Publications

The latest list of publications from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre with a brief summary. 

If you are publishing research which has had funding and / or support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, please complete this form

Publication: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology

Nick Wareham, Nita Forouhi

27 October 2021


Summary

Randomised trials of vitamin D supplementation for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality have generally reported null findings. However, generalisability of results to individuals with low vitamin D status is unclear. Researcgers aimed to characterise dose-response relationships between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) concentrations and risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and all-cause mortality in observational and Mendelian randomisation frameworks.

View publication

Publication: Elife

Brogan Ashley, Claire Simner, Antigoni Manousopoulou, Carl Jenkinson, Felicity Hey, Jennifer M Frost, Faisal I Rezwan, Cory H White, Emma M Lofthouse, Emily Hyde, Laura DF Cooke, Sheila Barton, Pamela Mahon, Elizabeth M Curtis, Rebecca J Moon, Sarah R Crozier, Hazel M Inskip, Keith M Godfrey, John W Holloway, Cyrus Cooper, Kerry S Jones, Rohan M Lewis, Martin Hewison, Spiros DD Garbis, Miguel R Branco, Nicholas C Harvey, Jane K Cleal

8 March 2022


Summary

This is the first quantitative study demonstrating vitamin D transfer and metabolism by the human placenta, with widespread effects on the placenta itself.

View publication

Publication: Patterns 3: 100506.

Soumya Banerjee, Phil Alsop, Linda Jones, Rudolf N. Cardinal

10 June 2022


Summary

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly taking on a greater role in healthcare. However, hype and negative news reports about AI abound. Integrating patient and public involvement (PPI) in healthcare AI projects may help in adoption and acceptance of these technologies. Researchers argue that AI algorithms should also be co-designed with patients and healthcare workers. They specifically suggest (1) including patients with lived experience of the disease, and (2) creating a research advisory group (RAG) and using these group meetings to walk patients through the process of AI model building, starting with simple (e.g., linear) models.

View publication

Publication: Clinical Nutrition

Inge A.L.P. van Beijsterveldt, Pernille Neve Myers, Stuart G. Snowden, Ken K. Ong, Susanne Brix, Anita C.S. Hokken-Koelega, Albert Koulman 

21 April 2022


Summary

Early life is a critical window for adiposity programming and metabolic profile may affect this programming. Researchers investigated if plasma metabolites at age 3 months were associated with fat mass, fat free mass and abdominal subcutaneous and visceral fat outcomes at age 2 years in a cohort of healthy infants and if these associations were different between infants receiving exclusive breastfeeding and those with exclusive formula feeding.

View publication

Publication: Journal of the American Heart Association

Paddy C. Dempsey, Tessa Strain, Elisabeth A. H. Winkler, Kate Westgate, Kirsten L. Rennie, Nicholas J. Wareham, Soren Brage, Katrien Wijndaele

26 April 2022


Summary

Emerging evidence suggests accruing sedentary behavior in relatively more prolonged periods may convey additional cardiometabolic risks, but few studies have examined prospective outcomes. Researchers examined the association of sedentary behavior accumulation patterns with incident cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all‐cause mortality.

 

 

View publication

Publication: International Journal of Epidemiology

Michelle Venables, Caireen Roberts, Kerry Jones, Anila Farooq, Albert Koulman, Nick Wareham, Polly Page

28 May 2022


Since 2008, the Government in the United Kingdom has funded a large, annual survey called the National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling Programme (NDNS RP) to collect detailed information from people on the foods they are eating and their nutritional health.

The survey is used to monitor how well the UK population is doing in terms of dietary guidelines and inform the development of new nutrition policies. It is also used to monitor chemical exposure risk to protect food safety. In this NIHR Cambridge BRC paper, the authors have provided easy access to comprehensive information about the NDNS for the academic and wider public health community.

The paper describes the data collected in the first 11 years of the NDNS RP, how it has been used, and demonstrates the scope of publicly available data. The authors present an overview of survey methods to collect and analyse the data.

Between 2008 and 2019, 7999 adults and 7656 children completed food diaries; 4181 adults and 2014 children had a blood sample taken; 3246 adults and 2318 children gave a urine sample and 419 adults and 352 children had their energy expenditure measured. The authors explain how NDNS survey reports and data provide information on the foods, calories and nutrients such as fat, sugar and vitamins consumed by the UK population, and how Government use these data in public health campaigns such as the Change4Life, 5 A DAY and sugar reduction and folate fortification policies.

They also highlight that many other institutions and individuals use the survey including international organisations like the World Health Organisation. Reports are published regularly by Government: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey. Anonymised individual data can be accessed from the Data Service and stored blood and urine samples are available for further research via the NDNS Bioresource.

The NDNS RP provides a unique and valuable publicly available resource for the UK Government, researchers, health professionals and others looking to understand and improve population health and nutrition.

View publication

Publication: Nature Neuroscience

Andrea I. Luppi, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Fernando E. Rosas, Negin Holland, Tim D. Fryer, John T. O’Brien, James B. Rowe, David K. Menon, Daniel Bor & Emmanuel A. Stamatakis

26 May 2022


Researchers investigated functional interactions between brain regions into synergistic and redundant components, revealing their information-processing roles.

View publication

Publication: HGG Advances

Courtney E. French, Helen Dolling, Karyn Mégy, Alba Sanchis-Juan, Ajay Kumar, Isabelle Delon, Matthew Wakeling, Lucy Mallin, Shruti, Agrawal, Topun Austin, Florence Walston, Soo-Mi Park, Alasdair, Parker, Chinthika Piyasena, Kimberley Bradbury, Sian Ellard, David H.Rowitch, LucyRaymond

24 May 2022


Summary

More than a third of severely sick babies referred for rapid whole genome sequencing received a vital genetic diagnosis. Results from the latest Cambridge genomic study supported by NIHR Cambridge BRC and NIHR BioResource, confirm rapid whole genome sequencing (WGS) as an effective early test to aid diagnosis in severely ill children. Read the full story. 

View publication

Publication: JAMA Pediatrics

Soren Brage

23 May 2022


This was a randomised controlled trial examining the effect of restricting screen use in 89 families living in Denmark. Children in intervention families reduced their objectively measured sedentary time by 45 min/day, which was significantly more than the 1 min/day increase observed in children from control families.

View publication

Publication: Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare

Albert Koulman, Kirsten L Rennie, Damon Parkington, Nicholas J Wareham

10 May 2022


The ability to collect a blood sample painlessly from people at home without the need of a healthcare worker visit could transform the way healthcare and health research are conducted. We demonstrated that a new device (OneDraw) could be successfully used by people in their own homes to collect a dried blood spot sample and be posted back using the normal postage system to the laboratory.

After demonstrating the method worked, it was used in the Fenland COVID-19 study where 10,647 samples were collected every 3-months in over 3,000 participants to measure whether COVID-19 antibodies were present in the blood. This was used to calculate the proportion of participants who had a past COVID-19 infection, with or without symptoms. A high proportion of participants were able to collect their own blood samples (89-93% at each timepoint) and almost all samples received were successfully processed (99.9%).

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly increased the adoption of “telehealth” where people communicate online and via the telephone with their healthcare teams and in health research. However, the gap has been how to collect blood samples remotely. During the early phases of the pandemic when home visits were not possible, the only feasible option was for people to take their own blood sample. This usually involves pricking a finger with a lancet and dropping blood onto special paper or into a blood tube. However, many people find this painful and the sample cannot always be reliably used for analysis due to contamination or insufficient blood sample.

This study showed that dried blood spot samples from the OneDraw device produced comparable results for assessing COVID-19 antibodies as standard blood samples taken by a needle in the arm by a trained healthcare worker. Participants also preferred the OneDraw device to the other methods and reported lower pain scores. Due to its ease of use and acceptability, the OneDraw device will be particularly useful for future telehealth applications, for example where people cannot travel to a clinical centre and repeat blood samples may be needed.

View publication

Publication: eClinicalMedicine

Adam Hampshire, Doris A. Chatfield, Anne Manktelow, Amy Jolly, William Trender, Peter J. Hellyer, Martina Del Giovane, Virginia F.J. Newcombe, Joanne G. Outtrim, Ben Warne, Junaid Bhatti, Linda Pointon, Anne Elmer, Nyarie Sithole, John Bradley, Nathalie Kingston, Stephen J.Sawcer, Edward T. Bullmore, David K.Menon

3 May 2022


Summary

Cognitive impairment as a result of severe COVID-19 is similar to that sustained between 50 and 70 years of age and is the equivalent to losing 10 IQ points. The results of the study suggest the effects are still detectable more than six months after the acute illness, and that any recovery is at best gradual. Read the full story 

View publication

Publication: Nature

V. Pellegrinelli, S. Rodriguez-Cuenca, C. Rouault, E. Figueroa-Juarez, H. Schilbert, S. Virtue, J. M. Moreno-Navarrete, G. Bidault, M. C. Vázquez-Borrego, A. R. Dias, B. Pucker, M. Dale, M. Campbell, S. Carobbio, Y. H. Lin, M. Vacca, J. Aron-Wisnewsky, S. Mora, M. M. Masiero, A. Emmanouilidou, S. Mukhopadhyay, G. Dougan, M. den Hoed, R. J. F. Loos, J. M. Fernández-Real, D. Chiarugi, K. Clément & A. Vidal-Puig

25 April 2022


Summary

New research shows that an enzyme produced by macrophages (immune system cells) in fat tissue plays an essential role in the loss of metabolic health in people with obesity and might serve as a biomarker to help us identify those at the highest risk of fibrosis, inflammation and insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes associated with obesity. It also identifies a potential target for drugs that might prevent or reverse metabolic disease and could throw light on a long-unexplained paradox. Read more.

View publication

Publication: British Journal of Cancer

Jamie Trotman, Ruth Armstrong, Helen Firth, Claire Trayers, James Watkins, Kieren Allinson, James C. Nicholson, G. A. Amos Burke, Sam Behjati, Matthew J. Murray, Catherine E. Hook, Patrick Tarpey

22 April 2022


Summary

As part of the national 100,000 Genome Project, researchers recruited from 36 children, across 23 different solid tumour types. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from paired tumour (fresh-frozen tissue) and matched normal (blood) samples was analysed.  The results for each case were clinically reviewed at the Cambridge paediatric oncology Genomic Tumour Advisory Board (GTAB), and formal report of the results was written.

View publication

Publication: JAMA Psychiatry

Soren Brage

13 April 2022


Depression is a disorder characterised by persistent sadness and a lack of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyable activities. It is the leading cause of mental health-related disease burden, affecting approximately 1 in 20 adults worldwide. Reviews of the scientific evidence have shown that depression may be prevented by physical activity, but the benefits at different levels of activity are unclear.

The aim of this study was to combine results from previously published studies to estimate the association between different levels of physical activity and depression. We searched medical databases for studies including at least 3000 adults published up until 12th November 2020. The studies had to report the risk of developing depression for at least three different levels of physical activity.

We included studies irrespective of how they measured physical activity. We standardised these measures to a common format so that the published results could be analysed together and make sense on the same physical activity scale. We estimated what proportion of depression cases would have been avoided if all adults in the studies met the current physical activity recommendations. We included 15 studies with 191,130 participants and found that even small doses of physical activity appeared to substantially lower risks of depression. Adults meeting physical activity recommendations (equivalent to 2.5 hrs/week of brisk walking) had 25% lower risk of depression compared with adults reporting no physical activity.

Our findings suggested that most benefits occurred when moving from no activity to at least some, and that only minor additional benefits were achieved by further increasing activity levels. Approximately 1 in 9 cases of depression might have been prevented if everybody in the population was active at the level of current health recommendations.

View publication

Publication: BMJ Open

Linda A Jones, Jenny R Nelder, Joseph M Fryer, Philip H Alsop, Michael R Geary, Mark Prince, Rudolf N Cardinal

13 April 2022


Summary

Researchers have published results from a national survey of public opinion on sharing health data to support clinical care and research. Nearly 30,000 people took part in the anonymous survey online from February to September 2020, which was open to all UK residents to measure people’s opinions on health data and consent.

View publication

Publication: European Journal of Preventive Cardiology

Nita Forouhi, Soren Brage, Nick Wareham

11 April 2022


This study aimed to evaluate the association between physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in individuals with and without CHD risk factors. In people with CHD risk factors, moderate physical activity, equivalent to 40 mins of walking per day, attenuates but does not completely offset CHD risk.

View publication

Publication: Nature

R. A. I. Bethlehem, J. Seidlitz, S. R. White, J. W. Vogel, K. M. Anderson, C. Adamson, S. Adler, G. S. Alexopoulos, E. Anagnostou, A. Areces-Gonzalez, D. E. Astle, B. Auyeung, M. Ayub, J. Bae, G. Ball, S. Baron-Cohen, R. Beare, S. A. Bedford, V. Benegal, F. Beyer, J. Blangero, M. Blesa Cábez, J. P. Boardman, M. Borzage, J. F. Bosch-Bayard, N. Bourke, V. D. Calhoun, M. M. Chakravarty, C. Chen, C. Chertavian, G. Chetelat, Y. S. Chong, J. H. Cole, A. Corvin, M. Costantino, E. Courchesne, F. Crivello, V. L. Cropley, J. Crosbie, N. Crossley, M. Delarue, R. Delorme, S. Desrivieres, G. A. Devenyi, M. A. Di Biase, R. Dolan, K. A. Donald, G. Donohoe, K. Dunlop, A. D. Edwards, J. T. Elison, C. T. Ellis, J. A. Elman, L. Eyler, D. A. Fair, E. Feczko, P. C. Fletcher, P. Fonagy, C. E. Franz, L. Galan-Garcia, A. Gholipour, J. Giedd, J. H. Gilmore, D. C. Glahn, I. M. Goodyer, P. E. Grant, N. A. Groenewold, F. M. Gunning, R. E. Gur, R. C. Gur, C. F. Hammill, O. Hansson, T. Hedden, A. Heinz, R. N. Henson, K. Heuer, J. Hoare, B. Holla, A. J. Holmes, R. Holt, H. Huang, K. Im, J. Ipser, C. R. Jack Jr, A. P. Jackowski, T. Jia, K. A. Johnson, P. B. Jones, D. T. Jones, R. S. Kahn, H. Karlsson, L. Karlsson, R. Kawashima, E. A. Kelley, S. Kern, K. W. Kim, M. G. Kitzbichler, W. S. Kremen, F. Lalonde, B. Landeau, S. Lee, J. Lerch, J. D. Lewis, J. Li, W. Liao, C. Liston, M. V. Lombardo, J. Lv, C. Lynch, T. T. Mallard, M. Marcelis, R. D. Markello, S. R. Mathias, B. Mazoyer, P. McGuire, M. J. Meaney, A. Mechelli, N. Medic, B. Misic, S. E. Morgan, D. Mothersill, J. Nigg, M. Q. W. Ong, C. Ortinau, R. Ossenkoppele, M. Ouyang, L. Palaniyappan, L. Paly, P. M. Pan, C. Pantelis, M. M. Park, T. Paus, Z. Pausova, D. Paz-Linares, A. Pichet Binette, K. Pierce, X. Qian, J. Qiu, A. Qiu, A. Raznahan, T. Rittman, A. Rodrigue, C. K. Rollins, R. Romero-Garcia, L. Ronan, M. D. Rosenberg, D. H. Rowitch, G. A. Salum, T. D. Satterthwaite, H. L. Schaare, R. J. Schachar, A. P. Schultz, G. Schumann, M. Schöll, D. Sharp, R. T. Shinohara, I. Skoog, C. D. Smyser, R. A. Sperling, D. J. Stein, A. Stolicyn, J. Suckling, G. Sullivan, Y. Taki, B. Thyreau, R. Toro, N. Traut, K. A. Tsvetanov, N. B. Turk-Browne, J. J. Tuulari, C. Tzourio, É. Vachon-Presseau, M. J. Valdes-Sosa, P. A. Valdes-Sosa, S. L. Valk, T. van Amelsvoort, S. N. Vandekar, L. Vasung, L. W. Victoria, S. Villeneuve, A. Villringer, P. E. Vértes, K. Wagstyl, Y. S. Wang, S. K. Warfield, V. Warrier, E. Westman, M. L. Westwater, H. C. Whalley, A. V. Witte, N. Yang, B. Yeo, H. Yun, A. Zalesky, H. J. Zar, A. Zettergren, J. H. Zhou, H. Ziauddeen, A. Zugman, X. N. Zuo, E. T. Bullmore & A. F. Alexander-Bloch

6 April 2022


Summary

An international team of researchers has created a series of brain charts spanning our entire lifespan – from a 15 week old fetus to 100 year old adult – that show how our brains expand rapidly in early life and slowly shrink as we age. Read the full story.

View publication

Publication: The Lancet Regional Health

Shanquan Chena, Tamsin J.Ford, Peter B.Jones, Rudolf N.Cardinal

29 March 2022


Summary

Public data from two surveys (Health Survey for England, UK; Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) covered 19 European countries across EMHAP phases one (2011–2015) and two (2015–2018). People screening positive for depressive symptoms by self-report were included. The primary outcome was antidepressant use: using country-specific weighted regression models, researchers estimated temporal trends and subgroup disparities in antidepressant receipt, with secondary analysis by country-level measures including healthcare expenditure.

View publication

Publication: BMJ Geriatrics

Shanquan Chen, Linda A Jones, Shan Jiang, Huajie Jin, Dong Dong, Xi Chen, Dan Wang, Yun Zhang, Li Xiang, Anna Zhu, Rudolf N Cardinal

4 March 2022


Summary

Older adults who live alone and have difficulties in activities of daily living (ADLs) may have been more vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about pandemic-related changes in ADL assistance (such as home care, domiciliary care) and its international variation.

Researchers examined international patterns and changes in provision of ADL assistance, and related these to country-level measures including national income and health service expenditure.

View publication

Publication: PLOS Medicine

Shanquan Chen, Benjamin R Underwood , Peter B Jones, Jonathan R Lewis, Rudolf N Cardinal

18 March 2022


Summary

Among patients over 50 using mental health services at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, researchers observed an association between lithium use and a decreased risk of developing dementia.

View publication
Discover more about the NIHR Cambridge BRC

Contact us by phone, email or web for more information.

Events Calendar

Listing relevant events and training sessions for researchers and members of the public.