Categories for News

SNPnexus: A valuable tool in the fight against COVID-19

Researchers from Barts Cancer Institute (BCI), Queen Mary University of London, have released a web-based tool called SNPnexus COVID (https://www.snp-nexus.org/v4/covid/) to streamline the analysis of host genetic sequencing data and allow for the identification and prioritisation of genetic variants that may impact an individual’s susceptibility to and the severity of COVID-19 infection. Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, global initiatives to...

10,000+ participants recruited to Covid-19 studies at Barts Health NHS Trust

This week, Barts Health NHS Trust reached a significant milestone in the fight against Covid-19. Since the pandemic started, the Trust has recruited more than 10,000 participants across 34 different Covid-19 studies, including 15 National Institute for Health Research ‘Urgent Public Health’ studies. This major contribution to the national effort against the virus has been achieved in the midst of...

Consuming omega-3 fatty acids could prevent asthma

New research suggests that a higher dietary intake of long chain omega-3 fatty acids in childhood may reduce the risk of developing subsequent asthma, but only in children carrying a common gene variant. The study, led by Queen Mary University of London, is in collaboration with the University of Bristol and University of Southampton, UK, and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. In...

Queen Mary researchers to trial drug to protect against COVID-19 exposure

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust are looking for clinical trial participants who have recently (within 8 days) been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. The STORM CHASER study is looking at whether a combination of two investigational antibodies, developed by AstraZeneca, works in the prevention of COVID-19, following exposure...

Study provides first real-world evidence of Covid-19 contact tracing app effectiveness

An international research collaboration, involving scientists from the UK, US and Spain, has shed new light on the usefulness of digital contact tracing (DCT) to control the spread of Covid-19. The study, published today in Nature Communications, assessed the effectiveness of the Spanish DCT app, Radar COVID, following a 4-week experiment conducted in the Canary Islands, Spain between June-July 2020. For the...

Patients from Asian and black backgrounds are more likely to die from Covid-19, large study reveals

Patients of Asian and black backgrounds suffered disproportionate rates of premature death from Covid-19, according to a study of 1,737 patients by Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London. The study, published in BMJ Open, is one of the most comprehensive studies exploring COVID-19 outcomes in black, Asian and minority ethnic populations so far reported, from one of the largest...

Investigating Covid-19 in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities

A new study, led by Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London seeks to understand why Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 virus. People from racial minorities are more likely to become very unwell or die from Covid-19 than those of white ethnicity. Compared to the general population, those of Black African heritage are 3.24 times more likely to die from Covid-19 and Bangladeshi populations are 2.41 times more likely...

COVID-19 testing lab goes online at Queen Mary

A new COVID-19 testing lab at Queen Mary University of London has started processing NHS Test and Trace samples from the UK population, to increase the country’s testing capacity. Scientist processing samples in the Queen Mary COVID-19 testing lab Dr Belinda Nedjai, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Epidemiology and Epigenetics at Queen Mary, who is leading the lab, said: “We’re delighted to...

AIMES launches OpenCARE platform with Barts Life Sciences CAP-AI team and UCL

AIMES, in partnership with University College London (UCL) and Barts Health NHS Trust, developed the OpenCARE platform which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve cardiovascular care. The project is supported by SBRI Healthcare, an NHS England and NHS Improvement initiative, supported by the Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs).” Cardiologists rely on images to diagnose and treat heart disease. Some of these...