Published 30 November 2017 Photo: Susanne Åkesson Last year, biologist Susanne Åkesson at Lund University in Sweden, together with researchers in Hungary, received the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize was awarded to them for their research showing that dark-coated horses suffer more from blood-sucking horseflies compared to their white counterparts. Now, the researchers know why animals with a

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/how-blood-sucking-insects-find-dark-coated-cattle-dark - 2025-05-01

Published 30 November 2017 Animation of the Milky Way (Image: Oscar Agertz) Using data from over a billion stars, a research team at Lund University in Sweden are developing an interactive 3D model of the Milky Way galaxy. This could enable new types of discoveries that aren’t possible with current tools - perhaps even unraveling how the Milky Way was formed. The data being used is from the Gaia s

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/researchers-create-virtual-reality-model-milky-way - 2025-05-01

Published 30 November 2017 Capsules for transporting drugs, knee injuries that are really osteoarthritis, skin cells reprogrammed into nerve cells, variations in our DNA affecting the production of blood cells, and the urban sharing economy as a potential solution to our sustainability challenges. These are the research areas which have been awarded ERC Consolidator Grants from the European Resear

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/prestigious-erc-grants-awarded-lund-researchers - 2025-05-01

Published 1 December 2017 A new trend among the food-conscious is to adopt a gluten-free diet. However, according to LU researchers studying coeliac disease (gluten intolerance), the trend is not solely a good thing as it may blur the line between illness and health. “The fact that patients with coeliac disease now have more food products to choose from is, of course, a good thing. What is less go

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/gluten-riddle-searching-triggers-coeliac-disease - 2025-05-01

Published 4 December 2017 Amniotic fluid, the protective liquid surrounding an unborn baby, is discarded as medical waste during caesarean section deliveries. However, there is increasing evidence that this fluid is a source of valuable biological material, including stem cells with the potential for use in cell therapy and regenerative medicine. A team of scientists and clinicians at Lund Univers

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/amniotic-fluid-rich-source-stem-cells-can-now-be-harvested - 2025-05-01

Published 7 December 2017 Photo: Kristin Aleklett Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have invented new systems to study the life of microorganisms in the ground. Without any digging, the researchers are able use microchips to see and analyse an invisible world that is filled with more species than any other ecosystem. Under our feet there is life and movement. In a spoonful of soil there are

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/life-under-surface-live-broadcast - 2025-05-01

Published 11 December 2017 Jan Nilsson (Photo: Sara Liedholm) Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have found that the presence of death receptors in the blood can be used to directly measure the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. “We see that people with known risk factors such as high blood sugar and high blood fats also have heightened death receptor levels”, sa

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/death-receptors-new-markers-type-2-diabetes-and-cardiovascular-disease - 2025-05-01

Published 11 December 2017 Mattias Magnusson (Photo: Kennet Ruona) New research aims to identify and characterise resistant lung cancer stem cells, and develop a model to customise drugs that can eradicate all cancer cells of an individual patient. This is the goal of researcher Mattias Magnusson, who received SEK 6 million from the Sjöberg Foundation to conduct this research project. Every year,

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/towards-personalised-treatment-lung-cancer - 2025-05-01

Published 13 December 2017 New approach to resistant bacteria. “The aim is for this patented protein to be usable as an anti-bacterial treatment, when ordinary antibiotics don’t work”, says David Ermert, one of the researchers behind the study. As resistance to existing antibiotics increases, new approaches to serious bacterial infections are needed. Now researchers at Lund University in Sweden, t

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/specially-designed-protein-fights-several-species-bacteria - 2025-05-01

Published 13 December 2017 Mulatu Biru Shargie The social stigma surrounding HIV is still strong in many parts of the world. Children living with HIV in Ethiopia are at high risk of receiving inadequate treatment – or no treatment at all – on account of deeply rooted prejudice. The most considerable risk can be found among very small children, who do not receive proper treatment right away. Ethiop

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/social-stigma-obstacle-successful-treatment-children-hiv-ethiopia - 2025-05-01

Published 13 December 2017 Waders. Photo: Magnus Hellström The flight speed of birds is more complex than research has previously managed to show. In a new study from Lund University in Sweden, researchers have found that birds use multiple – each one simple yet effective - methods to control their speed in the air and compensate for tailwind, headwind and sidewind. Last year, biologists Anders He

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/flight-speed-birds-more-complex-previously-thought - 2025-05-01

Published 14 December 2017 Johannes Rousk, Johan Östling and Hanna Isaksson Photo: Markus Marcetic © The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The impact of soil microbes on carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere; the transformation of knowledge as it moves between different contexts; zooming in on the Achilles’ tendon to a cellular and molecular level to d

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/three-new-wallenberg-academy-fellows-lund-university - 2025-05-01

Published 18 December 2017 The Swedish-Egyptian archaeological mission at Gebel el Silsila, Egypt, led by Dr. Maria Nilsson from Lund University and John Ward, has discovered four intact child burials at the site. The findings could provide important clues into family life at the ancient quarry. The burials further support the theory that there was a permanent community at the site, as opposed to

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/four-intact-child-burials-found-gebel-el-silsila-egypt - 2025-05-01

Published 19 December 2017 Photo: Kennet Ruona An astrophysicist who has developed new knowledge about cardiac function, a cardiovascular expert who stimulated research in general medicine, an internationally leading researcher in autoimmune diseases, and a neuroscientist who is deeply engaged in society: these are the new honorary doctors at the Faculty of Medicine, who will be formally recognise

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/new-honorary-doctors-faculty-medicine-2018 - 2025-05-01

Published 9 January 2018 When the oxygen content of bottom water gets low, eventually only bacteria are able to survive on the seabed. Here is the so-called dead layer, which consists of white sulfur bacteria (Peter Bondo Christensen). In the past 50 years, the amount of water in the open ocean without oxygen has gone up more than four-fold. In coastal water bodies, including estuaries and seas, l

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/oxygen-worlds-oceans-declining-scientists-reveal-dangers-and-solutions - 2025-05-01

Published 15 January 2018 Jorge Ruas (Photo: Ulf Sirborn, KI) Our muscles enable us to breathe, move and run. Exercise improves our health and can even prevent many diseases. “I think that the importance of muscle in our overall physiology has been underestimated”, says Jorge Ruas, associate professor at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and recipient of the Leif C Groop award for outstanding diabete

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/leif-c-groop-award-outstanding-diabetes-research-jorge-ruas-karolinska-institutet - 2025-05-01

Published 15 January 2018 Among the gene-modified plant types approved in the EU’s risk assessment, but nonetheless not allowed to be cultivated, are several types of maize (the maize in the photo is not a GM crop). Photo: David Stephansson. Even though the EU’s food safety authority, EFSA, has classified genetically modified (GM) crops as safe, several member states always vote against authorisat

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/should-gm-crops-be-grown-eu-let-countries-decide-themselves-propose-group-experts - 2025-05-01

Published 16 January 2018 Image: Talía Velasco-Hernández; graphical editing: Marco La Rosa, Daniel Tornero and Karolina Komorowska. The HLF gene is necessary for maintaining our blood stem cells in a resting state, which is crucial for ensuring normal blood production. This has been shown by a new research study from Lund University in Sweden published in Cell Reports. “The study confirms several

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/hlf-gene-protects-blood-stem-cells-maintaining-them-resting-state - 2025-05-01

Published 18 January 2018 Photo: Julia M I Barth Researchers have for the first time determined that hybridization between two bird species can give rise to several novel and fully functional hybrid genomic combinations. This could potentially be because hybrid species emerged through independent hybridisation events between the same parent species on different islands. Swedish and Norwegian resea

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/hybridization-can-give-rise-different-genome-combinations - 2025-05-01

Published 18 January 2018 Photo:Emma Hammarlund and Sofie Mohlin Can tumors teach us about animal evolution on Earth? Researchers believe so and now present a novel hypothesis of why animal diversity increased dramatically on Earth about half a billion years ago. A biological innovation may have been key. A transdisciplinary and international team, from Lund University in Sweden and University of

https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/novel-hypothesis-why-animals-diversified-earth - 2025-05-01