Scientists have developed a robotic system that can recreate the extreme conditions of the deep ocean in the laboratory, opening up access to some microorganisms for the first time.

The deep sea is the largest microbial habitat on Earth and is home to a huge diversity of microorganisms. Many have evolved to survive extreme conditions, including intense pressure and near-freezing temperatures, developing unusual enzymes and other molecules that could have useful properties, with potential applications ranging from pharmaceuticals and new materials to food and energy.

But researchers estimate that less than 1% of its microorganisms can currently be cultivated using conventional methods.

Due to the extreme conditions they are used to, when samples are brought to the surface, rapid changes in pressure and temperature can kill the microbes before scientists have the opportunity to study them.

Recreating the deep sea in the laboratory

Now, researchers have developed a system called DISCUSS, which recreates and maintains the conditions experienced by microbes in their natural environment throughout the whole journey from collecting samples on the ocean floor to growing and isolating individual microorganisms in the laboratory.

The platform is explained in the journal Nature Sensors.

Zhengguang Liu, Researcher at The University of Manchester, said: “Scientists have long struggled to grow many microorganisms found in nature under laboratory conditions, limiting our understanding of how they live and function. DISCUSS helps address this challenge by recreating and preserving the environments these microbes depend on. By bringing together environmental sensing, digital modelling and robotics, we can study microbial life that has previously been difficult to access, while opening up new possibilities for exploring other extreme environments. We hope this work demonstrates how intelligent engineering systems can help overcome longstanding scientific challenges and enable new discoveries.

“Deep-sea microbes are particularly fascinating because they have evolved to survive extreme pressure, cold and unusual chemical conditions. Their adaptations may offer valuable insights and potential applications in areas such as energy, advanced materials and biotechnology. From an engineering perspective, what excites me most is how intelligent sensing, modelling and automation can help us explore biological systems that were previously difficult to study. I believe this kind of interdisciplinary approach could open up new opportunities, both for understanding life in extreme environments and for addressing broader scientific and technological challenges.”

Growing microbes that depend on extreme conditions

Researchers tested the system using samples collected from a cold seep 1,300 metres beneath the Sea.

The technology combines real-time environmental sensors, advanced robotics and ‘digital twin’ - or a virtual representation of the deep-sea environment - to continually monitor conditions such as pressure, temperature and chemical composition and make adjustments when necessary.

Once the microbes began to grow, cameras and deep-learning technology were used to recognise individual microbial colonies, while robotic tools could select and collect them for further study without removing them from the high-pressure environment.

In total, the researchers recovered 34 microbial isolates, including several that appear to be significantly different from previously identified strains.

Among those were two bacteria adapted to high-pressure environments. One of these, called HP_SR10, depends on high pressure to grow and cannot be cultivated under normal atmospheric conditions.

The system was also able to keep a complex community of microorganisms growing together for 180 days by maintaining the conditions they needed over an extended period.

Unlocking the mysteries of the deep ocean

Beyond discovering and studying new microorganisms, the technology could also help scientists answer fundamental questions about the role microbes play in the deep ocean.

Deep-sea microorganisms are important in global processes such as the carbon cycle. Carbon produced near the ocean surface can eventually sink into the deep ocean, but scientists still do not fully understand how microorganisms living at these depths transform it.

Being able to collect, grow and study a wider range of microbes under conditions closer to their natural environment could help researchers answer these questions investigate these natural processes that happen in the deep sea.

The researchers say the same approach could eventually be adapted to study microorganisms in even deeper parts of the ocean and other extreme environments such as high-temperature hydrothermal vents.

This research was published in: Nature Sensors

Full title: Closed-loop in situ isolation of deep-sea extremophiles through sensor-driven microenvironment preservation

DOI: 10.1038/s44460-026-00128-x

URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44460-026-00128-x

The six-year projects will explore tiny programmable devices that could one day find and destroy precancerous cells before ovarian cancer develops; investigate how collagens acquire their correct chemical structure in the body and what happens when this process is disrupted; and develop faster, more energy-efficient ways of carrying out the complex calculations needed for science and AI.

The awards are among 48 ERC Synergy Grants worth €500 million announced through the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, which brings together researchers with different areas of expertise to tackle major scientific challenges.

Cancer killing bots

The €10.6 million ECLIPSE project- Early Cancer Lesion Interception via Programmable Sensor-Equipped morphobots - will explore whether tiny programmable devices could detect and destroy the precancerous cells that can lead to ovarian cancer.

The devices aim to navigate the fallopian tubes, using advanced sensing and imaging to identify precancerous changes before delivering anticancer drugs directly to affected cells.

The approach could ultimately offer an alternative to preventative surgery for some women and lay the foundations for future clinical trials.

The project brings brings together Principal Investigators: Dr Christine K. Schmidt and Prof. Richard J. Edmondson from the University of Manchester, Prof. Ben G. Davis from the University of Oxford and Prof. Oliver G. Schmidt at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany. Approximately €4.3 million of the funding is allocated to Manchester.

Dr Schmidt said: “We now know that many ovarian cancers begin in the fallopian tubes, but detecting the earliest precancerous changes remains a major challenge. ECLIPSE brings together expertise from very different scientific disciplines to develop entirely new ways of finding and targeting these cells. Our ultimate ambition is to intercept ovarian cancer before it progresses to a stage where treatment is often no longer curative.”

Rethinking scientific computing

The €10 million RaMPA project brings together Professors Françoise Tisseur and Jack Dongarra at Manchester, Professor Laura Grigori at EPFL and the Paul Scherrer Institute, and Professor Torsten Hoefler at ETH Zurich.

The international team aims to rethink how numerical precision is used in scientific computing. Rather than carrying out every calculation at the highest precision, RaMPA will develop the mathematical foundations, algorithms and software needed to adapt precision throughout a computation, while guaranteeing the accuracy and reliability of the final result. By exploiting modern and future computing hardware more effectively, the research will make scientific simulations faster and more energy efficient, and enable calculations that are currently beyond reach.

Professor Tisseur said: “By making much better use of the computing power available to us, we want scientists to tackle problems that are currently beyond reach, from more detailed climate simulations to increasingly complex questions in materials science and quantum chemistry, while reducing the energy needed to do so.

“The strength of RaMPA is that it brings together expertise in numerical mathematics, algorithms, software and computer systems. Combining these areas gives us the opportunity to rethink how scientific computations are performed, rather than simply making existing methods faster.”

Understanding Collagen

The €10 million CollagenQUEST (Quantitative Understanding of Enzymatic Collagen Modifications in Space and Time) award brings together Professor Rachel Lennon, Dr Joan Chang and Dr Mychel Morais in Manchester with researchers in Finland, Italy and the USA.

This international team aims to decipher the “hidden code” of collagen modification: the rules that enable collagen-modifying enzymes to make the right chemical changes to collagen proteins in the right place and at the right time. They will also investigate whether the same enzymes modify other proteins within cells. The research could help advance the development of new treatments for a range of common diseases, including connective tissue disorders and cancers.

Professor Lennon said: “Joan, Mychel and I want to connect what happens inside a cell with what it means for a whole tissue — and ultimately for patients. Our partners bring the expertise needed to understand the enzymes, molecular structures and cellular processes behind those changes.

“The strength of CollagenQUEST is that we can follow a question from patient genetics to a molecular experiment and back into living cells and tissues. That is how we can tackle a problem none of our teams could solve alone.”

Why this is trickier than it sounds

Most of the things around us, from paint to packaging, are still made from fossil fuels dug out of the ground. Biology has long promised an alternative: engineering a microorganism to build the same molecules, but from renewable carbon instead. In a laboratory this already works, but keeping it working outside of this environment is another matter.

Feed a microbe pure sugar in a controlled environment and it’ll behave the same way every time, predictable and clean. Real waste refuses to cooperate like that. Potato and sugar beet leftovers change from one batch to the next, carrying different amounts of starch, water and impurities depending on the harvest, the season and even on how the crop was handled on its way to the factory.

Closing that gap, between a process that works once and one that works reliably, hour after hour at an industrial scale, is the whole problem C3 Biotech exists to solve.

Where science meets scale-up

C3 Biotech began in 2015 with a narrower ambition: the biological production of propane. Professor Nigel Scrutton, who’d spent years working at the point where enzyme science meets industrial reality, including a period as Director of Manchester’s Institute of Biotechnology, says his link to the University has never loosened.

“Universities have a broad range of talent, infrastructure and equipment resources that companies like ours need to move projects along,” he notes, “so my team work closely with Manchester on a day-to-day basis.”

What the Stockport plant has shown

In 2023, C3 Biotech’s acrylics team was one of just eight chosen from more than fifty global applicants for the Circular Biomanufacturing Challenge run by SPRIND. Their test was demanding: build an end-to-end process that runs continuously for 180 days.

Yet the company haven’t just met this target, they’ve gone beyond it. Its pilot plant has run for more than six months without a break and produced more than 100kg of a high-purity intermediate – a molecule which is partway to the finished plastic. That material has then been converted into methyl methacrylate (MMA), the building block of acrylic plastic. By joining these building blocks together into long chains, the team has produced the finished plastic, known as PMMA, which can then be made into everyday products.

Waste has gone in; plastic has come out.

Much of this is thanks to C3’s innovative ways of working. Conventional biomanufacturing takes place in stainless-steel tanks kept scrupulously sterile, which are expensive to build and to run. However, the company’s microbes are engineered to tolerate salt and a messier environment, so its process can run in plastic reactors without sterilised conditions – they can even use seawater rather than fresh water in the fermentation.

This lowers both the costs of building a plant and running it, while breaking the dependence on fossil fuels for acrylic production. C3’s modelling suggests that as a result, bio-based MMA could compete on price with the current oil-based version. Proving this at a commercial scale is their next step.

The company is already establishing manufacturing lines based on the pilot plant’s design and exploring other markets, including the ingredients used in skincare and anti-aging products. Their same approach can also be aimed at fuels, including a biological kerosene designed as an alternative to jet fuel and bio-LPG made from waste biomass and carbon dioxide.

What could actually change

It’s worth reflecting on why this matters beyond the chemistry itself. If it scales, the possibilities here stretch beyond one factory – future manufacturers could turn their own waste by-products into fuels and chemicals rather than paying to dispose of them. Production could happen close to where that waste was produced, with no need to ship in oil. Acrylic precursors created from low-value leftovers, not drilling, could feed plastics, paints, adhesives and textiles.

From potato peelings to the acrylic in our windows: C3 Biotech has moved the science beyond the laboratory and demonstrated sustained operation at pilot scale. The next challenge is proving that it can also become a commercially viable global business.

Take styrene, the starting material for the polystyrene found in food packaging and building insulation. Microbes can be engineered to make it, but in the process, it harms them, limiting how much they can produce. And styrene is not an isolated case: the same challenge faces anyone trying to make the everyday chemicals and materials we need when using biomass rather than oil.

There’s a good reason why it’s a problem the chemical industry wants to solve. Many commodity chemicals – bulk chemicals made in large volumes and sold at low margins, and the ingredients of plastics, lubricants, detergents, fuels, coatings and dyes – are still created from fossil resources, using processes that demand a great deal of energy.

Biology has a good record at the other end of the market, making small quantities of valuable things such as medicines, but the volumes and margins of commodity chemicals mean that any biological process would have to be cheap and robust enough to compete.

A trick borrowed from breweries

The solution might lie in the methods already used by brewers and dairy producers, who work with microbes on a vast scale. Yeast turns sugar into ethanol, the alcohol in beer, while bacteria turn the sugars in milk into lactic acid, which gives yoghurt its tang. Neither compound troubles the microbes that make it, at least at the levels involved, so both can build up to high levels in a tank. Chemists call such compounds biocompatible, meaning living cells can tolerate them.

Now, a team from Manchester think they can borrow that logic to develop a novel approach. Their plan is to split the process into two: in the first step, engineered microbes would feed on renewable raw materials such as agricultural waste and build up a gentle intermediate, a kind of stepping stone. In the second step, engineered enzymes (proteins that speed up chemical reactions) would convert that stepping stone into the final chemical. That way, the microbes never meet the toxic chemical, because growing them and making the chemical happen separately.

Putting the process to the test

In earlier proof-of-principle work the team tested this approach with styrene, which led to a five-fold increase in production compared with previous methods. Other chemicals like alpha-olefins, used to make plastics and synthetic lubricants, and FDCA, a building block for bio-based plastics that could replace those made from oil, are also targets for scale-up.

This research is now at the heart of SuCCEED, short for Sustainable Commodity Chemicals through Enzyme Engineering and Design, a five-year partnership between the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) and Shell, which is backed by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. This Prosperity Partnership scheme pairs university researchers with a company seeking to solve a practical problem, with the idea that technical and commercial barriers can be identified early, before they become expensive surprises.

Eight research groups across the University are involved, led by Professor David Leys, who specialises in finding enzymes and working out what they do. “We’ve previously worked with Shell to discover and characterise new enzymes,” David recalls, “so it was natural for us to partner in tackling sustainable commodity chemical production.”

Fundamental enzyme research, which studies how these molecules work in detail, is one of the MIB’s long-standing strengths. Inside the Institute, the people who explore enzymes work alongside those who engineer microbes and run fermentations, testing the potential cost and scale of processes. Professor Anthony Green, MIB Director, works on designing and evolving enzymes. In his laboratory, an enzyme can be put through repeated rounds of small genetic changes and selection – a little like natural selection – until it is more robust and ready for application.

Their colleague Dr Rosa Cuéllar-Franca brings a different question to the project – is this route really greener? Her life-cycle assessments count the energy, waste and emissions at every stage, from raw material to finished product, so that a new process can be compared honestly with the old one.

As David notes, “we will be unlikely to meet global net zero targets unless we find more sustainable ways to make the chemicals we need for everyday life.”

Next steps at Manchester

SuCCEED is now focused on showing that the approach used for styrene can work at the scale and cost that commodity chemicals demand. Core to this is the development of a proof-of-principle biorefinery. A biorefinery does for biological raw materials what an oil refinery does for oil, turning them into chemicals and fuels.

The toughest obstacle in the project, microbes being poisoned by their own product, already has a promising answer: a process that keeps them away from this dangerous step. Whether that answer holds as production grows towards an industrial scale is what the next few years are about. For an institute that has spent two decades digging into how enzymes work, it’s a chance to find out what they can achieve.

“It went from a fairly standard musky-man smell to something stronger and mustier,” Joy Milne recalls of the change in her husband Les’s scent. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s around 12 years later. 

Joy has hyperosmia, a heightened sensitivity to smell. Throughout her career she noticed that people with illnesses smelled differently, but it was at a Parkinson’s support group that it all finally fell into place: “I realised everyone else there had the same scent.” 

Joy later went to a talk given by Professor Tilo Kunath, a regenerative neurobiologist at the University of Edinburgh. There she asked him why he wasn’t working to find out why people with Parkinson’s have a distinct odour. Tilo called his collaborator Professor Perdita Barran, a mass spectrometry specialist, and asked if she could help. 

“It sounded so extraordinary I didn’t know what to think,” Perdita says. “We tested Joy and she really could smell Parkinson’s.” 

A disease that is diagnosed late

Currently, there’s no clinically established molecular test for Parkinson’s. The NICE diagnostic referral pathway relies on movement indicators but the disease can manifest more than 40 symptoms. By the time a patient’s motor symptoms are pronounced enough for them to be referred, up to 70% of their brain’s dopamine-producing nerve cells may have already been lost.

“These symptoms often don’t present until the disease is already well progressed, which obviously limits our treatment options,” notes Perdita. Seeing a specialist – the only route to an official diagnosis – can then take many months.

Following the nose

The team reasoned that Joy might be detecting metabolic changes that preceded the onset of motor symptoms. In an initial study, people with Parkinson’s and healthy controls wore T-shirts that Joy then assessed without seeing the participants. She correctly identified the Parkinson’s T-shirts and observed that the odour was strongest in sebum-rich areas, including the back of the neck and between the shoulders. Sebum is the oily substance that protects our skin from drying out. Remarkably, Joy also identified a t-shirt from the control group as having the Parkinson’s odour, that individual was later diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

To discover the molecules that were responsible, the researchers used mass spectrometry – a technique that weighs molecules so precisely that it can identify them and also quantify how much of each is present. They teamed up with Professor Monty Silverdale, a neurologist at Salford Royal who helped secure ethical approval for a clinical trial backed by £50,000 from Parkinson’s UK, and later with support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

The trial focused on molecular signals collected using simple skin swabs. PhD student Eleanor Sinclair developed methods to extract and measure the molecules using mass spectrometry, while postdoctoral researcher Drupad Trivedi analysed the data. Together they identified a distinct chemical signature of Parkinson’s, including changes in lipid metabolism and essential amino acids. The team has now sampled more than 7,000 participants worldwide, consistently detecting the Parkinson’s signature across different ages, ethnicities and sampling locations. The biomarkers also change as the disease progresses, raising the possibility of using them both for diagnosis and to monitor progression.

“The great thing about moving to the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) was it gave me the space to explore this incredible observation, to find the chemical signature of Parkinson’s,” recalls Perdita.

Next steps: from laboratory to clinic

The science has resulted in a spin-out company, SebOMIX, which is now seeking investment for a trial in Greater Manchester. The trial would sample around 400 people with suspected Parkinson’s, referred by their GPs, and another around 400 people with other symptoms such as dementia. The team at the MIB would work with clinical biochemists at Wythenshawe Hospital to analyse the swabs without knowing which was which. If the clinical laboratory can reproduce the research findings, the team will use the results to support the necessary regulatory approval and laboratory accreditation processes involving the MHRA and UKAS.

The hope is that a swab could help to decide who should be referred to a Parkinson’s-only clinic, where patients can receive targeted care from a range of specialists – easing the pressure on waiting lists. If chemical changes can be found before movement symptoms appear, it might also help to identify people who could take part in trials of treatments that aim to protect nerve cells.

For Perdita, who leads the Michael Barber Centre for Collaborative Mass Spectrometry at the MIB, the ultimate goal is clear. “We now want to translate this lab-based diagnostic into something that can be used routinely in clinic to diagnose and better understand this awful condition.”

Joy continues to contribute to Parkinson’s research. She has worked with Parkinson’s UK on training for health and care staff, and with Drupad Trivedi and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to understand hyperosmia. She hopes her extraordinary sense of smell will ultimately improve diagnosis and treatment for people with Parkinson’s.

Biocatalysis for global health

With support of the Gates Foundation, Manchester scientists are establishing low-cost biocatalytic manufacturing routes to key global health drugs.

In recent work they have targeted lenacapavir, a long-acting and highly effective HIV prevention drug. At present the high cost of producing this therapeutic remains a major barrier to widespread availability.

To address this challenge, Manchester researchers used directed evolution to engineer an aminotransferase enzyme to efficiently produce the chiral amine core of lenacapavir.

Evaluation of more than 12,000 variants during directed evolution produced an enzyme achieving more than 98% substrate conversion, 90% isolated yield and 99.5% enantiomeric purity.

Using AI to design enzymes

Although powerful, directed evolution remains costly and time consuming. Now, Manchester researchers are helping demonstrate a different approach: using AI to design entirely new enzymes computationally.

Working with the Institute for Protein Design, the team used the new RFD4-Proteina unified generative model to create an enzyme capable of catalysing the challenging amide-bond-forming step in lenacapavir synthesis.

Just 67 designs were selected for experimental testing. Four showed clear activity, with the best converting 79% of the starting amine into the desired product and showing high selectivity for the required S-enantiomer.

The result provides an important proof of concept for designing bespoke biocatalysts computationally and rapidly testing them experimentally.

Bridging science and scale

Biotechnology increasingly depends on researchers who can work across disciplinary boundaries and translate discoveries into industrial processes.

Researchers need to connect biology and chemistry with engineering, computation and data science, while understanding what changes when a process moves from the laboratory towards manufacture.

Three doctoral programmes involving Manchester are creating cohort-based training around these capabilities, with strong links between universities and industry.

Three routes to impact

• BioProcess develops expertise in biocatalysis and protein engineering, from enzyme discovery and AI-enabled optimisation through to industrial scale-up. Students are based across Manchester, York and Bristol and spend at least three months on company placement.

   

• BioAID will train the next generation of scientists in AI-empowered biocatalysis, addressing critical challenges in the development of sustainable solutions for pharmaceuticals, agri-tech and clean manufacturing. Led by Queen's University, Belfast with co-leads including Professor Sam Hay from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, and the Universities of Edinburgh and Bristol.

   

• CODE-M focuses on engineering microbial cells and communities to address challenges spanning health, clean growth, food systems and the environment. Led by The University of Manchester, in partnership with the University of Liverpool.

Together, the programmes will fund more than 90 PhD places.

What really happens at the forefront of scientific discovery, and who are the researchers doing the work? Science from the Source is a new podcast that goes behind the headlines to meet the Manchester researchers at the heart of advances in science and engineering. 

Hosted by theoretical physicists Dr Ross Jenkinson and Dr Sam Patrick, the eight-part series ventures beyond their own field to explore everything from artificial intelligence and meteorites, to alien life and cancer.

Bold questions, unexpected answers

Launching on 12 November, with episodes released fortnightly, the series sees the pair follow their curiosity and discover answers alongside the listener.

Ross adds: “What constantly surprises me is where the conversations go. You start with one question and suddenly find yourself looking at the subject in a completely different way. Those are the moments we wanted the podcast to capture.”

These conversations take them from the smallest scales imaginable to objects hurtling towards Earth. For example:

What can we achieve when we enter a world so small it is impossible to see with the human eye? With Dr Maddison Coke - who works at the atomic scale, manipulating the building blocks of materials with extraordinary precision - they uncover how the “science of the small” could help overcome the barriers to building powerful, scalable quantum computers.

When a fireball streaks across the sky, how do you work out where impact may hit? With planetary scientist Dr Chloe Kadir they ask how do scientists track meteors as they hurtle towards Earth, what is the role of real-life meteorite hunters and what do those pieces of space rock can reveal about where they came from?

Could AI turn us back into children, and would that necessarily be a bad thing? With Thomas Quilter, from the Centre of AI Fundamentals, they take the conversation beyond whether AI is simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to ask a more provocative question: is AI advancing faster than our understanding of its consequences, and should we consider slowing progress while we catch up?

Putting researchers centre stage

The series puts a spotlight on researchers whose role at the forefront of scientific discovery can often be less visible to the public.

Across the series, Ross and Sam invite listeners to share in their curiosity to get closer to the questions shaping our future, meet the people driving the science, and experience the unexpected turns that are part of discovery itself.

Creating economic impact in the North West

The North West has deep expertise in industrial biotechnology, but translating research into commercial impact depends on more than scientific discovery.

Researchers need routes to industry, companies need access to expertise and emerging technologies, and early-stage ideas need evidence and investment to progress. 

Led by The University of Manchester, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC) brings together five North West universities, and more than 50 business partners, civic organisations and project collaborators. 

Backed by £5.2 million from EPSRC, it is building the connections and capability needed to accelerate industrial biotechnology translation across the region.

Helping ideas become commercial success

IBIC combines industry-academic collaboration, proof-of-concept funding, secondments and entrepreneurial support with a network of more than 2,800 members. It has funded 75 projects which have already leveraged £3.2 million and delivered 55 events attracting more than 2,630 delegates. 

By 2029, the ambition is to turn those connections into impact: supporting 25 early-stage companies, delivering 80 industry proof-of-concept studies and enabling ten new spinouts or start-ups. 

Ideas seed-funded by IBIC are already translating into commercial ventures. Adder-Vax has progressed from a computational vaccine concept to a registered company and secured further accelerator and translational funding. While ColoriQuo has spun out of The University of Manchester in 2026, attracting funding and industry interest for its approach to replacing artificial chemical dyes and agricultural pigments with bio-inspired, sugar-based structural colour.

Iran has become a test of Donald Trump’s credibility at home as well as his power abroad.

The war and rising fuel prices contributed to the Republican defeat in the recent congressional elections. That gives the president a stronger political reason to find an ending to the conflict that he can present as a success.

On November 9, President Trump said he wanted to keep the war at “status quo”, but warned that American forces were “locked and loaded” should circumstances change.

One mountain near Iran’s main nuclear complex sits at the centre of America’s conundrum. Trump has repeatedly threatened Pickaxe Mountain, saying in October that the US could destroy it quickly. The gap between that promise and what a strike could achieve deserves attention.

Pickaxe Mountain is the English nickname for Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, a 1,600m tall (5,200ft) peak located around 1 mile south of the Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran. Experts believe it hosts a nuclear facility, but it is thought to be much deeper than Natanz. According to experts, the complex is located between 80m and 100m underground. This makes it more difficult to destroy than other sites associated with Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The decision to build a complex at Pickaxe Mountain followed a series of explosions across Iran in 2020. These damaged alleged missile sites, power plants and other facilities. The causes remain unclear.

One blast, on July 2, 2020, damaged a workshop at the Natanz nuclear complex that was used for assembling centrifuges. These centrifuges are containers used to produce enriched uranium. The uranium can be used for civilian nuclear power plants, but is also a component in nuclear weapons. In September of that year, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the workshop’s replacement would be built “in the heart” of Pickaxe Mountain.

The Trump administration’s concern is that Pickaxe Mountain could shelter centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade levels. Analysts also suggest that the underground complex could accommodate other work related to developing a nuclear weapon.

Newspaper reports citing Israeli intelligence assessments claim that Iran moved centrifuges and related equipment into its tunnels. The mountain could also provide a protected base for rebuilding centrifuge production damaged in earlier attacks.

What is inside and how close it is to becoming operational remain publicly unverified. Satellite photographs show continued construction and reinforced entrances.

An assessment in September by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (a thinktank based in the US) found an increased level of activity at Pickaxe Mountain during 2026. Analysts have not been able to confirm that centrifuges have been moved there, however.

Calls for nuclear weapons and a nuclear test in Iranian media and political circles, alongside speculation about Mojtaba Khamenei’s willingness to approve a shift towards nuclear deterrence, have added to concerns about the site.

However, the images alone cannot establish that enrichment or bomb making is happening inside. International inspectors have never been given access, leaving the interior’s layout and contents publicly unverified.

Why is it difficult to attack?

The protection for the new facility comes from the mountain itself, which is composed of dense granite. The depth of 80-100m for the complex is an estimate drawn from external evidence; detailed plans have never been published.

America’s largest conventional bunker-buster, the GBU-57, was used against Fordow and Natanz in June 2025. Its performance against Pickaxe Mountain remains uncertain. Figures describing penetration through earth tell us little about the same weapon’s performance through dense rock.

The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is the only operational aircraft certified to carry the GBU-57 bomb. Royal Air Force

The Trump administration could try to interrupt access and operations without reaching the deepest halls. Public military assessments discuss attacks on entrances and external infrastructure. Such damage could delay work, and repeated attacks could complicate repairs. Equipment buried deeper might survive.

This creates a problem after the bombing stops. Satellite images can reveal a collapsed entrance. Establishing what happened far underground is much harder. A president could announce a successful operation while inspectors and analysts remain unable to verify its effect on Iran’s capabilities.

Could a strike give Trump an exit?

Pickaxe Mountain offers Trump a target around which he could build a victory speech. After a politically costly war, a strike would let him claim that he had dealt with Iran’s remaining nuclear threat and could bring American operations to an end: damage the facility, declare victory and withdraw.

That calculation is also being discussed inside Iran. One possible course would be to let Trump claim victory and avoid retaliation so the war could end. Claims that the Trump administration had requested such an arrangement have circulated. Iran’s foreign ministry, however, dismissed them and insisted that any attack would receive a response.

There could be an opportunity here for Tehran. If underground equipment survived and Trump accepted visible damage as grounds to leave, Iran could preserve capabilities while allowing the White House to claim success. The mountain could become a useful lure.

Yet evidence that Iran has deliberately prepared such an outcome remains thin: construction began years before this confrontation. Reinforcing the site also serves the straightforward purpose of protecting it.

Even a spectacular strike would leave the confrontation over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz unresolved. The danger is that each side expects the other to stop. Trump could assume a limited attack would close the confrontation; Tehran could decide that answering it was essential to its credibility.

Meanwhile, damage visible from space would leave unanswered questions about equipment and material underground. Ending the confrontation would still require an agreement covering nuclear inspections, shipping through Hormuz, sanctions on Iran and the wider disputes keeping the conflict alive.

Arash Beidollahkhani, Research Fellow at the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As Prime Minister Andy Burnham heads to the COP summit in Türkiye after announcing new gas drilling in the North Sea, the halting of wind and solar subsidies and a delay in electric car targets, timely new research from The University of Manchester has found that Labour risks worsening its electoral position if the party abandons or weakens its climate commitments.

The study argues that the changing political landscape presents a dilemma for the Government. While Reform has made opposition to net zero an increasingly prominent part of its political strategy, the Green Party is attracting support from voters who want more ambitious climate action alongside a stronger response to economic inequality.

Rather than retreating from climate commitments, the researchers argue that electoral gains can be achieved by any party seeking to make climate policies fairer, and ensuring they deliver tangible benefits for lower-income households.

The research, led by The University of Manchester's Professor Matthew Paterson, examines how the fragmentation of British politics is reshaping the electoral pressures surrounding climate change.

The electoral risk of abandoning net zero

The UK was previously considered a world leader in climate policy, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 per cent since 1990. This progress was supported by a relatively stable consensus between Labour and the Conservatives, with competition between the parties focused largely on how best to deliver climate action rather than whether it should be a priority.

But the researchers argue that this political settlement has broken down, with the rise of Reform UK and the Green Party transforming the electoral landscape.

Since the 2024 General Election, both parties have emerged as significant challengers to Labour, with the 2026 local elections demonstrating the extent of the shift.

Reform has made opposition to net zero a central part of its political strategy, while the Green Party has increasingly positioned itself as a champion of more ambitious climate action.

The researchers argue that Labour faces pressure from both directions. Weakening climate commitments might appear to offer a way of appealing to Reform voters, but risks alienating people who want stronger action and are increasingly turning to the Greens.

The paper highlights how the Green Party's electoral gains have been driven not simply by climate concerns, but also by dissatisfaction with economic inequality and the cost-of-living crisis.

Importantly, the researchers point out that most Reform voters do not necessarily oppose climate action. This suggests that opposition to net zero should not automatically be interpreted as a widespread public rejection of climate policy.

Making climate action work for ordinary households

Rather than weakening its climate ambitions, the research argues that Labour should focus on ensuring the benefits of the transition to net zero are shared more fairly.

The researchers highlight how some existing policies including subsidies for electric vehicles, solar panels and heat pumps can disproportionately benefit wealthier households, because they require people to pay substantial costs upfront. Although these investments can reduce energy bills over time, many households lack the savings needed to take advantage of them.

Housing and transport are identified as particularly important areas where climate policy could also help address wider inequalities. Investment in home insulation and warmer homes could reduce energy bills, while cheaper public transport and better cycling infrastructure could offer practical alternatives to car dependence.

The researchers also highlight the potential of the Government's Warm Homes Plan and community energy schemes to connect the transition to net zero with improving living standards.

They argue that these policies could help address some of the economic frustrations driving support for populist parties, while creating a stronger political case for climate action.

Greater devolution could also help, allowing local and regional governments to develop climate policies that respond more directly to the needs of their communities.

What the experts say

“Labour faces pressure from both sides of the political debate on climate change, said Professor Matthew Paterson, Professor of Politics at The University of Manchester. “While Reform is pushing for a retreat from net zero, the Green Party is demonstrating that there is an electoral constituency for more ambitious climate action.

“Warmer homes, lower energy bills and better public transport can all help tackle the cost-of-living crisis while reducing emissions. Making social justice central to climate policy could be crucial to maintaining public support and keeping the UK on track to tackle climate change.”

Publication details

This research was published in: The Political Quarterly

Title: The changing electoral politics of pursuing climate action in the UK

DOI: 10.1111/1467-923x.70151

URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/416937122_The_Changing_Electoral_Politics_of_Pursuing_Climate_Action_in_the_UK

A naturally occurring molecule that helps the brain clear away damaged blood cells could open the door to new treatments for one of the deadliest forms of stroke, research led by University of Manchester scientists suggests.

Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) occurs when a blood vessel bursts and bleeds directly into the brain, leaking substances such as iron that cause serious damage for which effective treatments remain limited.

Publishing in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, the researchers have now identified a biological process in humans and mice that appears to help the brain deal with the aftermath of the bleeding and improve recovery.

The Medical Research Council funded study focused on an enzyme called cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (CH25H) which converts cholesterol into a molecule called 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC).

They found increased levels of CH25H in brain tissue from people who had suffered ICH, particularly in immune cells surrounding the site of the bleed.

CH25H also appeared to help the brain’s resident immune cells called microglia to engulf and remove red blood cells released into brain tissue following a haemorrhage.

And it influenced genes involved in clearing cellular debris and processing fats and cholesterol within the microglia.

The clean-up process can be critical because when red blood cells break down they can contribute to further brain damage after the initial stroke.

Mice genetically lacking Ch25h experienced greater iron accumulation and tissue damage, alongside worse neurological symptoms following an experimentally induced brain haemorrhage.

By contrast, treating mice with 25HC improved their functional recovery and reduced signs of damage in the brain.

When Ch25h was absent, immune cells were less effective at engulfing red blood cells and accumulated more fatty droplets inside them.

Treatment with 25HC increased the mice cells’ ability to engulf red blood cells while reducing the build-up of fatty droplets, providing further evidence for the effect.

Co-lead author Professor Catherine Lawrence from The University of Manchester, said: “Our research suggests that the enzyme CH25H and the molecule it produces, 25HC, help the brain’s immune cells clear away damaged red blood cells after a haemorrhagic stroke, limiting the harmful effects of bleeding and highlighting a promising natural process that could potentially be harnessed to improve recovery for patients.”

Co-lead author Dr Paul Kasher said: “These findings reveal an important part of the brain’s natural clean-up response after haemorrhagic stroke, showing how 25HC can help immune cells remove damaging material more effectively, and while further research is needed, targeting this pathway could ultimately offer a new approach to treating this devastating and often deadly condition.

“Further research will be needed to establish whether targeting this pathway could eventually be developed into a safe and effective treatment for patients.”

• The paper: Ch25h/25HC axis orchestrates phagocytosis and lipid metabolism after intracerebral haemorrhage is published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation and available here DOI 10.1186/s12974-026-04106-5

The University of Manchester, through its Creative Manchester Research Platform, has partnered with CyanLines in a 12-month Innovation Fellowship, funded through Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF). The fellowship will be fulfilled by anthropologist, Dr Sarah O’Brien.

CyanLines is an ambitious partnership project supported by public and private sector funders, aiming to integrate blue and green spaces in Manchester. The vision is to connect the city’s canal paths, parks, rivers into an integrated and accessible network routes for walking, wheeling, cycling and running. In a bid to be a durable and relevant connected infrastructure, CyanLines seeks to develop this network with the different neighbourhoods bordering the routes, bringing together actors across the private, public and charitable sectors, as well as residents, commuters, community groups and grassroots organisations.

Dr O’Brien is an anthropologist who has worked on infrastructures, landscapes and future-making in areas of nuclear waste management in rural France and has also conducted ethnographic research on environmental activism in the UK, writing about truth and responsibility. She has experience in immersive qualitative research, interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory creative methods.

Specialising in infrastructural ethics, landscapes and place-making, Sarah brings her ethnographic expertise and community engagement experience to CyanLines, building on her postdoctoral work with the Mimesis in Action research project in areas of nuclear decommissioning or nuclear waste management. Central to this research are interests in the ecology and sociality of landscapes, how people build identities and livelihoods with and through them, and in methodologies which experiment with imaginative future-making.

The 12-month knowledge exchange fellowship will allow Sarah to continue some of the work she started with CyanLines, in a pilot project earlier in 2026, whereby she started to explore community engagement around the proposed route CL 5, the “Piccadilly to the Etihad Campus loop”. A collaborative public workshop at Bridge 5 Mill in Holt Town resulted in rich conversations around ecological spaces, urban regeneration projects, accessibility and inclusion – beautifully captured by Illuscribe in the live illustrations below. This work emphasises that infrastructures and landscapes are not merely planned points in space: they are the socio-ecological relations and stories upholding them through time. Importantly, these stories and experiences include materials, humans, and other living beings, and they can tell us a lot about possibilities for the future.

The missing half of the equation

The engineering of biomolecules, such as proteins, DNA, RNA, sugars and natural products from biological pathways, is essential for a greener and more sustainable society as we transition away from using petrochemicals. Biomolecule engineering is the craft of redesigning them, so that an enzyme can perform a new function, such as producing key pharmaceutical compounds, or a microbe can build useful chemicals from waste.

The equipment in the MIB aids with that every step of the way: digitally designing molecules (researchers call this working in silico), then engineering, testing and checking that the right molecule has been built with the right structure. Each stage requires its own technology, and each technology has its own learning curve before it can be used properly. After all, an experiment is only as good as the person running it.

That’s what the Manchester Biomolecule Engineering Centre (MBEC) exists to do: having the right equipment is only half the challenge; the other half is having people who know how to use it accurately, consistently and safely.

A training hub, not a booking system

The MBEC began in 2024, backed by £1.2 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. First to be trained were three of the Institute’s own staff, and since then it’s built a programme for the UK’s research community.

Researchers and technical professionals can ask for bespoke training, or apply for a funded two-week secondment, working alongside the specialists who run the equipment day to day. The aim is that people leave with methods and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that they can take back to their own laboratories.

Specialist technologies are only as powerful as the expertise behind them. MBEC gives researchers hands-on training to use advanced equipment confidently and effectively

The centre supports everyone, right from PhD students through to experienced scientists looking to continue their professional development. Each year, two workshops catering for different doctoral programmes are hosted, doctoral training networks and apprentices are welcomed, and twenty school students have taken on work experience placements, giving them their first experience of working in a live laboratory setting. 

At the other end of the scale, SMEs including Imperagen, Recircle and Simplex Molecular have benefitted from the training, with companies able to access protocols and SOPs online, so that good practice can travel far beyond the MIB. 

This training is already paying off for many participants. After coming to MBEC to learn more about using and collecting preliminary data on one of the instruments, a recent visiting researcher went on to succeed in their own bid to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for similar equipment. Another recent trainee shared that she particularly appreciated the time she spent with the team “calculating ratios, discussing methods and working through the details.” 

For Dr Mark Dunstan, it’s clear what success looks like: “The best day for us is when someone is not only able to set up instruments and run experiments themselves, but to teach the person at the next bench. We’re looking for trainees becoming trainers.”
 

Twenty years and counting

MBEC builds on more than two decades of engineering biology at the MIB. If the Institute’s first twenty years were about gathering the expertise, funding and facilities under one roof, its next chapter is about opening the door. 

MBEC will continue to train the next generation of researchers, scientists and industrialists in emerging engineering biology technologies. So, when the latest cohort of PhD students head back to their universities, or researchers return to their companies, the real test of their training will be what they do next.

African governments are using foreign investment, infrastructure projects and conservation schemes to extend their control over land and communities, according to new research spanning 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study challenges the idea that African states are simply too weak to regulate powerful foreign investors. Instead, the researchers argue that governments can actively use investment and partnerships with external organisations to strengthen their own authority – sometimes at the expense of communities’ existing land rights.

However, they say this does not diminish the responsibility of foreign investors, donors and conservation organisations, whose active participation helps shape these processes.

The research, by The University of Manchester’s Dr Carolin Dieterle and Yuezhou Yang of the University of Oxford, examines how governments use land policy not just to encourage economic development, but also to extend and consolidate their power.

How investment can extend state power

The researchers analysed 24 cases across 14 countries, combining fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2024 in Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya with a review of existing research and policy documents.

They identify two connected strategies. The first, which they call “widening”, involves extending government authority into areas where control has traditionally been limited or shared with local communities. Governments can do this by attracting large-scale land investment, building transport and infrastructure corridors, or designating land for conservation.

The second strategy, “deepening”, involves strengthening that authority over time through laws, administrative systems, land registration and technical tools such as digital mapping.

In some cases, governments have described land as empty, ungoverned or underused to make it appear available for development. The researchers argue that such descriptions can overlook existing farming, pastoralism, customary land rights and local systems of governance.

From agricultural investment to conservation

The study highlights examples across the continent. In Ethiopia, government efforts to attract large-scale agricultural investment included identifying land for a federal land bank and promoting it as available for productive use. In northern Uganda, claims that land was uninhabited or ungoverned helped justify reclassifying customary land and allocating it for investment projects.

Infrastructure schemes can have similar effects. In Kenya, the Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport corridor has been used to extend state authority into regions where land has long been governed through communal tenure systems. In Tanzania, agricultural development planning has involved reclassifying village land to make it available for investment.

Conservation can also be a means of expanding state control. Designating land as a park, reserve or protected area can bring it under central government authority, while restricting how local people use it. The paper discusses cases where these processes have contributed to displacement, evictions and conflict.

A different way to understand land and power

The researchers argue that foreign investment does not necessarily mean governments are losing control to outside interests. Instead, states can use relationships with investors, donors and other organisations to pursue their own territorial and political goals.

However, the paper does not suggest that stronger state control is always beneficial. The authors emphasise that the processes they describe can be exclusionary or coercive, and that efforts to impose new arrangements are often contested by affected communities.

The findings offer a framework for understanding how land investment, development planning and environmental policy can reshape the relationship between governments and the people who live on the land.

What the experts say

“Foreign investment in land is often discussed as if African governments are simply losing control to powerful outside interests,” said Dr Carolin Dieterle from The University of Manchester.

“Understanding this matters because these projects are not just about economic development - they can also change who has the power to access, use and make decisions about land.”

Publication details

This research was published in: Geoforum

Title: Widening and deepening: territorial strategies and state building in Africa

DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2026.104838

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718526003064

Technetium-99 is a long-lived radioactive by-product of nuclear fuel production and reprocessing. In many environments it forms a highly mobile chemical species that can move readily through water and soil, making it a priority contaminant at legacy nuclear sites including Sellafield in the UK and Hanford in the United States.

Now, two new studies led by researchers in The University of Manchester's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences demonstrate promising methods for converting technetium into more stable forms and locking it into minerals designed to remove technetium from effluents or prevent its movement through the environment.

The findings will inform future strategies for treating radioactive effluents, remediating contaminated groundwater, and developing more durable waste forms for long-term disposal.

Turning radioactive contaminants into stable mineral waste forms

In one study, researchers developed a new technique that removes technetium from liquid waste streams by incorporating it into layered double hydroxides (LDHs), a class of engineered minerals used in environmental remediation.

The team found that during mineral formation, dissolved technetium was effectively removed from solution and chemically transformed into a less mobile form. More than 99 per cent of the contaminant was removed, even at elevated technetium concentrations.

Using advanced X-ray analysis at the Diamond Light Source, and microscopy techniques, the researchers showed that technetium becomes incorporated directly into the mineral structure as the material forms. The study provides the first reported evidence of technetium being incorporated into the octahedral layers of an LDH mineral.

The work suggests a potential new highly effective route for treating technetium in radioactive effluents generated during nuclear operations and decommissioning activities while producing a stable inorganic waste form for long-term management. 

Samuel Shaw said "The key advance here is that we're not simply removing technetium from the effluent, we're locking it up directly into a mineral structures to provide much greater long-term stability. Understanding and optimising these processes could open up new routes for treating radioactive wastes, and we are working with Sellafield through the Game Changers programme to determine whether this new tool can help with  the decommissioning of this legacy nuclear site.

Adapting nuclear medicine technology to remediate contaminated land

In a second study, researchers took inspiration from technetium radiopharmaceuticals used routinely in hospitals. 

The team investigated whether methylene diphosphonic acid (MDP), a compound widely used in nuclear medicine for bone scans could help capture technetium in contaminated groundwater systems. In the hospital, MDP is used to bind the short-lived isotope technetium-99m to hydroxyapatite, the calcium phosphate mineral that makes up the bulk of human bone. Previous work from researchers at RADER developed in-situ hydroxyapatite-based remediation strategies to clean-up radionuclides (e.g. uranium) from contaminated land. However, prior to this study the high mobility of long-lived technetium-99 limited removal using this strategy.

Through collaboration with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Nuclear Medicine Department and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory the team used MDP to form a soluble complex with chemically reduced technetium-99, allowing it to be captured efficiently by hydroxyapatite under conditions representative of major nuclear legacy sites. 

Laboratory tests showed hydroxyapatite removed up to 99 per cent of the technetium-MDP complex from solution, while advanced imaging experiments demonstrated that the approach also works under realistic flowing groundwater conditions.

When used in conjunction with a phosphate mineral forming remediation technology, this approach could enable targeted, long-term technetium removal from contaminated land by incorporation into the minerals.

The team also demonstrated, for the first time, that microbes could help generate the technetium-MDP complex through biological reduction processes, opening up future possibilities for in situ bioremediation strategies.

Callum Robinson said "Technetium-99 is a challenging radioactive contaminant because under certain conditions it can move readily through groundwater and the wider environment. This study demonstrates new ways of capturing and immobilising technetium in stable minerals, helping to build the toolkit needed for the safe clean-up of nuclear legacy sites."

Supporting future nuclear clean-up

Together, the studies demonstrate two new innovative approaches which have the potential to tackle technetium clean up in different engineered and natural environments.

One offers a pathway for treating contaminated liquid waste and generating stable solid waste forms. The other develops a new method for immobilising technetium directly within contaminated ground and groundwater systems using phosphate minerals.

The research, performed in the unique RADER NNUF laboratories, will help strengthen the range of technologies available to the nuclear industry as it addresses clean-up of high hazard nuclear legacy sites.

Researchers from The University of Manchester are calling for a more meaningful approach to involving communities in research and decision-making, as the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) celebrates ten years of bringing together researchers, older people, community organisations, policymakers and other partners to understand and improve experiences of ageing in cities.

The group's new publication, Collaborative Research for Ageing in Place: Stories of Co-Production in Practice, brings together learning from 18 projects exploring what co-production means in practice - and what it takes to build stronger, more equal partnerships between researchers, communities and policymakers.

The collection shows how working closely with communities can help shape policies, neighbourhoods and housing, support local organisations and strengthen work to make Greater Manchester more age-friendly.

It also introduces the TRUST framework, which sets out five principles for working more equally with communities:

Trust – building relationships based on care and respect
Redressing exclusion – recognising and tackling the ways people have been left out of decisions
Undoing barriers – making it easier for people to take part
Sharing power – involving people in decisions from the beginning
Time – allowing relationships and ideas to develop

The collection includes examples of older people helping to shape neighbourhoods and social housing, as well as research with older refugees, people from minority communities and older LGBT+ people. It also explores creative ways of working, including film, photography, comics, poetry and art.

Ten years of working with communities

MUARG was established in 2016 to bring together researchers, older people, community organisations and policymakers to improve understanding of ageing in cities and help create better places to grow older.

Over the past decade, its work has shown how research can go beyond simply asking people for their views. Instead, communities can help decide what research is needed, shape how it is carried out and influence what happens as a result.

The collection was launched at MUARG's 10-year anniversary event, which brought together older people, community groups, policymakers, charities and researchers to reflect on the group's work and consider what should happen next.

“Co-production is not simply about asking people for their views – it is also about changing how research is done by sharing power, valuing people's experiences and building relationships based on trust,” said Professor Tine Buffel, Director of MUARG.

MUARG hopes the collection will provide practical ideas for researchers, policymakers, community organisations and others looking for better ways to involve people in decisions that affect their lives.

An international team of scientists has discovered how some of the tiniest structures in the human spine help it cope with the strain of bending, lifting and everyday movement, potentially shedding new light on why spinal discs deteriorate.

The study, is published in Nature on November 4 and involves researchers at The University of Manchester, Queen Mary University and University College London, in collaboration with the ESRF -the European Synchrotron and Diamond Light Source.

They used powerful X-rays to examine what happens inside intervertebral discs at scales ranging from whole tissue down to individual collagen structures.

The imaging method, called TomoSAXS, combines different X-ray techniques to reveal in 3D how the collagen fibres that give discs strength respond when compressed.

They found collagen fibrils - tiny, strong strands made from many collagen molecules packed tightly together- are already under strain before additional pressure is applied, which may help discs withstand everyday loads but could also make some structures more vulnerable to damage.

Highly curved collagen fibres experienced particularly high strain, especially around the boundary between the disc's inner and outer regions, an area that may be more susceptible to damage and herniation.

Dr Alissa Parmenter, joint first author, from University College London said: “When we bend or lift, the forces within our spinal discs are shared between structures far smaller than we can see. With TomoSAXS, we can follow how the tissue deforms and connect that movement to changes within its nanoscale collagen building blocks. This helps us understand how the disc’s intricate organisation allows it to carry load, and why some regions may be more vulnerable to damage.”

The work also builds on imaging research developed at The University of Manchester by Dr Catherine Disney, whose earlier research pioneered ways of studying soft-tissue mechanics using X-ray tomography and later helped develop techniques for tracking collagen fibre movement in three dimensions.

Dr Disney said: “This study shows why long-term investment in synchrotron imaging and analysis methods matters.

“Seeing these approaches now integrated with TomoSAXS to connect the mechanics of the whole disc all the way down to nanoscale collagen is tremendously exciting.”

Professor Himadri Gupta, joint senior author from Queen Mary University said: “The findings point to a potential trade-off in the way the disc is built. We found that substantial pre-stress within collagen fibrils may help the disc achieve the stiffness it needs to perform its role but could also leave some structures with less capacity to withstand additional damaging loads.”

Dr Elis Newham from Queen Mary University, london, is joint first author. He said “Understanding how damage develops in the intervertebral disc requires us to look beyond the tissue as a whole. With this approach, we can start to connect what is happening to individual collagen structures with how the disc behaves as an organ. This could give us new ways to investigate the mechanical changes associated with ageing and disease.”

The researchers stress the discovery is not a new treatment for back pain, but say the technology provides a powerful new way of investigating how damage begins and develops inside spinal discs.

The approach could eventually also help researchers study other collagen-rich tissues including tendons, cartilage and arteries.

• The paper, “Multimodal X-ray imaging reveals hierarchical fibre mechanics”, is published in Nature. DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11148-5

Steve, who joined the University on 2 November, will provide strategic, commercial and operational leadership for the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) and the University's involvement in the Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Centre (SMMC).

He brings extensive experience of industrial innovation and commercialisation, having previously served as Chief Executive of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and, before that, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), one of the UK's foremost partnerships between industry and academia. Earlier in his career, he spent more than 20 years with Siemens, holding senior leadership roles in the UK, Europe and China.

The appointment marks an important step in the University's plans to establish a connected national platform for advanced materials innovation, helping businesses access the expertise, specialist facilities and partnerships they need to develop new technologies and bring them to market.

The approach builds on complementary strengths across two locations.

GEIC, based on Manchester's Oxford Road corridor, is an established industry-facing facility supporting the development and commercialisation of graphene, 2D materials and wider advanced materials technologies. It connects companies with technical expertise, industrially relevant equipment and the University's research capabilities.

SMMC, developed by Rochdale Development Agency (RDA) and operated by The University of Manchester, is a new innovation and specialist manufacturing scale-up centre at the heart of the Atom Valley Innovation District in Rochdale. Its base build was completed in October, with specialist fit-out and operational preparations underway ahead of opening in 2027.

Together, the centres will provide a clearer route for businesses to move from technical challenges and product development through validation, prototyping and manufacturing readiness towards scale-up and commercial adoption.

This approach also builds on the successful national collaboration model developed through the Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability (CEAMS), which connects businesses with existing specialist expertise and facilities across the UK. Rather than duplicating national innovation assets, CEAMS makes it easier for companies to find and access them, bringing together the right capabilities around their needs.

The University is also lead delivery partner for the £16.4 million Atom Valley Innovation District programme, supported by UK Research and Innovation's Local Innovation Partnerships Fund (LIPF), a flagship £500 million UK Government programme investing in regional innovation economies across the country. This investment will accelerate the development of an advanced materials and manufacturing ecosystem around SMMC, supporting business innovation and the growth of the wider cluster.

As Managing Director, Steve will lead the development of the centres' commercial and operational strategy, building industry partnerships and attracting new business activity while strengthening connections with regional and national innovation partners.

The role sits within Unit M, the University's innovation directorate, and supports the university's Manchester 2035 strategy in its ambition to become Europe's most inclusive and impactful innovation ecosystem.

Professor John Holden, Vice-President for Civic Engagement and Innovation, and Chief Executive of Unit M at the University of Manchester, said: “Steve brings an exceptional combination of industrial leadership, commercial experience and a strong track record of working across industry and academia. His experience at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult makes him particularly well placed to lead the next phase of development for GEIC and our role within SMMC.

“Steve's leadership will be central to our ambition to create the UK's most connected advanced materials cluster, building on GEIC's achievements and realising the potential of SMMC to support manufacturing innovation and industrial growth.

“Working with partners including Rochdale Development Agency, we've made significant progress in developing SMMC at Atom Valley. Steve's appointment will help us build on that investment, connect it with GEIC's established strengths and create new opportunities for businesses to innovate, scale and grow.”

Councillor Daniel Meredith, Rochdale Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Housing said: “The Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Centre is a major investment in Rochdale's future and a cornerstone of our ambitions for Atom Valley. We've worked closely with the University of Manchester to bring the centre to this stage, and Steve's appointment is an important step towards realising its full potential.

“His experience of working with industry and developing successful innovation partnerships will be invaluable as we look to attract new businesses, investment and skilled jobs to Rochdale. We want Atom Valley to become a place where advanced manufacturing businesses can establish themselves and grow, and SMMC will have a central role in making that happen.”

Steve Foxley said: “The UK has some extraordinary strengths in research and engineering, particularly around advanced materials, but the challenge is making sure those strengths translate into successful businesses, competitive industries and real economic growth. That's something I've been passionate about throughout my career, and it's what attracted me to this opportunity at Manchester.

“GEIC has already built a strong reputation for working with industry, and the development of SMMC at Atom Valley creates an opportunity to take that capability further. By connecting the expertise, facilities and partnerships across both centres, we can help businesses overcome some of the practical challenges of developing, testing and scaling new technologies.

“I'm looking forward to working with the teams, our industry partners and the wider innovation community to build on what's already been achieved and make a real difference to UK manufacturing.”

The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library has taken a selection of its historic Coptic and Ethiopian manuscripts out of the library and into the community, giving hundreds of people the rare opportunity to encounter their heritage first-hand.

The special exhibition - held on 1 November at St Mary & St Mina Coptic Orthodox Church in Stockport - attracted more than 400 visitors and their children, many of whom travelled from across the UK to see manuscripts dating back as far as the tenth century.

The event brought together curators, academics and members of Greater Manchester’s Coptic community, many of whom had previously had little opportunity to engage directly with the library’s extensive collection of manuscripts written in Coptic - an ancient Egyptian language.

The event was organised by Dr Ibrahim Saweros and Dr Jeremy Penner, and formed part of Coptic in Manchester: Connecting Manuscripts and Communities, a two-year research project led by Dr Sarah Parkhouse at The University of Manchester.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the project aims to bring manuscript research into conversation with the knowledge and experiences of the communities whose histories are represented in library and museum collections.

Visitors were provided with an exhibition booklet and had the opportunity to speak with the project team about the manuscripts, their history and their significance. The enthusiasm of the congregation - particularly younger visitors - demonstrated the potential for cultural institutions to build meaningful relationships with communities whose heritage they preserve.

For many attendees, the experience was more than an opportunity to see historical artefacts - the manuscripts offered a tangible connection to the language, faith and traditions of previous generations, and a chance to explore how those traditions have evolved over the centuries.

The project hopes that this encounter will be the first of many, as libraries and museums look for new ways to make their collections accessible and relevant to the communities whose histories they hold.

Among the manuscripts on display were biblical texts, Coptic liturgies and a Holy Week lectionary, alongside two parchment manuscripts from Egypt’s White Monastery containing sermons by St Shenoute of Atripe, a hugely influential fifth-century monastic leader.

Visitors were also able to see fragments of an ancient Coptic translation of the Gospel of Matthew, written on papyrus, and an eighteenth-century Ethiopian manuscript recounting the life and miracles of St George.

The encounter offered a rare opportunity to explore these objects in the setting of a living religious community, connecting centuries of written history with traditions that continue to be practised in Greater Manchester today.

“There is something quite remarkable about a manuscript written centuries ago finding itself once again among people who know its prayers, recognise its saints and continue its traditions,” said Dr Jeremy Penner, Senior Curator at the John Rylands Library.

Lecturers and students have significantly different perceptions of how much generative artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in university studies, according to new research from The University of Manchester and Spain’s Universidad del Pais Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea.

The study found that academic staff perceived students to be using AI tools such as ChatGPT for their studies much more extensively than students reported themselves. Researchers say the findings highlight a gap in understanding between staff and students, at a time when universities are grappling with how best to respond to the technology.

A gap in understanding

The research examined how academic staff and students perceived their own use of generative AI tools, as well as their views of how the technology was being used in higher education.

The study surveyed 45 academic staff and 86 students in a School covering social science disciplines at a UK research-intensive university. The questionnaires were conducted between April and June 2024.

When asked about students’ use of AI for academic purposes, staff gave an average rating of 5.23 on a seven-point scale. Students’ own responses produced an average of 3.11.

The researchers caution that students may have underreported their use of AI, but say the difference nevertheless points to the limited information staff may have about how students use these tools in their studies.

AI use can be difficult for lecturers to identify, particularly when they see only the final version of an assignment rather than the process through which it was produced. Students may also use AI independently of their interactions with teaching staff, leaving academics with an incomplete picture of their working practices.

Different attitudes towards AI

The research also found that students were generally more positive than staff about the potential benefits of generative AI.

Students rated the technology more highly in terms of its likely contribution to academic performance, including helping them learn about their subjects, increasing productivity and reducing workloads. They also felt more strongly than staff that appropriate conditions and support were in place to help them use AI tools.

Among the uses identified in the survey, students reported using generative AI to find answers to questions and assignments, generate written work, and translate or improve the grammar of their writing.

The researchers suggest that the immediate appeal of AI tools may lie in their ability to produce and improve text. However, they argue that universities need to understand the range of ways students use the technology, rather than assume that its role in academic work is straightforward.

The study also found considerable variation in staff members’ familiarity with AI. While 63 per cent of academic staff respondents had used at least one generative AI tool in the six months before the survey, some had limited practical experience of the technology. Only 14 per cent had a paid subscription to an AI tool.

The authors argue that the challenges posed by AI in higher education cannot be resolved simply by providing technical training or improving students’ AI literacy. Instead, universities need to consider how staff and students understand the technology, what they believe it can do, and how those beliefs shape its use.

Rethinking the response to AI

The researchers say that assuming students are using AI primarily to circumvent assessment rules risks creating a relationship based on distrust. While acknowledging that AI can be used in ways that undermine academic integrity, they argue that universities need a more nuanced understanding of students’ practices.

They suggest that teaching and assessment should evolve in response to the capabilities of generative AI, with staff and students better supported to explore its appropriate educational uses.

The authors also stress that the research offers a snapshot of a particular institutional setting at a specific point in time. As AI tools continue to develop rapidly, perceptions and patterns of use may change, and further research with larger samples is needed.

What the experts say

“There is a tendency for the debate about AI in universities to focus on the risks of cheating or the promise of transforming education, but the reality is more complex,” said Dr Mark Carrigan, Senior Lecturer in Education at The University of Manchester and one of the study’s authors who has also recently written a book on this topic. “Our findings suggest that staff and students have quite different perceptions of how AI is being used, making it difficult for universities to develop effective responses based on assumptions rather than a clear understanding of students’ experiences.”

Publication details

This research was published in: Frontiers in Education

Title: Still emerging: understanding Generative AI use in Higher Education

DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2026.1885253

URL: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2026.1885253/full

A Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Respiratory Medicine at The University of Manchester, Prof Dave Singh is also the Programme Lead for COPD within the Respiratory Medicine Theme of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC): Manchester.

This is a significant achievement that reflects Prof Singh's international leadership in respiratory research.

COPD, a common lung condition which causes breathing difficulties, is one of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide. Ranking first globally in this field highlights the scale, quality and impact of Prof Singh’s research contribution.

Scholar GPS rankings benchmark researchers against their international peers using measures such as publication output, citation impact and overall research productivity.

Professor Dave Singh, who is also Medical Director of the Medicines Evaluation Unit, an IQVIA business, and Honorary Respiratory Consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital, part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Reaching the top global ranking in COPD research and within the top 10 for lung research is a great honour. This achievement reflects not just my work, but the dedication of my research team and colleagues in Manchester and our shared commitment to improving the lives of patients living with respiratory diseases.

“While metrics like Scholar GPS are wonderful acknowledgments, our ultimate goal remains translating these scientific insights into meaningful clinical advancements that make a real difference to patients across the UK and worldwide."

Stephen Dickson, Chief Executive of Wythenshawe, Trafford, Withington and Altrincham Hospitals at MFT, said: “Congratulations to Professor Singh on this recognition for his excellent contribution to COPD and lung research. It demonstrates the global impact of research being undertaken at Wythenshawe Hospital, which is improving outcomes for people living with respiratory disease in Manchester and beyond.”

In 2020 Prof Singh was awarded the European Respiratory Society Gold Medal for outstanding contribution to COPD and in 2025 he was named one of the world’s most influential researchers by Clarivate.

Through the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Manchester, Prof Singh has contributed significant research on COPD and other respiratory diseases.

This includes leading a long-standing strategic partnership with Verona Pharmaceuticals (now part of MSD), spanning multiple early and late phase studies and directly contributing to the approval of Ohtuvayre (ensifentrine) in June 2024. This treatment reduces breathlessness in COPD patients by a novel mechanism – an innovation which brought the first new COPD treatment for breathlessness in more than 20 years.

Over the past decade, Prof Singh has authored multiple papers showing that COPD patients have different types of inflammation in the lungs, with some patients having a particular pattern called type-2 inflammation. He has worked on clinical trials to identify treatments that successfully target type-2 inflammation; this work has shown how type-2 inflammation can be identified in the blood. This means clinicians can now use a simple blood test to find out if a patient's COPD is driven by this type of inflammation and match them to the right targeted treatment.

Prof Singh led early phase trials showing the ability of a novel treatment, tozorakimab, to prevent worsening of COPD symptoms. He recently co-authored landmark late phase studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing the benefits of this treatment across a broad population of COPD patients with different types of inflammation.

In 2025, Prof Singh also co-authored a high-profile paper in Nature Reviews which outlined the opportunities for new COPD therapies, highlighting the Manchester COPD research team as leaders in the field.

Find out more about how research led by Prof Dave Singh is driving progress in COPD treatment.

The University of Manchester placed fifth in the UK and 50th globally in the Global Employability University Ranking 2027, published by Times Higher Education. This represents an improvement from 56th place globally in the 2026 ranking.

The ranking, designed by HR consultancy Emerging, identifies the universities that recruiters at leading companies believe are best at preparing students for the workplace. A total of 17 UK universities feature among the 300 institutions included globally.

The result follows further recognition of Manchester’s strong links with employers. Earlier this year, the University was ranked first in the UK for graduate employer interest in High Fliers' The Graduate Market in 2026, based on research with 100 of the UK’s leading graduate employers.

Professor Jenn Hallam, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students said: “This recognition reflects the strength of our students and graduates, as well as our close relationships with employers. We want our students to leave Manchester with the knowledge, skills, experience and confidence they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world of work.”

The University of Manchester is taking practical steps to support graduate employability through placements, micro-internships and closer working with business. These opportunities enable students to apply their learning, build confidence and take their first steps into employment.

In other rankings during 2026 The University of Manchester was placed 40th globally in the QS World University Rankings 2027 and first in the world in the 2026 Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings. Manchester also retained its place among the UK’s top six universities in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities.

Following the 2026 call for ELLIS Fellows and Scholars, the ELLIS Society announced this month that Mingfei has been appointed as an ELLIS Scholar.

ELLIS is a pan-European AI network of excellence which aims to secure lasting international leadership of AI made in Europe by connecting top researchers in this field and by creating a multi-centric AI research laboratory. The annual appointment of ELLIS scholars recognises promising researchers who show a clear trajectory towards becoming senior leaders in AI and machine learning research.

Mingfei, recently promoted to Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, has been a key member of the ELLIS Manchester Faculty since the unit was founded, working closely with colleagues from across The University of Manchester and with ELLIS sites across Europe. Mingfei has particularly strong connections with the ELLIS Institute in Finland and as well as a large number of published papers, he has been involved with organising events including the Helsinki summer school.

In a recent example of this collaboration, Mingfei has co-authored a paper on ‘Adam’: an optimization algorithm used to train deep neural networks, with international colleagues, including ELLIS Institute Finland. This paper has been accepted for the NeurIPS conference and will be presented there later this year.

We look forward to Mingfei continuing to play an important role in Manchester’s contribution to the ELLIS Society in the coming years.