UCL research breakthroughs

Life-saving liver innovation

The DIALIVE device. Credit: Yaqrit

The DIALIVE device. Credit: Yaqrit

The first successful in-patient trial of liver dialysis has been completed by UCL and its partners.

The DIALIVE device – invented by researchers at UCL’s Institute for Liver and Digestive Health – was found to be safe and associated with substantial improvement in the severity of symptoms and organ function in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) when compared to standard of care.

“It gives me enormous pleasure to see the promise of this novel liver dialysis device for the treatment of ACLF,” said chief investigator Dr Banwari Agarwal (UCL Division of Medicine). “The intervention has the potential to transform the care provided to the ever-increasing number of patients and their families suffering from the effects of living with what is essentially a terminal illness for many.”

This study is the first-in-human randomised, controlled clinical trial of a liver dialysis device. The next step will be a larger trial, which if successful could see DIALIVE approved for clinical use within three years.

Read the full story: UCL invented dialysis machine proved safe and effective for treating liver failure

Making better batteries

Credit: Clancy et al / JACS

Credit: Clancy et al / JACS

One-atom-thick ribbons made of phosphorus alloyed with arsenic could dramatically improve the efficiency of devices such as batteries, supercapacitors and solar cells.

First discovered by a UCL team in 2019, phosphorus-only nanoribbons have since been used to increase lithium-ion battery lifetimes and solar cell efficiencies. Now, the incorporation of tiny quantities of arsenic has been found to significantly increase their conductivity.

“Early experimental work has already shown the remarkable promise of phosphorus nanoribbons,” said senior author Dr Adam Clancy (UCL Chemistry). “Our latest work in alloying phosphorus nanoribbons with arsenic opens up further possibilities – in particular, improving energy storage of batteries and supercapacitors, and enhancing near-infrared detectors used in medicine.”

The latest alloyed ribbons not only increase the capacity of a lithium-ion or sodium-ion battery but the speed at which it can be charged and discharged, while further enhancing the flow of charge and efficiency of solar cells.

Read the full story: One-atom-thick ribbons could improve batteries, solar cells and sensors

Pre-screening for Parkinson’s

Dr Siegfried Wagner giving a Parkinson's patient an eye scan.

Dr Siegfried Wagner giving a Parkinson's patient an OCT eye scan.

Markers that indicate the presence of Parkinson’s disease in patients on average seven years before clinical presentation have been identified by researchers at UCL and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

It is the first time that the findings have been demonstrated several years before diagnosis, with scientists having utilised artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse the AlzEye dataset of eye scans in an exercise later replicated using the wider UK Biobank database.

“I continue to be amazed by what we can discover through eye scans,” said lead author Dr Siegfried Wagner (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital). “While we are not yet ready to predict whether an individual will develop Parkinson’s, we hope that this method could soon become a pre-screening tool for people at risk of disease.”

The use of data from eye scans has previously revealed signs of other neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.

Read the full story: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

Quicker to quantum advantage

The team behind UCL spinout Phasecraft.

The team behind UCL spinout Phasecraft.

A start-up led by academics from UCL and the University of Bristol has raised £13 million in new funding to further develop quantum algorithms.

Phasecraft hopes to accelerate practical quantum advantage – the point at which quantum computers outperform their classical counterparts for real-world applications – from a projected timeline of decades to just a few years.

Professor Montanaro (co-founder and CEO of Phasecraft) said: “For all the advances […] and for all quantum computing’s promise, such progress could end up being for nothing if we can’t build the applications needed to make the technology truly useful. With our record-breaking algorithms and groundbreaking techniques, we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in this space.”

The company’s early focus is on applying their algorithmic improvements to the discovery of materials important for the clean energy transition.

Read the full story: UCL spinout developing quantum algorithms raises £13 million

Investigating an injustice

Post Office signage. Credit: iStock / alice-photo

Post Office signage. Credit: iStock / alice-photo

UCL and the University of Exeter are to lead a landmark study into legal failings associated with the Post Office scandal.

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the study will build a detailed case study of the scandal and identify any professional or ethical failures that contributed to them to protect against similar injustices in future.

“The scandal shows that when it works badly the legal system, and lawyers in particular, can have egregious effects on ordinary people’s lives,” said study lead Dr Karen Nokes (UCL Laws). “We plan to develop strategies that can be used to encourage lawyers to consider and, if necessary rethink, their own professional mindsets.

Read the full story: Landmark study into Post Office scandal seeks to prevent future injustice

Art is for all

An artist in studio at the Slade School of Fine Art.

An artist in studio at the Slade School of Fine Art.

A transformational £1.5m donation to the Slade will forge more accessible pathways to a fine arts education and enact real, long-term change for the future talent pipeline.

The generous gift will establish the Bloomfield Scholarships to fund the tuition fees and living costs of ten students across five years, enable UCL to host an annual Widening Participation Summer School for Year 13 learners, and contribute £100,000 in vital support to the Slade’s fund for students facing unforeseen hardship.

“This activity will support current Slade students who need it the most and empower future Slade students from disadvantaged backgrounds to envisage a future for themselves as the artists of tomorrow,” said Professor Kieren Reed (then Director, UCL Slade School of Fine Art).

Last year, the school marked the 150th anniversary of its foundation through a bequest from Felix Slade.

Read the full story: £1.5m philanthropic gift to support inclusivity and welfare at UCL Slade School of Fine Art

Bench to bedside

CAR T-cell patient Alyssa. Credit: Great Ormond Street Hospital

CAR T-cell patient Alyssa. Credit: Great Ormond Street Hospital

Multiple young patients with relapsed T-cell leukaemia have now been treated with base-edited T-cells, as part of a ‘bench-to-bedside’ collaboration between UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH).

This first human application of base-editing technology was designed and developed at UCL, with the process seeing donor CAR T-cells engineered using cutting edge gene-editing technology to change single letters of DNA code so they can fight leukaemia.

“It’s nice to be able to see the fruits of a long period of work coming together from multiple teams and being brought into play for new treatments,” said Professor Waseem Qasim (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health). “It’s still early, and we need more follow up and to treat more patients to know how it might impact treatments long term.”

If shown to be widely successful, the teams hope that it can be offered to more children and earlier in their treatment journey.

Read the full story: Further hope for base-edited T-cell therapy to treat resistant leukaemia

A revolution in regeneration

1938 P13K activator bound to P13Kalpha.

1938 P13K activator bound to P13Kalpha.

UCL-led research has identified a chemical compound that can stimulate nerve regeneration after injury, as well as protect cardiac tissue from the sort of damage caused by a heart attack.

Having screened thousands of molecules, scientists found that the compound ‘1938’ was able to reliably activate the Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling pathway which helps to control cell growth.

Though further research is needed to translate these findings into the clinic, early results showed that it increased neuron growth when added to lab-grown nerve cells, and in animal models, reduced heart tissue damage when administered within 15 minutes of major trauma and regenerated lost motor function in a model of sciatic nerve injury.

“There are currently no approved medicines to regenerate nerves, which can be damaged as a result of injury or disease, so there’s a huge unmet need,” said senior author Professor James Phillips (UCL School of Pharmacy).

Read the full story: New chemical compound demonstrates potential in nerve regeneration

Charting 21st-century childhood

Adults and a baby at a lunch table. Credit: Hero Images via Adobe Stock

Adults and a baby at a lunch table. Credit: Hero Images via Adobe Stock

Thousands of babies and parents are set to participate in a new UK birth cohort study, which will aim to shine a light on the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

The ‘Generation New Era’ study will provide vital new insights into the health and development of children born in 2022, with the information gathered helping to shape the response to important scientific and policy questions.

“Knowing how children develop, and how the early years affect later lives, will provide vital evidence to researchers, governments and service providers, so they are able to help improve the lives of children and families in the UK both now and in the future,” said study director Professor Alissa Goodman (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies).

Generation New Era is the first UK birth cohort study to be launched since the millennium and joins those following the lives of people born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2000-02.

Read the full story: New generation of babies to join first UK study of child development in two decades

The science of societies

Improving the delivery of major infrastructure projects globally.

Improving the delivery of major infrastructure projects globally.

An innovative philanthropic partnership between UCL and infrastructure consulting firm AECOM will address some of our most urgent and complex societal challenges.

The collaboration launches the AECOM Infrastructure Scholarship Programme, supporting the next generation of infrastructure researchers through PhD scholarships to be based at The UCL Megaproject Delivery Centre in The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction.

The scholarships will advance the science in topics related to infrastructure and programme management and improve our ability to deliver complex infrastructure projects more sustainably, unlock value, and transform societies around the world.

“AECOM and UCL are writing history with this partnership to advance the science in Programme Management,” said Dr Juliano Denicol (Director, UCL Megaproject Delivery Centre). “It will support a diverse cohort of future leaders and create a platform to address global societal challenges through infrastructure delivery.”

The Bartlett is ranked 1st in the world for Architecture and the Built Environment in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2023.

Read the full story: AECOM and UCL sign partnership to transform the science in major programme management

Huge discoveries

An Ice Age handaxe discovered by archaeologists in Kent. Credit: Archaeology South-East/UCL.

An Ice Age handaxe discovered by archaeologists in Kent. Credit: Archaeology South-East/UCL.

Excavations in Kent have revealed some of the largest early prehistoric stone tools in Britain preserved on a hillside.

Buried in sediment, researchers discovered 800 stone artefacts thought to be over 300,000 years old, including two extremely large flint knives described as “giant handaxes” which are likely to have been used for butchering animals and cutting meat.

The largest, at 29.5cm in length, is one of the longest ever found in Britain.

“The excavations at the Maritime Academy have given us an incredibly valuable opportunity to study how an entire Ice Age landscape developed over a quarter of a million years ago,” said Dr Matt Pope (UCL Institute of Archaeology).

The research team is now working on identifying and studying the recovered artefacts, while a second group assess discoveries including personal items from a Roman cemetery at the site.

Read the full story: Giant stone artefacts found on rare Ice Age site in Kent