̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Norfolk

Future-proofing a forest

lw355 — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:00:44 +0000

Faced with shifting demands on landscapes and a changing climate, how do you plan for a forest’s future?

̽��ֱ��£2 billion vegetable and the agricultural future of the East

lw355 — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 11:00:01 +0000

From crop science to robotics, supply chains to economics, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� researchers are working with farmers and industry to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and profitability.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� research and the East of England

lw355 — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 09:15:20 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is a global institution. Our students and staff come from all over the world; our researchers conduct their work on every continent. Notwithstanding this international outlook and impact, our ̽��ֱ�� is firmly and proudly planted in the East of England. Our roots in the region run deep because of our longevity.

In fulfilling our mission – to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research – we are fundamentally committed to engaging with communities and partners close to home.

Over the coming month, we will feature a selection of the research and outreach activities carried out by Cambridge academics across the East of England, an area that includes the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. See also a special issue of our magazine, Research Horizons, focused on the East of England (PDF)

̽��ֱ��region has many assets – innovative and entrepreneurial people, hugely successful clusters of knowledge-intensive industries, vast tracts of high-quality agricultural land and outstanding academic institutions.

But the region also faces multiple challenges. In some areas, acute economic inequalities are linked to low educational outcomes, poor health, skills deficits and reduced connectivity.

At the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, we take seriously our responsibility to be a champion for the region and to help address some of its more pressing challenges. In collaboration with local partners, researchers are offering innovative approaches to areas ranging from understanding coastal erosion to ensuring healthy ageing and from tackling inequality to enhancing agriculture.

Whether it is helping to improve skills and education, supporting innovation and better infrastructure, bringing an evidence-based approach to criminal justice or assisting the management of national heritage, Cambridge research is having a real impact on some of the biggest problems facing the UK today.

Collaboration allows our researchers to draw on, and learn from, our partners’ expertise, while amplifying the impact and reach of our own knowledge. Lessons learned locally are transferable far beyond the eastern counties.

This is a good time to share these stories of local engagement. Some have direct relevance to the UK government’s Industrial Strategy, which aims “to boost productivity… to create good jobs and increase the earning power of people throughout the UK with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure.”

Many of the themes we will cover reflect that aspiration.

I hope this Spotlight will achieve two things. First, that it will be of value to policymakers – in the eastern region and beyond – who are grappling with the local issues we explore.

Second, that it will demonstrate the many intricate ways in which a global institution like ours discharges its duty to serve and support local communities.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge must be a good local citizen, an advocate for the region, a national asset and a truly global actor. Balancing these distinct roles is not easy. Beyond the expertise we bring to our partnerships, it requires openness, and the humility to listen and learn what our communities expect from us. This is the only way an institution such as ours can offer the greatest and widest possible value to society, at home and abroad.

In the region, as elsewhere, there is always more to do. But the breadth and longevity of our mutually beneficial partnerships with local authorities and policymakers, schools, healthcare providers, businesses, employers and research institutions underscore the importance that these relationships have for us.

Our engagement takes many shapes and serves many purposes. Our academic community remains open to new and creative forms of working with partners in the East of England.

Professor Stephen J Toope
Vice-Chancellor

As we begin a month-long focus on research and outreach activities carried out by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� across the East of England, our Vice-Chancellor talks about the importance of telling these stories.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge must be a good local citizen, an advocate for the region, a national asset and a truly global actor

Stephen J. Toope

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� research and the East of England

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, 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.

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Widening participation in higher education in East Anglia

ta385 — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 10:12:58 +0000

NEACO brings together Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, Norwich ̽��ֱ�� of the Arts, ̽��ֱ�� of East Anglia, ̽��ֱ�� of Suffolk, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge as Consortium Partners, with Cambridge acting as lead partner.

NEACO is part of the national Network for Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP), which aims to:

Double the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Higher Education (HE) by 2020;
Increase by 20 percent the number of students in HE from ethnic minority groups;
Address the under-representation of young men from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE

̽��ֱ��project launches in January 2017 and runs until December 2018, with the possibility of a further two years of funding to take the project to the end of 2020. ̽��ֱ��East Anglia funding allocation is approximately £9 million for the first two years of the project.

̽��ֱ��universities will work closely with FE Colleges offering HE provision in the region, as well as dozens of target schools, colleges and other stakeholders. Advisory Groups in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are being set up to ensure a wide range of experience can feed into the project.

̽��ֱ��programme will work closely with schools and colleges in the region to identify and support students in Years 9-13 from disadvantaged areas (HEFCE GAP wards). ̽��ֱ��network will deliver a range of targeted outreach activities to raise aspirations, explain the full range of Higher Education options available to students, and provide crucial advice about how to make successful applications.

Tom Levinson, Head of Widening Participation at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and interim NEACO Project Manager, said:

“This programme provides an unprecedented opportunity to widen participation to Higher Education and improve social mobility in East Anglia. ̽��ֱ��funding which the Government has allocated to East Anglia recognises the fact that we have thousands of bright young people in the region with huge potential, and the ability to take their education further.

“Cambridge is delighted to be leading a collaborative partnership which aims to show the region’s young people the array of HE options available to them as well as providing practical support to help them achieve their goals. Our region offers world-class courses taught in leading centres of research, and vocational courses with excellent links to business and the professions. ̽��ֱ��Network brings together a huge amount of expertise and experience and we will be making the very most of this opportunity for the region.”

Tim Greenacre, Registrar and Secretary at the ̽��ֱ�� of Suffolk, said: “ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Suffolk is delighted to be a member of the NEACO consortium and contributing to widening participation in the region. A central part of the ̽��ֱ�� of Suffolk mission is to raise HE participation and widen participation and this project will complement and enhance our existing widening participation activity.”

Dr Trevor Bolton, Pro Vice Chancellor for Partnerships at Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��: "We are delighted to be working with regional partners to widen participation in higher education. At Anglia Ruskin we firmly believe we should make higher education opportunities available to as many people as possible - raising the education and skills levels of our region and nation is vital to our prosperity."

Charlotte Wheatland, Assistant Head of Outreach at ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of East Anglia said: “We look forward to strengthening our already strong outreach work with schools and colleges in Norfolk through the NEACO consortium.”

Jerry White, Deputy Principal, City College Norwich said: "On behalf of the New Anglia Colleges Group (NACG), City College Norwich is keen to support this project as we want to see young people from disadvantaged backgrounds given the same chances as anyone else to go on to Higher Education and benefit from the life-changing opportunities this brings.

" ̽��ֱ��NACG colleges can and do play a key role in supporting the widening participation agenda. As well as having higher proportions of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds studying with colleges, we are also the major providers of Higher Education for students from our local communities in Norfolk and Suffolk. We are looking forward to working with NEACO to develop new ways to overcome barriers and open up opportunities to young people from some of our most disadvantaged communities."

From January 2017, East Anglia’s five Higher Education Institutions, working in close partnership with the region’s Further Education Colleges and other stakeholders, will start to deliver a major Government-funded collaborative outreach programme, the Network for East Anglian Collaborative Outreach (NEACO).

This is an unprecedented opportunity to widen participation to Higher Education and improve social mobility in East Anglia

Tom Levinson, Head of Widening Participation

A ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge outreach session in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.

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Inability to safely store fat increases risk of diabetes and heart disease

cjb250 — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 16:00:21 +0000

Overeating and lack of physical activity worldwide has led to rising levels of obesity and a global epidemic of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. A key process in the development of these diseases is the progressive resistance of the body to the actions of insulin, a hormone that controls the levels of blood sugar. When the body becomes resistant to insulin, levels of blood sugars and lipids rise, increasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease. However, it is not clear in most cases how insulin resistance arises and why some people become resistant, particularly when overweight, while others do not.

An international team led by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge studied over two million genetic variants in almost 200,000 people to look for links to insulin resistance. In an article published today in Nature Genetics, they report 53 regions of the genome associated with insulin resistance and higher risk of diabetes and heart disease; only 10 of these regions have previously been linked to insulin resistance.

̽��ֱ��researchers then carried out a follow-up study with over 12,000 participants in the Fenland and EPIC-Norfolk studies, each of whom underwent a body scan that shows fat deposits in different regions of the body. They found that having a greater number of the 53 genetic variants for insulin resistance was associated with having lower amounts of fat under the skin, particularly in the lower half of the body.

̽��ֱ��team also found a link between having a higher number of the 53 genetic risk variants and a severe form of insulin resistance characterized by loss of fat tissue in the arms and legs, known as familial partial lipodystrophy type 1. Patients with lipodystrophy are unable to adequately develop fat tissue when eating too much, and often develop diabetes and heart disease as a result.

In follow-up experiments in mouse cells, the researchers were also able to show that suppression of several of the identified genes (including CCDC92, DNAH10 and L3MBTL3) results in an impaired ability to develop mature fat cells.

“Our study provides compelling evidence that a genetically-determined inability to store fat under the skin in the lower half of the body is linked to a higher risk of conditions such as diabetes and heart disease,” says Dr Luca Lotta from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “Our results highlight the important biological role of peripheral fat tissue as a deposit of the surplus of energy due to overeating and lack of physical exercise.”

“We’ve long suspected that problems with fat storage might lead to its accumulation in other organs such as the liver, pancreas and muscles, where it causes insulin resistance and eventually diabetes, but the evidence for this has mostly come from rare forms of human lipodystrophy,” adds Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly from the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit and Metabolic Research Laboratories at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “Our study suggests that these processes also take place in the general population.”

Overeating and being physically inactive leads to excess energy, which is stored as fat tissue. This new study suggests that among individuals who have similar levels of eating and physical exercise, those who are less able store the surplus energy as fat in the peripheral body, such as the legs, are at a higher risk of developing insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular disease than those who are able to do so.

“People who carry the genetic risk variants that we’ve identified store less fat in peripheral areas,” says Professor Nick Wareham, also from the MRC Epidemiology Unit. “But this does not mean that they are free from risk of disease, because when their energy intake exceeds expenditure, excess fat is more likely to be stored in unhealthy deposits. ̽��ֱ��key to avoiding the adverse effects is the maintenance of energy balance by limiting energy intake and maximising expenditure through physical activity.”

These new findings may lead to future improvements in the way we prevent and treat insulin resistance and its complications. ̽��ֱ��researchers are now collaborating with other academic as well as industry partners with the aim of finding drugs that may reduce the risk of diabetes and heart attack by targeting the identified pathways.

̽��ֱ��research was mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, with additional support from the Wellcome Trust.

Reference
Lotta, LA et al. Integrative genomic analysis implicates limited peripheral adipose storage capacity in the pathogenesis of human insulin resistance. Nature Genetics; 14 Nov 2016; DOI: 10.1038/ng.3714

A large-scale genetic study has provided strong evidence that the development of insulin resistance – a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart attacks and one of the key adverse consequences of obesity – results from the failure to safely store excess fat in the body.

We’ve long suspected that problems with fat storage might lead to its accumulation in other organs, where it causes insulin resistance and eventually diabetes, but the evidence for this has mostly come from rare forms of human lipodystrophy

Steve O'Rahilly

m01229

Shake Shack burger and fries

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Regular consumption of sugary drinks associated with type 2 diabetes

cjb250 — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 08:48:09 +0000

An international team of researchers led by the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge set out to assess whether or not habitual consumption of sugar sweetened drinks, artificially sweetened drinks, or fruit juice was associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes – and to estimate the 10-year risk attributable to sugar sweetened drinks in the USA and UK.

̽��ֱ��researchers analysed the results of 17 observational studies and found that habitual consumption of sugar sweetened drinks was positively associated with incidence of type 2 diabetes, independently of obesity status.

̽��ֱ��association between artificially sweetened drinks or fruit juice and type 2 diabetes was less evident. Yet, the researchers found little evidence for benefits of these beverages, and therefore concluded these drinks are unlikely to be healthy alternatives to sugar sweetened drinks for preventing type 2 diabetes.

̽��ֱ��researchers point out that the studies analysed were observational, so no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. However, assuming a causal association, they estimate that two million new-onset type 2 diabetes events in the USA and 80,000 in the UK from 2010 to 2020 would be related to consumption of sugar sweetened beverages.

This latest review builds on ongoing research into the health impact of sugar sweetened drinks, including recent findings from the EPIC-InterAct study in eight European countries as well as work in the EPIC-Norfolk study in the UK, which found that drinking water or unsweetened tea or coffee in place of one sugary drink per day can help to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Dr Fumiaki Imamura, lead author of the study at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, said: “These findings together indicate that substituting sugar sweetened drinks with artificially sweetened drinks or fruit juice is unlikely to be the best strategy in reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes: water or other unsweetened beverages are better options.”

Dr Nita Forouhi, senior author of the study at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, said: “Our new findings provide further evidence to support the recent UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) recommendation that minimising the consumption of sugary drinks presents a clear opportunity towards the goal of free sugars contributing to no more than 5% of daily energy intake and to improve health.”

̽��ֱ��study was supported by the Medical Research Council.

Reference
Imamura, F et al. Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and fruit juice and incidence of type 2 diabetes: systematic review, meta-analysis, and estimation of population attributable fraction. ̽��ֱ��BMJ 21 July 2015.

Adapted from a press release from ̽��ֱ��BMJ.

Sugar sweetened drinks may give rise to nearly two million diabetes cases over ten years in the US and 80,000 in the UK, estimates a study published in the BMJ.

Substituting sugar sweetened drinks with artificially sweetened drinks or fruit juice is unlikely to be the best strategy in reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

Fumiaki Imamura

Mike Schmid

Yummy Soda (cropped)

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Replacing one sugary drink per day could cut risk of type 2 diabetes

cjb250 — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 23:00:41 +0000

̽��ֱ��study indicates that for each 5% increase of a person’s total energy intake provided by sweet drinks including soft drinks, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes may increase by as much as 18%.

̽��ֱ��research is based on the EPIC-Norfolk study, which included more than 25,000 men and women aged 40–79 years living in Norfolk, UK. Study participants recorded everything that they ate and drank for seven consecutive days covering weekdays and weekend days, with particular attention to type, amount and frequency of consumption, and whether sugar was added by the participants. During approximately 11 years of follow-up, 847 study participants were diagnosed with new-onset type 2 diabetes.

Dr Nita Forouhi, of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, who led the study, says: “By using this detailed dietary assessment with a food diary, we were able to study several different types of sugary beverages as well as artificially sweetened beverages – such as diet soft drinks – and fruit juice, and to examine what would happen if water, unsweetened tea or coffee or artificially sweetened beverages were substituted for sugary drinks.”

In an analysis that accounted for a range of important factors including total energy intake, the researchers found that there was an approximately 22% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes per extra serving per day habitually of each of soft drinks, sweetened milk beverages and artificially sweetened beverages consumed, but that consumption of fruit juice and sweetened tea or coffee was not related to diabetes. After further accounting for body mass index and waist girth as markers of obesity, there remained a higher risk of diabetes associated with consumption of both soft drinks and sweetened milk drinks, but the link with artificially sweetened beverages consumption no longer remained, likely explained by their greater consumption by those who were already overweight or obese.

This new research adds to previous research published in Diabetologia, which collected information from food frequency questionnaires across eight European countries. That previous work indicated that habitual daily consumption of sugar sweetened beverages was linked with higher risk of type 2 diabetes, consistent with the current new findings.

In the new study, the authors also found that if study participants had replaced a habitual daily serving of soft drinks with a serving of water or unsweetened tea or coffee, the risk of diabetes could have been cut by 14%, and by replacing a habitual serving of sweetened milk beverage with water or unsweetened tea or coffee, that reduction could have been 20%–25%. However, consuming artificially sweetened beverages instead of any sugar-sweetened drink was not associated with a statistically significant reduction in type 2 diabetes, when accounting for baseline obesity and total energy intake.

Dr Forouhi adds: “ ̽��ֱ��good news is that our study provides evidence that replacing a habitual daily serving of a sugary soft drink or sugary milk drink with water or unsweetened tea or coffee can help to cut the risk of diabetes, offering practical suggestions for healthy alternative drinks for the prevention of diabetes. This adds further important evidence to the recommendation from the World Health Organization to limit the intake of free sugars in our diet.”

̽��ֱ��authors acknowledge limitations of dietary research which relies on asking people what they eat, but their sample size was large with long follow-up and had detailed assessment of diet that was collected in real-time as people consumed the food/drinks, rather than relying on memory.

̽��ֱ��research was supported by the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK.

Adapted from a press release from Diabetologia.

Reference
O’Connor, L et al. Prospective associations and population impact of sweet beverage intake and type 2 diabetes, and effects of substitutions with alternative beverages. Diabetologia; 30 April 2015

Drinking water or unsweetened tea or coffee in place of one sugary drink per day can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to research published today in the journal Diabetologia.

Our study adds further important evidence to the recommendation from the World Health Organization to limit the intake of free sugars in our diet

Nita Forouhi

Sharon & Nikki McCutcheon

Soft drink with ice

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̽��ֱ��rise of the takeaway

cjb250 — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 23:01:00 +0000

In a study published today in the journal Health & Place, researchers from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, analysed the change in density of takeaway food outlets across Norfolk between 1990 and 2008 and how this related to levels of neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation.

Takeaway food outlets, such as fish and chip shops, kebab shops, and Indian and Chinese takeaways, primarily offer ready-to-eat, energy-dense foods that are associated with higher total energy and fat intakes. Frequent consumption of takeaway food has been associated with excess weight gain over time.Previous studies have shown that people of low socioeconomic status and living in deprived areas are more likely to be overweight and consume unhealthy diets than other sectors of the population. One possible explanation could be that more unhealthy food environments – for example, a greater density of takeaway food outlets – could be contributing to unhealthy lifestyle choices. Last year, a team at CEDAR showed that people who lived and worked near a high number of takeaway outlets tended to eat more takeaway food and were more likely to be obese than those less exposed.

Cambridge researchers used Yellow Pages telephone directories to collect data on the number and location of takeaway food outlets across six time points from 1990 to 2008. ̽��ֱ��researchers then mapped these onto electoral ward boundaries for Norfolk, a large county with a resident population in 2001 of almost 800,000 people.

Over the 18 year period, the number of takeaway food outlets rose by 45%, from 265 to 385 outlets. This equated to an increase from 2.6 outlets to 3.8 outlets per 10,000 residents. ̽��ֱ��highest absolute increase in density of outlets was in areas of highest deprivation, which saw an increase from 4.6 outlets to 6.5 outlets per 10,000 residents (a 43% increase).

This is in contrast to areas of least deprivation, which saw an increase from 1.6 to 2.1 per 10,000 residents over the time period (a 30% increase).

PhD student Eva Maguire, lead author of the study from CEDAR, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “ ̽��ֱ��link we’ve seen between the number of takeaway food outlets and area deprivation is consistent with other reports, but this is the first time the changes over time have been studied in the UK. There were differences in the densities of takeaway outlets as far back as we looked, but these differences also became more extreme.”

Dr Pablo Monsivais, also from CEDAR, added: “ ̽��ֱ��growing concentration of takeaway outlets in poorer areas might be reinforcing inequalities in diet and obesity, with unhealthy neighbourhoods making it more difficult to make healthy food choices. Our findings suggest that it might be time for local authorities to think hard about restrictions on the number and location of outlets in a given area, particularly deprived areas.”

In 2012, the Greater London Authority proposed the idea to limit the percentage of store frontage dedicated to takeaway food outlets on high streets in the Capital. Such initiatives have been endorsed by bodies including Public Health England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

̽��ֱ��researchers also looked at the spread of supermarkets. Although they found an increase in the number of supermarkets over the same time period, from 31 to 40 (an increase of 29%), the proportion of supermarkets in deprived areas did not differ significantly from other types of areas.

Although the study was only carried out in Norfolk, the county shares characteristics with other areas of the UK and so the researchers believe the findings will be generalizable across the country.

Reference
Maguire ER et al. Area deprivation and the food environment over time: a repeated cross-sectional study on takeaway outlet density and supermarket presence in Norfolk, UK, 1990 – 2008. Health & Place; 2 April 2015.

̽��ֱ��number of takeaway food outlets has risen substantially over the past two decades, with a large increase seen in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage, according to a study carried out across Norfolk by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��growing concentration of takeaway outlets in poorer areas might be reinforcing inequalities in diet and obesity, with unhealthy neighbourhoods making it more difficult to make healthy food choices

Pablo Monsivais

Stevie Spiers

Hot, Takeaway, Fresh

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