Latest news
Professor Michael Eddleston (Centre for Cardiovascular Science) and colleagues have published a literature review looking at the scale of suicides by pesticide poisoning. They analysed data from reports of national or global numbers of suicide by pesticide poisoning and found that approximately 15 million people have died by this method since 1960. The researchers recommend strengthening pesticide regulation across low and middle-income countries to prevent these deaths.
Congratulations to Dr Katie Overy (Edinburgh College of Art), who has been shortlisted for an Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year Award.
Three collaborative pilot project grants have been awarded to foster trans-Atlantic cooperation
Prof Barbara Webb (School of Informatics) and colleagues have published a study which helps gain understanding of how insects navigate using the sun and daylight, which could aid the development of guidance systems for robots. Researchers sought to understand how insects use their eyes and brain to keep track of their direction, and their findings could help develop a low-power alternative to GPS for self-guided devices.
The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Jeane Freeman MSP, visited the Royal Edinburgh Hospital last month to learn about some of the research funded by the MRC in Scotland. She was hosted by Prof Andrew McIntosh, and had the opportunity to meet with MRC researchers working on two projects based at the University of Edinburgh, the MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder award and the Generation Malawi project.
Prof Tara Spires-Jones (Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences) and colleagues have published a study investigating Alzheimer's, showing that a protein called clusterin builds up in vital parts of neurons, synapses, and may damage these links.
Congratulations to Sophie Quick (MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine) for winning the David Miller Young Scientist award at 13th International Conference on Cerebral Vascular Biology 2019.
Congratulations to Dr David Hunt (Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences), who has been awarded a prestigious 5-year award of £1.6m to study how abnormal immune activation affects the brain, especially its fragile network of small blood vessels.
Three teams, including two at the University of Edinburgh will be funded with £18m from Cancer Research UK and the Brain Tumour Charity.
Congratulations to PhD students Niamh MacSweeney (Clinical Psychology) and Anders Jespersen (Translational Neuroscience) for being awarded a £3,000 STEM Partnership Grant from the Royal Society.