Boost your summer break in 2026
New strategy to tackle bovine TB in England
A new strategy published today sets out a clear, practical plan to achieve Officially Bovine TB-Free status in England by 2038, backed by an ambition to deploy a cattle vaccine by 2030.
Jacqueline Garget Wed, 06/10/2026 - 00:01New ‘universal vaccine’ technology could protect us from future virus outbreaks
A Cambridge-led team has developed a way to engineer better vaccines that could provide broad protection from thousands of variants of viruses - such as coronaviruses or Ebola - in a single vaccine. This represents a fundamental new vaccine technology that could prevent future pandemics before they begin.
Jacqueline Garget Fri, 06/05/2026 - 00:00Can we feed the world without breaking the planet?
The global food system is more productive than ever, but it's pushing natural systems out of balance in the extreme. Can science help farmers produce the food we need in a more sustainable way?
Damage to brain’s white matter may play key role in neurodegenerative disease, and could be target for future treatments
Until now, it was thought that neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease were primarily associated with changes to the brain’s grey matter.
This new finding suggests that treatments for neurodegenerative disease should target damage to the brain’s white matter, in addition to grey matter which has been the focus until now.
The brain is equally divided into grey and white matter. Grey matter contains the brain’s processing hubs, linked by an information highway — the white matter. Although white matter damage is a defining feature of multiple sclerosis and is also seen in neurodegeneration including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, the consequences of white matter damage are not well understood.
The team, led by Professor Ragnhildur Thóra Káradóttir at the University of Cambridge’s Stem Cell Institute, created localised damage to myelin – the main component of white matter – in a well-defined brain circuit and followed what happened over time. They found that small, localised myelin damage triggered a striking response in a connected, remote grey matter region. Neuronal activity fell, microglia – the brain’s immune cells – became activated, and connections between neurons were lost.
Crucially, these changes were not permanent. After myelin was regenerated, neuronal activity recovered, connections between neurons returned, and the inflammatory response subsided.
The study also challenges a common assumption about brain inflammation. Grey matter inflammation is traditionally viewed as harmful. But here, the team found that this transient response was part of the repair process itself. When they prevented grey matter inflammation, myelin regeneration was impaired.
Conversely, when the team blocked myelin regeneration, the grey matter response did not resolve and instead became chronic. This suggests that failed myelin regeneration may help drive the persistent low-grade inflammation seen in neurodegenerative disease.
Káradóttir, who also holds a position at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, said: “We found that a focal lesion in white matter is not just a local event. It can trigger a coordinated response in connected grey matter, and that response is not simply damage. It is part of the brain’s attempt to repair itself.”
The finding is particularly relevant to multiple sclerosis, where white matter lesions, chronic inflammation and incomplete myelin regeneration are closely linked to disease progression.
The work offers a new framework for understanding how local white matter damage may contribute to wider dysfunction across the brain and, when regeneration fails, to sustained inflammation.
Professor Alasdair Coles, Professor of Clinical Neuroimmunology and Head of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge, added: “These findings suggest that therapies enhancing myelin regeneration could help slow the progression of a potentially wide range of brain disorders.”
Reference: de Faria Jr et al: 'Focal white matter lesions drive grey matter inflammation and synapse loss', Nature, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10414-w
Damage to white matter in the brain can trigger features associated with neurodegenerative disease, Cambridge researchers have discovered in a new study published today in the journal Nature.
A focal lesion in white matter...can trigger a coordinated response in connected grey matter, and that response is not simply damage. It is part of the brain’s attempt to repair itself.Ragnhildur Thóra KáradóttirHayri Er on GettyBrain
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The Cambridge Festival welcomes students from across the country for a taste of university life
Running over two days (24 and 26 March), students attended talks held in the Ray Dolby Centre and explored the multiverse with Dr Matthew Bothwell, a maths workshop delivered by NRICH and explored Must Farm with Department of Archaeology and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit.
Workshops held in the Department of Computer Science and Technology allowed students to get hands on with mini robots while sessions at the Department of Material Sciences and Metallurgy found out what happens when you freeze a squash ball with liquid nitrogen in sessions exploring the science of temperature, structure and materials.
The Cambridge University Vet School gave students the opportunity see what a career as a vet could involve by getting hands-on with animal x-rays, discovered how each professional works together to treat animals as well as meeting some of the school’s cows and horses to learn how veterinarians diagnose and treat these large animals.
Students investigated physics in workshops held by the outreach team at the Department of Physics as well as discovering coding with Raspberry Pi, understanding the human body and the history of medicine with the Whipple Museum, learning how to disagree well with Dr Elizabeth Phillips from The Woolf Institute, how to get creative through a poetry workshop and how antibodies save lives.
We were delighted to welcome KS2 pupils from Cheveley Primary School, Hope Street School, Kettlefields Primary, St Andrews Primary, Meldreth Primary School, St Anthonys Prep, Mayfield Primary, Stephen Perse, William Westley Primary School, Wetheringsett Manor, Isle of Ely Primary School, Holme Court School, St Laurence Catholic Primary School, and the University of Cambridge Primary School.
Our group of KS3 pupils came from Hope Street School, Marshland High School near King’s Lynn, Thomas Clarkson Academy from Wisbech, Wetheringsett Manor, Lymm High School from Warrington, Rickmansworth School, Impington Village College, Ipswich High School, The Duston School from Northampton, Charter School North Dulwich, Heritage School Cambridge, Ballard School from Hampshire and The Harleston Sancroft Academy from Norfolk.
We are also delighted that we have a growing number of homeschool pupils joining us on both days. One parent said: “"I want to thank you for all your time and support to help my son to attend activities on both days. It was fantastic and he has learned a lot and actively interacted with the academics and children he met. Now he likes science even more!"
Another said: "Just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the festival yesterday- organisation, the quality of presentations, communication. Thank you!"
Now in their fourth year, the Cambridge Festival schools days are offering students the opportunity to experience studying at Cambridge with a series of curriculum linked talks and hands on workshops.
The Cambridge Festival runs from 16 March – 2 April and is a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge. The public have the chance to meet some of the researchers and thought-leaders working in some of the pioneering fields that will impact us all.
Over 1,200 KS2 and KS3 pupils from across the region and beyond flocked to the Cambridge West site to experience studying at the University of Cambridge with a selection of lectures and workshops held as part of the Cambridge Festival.
Chad Cox for Cambridge FestivalPupils wear blue scrubs, masks, and caps stand attentively indoors, conveying focus and teamwork in a medical setting.
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.