnostics
A considerable challenge for researchers that investigate human disease is to be able to accurately recreate the disease outside of the human body. Disease investigation in vitro, (or ‘in a dish’) is described as ‘disease modelling’ and generally involves isolating or generating diseased cells before subjecting them to various conditions. Disease models are an invaluable … Continue reading Research spotlight at Manchester: 3D Bioprinting
Author: Paul Humphreys One of the greatest promises of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is the ability to generate functional organs for transplantation. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), derived from IVF embryos or reprogrammed adult cells, have the capacity to form any cell type and therefore may potentially provide the source of cells required for tissue … Continue reading How far are we from growing our own organs in the lab?
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