Southampton researchers have identified a blood profile that could help identify COVID-19 patients at greatest risk of deterioration and direct them towards trials of specific treatments that could modify their immune systems’ responses. A new study jointly led by Professor Tom Wilkinson and Dr Tristan Clark of the University of Southampton, has shown a blood […]
Month: October 2020
New virtual reality software allows scientists to ‘walk’ inside cells
Virtual reality software which allows researchers to ‘walk’ inside and analyse individual cells could be used to understand fundamental problems in biology and develop new treatments for disease. The software, called vLUME, was created by scientists at the University of Cambridge and 3D image analysis software company Lume VR Ltd. It allows super-resolution microscopy data to […]
‘Mini-lungs’ reveal early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection
‘Mini-lungs’ grown from tissue donated to Cambridge hospitals have provided a team of scientists from South Korea and the UK with important insights into how COVID-19 damages the lungs. Writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the researchers detail the mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 infection and the early innate immune response in the lungs. To date, there […]
Marmoset study finds single brain region linking depression and anxiety, heart disease, and people’s sensitivity to treatment
Over-activity in a single brain region called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) underlies several key symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders, but an antidepressant only successfully treats some of the symptoms. A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that sgACC is a crucial region in depression and anxiety, and targeted treatment based on […]
Drug-resistant hospital bacteria persist even after deep cleaning, genomic study reveals
Scientists have used genome sequencing to reveal the extent to which a drug-resistant gastrointestinal bacterium can spread within a hospital, highlighting the challenge hospitals face in controlling infections. Enterococcus faecium is a bacterium commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract, where it usually resides without causing the host problems. However, in immunocompromised patients, it can lead to […]
Melody-Conditioned Lyrics Generation with SeqGANs
The automatic lyrics generation from a given piece of music can provide musicians with inspirations. Current deep learning methods for this task only incorporate limited music information and cannot generate lyrics that fit given melodies. A recent paper tackles this problem by learning the relation between lyrics and melody. Then, lyrics are generated from the […]
Night vision obstacle detection and avoidance based on Bio-Inspired Vision Sensors
The rise of autonomous vehicles relies on collision avoidance systems. Usually, they employ vision sensors. Yet, detecting obstacles during the night is a challenging task with traditional cameras. A recent study on arXiv.org suggests using event-based cameras for this task. Besides other advantages, they can perform in all lighting conditions. Image courtesy of Pexels. A […]
Night vision obstacle detection and avoidance based on Bio-Inspired Vision Sensors
The rise of autonomous vehicles relies on collision avoidance systems. Usually, they employ vision sensors. Yet, detecting obstacles during the night is a challenging task with traditional cameras. A recent study on arXiv.org suggests using event-based cameras for this task. Besides other advantages, they can perform in all lighting conditions. Image courtesy of Pexels. A […]
Handgun detection using combined human pose and weapon appearance
CCTV cameras are nowadays omnipresent. They can be used for the detection of security threats. For instance, detecting handguns in RGB photos taken by video surveillance cameras can be a more versatile and economic option than X-ray scanning machines. A recent study suggests a way to detect firearms using both the appearance of an object […]
ELOVL2 in the Aging of the Eye
The development of epigenetic clocks for the assessment of biological age is a popular area of study, but connecting characteristic age-related epigenetic changes at specific CpG sites on the genome to specific underlying mechanisms of aging is slow going at best. There are many such sites and only so many scientists and only so much […]