Oxford University

Hot on the heels of biotech company Moderna’s recent announcement of successful phase 1 trials for its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, two more promising candidates are delivering encouraging early data as several vaccines race into phase 2 human testing.

Atherosclerosis is a disease where fatty plaques build up in the arteries, increasing risk of heart attack or stroke. But now, researchers at Oxford have found a protein that could be targeted in new prevention drugs for these deadly buildups.

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for the invention and development of the lithium-ion battery.

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to William Kaelin, Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza for uncovering how cells adapt to low oxygen.

Within a relatively short period of time, life burst forth into an incredible diversity of forms, in an event that has since come to be known as the Cambrian explosion. Now, an international team of scientists has found clues to what may have caused that – spikes in oxygen levels.

The summer of 2018 was marked by extreme weather events like droughts and floods. A new study has pinned the blame on stalled giant waves in the jet stream, and unfortunately they’re expected to only get worse with the changing climate.

The fossilized remains of Cthulhu have been discovered in England – but it’s probably safe to look upon its form without going mad. A new species of extinct sea cucumber resembles a mess of tentacles, earning it the name of Sollasina cthulhu, in honor of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythical sea entity.

A woman in Scotland has been found to have a previously-unknown genetic mutation that makes her almost completely immune to pain. Her wounds heal faster and she seems to have less anxiety and fear. Geneticists are now studying the genes responsible to uncover new potential treatments for pain relief

Tumors are made up of many different types of cancer cells, and we can’t always clear them all out. Now Oxford researchers have developed a way to track the genetic “life histories” of thousands of individual cancer cells at once, which may lead to more effective and personalized cancer treatments.

An astrophysicist from Oxford has put forward a new theory that suggests that dark matter and dark energy are actually part of the same phenomenon: a “dark fluid” with negative mass that fills the universe.

As promising as a drug candidate may be, not all of them end up performing as hoped – but they can still find use. Researchers at Oxford University have managed to give second life to an experimental cancer drug known as tasquinimod, which has now shown promise in preventing Parkinson’s.

Every year, the world enters an arms race with the flu. Creating a universal flu vaccine would give us the upper hand for the foreseeable future, and a new study from Oxford has identified a way to make that possible.