News and views
- Cancer and immunology 9 July 2024 There has been significant research progress in recent times around cancer and immunology. By leveraging the latest advancements in cancer vaccine technology, immunotherapy and effector T cell therapies, we are harnessing the immune system's potential to selectively target and eliminate cancer cells, bringing us closer than ever to ground-breaking cancer outcomes.
- Welcoming new Global Health Research Fellows 2 July 2024 We are delighted to announce three new Elizabeth Blackwell Institute Global Health Research Fellowships. Their 12 month projects will be based at the Health Research Unit Zimbabwe, at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) in Harare. Here, they tell us a few words about their projects and the positive impact this research could have on people’s health.
- Research reveals more people died from hot or cold weather conditions than COVID-19 in parts of UK 23 May 2024 Research has highlighted how weather extremes worsened by climate change are now a major national public health threat.
- Elizabeth Blackwell Institute to welcome new Director 23 May 2024 Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research has appointed Professor Pat Kehoe as new Director it was announced today (Thursday 23 May 2024).
- Emotional recognition toolkit for autistic children 17 May 2024 This Mental Health Awareness Week (13 to 19 May 2024) we caught up with a researcher we supported to find out the latest with their work looking into developing an emotion recognition toolkit for autistic children.
- Adiposity in childhood affects the risk of breast cancer by changing breast tissue composition, study suggests 13 May 2024 Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. With rates continuing to rise, there is an urgent need to identify new modifiable breast cancer risk factors. New research led by the University of Bristol suggests that higher adiposity (the degree of fatty tissue in the body) in childhood leads to less dense breast tissue forming, which results in a reduced breast cancer risk. However, further research is needed to understand the mechanism of the overall protective effect of childhood adiposity to identify new targets for intervention and prevention.
- Improving pre-award processes for equitable and transparent research assessment 30 April 2024 The processes that take place before research is submitted for funding (pre-award processes) serve as important scaffolding to support equitable and transparent research assessment. A new report summarises the key recommendations from a recent funder discussion group symposia and workshops to improve pre-award processes. The report includes actions for realistic and transformative change, and practical real-world examples of change.
- Supporting neurodivergent young people who camouflage 23 April 2024 A known coping mechanism neurodivergent people use is ‘camouflaging’ or ‘masking’, the hiding or compensating for neurodivergent characteristics, which has been consistently associated with anxiety and depression in neurodivergent populations. We caught up with one researcher looking into interventions to prevent or reduce the development of anxiety and depression in neurodivergent young people.
- Supporting health research – getting AI ready 16 April 2024 Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) - such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, or DeepMind's AlphaFold - have shown AI as a transformative force in many areas including health and biomedical research, and healthcare. AI has enormous potential to speed up diagnoses, help discover new drugs, assist surgeries, and deliver therapies and treatments. But with this rapid revolutionising of the healthcare field comes a pressing need to develop these technologies in an ethical, safe, and sustainable way.
- Immune cell therapy provides hope for cancer tumour treatment 3 April 2024 Researchers at the University of Bristol are offering a glimmer of hope to patients with advanced cancer with a potentially powerful new treatment avenue.
Case studies
Read about the projects we have supported and what they found.
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