News

Image by Abbat from Pixabay - hot water being poured into mug. Black and White image.

Cambridge researchers reveal genes that help us to plan daily tasks

5 May 2026

Researchers at the MRC Biostatistics Unit and the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge have made an exciting discovery about how our genes affect thinking skills. Published in Nature Communications , the study reveals how our genes influence skills we use every day to plan, organise and make...

Photo of precision medicine game in action at Cambridge Festival 2026

BSU at Cambridge Festival 2026

27 April 2026

On Saturday 21 March, the BSU took part in the Biomedical Campus Day for Cambridge Festival 2026. Photo of capture-recapture activity in action at Cambridge Festival 2026 Cambridge Festival is an annual event coordinated by the University of Cambridge’s Public Engagement team. It is a multidisciplinary festival with a mix...

Artistic graphic with hand touching data points - representing statistics

Improving statistical models using real-world predictions from experts

23 April 2026

Medical research often relies on combining hard data with expert intuition, such as a doctor's clinical intuition. To merge these two types of information, statisticians often use Bayesian models, which capture expert knowledge as mathematical probabilities. This can be difficult to do in practice, because while a doctor...

Nikita Mozgunov receives NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement Award

12 March 2026

Many congratulations to Research Associate at the BSU, Nikita Mozgunov , who has been awarded an NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement (DSE) Award. The NIHR DSE award is a postdoctoral level funding opportunity, designed to support early to mid-career researchers in gaining specific skills and experience to advance their...

Sofia Villar giving talk with audience watching

BSU participate in exclusive event on using AI to revolutionise clinical trials

3 March 2026

Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP) and Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine (CCAIM) brought together leading industry and academic researchers to explore the potential of AI transforming clinical trials. The exclusive, invite-only event was held on Tuesday 24 February at The Ray Dolby Centre at the University of...

Paul Kirk and Steve Charnock-Jones at the Wellcome Leap showcase during JPM week, standing in front of banners about In Utero and Medicines360

Medicines360 acquires global licensing rights to innovative pregnancy-risk tools

12 January 2026

Licensing of scientific discoveries from University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh is aiming to speed translation and access to life-saving diagnostics for women worldwide. Medicines360, a women’s health innovation organisation, has acquired global licensing rights to new technologies designed to accurately...

Artistic image representing lots of data

Using ‘cut distributions’ to improve analysis of multiple datasets

22 December 2025

Research published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology (JRSS-B) highlights an innovative new approach to combining and analysing data from many different sources. In medical research, we often try to combine as much data as possible to get the most precise results. However, we...

Photo of beer in glass_Credit: Pixabay_Lernestorod

Genetic evidence suggests that alcohol’s effect is limited to certain cancer types

17 December 2025

Research published in BMC Medicine demonstrates a link between greater alcohol consumption and higher risk of some cancer types. However, the evidence was mixed, with the research indicating that alcohol consumption raises the risk of cancer of the head and neck, cancer of the oesophagus, and cancer of the bowels – parts...

Image illustrating high tech precision medicine

Incorporating historical information to improve basket trials

2 December 2025

A new modelling technique has been developed by BSU researchers to improve the reliability of clinical trials. Basket trials are a type of clinical study where the effect of a single treatment is tested across multiple groups of patients, referred to as “baskets”, with each group defined by a specific disease or condition...

Addressing use of medical record data to define Pulmonary Hypertension cases

13 November 2025

Largescale population-based biobanks with medical record data are becoming increasingly popular as a data source for studying very rare conditions, like Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), a condition in which blood pressure in the lungs in dangerously high. However, the suitability of these datasets for very rare...