AI-based protein design is already transforming protein science, but RFD4-Proteina differs in how it tackles the design problem. The model can consider several interconnected aspects of structure and function simultaneously, refining a protein’s amino-acid sequence and three-dimensional structure alongside the molecules with which it interacts. It can also direct more computational effort towards promising designs, helping researchers identify candidates with specific functions more efficiently.

Researchers at The University of Manchester's Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB), including Professor Anthony Green, Dr Henry Jones and Dr Zefei Xu worked in collaboration with IPD to apply RFD4-Proteina to design de novo enzymes for low cost and sustainable production of global health drugs.

One of the team's most significant tests focused on the synthesis of lenacapavir, a breakthrough drug used for HIV prevention. RFD4-Proteina was used to design entirely new enzymes capable of catalysing a key amide-bond-forming reaction involved in the drug's synthesis. Of the 67 designs selected for experimental testing, four showed clear activity, with the best converting 79% of a bulky chiral amine into the desired amide product. The enzyme also displays high selectivity for the S-enantiomer of the amine as required for the Lenacapavir synthesis. This reaction is particularly challenging because the enzyme must favour the desired amide bond-forming process while suppressing a competing reaction with water which is present in a vast excess in enzyme mediated transformations.

This research represents a critical proof-of-concept demonstration that new enzymes can be designed computationally to promote challenging steps in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients. 
 

Proteins for health, the environment and industry

Proteins are essential for life and perform a wide range of functions, for example, enzymes speed up chemical reactions involved in metabolism, while antibodies bind to pathogens to help fight infection. Proteins are also important in manufacturing chemicals and materials used in everyday products, including medicines and fuels. But designing new functional proteins such as enzymes is difficult.

Enzymes found in nature have traditionally provided the starting point for scientists seeking to engineer biocatalysts with useful functions. More recently, computational protein design has made it possible to design completely new proteins. However, this remains difficult as scientists must find a combination of amino-acid sequence, three-dimensional structure and molecular interactions capable of performing the intended task from an enormous number of possibilities.

Developed by Professor David Baker and his team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD), RFD4-Proteina was designed to address this problem. It combines two existing AI models – the IPD’s RosettaFold Diffusion line and Proteina-Complexa from NVIDIA – allowing scientists to design brand new proteins with a specified function, focusing laboratory testing on a handful of the most promising candidates.

“RFD4-Proteina will open the door to new solutions in medicine, sustainability, materials and biotechnology,” said David Baker, IPD director and professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Baker is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

In silico – the virtual world of protein design

RFD4-Proteina’s biomolecular reasoning is novel; it learns the “language” of existing proteins by training on a large dataset, and tests in silico a huge number of design possibilities to fit a desired function.

Like language models with adjustable “thinking”, RFD4-Proteina can devote more computation to difficult problems. It concurrently refines a protein’s sequence and structure alongside the structures of interacting molecules, so that a change in one seamlessly informs changes in the others.

Across computational benchmarks, RFD4-Proteina achieves design success rates five to 10 times higher than previous models while generating protein candidates five to 10 times faster. Lab bench tests validated that the model’s protein outputs act as anticipated in an experimental setting. This testing demonstrated success across biomolecular tasks of varying sizes, complexities and functions. Importantly, the model is open source under a BSD-3 licence, allowing researchers to use it in their own protein-design work and build upon it.

This model offers a way to design proteins faster and more accurately to perform specific jobs, potentially accelerating early-stage development of new medicines, antibodies, diagnostic molecules, enzymes and industrial biotechnology processes.

The University of Manchester has been selected to establish a new ELIAS Node, becoming only the second UK institution to join the European AI innovation network, alongside Cambridge.

The Manchester Node is one of eight newly selected nodes announced at the ELIAS Frontier AI Innovation Summit in Stuttgart, Germany, on 8 October 2026. The expansion brings the ELIAS Alliance to 16 nodes across nine European countries, strengthening collaboration in frontier artificial intelligence research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Led by Professor Sophia Ananiadou, Professor of Computer Science and Deputy Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, the Manchester ELIAS Node will be hosted at the Christabel Pankhurst Institute for Health Technology Research and Innovation at The University of Manchester.

The ELIAS Alliance (European Leadership in Innovation with AI and Science), initiated by the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), brings together leading AI researchers, universities, innovation centres and industry partners to strengthen Europe's leadership in AI research and its translation into technological, economic and societal impact.

Advancing frontier AI research and innovation

The Manchester ELIAS Node will connect the University's internationally recognised strengths in artificial intelligence with interdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship and industrial innovation.

Its research activities will focus on three complementary areas:

• Trustworthy AI for digital twins, in-silico trials and regulatory-grade evidence, bringing together multimodal learning, causal AI, simulation and computational medicine to support reliable scientific and healthcare applications.
• Open foundation models, agentic AI and trustworthy AI, advancing language technologies, domain-specialised foundation models, multilingual AI, intelligent agents and methods for evaluating the reliability and safety of AI systems.
• AI foundations for scientific discovery and complex systems, including probabilistic machine learning, optimisation, uncertainty quantification, scientific machine learning and human-centred AI.

The Node builds on Manchester's established research environment, including the National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM), ELLIS Manchester, the Centre for AI Fundamentals, the University's doctoral training programmes and the Christabel Pankhurst Institute. It will support new opportunities for collaborative research, doctoral education, researcher mobility, open-source AI development and knowledge exchange across Europe.

Manchester ELIAS Node leadership and research team

The Manchester ELIAS Node is led by Professor Sophia Ananiadou, who serves as its Lead and Spokesperson within the European ELIAS Alliance. Her research spans natural language processing, large language models, trustworthy and agentic AI, and biomedical and scientific language technologies. The Node brings together leading researchers from The University of Manchester and European academic partners.

ELLIS Fellows associated with the Manchester Node:

• Professor Sophia Ananiadou – The University of Manchester; Manchester ELIAS Node Lead and Spokesperson.
• Professor Magnus Rattray – The University of Manchester; ELLIS Manchester Lead, Machine Learning and AI.
• Professor Alejandro Frangi – The University of Manchester; Computational Medicine and AI.
• Professor Samuel Kaski – The University of Manchester and ELLIS Institute Finland; Machine Learning and AI.

Manchester Node Members:

• Dr Mauricio Alvarez – Machine Learning and AI Fundamentals.
• Professor Julia Handl – Optimisation, Machine Learning and Decision Sciences.
• Dr Mingfei Sun – Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning and Open-Source AI.
• Dr Tingting Mu – Theoretical Machine Learning and AI Fundamentals.
• Dr Claudia Lindner – Translational Medical Imaging and AI for Health.
• Professor Matthew Sperrin – Biostatistics, Health Data Science and Causal Inference.

Together, the team brings complementary expertise across AI foundations, trustworthy machine learning, language technologies, biomedical AI, optimisation and scientific discovery, supporting the Node's research, innovation and training activities.

Connecting Manchester to Europe's AI research community

As the second ELIAS Node in the UK, Manchester will strengthen the country's contribution to European AI research and innovation. Working closely with the Cambridge ELIAS Node, Manchester will help establish a stronger north–south connection within the UK, while developing new collaborations with European partners, including the ELLIS Institute Finland, ELLIS Unit Franconia and ELLIS Unit Barcelona. These partnerships will support joint research initiatives, researcher exchanges, doctoral training, innovation activities and participation in the wider ELIAS network. The Node will also contribute to the ELIAS Alliance Innovation PhD initiative, connecting doctoral researchers with opportunities in AI research, entrepreneurship, industrial collaboration and international mobility.

Building on Greater Manchester's industry and innovation ecosystem

A distinctive strength of the Manchester ELIAS Node is its integration with the region's growing AI, life sciences and innovation ecosystem.

The Node is supported by a network of academic, industry and innovation organisations, including:

• Unit M – Supporting science entrepreneurship, venture creation and innovation.
• University of Manchester Innovation Factory – Supporting technology transfer, intellectual property and commercialisation.
• Turing Innovation Catalyst – Connecting AI research with industry, startups and regional economic growth.
• Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC) – Supporting innovation, industrial collaboration and translation.
• Bionow – Connecting the Node with the regional life sciences and biotechnology industry.
• Cambridge–Manchester Innovation Partnership – Strengthening collaboration, entrepreneurship and innovation across the two cities.

The Node will also draw on established industry relationships and wider international partnerships to create pathways from frontier AI research to real-world applications. These collaborations will help researchers and students engage with entrepreneurs, industry experts and investors, supporting the development of innovative AI technologies and new ventures.

A new chapter for Manchester's European AI collaboration

Professor Sophia Ananiadou, Lead of the Manchester ELIAS Node, said:“We are delighted that The University of Manchester has been selected to join the ELIAS Alliance as its second UK Node. This is an important recognition of Manchester's research excellence in artificial intelligence and the strength of our interdisciplinary research community. The Manchester Node brings together outstanding expertise in AI foundations, trustworthy and agentic AI, language technologies and AI for scientific discovery. We look forward to developing new opportunities for research collaboration, doctoral training and innovation through the ELIAS Alliance.

Professor Ian Hall, Director Christabel Pankhurst Institute at The University of Manchester, said: "I am excited at the potential for the Manchester ELIAS Node and look forward to hosting it in the Christabel Pankhurst Institute. Trust and openness in AI solutions for health research are critical for public and clinical acceptability, and we look forward to leading work on these and other key foundations with partners in the European Leadership in Innovation with AI and Science"

The establishment of the Manchester ELIAS Node reinforces The University of Manchester's commitment to internationally leading AI research, interdisciplinary collaboration and responsible innovation. Hosted by the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, the Node will provide a new platform for connecting research excellence with European collaboration, entrepreneurship and societal benefit.

Further information: ELIAS Alliance expands its pan-European network

Water can break, mix, swirl and change direction in ways that are difficult to reproduce accurately on a computer. Yet engineers and researchers increasingly rely on computer simulations to understand these flows and design safer, more efficient systems.

I argue that if we want computer simulations to predict these difficult flows reliably, we need turbulence models that are suited to the way the water is represented in the simulation.

Turbulence is one of the biggest challenges in predicting fluid motion. Its irregular and constantly changing motion affects how water mixes, transports energy and interacts with its surroundings. Because resolving every turbulent motion directly would require enormous computational resources, researchers use turbulence models to represent some of these effects.

But I believe we should question a common assumption: that a turbulence model appropriate for one type of simulation will automatically be appropriate when the flow is represented using a different approach.

In grid-based computer simulations, the flow is represented by dividing the computational domain into many small cells, forming what is known as a computational grid. Imagine dividing a swimming pool into millions of tiny boxes and calculating what happens inside each one. Over many years, a wide range of turbulence models has been developed for these grid-based simulations.

There is another way to represent a flow: particle-based simulations. Instead of describing the flow using a grid, particle-based simulations represent the fluid using many particles that move, interact and carry information about the flow around them.

This approach has an important advantage. In flows where the shape of the fluid or the region occupied by the water changes significantly, managing a grid can become difficult. Particles can move naturally with the flow, allowing particle-based simulations to handle these changes without requiring the same grid adjustments.

But this method needs a turbulence model that is designed to account for its own characteristics, rather than simply using a model transferred from grid-based simulations. A model being well established for grid-based simulations does not necessarily mean that it is compatible with particle-based simulations. Using an established model may be convenient, but convenience should not be confused with compatibility.

The need for compatibility becomes even more important in complex flows. Turbulence behaves differently near solid boundaries than farther away, while flows with changing water surfaces introduce additional interactions and numerical challenges. A model that performs well in an idealised test may therefore not be equally reliable in the engineering and environmental situations for which these simulations are ultimately used.

These challenges are at the centre of my PhD research at The University of Manchester. Rather than simply applying an existing turbulence model to a particle-based simulation, I am investigating how turbulence modelling can be developed and evaluated specifically for particle-based simulations. My first year has focused on building the foundations through studying turbulence, particle-based simulations, existing research and numerical formulations, before moving towards the development of a new modelling approach.

The importance of these considerations becomes clearer when turbulence models are used for real-world decisions. As extreme flooding becomes an increasingly important engineering concern and investment grows in resilient infrastructure and offshore renewable energy, computational predictions can influence decisions with significant economic and societal consequences. For example, in an urban flood simulation, predictions of flow depth and velocity around buildings can influence the design of flood defences and evacuation planning, while uncertainties in turbulence modelling may affect these predicted flow characteristics. The more we rely on simulations, the more carefully we need to understand what lies behind their predictions.

This may sound like a specialised numerical problem, but it reflects a broader principle in computational science: models should be judged not only by the results they produce, but also by whether their assumptions are compatible with how the underlying system is represented.

My research therefore starts from a simple proposition: better modelling is not about more complexity; it is about the right model for the right method.

Meet the researcher

Jafar Gerdabi is a PhD researcher at The University of Manchester working on turbulence modelling within the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method for free-surface flows.

• Email Mr Gerdabi >>
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• View academic profile >>

A new £1.5 million EPSRC grant will support researchers at The University of Manchester in developing atomically precise nanomachines based on two-dimensional materials, opening new possibilities for sensing, nanofluidics and quantum technologies.

Researchers at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have been awarded a £1.5 million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Standard Research Grant to establish a new research programme in Ferroelectric Nanomechanics. The project is due to begin in January 2027 and will explore how atomically thin materials can be used to create electrically controlled nanomachines capable of movement and positioning in liquids at unprecedented scales.

Led by Professor Roman Gorbachev, the four-year project brings together expertise from across Manchester's graphene and advanced materials community, including Professor Vladimir Fal'ko, Professor Sarah Haigh, Professor Sir Andre Geim and Dr Nicholas Clark.

The research builds on recent discoveries in layered materials, including sliding ferroelectricity, where tiny mechanical movements between atomically thin layers are coupled directly to their electronic properties. The team will investigate how this phenomenon can be harnessed to create a new generation of nanoscale devices capable of controlled motion in liquids and reconfigurable nanofluidic systems. The researchers aim to create electrically driven "van der Waals stepper motors" that could position nano-objects in increments of around one angstrom, approximately the diameter of a single atom.

The project will combine expertise in nanofabrication, microscopy, electronic transport measurements, theory and materials characterisation. Researchers will investigate the fundamental physics of atomic-scale sliding processes, while developing devices that can both sense and control nanoscale movement for instance nanoscale valves capable of controlling flow through atomically small channels.

Potential longer-term applications highlighted within the programme include metrology, nano-electromechanical systems, quantum technologies, and advanced sensing.

The grant further strengthens Manchester's position in advanced materials and nanotechnology research, building on internationally recognised expertise in graphene, van der Waals heterostructures and atomically thin materials.

The Dalton Nuclear Institute has been recognised as “world-leading” by Prime Minister Andy Burnham during his Innovation Nation speech in Manchester, where he outlined his vision for the UK to become the world's leading innovation nation.

At the forefront of nuclear innovation

In highlighting the organisations helping to drive innovation, economic growth and industrial renewal, the Prime Minister recognised the Dalton Nuclear Institute as one of the leading institutions at the forefront of nuclear innovation.

The recognition reflects the Institute's longstanding contribution to nuclear research, innovation, skills development and policy engagement.

As The University of Manchester's hub for nuclear activity, the Dalton Nuclear Institute brings together expertise spanning the full nuclear fuel cycle, advanced reactor technologies, fusion, decommissioning, materials, robotics, environmental protection and energy systems.

Research and skills

Alongside its internationally recognised research, the Institute plays a leading role in developing the future nuclear workforce. Through its Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), postgraduate programmes and industry partnerships, Dalton helps equip students and researchers with the skills needed to support the UK's civil and defence nuclear ambitions. The Institute also partners in the Nuclear Technology Education Consortium (NTEC), which delivers specialist postgraduate nuclear education to students and professionals from across the UK and around the world.

The Institute's impact extends beyond research and education. Through its policy engagement activities, including influential contributions like our Generic Feasibility Assessment tool, and policy papers addressing a range of challenges such as ‘non-proliferation for fusion energy’ and ‘actionable opportunities from the UK nuclear regulatory review 2025’, Dalton is helping to shape national conversations around regulation, energy security, innovation and the future of the UK's nuclear sector.

Watch Andy Burnham's speech at the Innovation Nation Summit in Manchester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYE8OKvjfOM

Find out more about the Dalton Nuclear Institute: https://www.dalton.manchester.ac.uk/

An international team of Astronomers including researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Oxford have used a combination of the MeerKAT telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope to identify the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) seen to date.

Published today in Science, the new findings show that the host galaxy of the FRB is surprisingly small and young which suggests that there is little delay between when galaxies form stars and when they become capable of generating FRBs.

The record breaker dates back to just 3 billion years after the big bang though the origin of such events, remains uncertain. First discovered in 2007, FRBs are enigmatic, millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from the distant universe. Their finding has implications for what kind of energetic event creates these bursts.

The MeerTRAP team, led by Ben Stappers at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, used the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa to detect the burst on March 4, 2024, leading to its designation as FRB 20240304B. The radio emission from this burst suggested that it was extremely distant, possibly the most distant one seen to date.

“The host sticks out in the whole galaxy sample that we have. And it was not what we were expecting,” said Ben Stappers of The University of Manchester, a co-author on the paper. “This combination of using the MeerTRAP project on the MeerKAT telescope to discover and localize these distant bursts and Webb to study their hosts is very exciting.”

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument detected a galaxy in the right location, and found that the FRB corresponded to a time just 3 billion years after the big bang. The vast majority of FRBs detected to date occurred billions of years later in cosmic history.

“What makes fast radio bursts interesting is that we don't know what generates them. We have theories for what objects produce them, but we don't have conclusive proof,” said Manisha Caleb of the University of Sydney, lead author on the study.

The team discovered that the host galaxy of FRB 20240304B was not typical of other galaxies with FRBs. Most FRB galaxies are massive star-forming galaxies, but the galaxy they found was 1,000 times less massive than they expected.

“We thought it would be a big, nicely formed galaxy with lots of stars, and instead it was a little dwarf galaxy, although it was actively forming stars,” said Caleb.

The galaxy existed at the height of “cosmic noon” – a period in the history of the universe when star formation was at its peak. The galaxy’s rate of star formation suggested that the majority of its stars may have formed within just 30 million years.

This has important implications for the origin of fast radio bursts. One theory suggests that FRBs may originate from the merger of two neutron stars, whilst a second theory proposes that an FRB can originate from a single, young, highly magnetic neutron star known as a magnetar through a mechanism like starquakes.

“Our work suggests that it’s very unlikely that this FRB was produced by a merger,” said Caleb.

In addition to being a record-holder, the new FRB enabled the team to learn more about the billions of light-years of apparently empty space between the burst and Earth.

Dr Kaustubh Rajwade from the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study led the software development that enabled localising the FRB. "MeerKAT is uniquely placed to find FRBs at such distances and it’s one of the few telescopes that can find FRBs from the early days of the Universe and probe important epochs in our Cosmic history” said Dr. Rajwade.

In the future, the team is excited about the potential to discover more distant FRBs. They estimate that the MeerKAT telescope may be able to detect and localize several FRBs per year potentially dating more than halfway back to the start of the universe. As other new radio telescope facilities and instruments come online, that discovery pace may grow. The Webb telescope will be essential for characterizing those distant host galaxies.

A new £1.2 million EPSRC grant will support researchers at The University of Manchester in exploring how water and dissolved salts behave under atomic-scale confinement, addressing a longstanding challenge in nanoscience, energy technologies and molecular biology.  

Researchers at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester have been awarded a £1.2 million Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Standard Research Grant to investigate the electrical properties of water and aqueous electrolytes when confined to spaces just a few atoms thick.  

Led by Dr Laura Fumagalli, the project, Unravelling the Electrical Properties of Two-Dimensional Water and Aqueous Electrolytes, will bring together researchers from Manchester alongside collaborators at Politecnico di Milano, the University of Cambridge and Oxford Instruments Asylum Research. The Manchester team includes co-investigators Professor Sir Andre Geim and Dr Alessandro Principi. 

Water is essential to processes ranging from energy storage and electrochemistry to biological function, yet many of its electrical properties remain poorly understood, particularly near surfaces and under extreme confinement. While scientists have studied these effects for decades, directly measuring them at the atomic scale has remained a major experimental challenge. 

The new project builds on recent breakthroughs by the Manchester team, which developed a unique experimental platform capable of confining water inside atomically thin channels and probing its electrical behaviour with nanoscale precision. Previous studies revealed that water confined to layers only one to two nanometres thick can exhibit unusual electrical polarisability and exceptionally high conductivity compared with bulk water (see https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat4191 and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09558-y).

The research will focus on developing new devices made from two-dimensional materials that can confine water and electrolytes within atomically thin channels. Using an advanced scanning probe microscopy technique, scanning dielectric microscopy, the team will measure and map electrical properties including conductivity and dielectric response with unprecedented spatial resolution.  

Alongside experimental work, the project will develop new theoretical models to explain how water and ions behave under confinement and provide much-needed experimental benchmarks for simulations in physical chemistry, electrochemistry and molecular science.  

The findings could have implications across a range of fields. Water and electrolytes confined within nanoporous materials are central to batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, filtration membranes, emerging iontronic devices, which use ions rather than electrons to process and transmit signals, and biomolecular function. Improved understanding of their behaviour could help guide future developments in energy technologies, water treatment, sensing and nanofluidic systems. 

Professor Sarah Sharples, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at The University of Manchester, "The properties of water under extreme confinement have surprised us before. By combining advanced two-dimensional materials with new nanoscale measurement techniques, we now have an opportunity to investigate questions that have remained experimentally inaccessible for many years."  

The three-year project will be carried out at the National Graphene Institute, drawing on Manchester's expertise in two-dimensional materials, nanoscale device fabrication and scanning probe microscopy, together with theoretical and industrial partners in the UK and Europe.

In a Manchester laboratory, a jet engine component is being redesigned to support cleaner and more resilient flying. Just a short walk away, across seventy-two high-definition screens in the Alliance Manchester Business School, a digital twin of Greater Manchester is tracking nitrogen dioxide levels across the city’s road network. Meanwhile, in the Centre for Quantum Science and Engineering, a research team is developing navigation systems that might soon be able to run without satellites.

Manchester is the perfect place to explore some of the most complex questions facing the transport system, so when the Department for Transport brought some of its senior leadership team to the University for facility tours, a research showcase and panel discussions with regional leaders, they found opportunities to meet University colleagues and connect research, innovation and public value. A city where academic experts are already working with industry and local government to accelerate innovation, inform policy and connect national transport priorities with the needs of people and places.

Shaping the future of transport

Most of the hardest transport challenges we face don’t exist in isolation. Decarbonising aviation will need advances in chemistry, materials science, engineering and social science. Making freight logistics smarter will involve data science, AI and industry input on how ports work at their best. Whereas keeping infrastructure safe and strong for decades demands new approaches in mathematics, monitoring and materials.

Manchester’s research community reflects that complexity, so during this event delegates explored three interconnected themes.

1. Decarbonising transport

• Professor Sandy Smith showcased his work on liquid hydrogen propulsion systems that could enable a new generation of zero-emission aircraft
• Dr Nick Bojdo highlighted advances in jet engine design that could reduce wear in components, improve their performance and support a more resilient future for flying.

• Researchers from Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research then presented their work on the transition to more sustainable transport systems across aviation, shipping and active travel, including their recommendations on the proposed Heathrow expansion.

2. Smarter systems

• Dr Jayadev Vijayan demonstrated quantum acceleration sensing technologies, which could make it possible to navigate underground and in other environments where satellite signals are unreliable.
• Dr Ciara McGrath and Conor March showcased SatVis, an augmented reality platform that visualises the normally invisible satellite infrastructure which underpins modern transport and communications.
• Dr Arijit De presented an AI-powered digital twin for freight, maritime logistics and port operations, which allows operators to make faster, safer and more sustainable decisions across complex supply chains.

3. Advanced materials, emerging technologies and infrastructure

• Professor Philip McCann and Dr Ming-Wei Hsu outlined the spatial economics of regional productivity and its implications for investing in transport.
• Professor Stefan Güttel, Dr Chris Hickey, Michail Dellepiane, Dr Rwayda Al Hamd, Dr Lee Cunningham and Dr Richard Kirkham all showcased how advances in their fields – from computation and infrastructure engineering, to regulatory insight and materials science are supporting safer, smarter and more resilient transport networks.
• Researchers from the Centre for Robotics and AI and the CRADLE Prosperity Partnership with Amentum, demonstrated a range of transport-related robotic applications.

Dr Jayadev Vijayan discussing how quantum acceleration sensing technologies could unlock new situational awareness capabilities via subterranean mapping and enable navigation systems that do not rely on satellites.

Facilities built for transport

Research alone isn’t enough. Moving from insight to impact, requires facilities where ideas can be tested, validated and scaled. Over the past decade the University has invested £1 billion in its campus to create infrastructure that’s designed precisely for that purpose.

During their visit, delegates explored six of those facilities, each one offering a different window into how Manchester moves research into the real world.

• The Data Visualisation Observatory is a unique large-scale facility that enables interactive three-dimensional exploration of complex datasets using high-definition screens. It offers transport researchers and University partners the ability to interrogate data at scale, including a digital twin of Greater Manchester incorporating NO2 emissions data and related urban datasets.
• The Energy Conversion Lab provides the capability to test and validate future electrification components and networks. Its expertise spans power electronics, electric machines, energy storage and aircraft electrical networks, including the Rolls-Royce 120 kW IEPNEF facility, making it a critical resource for research into the electrification of transport.
• The Industrial Hub for Sustainable Engineering houses pilot-scale facilities where low-carbon hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels and other clean technologies can be developed and tested under industrially relevant conditions, bridging the gap between laboratory research and deployment at scale.
• Manchester’s High Voltage Laboratory is the largest electrical infrastructure test and research facility in UK academia. Its work spans high voltage systems for future electric aircraft, to novel cable transmission systems, helping to accelerate the electrification of transport more broadly.
• The Aerospace Systems Laboratory specialises in aerial robotics and autonomy, covering improvements to flight vehicle capabilities and the development of new use cases for existing technology – during the visit it also hosted a live drone demonstration within its indoor tracking arena.
• Finally, the University Library’s Railway Collection, spanning around 2,600 items from the 19th and 20th centuries, provided a unique historical resource on the development of railways in Britain and internationally, connecting our present moment to a much longer story of transport change.

Manchester’s High Voltage Lab is the largest electrical infrastructure test and research facility in UK academia supporting the electrification of transport.

Connecting research, cities and people

Exemplified by the Bee Network, the UK's first fully integrated public transport system outside London, Manchester's transport research does not happen at a distance from the places and people it is designed to serve. Instead, it is embedded within one of the UK's most ambitious city-regions, where the University works alongside local and devolved government, civic institutions and industry as an active partner in shaping and delivering change.

How this ecosystem enables Manchester to move rapidly from research and innovation to real-world implementation was explored during a panel discussion at the event.

Transport, Growth and Partnership in Greater Manchester brought together leaders from Manchester City Council, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Bruntwood SciTech and Manchester Airports Group.

Fittingly, the discussion was hosted in the University's Engineering Building, located at the heart of the Oxford Road Corridor, one of Greater Manchester's most economically significant districts. Home to more than 70,000 jobs and generating around £3 billion in Gross Value Added annually, the Corridor brings together universities, Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Science Park and a growing mix of commercial, retail and leisure developments. As a place where research, healthcare, business and government sit side by side, it offers a powerful example of how long-term partnerships can strengthen places, accelerate innovation and turn ambition into delivery.

Leaders from Manchester City Council, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Bruntwood SciTech and Manchester Airports Group joined colleagues from the University and Department for Transport to discuss the power of collaboration.

A second panel session, The Future of Sustainable Mobility: Connecting Transport, People and Place, chaired by Professor Alice Larkin and featuring Dr Chris Jones, Professor Karen Lucas and Professor Paul Mativenga, explored how transport connects to broader questions of social equity, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity.

A strategic partner for transport innovation

From sustainable fuels and aircraft electrification to robotics, infrastructure, digital twins and transport policy, The University of Manchester offers partners access to a connected research ecosystem, rather than a series of isolated specialisms.

For further information or to explore potential research and innovation collaborations with The University of Manchester, across transport, mobility, infrastructure, electrification or decarbonisation, please contact the Business Engagement team.

A University of Manchester undergraduate has won second place in the Cambridge Edge AI Innovation for Sustainability Challenge 2026 with a concept designed to improve early wildfire detection whilst reducing reliance on energy-intensive data centres.

PyroWatch, developed by Computer Science student Marwan Barakat Abdelfattah, proposes a network of affordable devices that can analyse local weather and environmental conditions to help predict wildfire risk and support faster response.

The project was named runner-up in the national competition, which challenged UK university students to design AI systems that can learn from each other without exchanging raw data between edge nodes or uploading raw data to the cloud.

Marwan received a £2,000 prize for his second-place finish.

How PyroWatch works

Wildfires are becoming an increasingly urgent sustainability challenge, with devastating consequences for communities, livelihoods, food production, public health and carbon emissions. PyroWatch was inspired by the growing visibility of wildfires in places such as California, as well as the need for more accessible tools that could help governments, fire services, local authorities and businesses prepare for and respond to fires earlier.

The concept uses solar-powered devices with batteries to run small AI models close to where data is generated. By processing information locally rather than relying on constant data transmission to central servers, the system is designed to reduce communications, energy use and dependence on data centres.

Unlike some existing wildfire monitoring approaches, which can depend on expensive thermal cameras and fixed infrastructure, PyroWatch is intended to be low-cost, scalable and deployable across high-risk landscapes, industrial sites and remote locations. Marwan said the system could also learn from local coordinates and previous fire conditions to estimate where risks may emerge or continue.

Marwan Barakat Abdelfattah said: “Being selected as a finalist and winning second place means a lot. It was the first time I had produced an independent research document of this kind, and I learned so much through the process. It showed me how much work researchers put into producing credible ideas that could make a real-world difference.”

The Cambridge Edge AI Innovation for Sustainability Challenge 2026 is hosted by MICROP Inc. and its sister company Arculus System in partnership with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). The competition invited students to explore AI approaches that keep data local, operate within limited computing and energy resources, and exchange knowledge to create collective intelligence across distributed systems.

James Yang, CEO and Co-founder of MICROIP Inc. and Arculus System, said: "Well done to the talented creator behind Pyro Watch on a brilliant individual submission. The creativity shown in tackling real-world environmental monitoring and thermal management through intelligent, localized AI design is highly commendable. It is inspiring to see such fresh thinking from a solo innovator, and this unique perspective holds great promise for shaping a safer, more sustainable future."

Viola Jardon, Head of Innovation Programmes at CISL, said: “The future of AI cannot simply be about using more data, more computing power and more energy to become smarter. The real innovation challenge is how we create greater intelligence within real-world constraints. This challenge was all about giving the next generation of UK talent the opportunity to explore AI that can collaborate while keeping data local, use resources more intelligently, and ultimately deliver more sustainable outcomes.”

Further information is available at: Cambridge Edge AI Innovation for Sustainability Challenge 2026 [cisl.cam.ac.uk].

In a study published in Nature Chemistry, an international team of researchers from Germany and the UK, including chemists from The University of Manchester, have synthesised and characterised what they describe as the first isolable uranium Fischer-type carbyne, a compound where carbon forms an unusual triple-bond interaction with uranium.

The findings give researchers a clearer example of how uranium can form multiple bonds with carbon, providing a new reference point for comparing the chemistry of actinides with more familiar transition metals. The discovery also demonstrates a new way of building previously inaccessible uranium compounds, expanding the toolkit for studying heavy-element chemistry.

Showing that uranium can form a rare carbon bond

Metal-carbon triple bonds are well established in transition-metal chemistry, but creating an equivalent uranium compound stable enough to isolate and study has proved much more challenging. Until now, related uranium examples had only been observed under highly specialised conditions, such as at extremely low temperatures or when trapped inside hollow carbon molecules known as fullerene cages.

The team, including Professor Stephen Liddle, John Seed, Ashley Wooles, Floriana Tuna and Adam Brookfield, used a new synthetic strategy combining a uranium precursor with a recently developed carbon-atom transfer reagent, enabling them to create the compound and study it in detail.

To confirm the discovery, the researchers used single-crystal X-ray diffraction, spectroscopy, magnetometry and advanced computational analysis. Together, these methods showed that the new compound has the key features expected for a Fischer-type carbyne.

The team’s measurements showed that the uranium and carbon atoms sit 2.379(15) Å apart from each other. In chemical structures, shorter distances are usually needed to have multiple bonding, but in this case quantum crystallography was used to visualise and confirm the uranium–carbon triple-bond interaction. Further analysis showed that this bond is formed through two-way electron sharing: carbon donates two electrons to uranium, while uranium also donates electrons back to carbon, in this case with two orthogonal one electron bonds which is rare.

The compound was also found to be relatively unreactive, which is what chemists would expect for this type of Fischer carbyne. Additional experiments showed that the bonding could be changed through chemical reduction, giving the team further evidence for how the compound’s electrons are arranged.

Why the discovery matters

The findings are primarily important for fundamental chemistry. They provide researchers with a clearer picture of how uranium forms bonds with carbon and help place actinide chemistry within a broader understanding of how elements behave across the periodic table.

The work also highlights the potential of modern carbon-atom transfer reagents to create compounds that were previously difficult or impossible to access, potentially enabling future studies of uranium-carbon bonding and related actinide systems.

Dr John Seed, Research Fellow, at The University of Manchester, said: “This study provides a platform for exploring new uranium-carbon bonding chemistry. Understanding how these interactions work will help us place actinide chemistry in a broader context and could guide future efforts to design related compounds.”

Most sensors can only measure one thing at a time: like a thermometer for temperature, or a pressure gauge for pressure. Measuring two properties accurately from the same surface, at the same moment, usually means using two separate instruments – adding cost and complexity to the process.

Measuring air pressure and temperature simultaneously

Now, chemists and aerospace engineers at The University of Manchester, working with colleagues at the University of Eastern Finland, have designed a molecule that can help us to do both simultaneously. It emits two distinct colours of light at once: one that responds to both air pressure and temperature, and one that only responds to temperature. By comparing these two signals it’s possible to take a corrected pressure reading from the molecule itself, rather than having to use a separate temperature sensor alongside a pressure sensor.

The molecule has been designed to be an active ingredient in the specialist paints that measure pressure on aircraft models in wind tunnels, solving a major challenge in the aerospace industry. When engineers test a new aircraft design in a wind tunnel, they need to know exactly how air pressure is distributed across every surface. One of the best ways of doing this is by using a pressure-sensitive paint that glows in proportion to the air pressure pushing against it. The problem is that the light these paints currently emit is sensitive not only to pressure, but also to temperature. As a scale model heats and cools during a wind tunnel test, the glowing shifts in ways that have nothing to do with pressure, introducing errors that engineers then have to correct.

Improving pressure-sensitive paint for aerospace applications

The team’s work, published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials, explains how the molecule is built around a gold atom bonded to a ring-shaped compound called acridine. The position of that bond within the structure determines which type of light the molecule produces. Gold was chosen because even subtle changes to where it sits within the molecule produce reliably different light-emitting behaviours, giving chemists precise control over the sensing properties. When the gold atom bonds to one position on the molecule, it triggers the pressure-sensitive red emission, whereas a bond at a different position triggers the temperature-only blue emission.

Calculations carried out by their colleagues in Finland, helped the team to understand and predict these differences before the molecule was built in the laboratory. Then in use, the molecule is embedded in a paint applied to test models in the standard way. A camera captures both emission colours simultaneously, and the ratio between the two signals automatically corrects for temperature, without any separate temperature sensor.

Dr Mark Quinn, Reader in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Manchester, said: “In wind tunnel testing, temperature correction is currently one of the main challenges to making pressure-sensitive paints reliable. Having both pressure and temperature measurements come from the same molecule simultaneously is a more elegant solution, and potentially a more practical one for real test conditions, where adding extra instruments creates its own complications.”

The team’s work sits within a broader programme of research at Manchester into improving pressure-sensitive paint for aerospace applications. A related study, recently published in ACS Applied Engineering Materials, addresses the temperature problem from a different direction, by designing a platinum-based paint with inherently low temperature sensitivity. Together, the two studies represent complementary approaches to one of the industry’s most persistent challenges.

A sensor so precise it can find buried pipes and cavities from the surface, without digging a single hole. A communications system where an eavesdropper cannot hide. A computer that can simulate the behaviour of molecules in ways that enable accelerated drug discovery and materials design.

What do each of these have in common? They’re all possibilities that quantum technologies offer and have a common challenge: the ability to engineer materials with such precision, that individual atoms can be placed where they’re needed and retain their quantum behaviour in ways ordinary materials simply can’t.

That is the ambition behind a new £12.6 million research programme, launched this year with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The programme, Materials Engineering for Advanced Devices (MEAD), is led by Manchester’s Professor Richard Curry, in partnerships with colleagues at Manchester, Imperial College London and the University of Leeds.

The precision problem

Quantum technologies work by exploiting the unusual rules that govern matter at the scale of individual atoms – rules that make certain capabilities in computing, sensing and communication possible, in a way that conventional electronics can’t achieve. Yet when a single misplaced atom can prevent a quantum device from working, understanding and controlling atomic-level structure isn’t just useful, it’s the whole game.

Manchester’s leadership of the MEAD programme starts here. The University is home to the Platform for Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (P-NAME), a suite of three internationally unique instruments that can implant individual atoms into a material with precisions exceeding 20 nanometres – about 3,000 times finer than a human hair.

It was this capability, combined with advanced isotopic engineering (the use of specific atomic forms of an element that fine-tunes its quantum properties), that recently produced the world’s purest form of silicon. This research, published in the journal Communications Materials (doi.org/10.1038/s43246-024-00498-0), opens a new route towards quantum devices that can operate reliably without having to constantly correct for interference caused by unwanted atomic impurities (misplaced atoms).

“We’re all united in addressing the same challenge of building new devices, but at Manchester we’ll specifically use our expertise in engineering materials on the nanoscale, so that we can create a new set of advanced materials - specially designed to deliver the required quantum properties at the heart of these.

"We won't just study these materials and their quantum properties in the lab. We'll build them into working prototype devices to prove they can be used in real-world quantum technologies, such as quantum computers, secure communications systems and advanced sensors. Our ambition is for this research to have a transformative impact on how quantum technologies are applied in society."

From atoms to devices

MEAD has three interconnected ambitions, and the first is to produce the building blocks that quantum technologies need.

Dr Jayadev Vijayan is developing a new class of quantum sensor aiming to use microscopic particles with quantum-engineered properties held in a vacuum. This approach could hugely increase the sensing performance of current technologies as existing trapped atoms devices are replaced by these macroscopic particles. Alongside this, Dr Huanqing Ye is working on single-photon sources: devices that emit individual particles of light (photons), which are essential for quantum-secured communications.

Meanwhile, Professor Richard Curry is leading work on using arrays of single atoms placed in isotopically pure silicon to demonstrate long-lived quantum properties for use in quantum computing. These materials will be tested in Manchester’s new Hi-CaLM facility, a system capable of cooling devices to temperatures just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, where quantum behaviour can be observed and harnessed in realistic device conditions.

The second task is to develop tools that allow scientists to understand what is actually happening at the atomic scale.

Professor Sarah Haigh leads this work, aiming to extend materials imaging beyond the current limits. This should reveal not just where atoms sit, but which form (isotope) of each element they represent – something that determines how quantum devices behave.

Dr Jessica Boland is developing a technique that uses a form of light capable of passing through materials, to pinpoint the location of individual atoms within a working device without disturbing or damaging it.

Dr Katie Moore then uses a technique called nanoSIMS to verify, at the finest possible resolution, that the materials being engineered actually contain what they’re designed to. Being able to check materials at the atomic scale, and feed those findings back into the engineering process, is what will separate informed development from guesswork.

The third part of the programme focusses on masers – the microwave equivalent of lasers, capable of picking up and amplifying extremely faint signals while adding almost no interference of their own (perhaps think of a microphone that can amplify a whisper across a room without adding any noise to it).

This maser research is led by Professor Alford’s Imperial College London team, where the modern room-temperature maser was first developed.

Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory will act as a testbed for applying this technology to ‘troposcatter communications’ – a method of bouncing signals to our upper atmosphere to carry communications over long distances without relying on satellites.

The Bragg Centre, housing the Leeds Nanotechnology Cleanroom, at the University of Leeds will make quantum devices from the materials that Manchester engineers, before returning them to Manchester’s Hi-CaLM facility for testing and analysis.

The programme draws on more than £150 million of existing infrastructure across the three institutions, often using facilities or equipment that have taken decades to build.

For the UK, which has committed billions to quantum technology investment, MEAD represents an investment on building the scientific foundations that we’ll need to achieve our goals.

Four Manchester academics made Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering has today announced that four academics from The University of Manchester, Professors Danielle George, Alan Partridge, and Rich Curry, and Visiting Professor Kirsty Armer will be part of the newest cohort of leading figures in the field of technology and engineering to be appointed Fellows.

They will be joining the Academy in its 50th year and are part of a cohort of 75 new Fellows, who are making an incredible impact across the engineering and technology sector with innovations in clean energy, AI, medicine and public health; joining leading figures who have influenced academia and business, worked to widen participation in engineering for people from underrepresented backgrounds, and provided expert policy advice to government.

Professors George, Armer, Partridge, and Curry will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 19 October, when each Fellow will sign the roll book. In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy’s aim to engineer better lives.

Sir John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

“This year’s cohort will be joining a community of over 1,700 top engineers and innovators in the UK and around the world. Together, we ensure that bright ideas are supported, scaled and shared, turning ambition into innovation and innovation into impact. We aim to strengthen education, skills and inclusion to inspire and equip the engineers of today and tomorrow.”

Manchester Academics awarded prestigious Colin Campbell Mitchell Award

The Academy has also awarded Professors Barry Lennox (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) and Michael Fisher (Computer Science) the prestigious Colin Campbell Mitchell Award, given to a team of engineers who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of any field of UK engineering across the past four years. Visiting Professor Kirsty Hewitson was also part of the team receiving the Academy honour.

This year, it is given in recognition of the pioneering approach that the University of Manchester has been taking in its approach to developing robotic systems for deployment in hazardous environments.

Their work has delivered significant engineering, safety and economic benefits, including robotic deployments that reduce human exposure to dangerous environments, estimated savings of around £20 million for Sellafield and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and a projected future value of £500 million through wider adoption of the technologies developed. They have also pioneered the use of digital twins and simulation environments to improve safety, training and operational efficiency, while contributing to the development of robotics policy and responsible AI practices in the UK and internationally.

Chair of the Academy’s Awards Committee, Luke Logan (FREng), said of the research,

"By translating robotics and AI research into real-world industrial applications, this team has transformed how hazardous and complex engineering tasks can be carried out. Their work is reducing risks to people, improving productivity and delivering substantial economic benefits across multiple sectors. Through an outstanding collaboration spanning industry, academia and the public sector, they have demonstrated how engineering innovation can deliver real-world impact."

In her role as Visiting Professor, Dr Hewitson will help to embed key principles for translating and commercialising innovations, as well as provide mentoring to underrepresented students, building industry links to provide future career opportunities.

Dr Hewitson, a distinguished expert in the translation and commercialisation of technologies across energy, defence and life science sectors, is visiting from the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Collaboration (RAICo) – an end-user led collaboration between the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd, AWE Nuclear Security Technologies and The University of Manchester.

In her role at UKAEA and as Director of RAICo, Dr Hewitson oversees the development of robotics for nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering, working with industry, academic and international partners to help remove people from hazardous environments and achieve safer, faster and more cost-effective solutions.

Prior to RAICo, Dr Hewitson had previously held positions as Chief Executive Officer at Innovate UK KTN, Vice-President of Strategy and Innovation at the National Nuclear Laboratory and Vice-President of Life Sciences at Ploughshare Innovations.

Dr Hewitson said of the announcement, “I feel privileged to have been appointed as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester. I have seen first-hand how essential our relationship with academia is for connecting different ideas from different fields in ways that would not otherwise be apparent."

Three new Future Leaders Fellowships are empowering Manchester researchers to tackle very different scientific challenges – from predicting extreme ocean waves to designing miniature biological factories to wearable health technology that transcends health inequalities – with potentially far-reaching consequences.

Backed by a combined £5.4 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Dr Samuel Draycott, Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer and Dr Richard Obexer are among the recipients of its 2026 Future Leaders Fellowships (FLF) awards. The funding will support four years of ambitious research in fields spanning ocean engineering, biotechnology and digital enabled health.

The Future Leaders Fellowships: at a glance

• How well we understand the ocean matters increasingly for the infrastructure we build, the energy we generate and our response to climate change. Dr Samuel Draycott is investigating what happens when waves break in the complex conditions found in the ocean, with real implications for how we design offshore wind farms and other marine infrastructure, and for improving the accuracy of climate and ocean models that predict how the sea absorbs and releases carbon dioxide and other gases.
• Across Manchester's communities, Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer is taking research directly into patients’ homes – creating a real-world test environment to help make wearable health technologies a routine part of cancer care. He's working to discover whether continuous data from wearable devices can help NHS clinical teams support patients through cancer surgery, and how to make sure this new model of care reaches everyone, including those at risk of digital exclusion.

• Meanwhile, in another laboratory in Manchester, Dr Richard Obexer has been looking at the world on a different scale – exploring how nature packages enzymes inside tiny structures in living cells. He’s working to discover whether those same principles can be engineered to manufacture medicines, recycle carbon and produce valuable chemicals more efficiently.

Dr Samuel Draycott: Wavebreak

Offshore wind farms, ships and other marine structures all need to withstand the most powerful waves the ocean can produce, but many engineering models simplify the sea in ways that don’t fully reflect real-world conditions. This potentially affects how accurately we can predict the forces these structures will face. 

Recent work by Dr Draycott and collaborators, published in Nature, showed that realistic multi-directional waves can grow to around twice the height at which they were assumed to break. Through this fellowship, Dr Draycott and his colleagues will build on this research to recreate even more realistic ocean conditions in their laboratory, combining waves travelling in different directions with currents that change speed with depth, as they do in the real ocean. 

The team will study what happens when waves break and what happens in the seconds afterwards, including how they move particles such as microplastics and phytoplankton, draw air into the ocean and transfer gases such as CO2 between the sea and atmosphere. This could improve our understanding of everything from pollution and marine ecosystems to the ocean’s role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. 

Dr Draycott, Senior Lecturer in Ocean Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management, University of Manchester, said: 
“We’ve long relied on simplified models to understand how waves behave, but the real ocean is much more complex.

“This matters because engineers use estimates of extreme waves when designing offshore wind turbines, ships and platforms, so a better understanding of wave breaking could help us improve the safety and efficiency of this infrastructure. These are crucial industries, with the UK aiming to increase its offshore wind capacity to at least 43 gigawatts by 2030 and a sector already employing tens of thousands of people .” 

The research, funded with £1.67m from UKRI, will take place in the University’s new Hydrodynamics Laboratory, using high-performance computer simulations and laboratory experiments to measure how waves break, how much air they draw into the water, and how they move particles.

Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer: Manchester Digital Health Living Lab

Wearable devices can monitor vital signs such as heart rate, activity and sleep, providing clinicians with valuable data to inform on-going patient care. The NHS 10 Year Health Plan identifies them as one of its “5 Big Bets” for transforming healthcare, but their use across the health service remains patchy, with benefits not reaching all communities equally. Through his fellowship, Dr Lukas Hughes-Noehrer will establish the Manchester Digital Health Living Lab, a real-world testbed where patients, families, community organisations, clinicians, researchers, industry partners, and local government work together to design and evaluate wearable-enabled care.

The £2.4m-UKRI funded programme is built around three strands. The first will work with communities to understand what helps or hinders people in adopting wearables, with a focus on accessibility, trust, usability and digital inclusion. The second will develop secure systems that connect wearable data to electronic health records and explore how continuous streams of patient-generated data can be transformed into clinically meaningful real-time information to support care. The third will embed a wearable-enabled clinical trial, working with approximately 800 patients undergoing lung and hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery to trial adoption and evaluate their potential to improve health outcomes.

Findings will help shape the future use of wearable technologies across healthcare and inform the development of digitally enabled hospitals and care pathways in Greater Manchester and beyond.

Dr Hughes-Noehrer, Lecturer in Mobile and Wearable Health Technology in the Division of Informatics, Imaging, and Data Sciences, and Lead for Computational Medicine at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust said:

“As someone who works at the intersection of healthcare and research, I see first-hand how health inequalities can affect who benefits from new models of care and emerging technologies. Wearables have huge potential to provide more personalised, proactive support, but only if everyone can access, use and trust them. By working directly with our communities in Manchester, I want to build a model for wearable-enabled care that is fair, safe and trusted, and that other places in the UK and beyond can follow.”

Dr Richard Obexer: De Novo Biomolecular Condensates for Programmable Assembly of Enzyme Cascades

Inside our cells are tiny droplets that act a little like miniature factories. Without being surrounded by a membrane, they can bring particular proteins and enzymes together, allowing chemical reactions to happen faster and more efficiently.

These structures known as ‘biomolecular condensates’, occur widely inside living cells, and Dr Richard Obexer is exploring whether we can recreate this natural trick, then engineer it to make useful products more efficiently.

His new fellowship, funded by £1.3m from UKRI, will enable him to combine AI-powered protein design with a laboratory process inspired by natural evolution, to rapidly test thousands of protein variations. The aim is to create molecules that can encourage these droplets to form around a much wider range of enzymes, while controlling what happens inside them. This could give researchers unprecedented control over the conditions inside each biological factory.

The team will initially test their approach by building a five-enzyme system to manufacture islatravir, an anti-HIV drug that’s currently made using conventional chemical synthesis. Next, they will explore whether a ten-enzyme system could turn CO2 and methanol into starch, potentially creating a route for converting captured carbon into useful materials. Finally, they’ll rebuild a biosynthetic pathway in bacteria to produce trunkamide, an anti-cancer compound that has proven difficult to manufacture at a useful scale.

Dr Obexer, BBSRC Discovery Fellow in Chemical Biology and Biological Chemistry, in the Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester, said:

“Nature has already evolved incredibly efficient ways of organising chemistry inside cells, and we’re now asking whether we can recreate and engineer these to build tiny biological factories for ourselves. If we can combine that with AI-designed proteins, we could make entirely new manufacturing processes possible, from medicines to ways of turning captured carbon into useful products.”

Background

The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has a very ambitious agenda for change but, very early in his tenure, the ability of the machinery of Government to move at the necessary pace was already being questioned. Earlier this month, the Chancellor, the First Secretary of State and the Attorney General wrote to all Ministers to say they ‘need to shoulder the responsibility for acting’ and explicitly looking to rebalance the use of consultation, to rethink tolerance of legal risk, and to redefine the role of judicial review. These changes are described as ‘initial steps in what will be a wider programme of work to pare back counterproductive administrative burdens’ allowing Ministers to act boldly, take responsibility, and instil greater agency within their Departments.

Both the messaging and the timing are opportune for the nuclear sector, which is still digesting the output of the 2025 ‘Nuclear Regulatory Task Force’ (NRTF), set up to address the ‘systemic regulatory failure’ which has made the UK ‘the most expensive place in the World to build nuclear…’. The NRTF reported in late 2025, making 47 recommendations, and the Dalton Nuclear Institute (DNI) developed opportunities to address these in a subsequent Position Paper. It now seems possible that a new Prime Minister with an ambitious change agenda, coupled with a shift to more proportionate regulation, can enable nuclear to fulfil its potential to meet our national and energy security requirements.

Risk and the Nuclear Sector

The idea of risk seems straightforward but, in a modern society, it comes in a wide range of flavours. Add complexity in governance where different stakeholders have different agendas and priorities, and management of risk can quickly impede progress while simultaneously obscuring serious hazards and distracting from resolution.

Risk was a particular area of focus in the DNI paper. The NRTF talked about ‘Portfolio Risk’ but didn’t really explore it in detail or suggest an approach to its management. However, DNI developed the idea and suggested the UK nuclear sector comprises three distinct portfolios:

• The NDA Estate - 18 Licensed Sites, tasked with delivering the NDA mission of decommissioning and cleaning up the legacy from the UK’s historic nuclear programmes.

• The Defence Nuclear Enterprise - 15 Licensed Sites owned and operated by multiple organisations, including AWE, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, and concerned with manufacturing and operating the UK’s military nuclear capability.

• Nuclear Generation - 9 Licensed Sites, all operated commercially by EDF Energy but legally owned by three different entities, either generating power or constructing new power reactors.

The critical point about Portfolio Risk is that, if we just focus on individual risks (e.g. commercial, legal, reputational….) in one part of a portfolio, we lose sight of a much bigger risk - that of the entire portfolio failing to deliver its mission, whether that is effective maintenance of the continuous at-sea deterrent, cleanup of the UK’s historical nuclear legacy, or generation of stable, low-carbon electricity.

HM Treasury’s ‘Orange Book’ strongly encourages exactly this reductionist approach to risk management, leading to consideration in turn of distinct classes of risk and sometimes multiple sub-classes within these, but not enabling an upwards view to appraise risks at the Portfolio or Sector level. Moreover, the Orange Book approach to risk can also lead to treatment of the different classes of risk as if they are independent, whereas they are in fact often strongly interdependent, leading to an inability to see the ‘wood for the trees’. Although risk classes may be analysed separately, interdependencies mean that the risk appetite associated with a specific piece of work will often actually be that of the most cautious element- in other words a project ‘goes at the pace of the slowest’.

The nuclear sector thus provides an excellent illustration of the difference between the Orange Book’s idealised view and the reality of a complex hierarchy of risks. At the site or operational level, accountabilities are already very clear, defined through the Nuclear Installations Act, Site Licensing and other tools, including the explicit identification of legally accountable duty holders. Above the individual duty holders, however, there is Portfolio Risk, as described above and, indeed, above that is what the DNI Paper terms ‘Sector Risk’; that is the potential for activities within one portfolio to adversely impact others. At first sight Sector Risk is not obvious, but the current mixture of risk aversion, over-complication, bureaucracy, inefficiency and poor delivery actually provides a perfect illustration. It has required drastic intervention from the highest level of Government, through the Regulatory Review and the accompanying Strategic Steer, to address this Sector Risk.

Managing a Hierarchy of Risks

We have developed a possible governance structure for the sector, illustrated in Figure 1, which integrates the management of the three levels of risk within a single coherent framework. Legal responsibility and Controlling Mind authority rest clearly with the duty holders. The responsibility of portfolio owners is to put in place management frameworks which allow coordinated risk management across their portfolio and, since they do not have Controlling Mind authority, they must do this by working collectively with the duty holders in their portfolio. Such arrangements could include an operational sub-group, modelled on the Sellafield G6 or NRS D8^[1]. There is a tension between duty holders’ ‘local’ ALARP^[2] approach and the wider portfolio ALARP thinking, which will need to be managed through judicious use of flexibility and judgement such that Site Licensees can use the shared understanding of risks across the portfolio to defend their local decisions and actions as ‘reasonable’. There is also a need for a consistent sector-wide approach to risk management, reflecting national priorities, which we suggest should be overseen by an independently-chaired Nuclear Sector Risk Forum.

This structure can address the weakness in the Orange Book approach to risk management by providing clearer accountabilities and relationships, and enabling decision making at the correct level in the Enterprise. Such a change of approach is both timely and necessary. The NRTF report and the DNI Paper together offer both a detailed diagnosis of the problem and a potential cure.

While this discussion is focussed on nuclear, the problems identified are not limited to that one sector - lack of accountability, inability to get things done, delay and spiralling costs are endemic across UK Government’s programmes. The changes portended by the Chancellor’s letter could, if implemented sustainably, be transformative. Here, we offer a solution, noting that the nuclear sector has already been thinking about transformative change for some time. The ingredients are there - let’s use nuclear as an exemplar for the wider changes we must implement across the UK’s complex cross sectoral infrastructure landscape.

^[1] G6 (Sellafield) and D8 (Nuclear Restoration Services) are fora in which all stakeholders (Government, regulators and duty holders) convene to develop an optimised, consensus approach to difficult safety and/or environmental issues

^[2] There is an overarching requirement on duty holders in the nuclear sector to reduce risks to the point they are As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP)

This piece draws on the Dalton Nuclear Institute’s recent policy position paper, ‘A radical reset: actionable opportunities from the UK nuclear regulatory review 2025’, authored by William Bodel, Adrian Bull, Gregg Butler, Francis Livens and Fiona Rayment.

Signed on Monday 14th September 2026 at the Mansion House, London, at the Global Fusion Policy Summit, the landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishes a collaborative framework between the US-based University Fusion Association and a coalition of 16 UK universities, including The University of Manchester. The flexible structure of the agreement invites further institutional participation, allowing additional universities to join the initiative in the coming months.

Representatives from UK & US universities, the US DoE and UK DESNZ at the signing of the MoU (© UKAEA)

The agreement focuses on critical pillars required to realise commercial fusion energy:

• Research and Innovation: Collaborative scientific discovery, technology development, and engineering deployment.
• Workforce & Skills Development: Multilevel educational and training initiatives designed to build a robust, inclusive, and diverse talent pipeline for the fusion sector over the next decade and beyond.
• Economic Impact: Promoting entrepreneurship and commercialisation pathways to generate economic benefit.
• Policy & Society: Advancing science-informed policy and serving the interests of society at large.

Anchored in shared values, the signatory institutions have pledged to uphold high standards of ethics and research integrity while prioritising student and trainee welfare. The framework emphasises collegiality across institutions to support career development, individual wellbeing, and the global fusion research community.

Dr Khan, Lecturer in Nuclear Materials at The University of Manchester and part of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, participated in the UK working group that helped develop the MoU and signed the agreement at the Global Fusion Policy Summit on behalf of UK universities. Dr Khan said:

The signing reflects The University of Manchester and Dalton Nuclear Institute’s expanding contributions to the UK’s fusion research community, building on more than 40 years of expertise in nuclear materials and engineering. The fusion community at Manchester continues to grow and spans a broad range of research areas, including materials, tritium and wider engineering. Being part of a wider network will enable researchers to share best practice, strengthen collaboration and support the development of fusion energy. 

David Capper, Director for New Nuclear Strategy and Fusion Energy, UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ), said: 
"Delivering fusion will require collaboration across academia, industry, and government, alongside a strong pipeline of skills and talent. Universities have an important role in making fusion possible which is why we welcome partnerships like the one being forged today.” 

Matt Lanctot, Acting Research Division Director, U.S. DOE, Fusion Energy Services, said: 
“This partnership will strengthen the publicly funded research base that drives fusion innovation while helping develop the talent and technology needed for a competitive private fusion sector. By connecting expertise across the Atlantic, this partnership can help close critical gaps on the path to commercial fusion.” 

By bringing together leading academic institutions across the Atlantic, this agreement establishes a unified foundation to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, accelerate technical breakthroughs, and strengthen the global fusion energy landscape. 

Find out more about our fusion energy research at The University of Manchester:

https://www.dalton.manchester.ac.uk/research/fusion-energy/

The three-year appointment will support research, teaching and knowledge exchange at the intersection of artificial intelligence, creative practice, copyright and digital provenance. It builds on a collaboration initiated through Creative Manchester, beginning with Melchior’s two-day visit to the University in May 2026.

An artist, composer and creative technologist, Melchior has spent more than 25 years exploring how music, science and emerging technology can reshape creative experience. His projects range from pioneering an artist website with David Bowie and helping shape Björk Digital and the Vulnicura VR album, to Massive Attack’s Fantom app and Mezzanine DNA experiment. He is founder of Genotone and creator of The Logos, a cathedral-scale collaborative installation with MIT that transforms signals from deep space into spatial sound.

He also advises UK government technical working groups on AI and copyright convened by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In this work, he represents organisations whose combined membership includes around 30,000 artists: the Music Managers Forum, Featured Artists Coalition and Association for Electronic Music.

Building on “Proof of Human”

Creative Manchester welcomed Melchior to the University in May 2026 for a programme of public engagement, student learning and interdisciplinary exchange around AI and creative authorship. Colleagues from Computer Science, Law and Humanities joined representatives from Greater Manchester’s creative sector to explore the challenges and opportunities generative AI presents for the creative and intellectual property sectors.

At the centre of the visit was “Proof of Human: AI, Copyright, and the Fight for Creative Authorship”, a public lecture held at SISTER in Manchester’s innovation district. Melchior examined how creative work can be attributed, protected and rewarded as generative AI becomes more widely used, making the case for reliable systems that verify authorship and trace the provenance of creative material.

He also led a masterclass for undergraduate and postgraduate music and composition students on moving music from studio to release while maintaining provenance and control of intellectual property. The visit created opportunities for collaboration across Computer Science, the School of Law and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Connecting expertise across disciplines and sectors

As Honorary Professor, Melchior will work with colleagues across the University over the next three years to develop research, teaching and knowledge exchange focused on AI, creativity and authorship. He will contribute to collaborative research into provenance technologies and their practical application within creative ecosystems, helping to translate emerging technical approaches into policy, industry and cultural contexts.

He will also support student learning through guest lectures, workshops and the co-supervision of PhD projects. The appointment will help shape interdisciplinary opportunities connecting computing, music, law, archives and public policy, while providing a foundation for future funding bids and longer-term partnerships in responsible and trustworthy AI.

September visit and podcast

Melchior will return to the University from 21-25 September 2026 for an engagement programme celebrating his new role. He will deliver a seminar for the Department of Computer Science and take part in research and knowledge exchange meetings with colleagues from across the University. The programme will explore potential collaborations connecting computing, the creative industries, policy and the cultural sector.

The visit will coincide with the release of a podcast episode on creative ownership, featuring Melchior in conversation with Parvathy Nair, a postgraduate researcher in AI and patent law. Part of a series on the ethics of AI in the cultural and creative industries, the episode considers how artists can retain ownership of their work within the current technological and regulatory landscape.

Supporting Manchester 2035

The collaboration aligns with From Manchester for the world, the University’s strategy to 2035. The strategy seeks to define what a great university looks like for the 21st century by creating knowledge for the public good, locally and globally. By connecting computer science with the creative industries, cultural organisations, law and policymaking, the appointment supports the University’s commitments to interdisciplinary research, partnership, responsible AI and translating research excellence into practical impact.

“Creative work is becoming fluid. It can be copied, transformed and recombined at machine speed, while authorship and ownership struggle to keep up,” said Andrew. “This appointment is an opportunity to bring computer scientists, artists, lawyers and policymakers together to build practical systems that keep identity and provenance attached to creative work.”

"I am delighted to welcome Andrew Melchior as Honorary Professor in Computer Science here in Manchester," said Professor Andrew Stewart, Head of the Department of Computer Science. “He has a unique perspective at the intersection of AI, provenance, and creativity drawn from deep technical knowledge. Andrew’s particular lens is critical in helping us navigate the AI challenges and opportunities we face with respect to creative authorship. I very much look forward to his research collaborations and teaching contributions, both within the Department of Computer Science and, more broadly, across our University.”

Andrew has a remarkable ability to bridge worlds that do not always naturally come together, from computer science and policy to music, the arts and the creative industries," said Professor Michelle Phillips, Director of Creative Manchester and Professor of Music. “At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping how creative work is produced, shared and valued, his expertise offers an important perspective on how we can protect and support human creativity.”

“His visit to Manchester earlier this year sparked valuable conversations between researchers, students, policymakers and creative practitioners, demonstrating the potential for genuinely interdisciplinary collaboration. We are delighted to build on that momentum through this appointment and look forward to developing new research, learning and engagement opportunities together over the coming years.”

The project will combine fieldwork across contrasting geological environments with laboratory experiments and analytical techniques capable of detecting deep-Earth signals more than 100 times more precisely than conventional methods.

It will also measure high-precision neon isotopes in groundwater for the first time, potentially allowing younger groundwater, below two million years old, to be investigated using neon as a dating tracer.

Dr Tyne will draw on Manchester facilities including world-leading noble gas geochemistry expertise, static noble gas mass spectrometers, the Helix MC+ platform and advanced geochemical capabilities.

She will also establish new facilities for analysing noble gases dissolved in groundwater, including a high-precision dynamic noble gas mass spectrometry capability.

Dr Tyne continues: “I hope the work will help improve understanding of where valuable resources such as hydrogen and helium accumulate underground, while also supporting efforts to identify suitable sites for long-term carbon dioxide and nuclear waste storage.”

The project is due to begin in August 2027 and builds on Dr Tyne's recent work, including a study that found evidence of deep-Earth gases leaking into shallow groundwater and a Nature paper investigating microbial activity during carbon dioxide storage in underground reservoirs.

The award continues a strong run of ERC Starting Grants success for Manchester, with The Manchester Institute of Biotechnology also welcoming Dr Martin Spinck, who will join after securing a grant to pioneer a new class of programmable biomaterials.

Further information about the 2026 ERC Starting Grants can be found on the ERC website.

India's tropical dry woodlands are undergoing simultaneous processes of deforestation and reforestation, but these changes are occurring in different places and under different pressures, according to new research published in Environmental Research Letters.

The study provides one of the most detailed assessments to date of how tropical dry woodlands are changing across India. These ecosystems support biodiversity, store carbon and provide vital resources for millions of people, particularly in some of the country's poorest regions. Yet despite their importance, relatively little is known about the spatial patterns of woodland loss and recovery.

Using Landsat satellite imagery and spatial analysis techniques, the researchers examined changes across India's tropical dry woodlands, identifying where forests are being cleared and where they are recovering. The findings show that while reforestation is occurring in some areas, pressures on remaining woodlands remain substantial.

The research found that deforestation and reforestation are not simply opposite sides of the same process. Instead, they follow distinct geographic patterns, meaning woodland gains in one location do not necessarily compensate for losses elsewhere. The findings suggest that understanding where and why these changes occur is critical for conservation and restoration efforts.

The researchers note that tropical dry woodlands have historically experienced widespread conversion and degradation. While evidence of woodland recovery is encouraging, the study shows that deforestation pressures continue in many areas and that much of the observed reforestation are being driven by plantations outside government lands with potentially lower ecological benefits.

Dr Dhanapal Govindarajulu, who led the project as a PhD researcher in the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, highlights:

“Forest cover change across India is being shaped by different land tenure systems, with important implications for what benefits and costs experienced by people and nature. By solely considering changes in forest cover, assessments risk misestimating the true ecological and social gains derived from forest restoration”

By identifying where woodland loss and recovery are taking place, the findings could help inform land management, restoration programmes and conservation policies. The researchers argue that greater attention should be paid to the distinct processes driving deforestation and reforestation, rather than treating overall tree cover change as a single trend.

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, researchers, involving scientists from The University of Manchester and The Valongo Observatory, studied Sakurai's Object, a rare ‘born-again’ star that unexpectedly burst back to life in 1996 after reaching the final stages of its evolution.

Their findings, published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, show that the star has entered a new phase of its evolution, developing the powerful stellar wind characteristic of Wolf-Rayet stars.

The research provides new insight into the final stages of stellar evolution and helps astronomers test theories that would otherwise take thousands or millions of years to verify.

Professor Albert Zijlstra from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester, said: "Most stars evolve so slowly that major changes take place over timescales far longer than a human lifetime. As a result, we usually have to piece together snapshots of stellar evolution by comparing different stars at different stages of their lives.

"Sakurai's Object offers something far rarer. It is one of the very few stars known to have changed dramatically within just a few decades, giving us the opportunity to watch stellar evolution unfold in real time.

“With our observations, we can test theories of how stars evolve and gain new insights into one of the shortest and least understood phases in the life of a dying star."

How a dead star burst back to life

The scientists believe the star was similar to our Sun, but had already ended nuclear burning and begun its journey towards becoming a white dwarf - the hot, dense core left behind after an ordinary star dies. It underwent a rare event known as a "very late thermal pulse", when a layer of helium deep inside the dead star suddenly reignites.

The event caused the star to rapidly expand, cool and eject large amounts of material into space, temporarily returning to an earlier stage of its life, leading astronomers to describe it as a "born-again" star.

Only two stars have ever been directly observed undergoing this type of dramatic rebirth: Sakurai's Object and V605 Aquilae.

Following its outburst, Sakurai's Object became hidden behind thick clouds of gas and dust released during the eruption, making it difficult to study directly.

To investigate its current state, the team analysed light collected by the Very Large Telescope and compared it with sophisticated computer models that simulate the atmospheres and powerful winds of Wolf-Rayet stars.

The observations revealed distinctive signatures of carbon and helium, allowing the researchers to find its temperature, chemical composition and the characteristics of its stellar wind.

Their analysis suggests the star's surface temperature is currently between around 27,000 and 36,000 degrees Kelvin, showing that it is reheating following its dramatic eruption nearly three decades ago.

A rare glimpse of stellar evolution in action

Prof Zijlstra added: "One of the key questions is how quickly Sakurai's Object should recover after its dramatic eruption.

"Our measurements show that the star is reheating more gradually than some earlier models predicted. That gives us an important way of testing which theories best describe what happens when a dying star briefly springs back to life.

"As we continue to monitor the star over the coming years, we expect to learn much more about this remarkable phase of stellar evolution."

The findings also suggest that Sakurai's Object is at an earlier stage of its evolution than V605 Aquilae, which experienced a similar event around 80 years ago.

The team will continue observing Sakurai's Object as it continues reheating and resumes its journey towards becoming a white dwarf, learning more about one of the most rapid and unusual phases of stellar evolution ever observed.

The study, published in the KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, focuses on three-sided protected steel beams, a configuration commonly used in offshore and onshore oil and gas processing facilities. In these structures, the upper surface of the beam remains exposed, creating complex temperature patterns that can be difficult to model accurately.

Understanding how heat moves through these beams during a fire is an important part of structural fire engineering. However, temperature distribution is influenced by several interacting factors, including beam depth, insulation thickness and material conductivity, making conventional analytical equations challenging to apply across different scenarios.

To address this challenge, the researchers created an automated workflow that links computer modelling, simulation and data processing. The system combines Python, ABAQUS and MATLAB with machine learning techniques to automatically generate models, run simulations and train predictive algorithms.

The team generated a database containing 414 standard beam models and 63 welded beam models, covering beam depths ranging from 127 mm to 1500 mm and a variety of insulation configurations. These data were then used to train machine learning models capable of predicting beam temperatures during fire exposure.

The researchers found that the best-performing approach, based on gradient boosting, achieved a root mean squared error of just 1.34°C when compared with test data. More than 83% of prediction calculations were completed within 60 seconds, demonstrating the potential for rapid assessment of fire protection requirements.

The study also introduced a model generation agent incorporating a two-dimensional contact detection algorithm, enabling the automatic creation of beam heat transfer models. A dedicated data processing pipeline and batch-generation system were developed to support large-scale training while reducing memory requirements, allowing the work to be carried out using a single graphics processing unit.

According to the researchers, the approach could help engineers evaluate insulation strategies and fire protection requirements more efficiently, particularly in sectors where structural fire performance is a key design consideration. By reducing the need for repeated complex simulations, the framework has the potential to support faster decision-making during engineering design and assessment.

The research was conducted by Yang Li and Peijun Wang et al. The paper lists the Department of Civil Engineering and Management of The University of Manchester and Shandong University, as the authors' institutional affiliation.

Dr Zheng, Associate Professor in Data Science and Environmental Analytics at The University of Manchester and Co-Lead for Environmental Data Science & AI at Manchester Environmental Research Institute (MERI), was recognised in the Climate and Energy category for developing AI-enabled approaches that help improve understanding of how cities respond to climate change.

His research combines AI with physics-based climate science to create faster, more accurate simulations of urban environments. These tools can help researchers, city planners and policymakers better understand challenges such as extreme heat, energy use and climate resilience in rapidly growing cities.

One of Dr Zheng's key innovations is UCformer, a physics-guided AI framework designed to improve the representation of cities in climate models. His work has also advanced the integration of urban processes into Earth system models and led to the development of open-source, cloud-based tools that make sophisticated urban climate simulations more accessible to researchers and stakeholders worldwide.

The recognition places Dr Zheng among a distinguished group of innovators from around the world. Previous University of Manchester researchers recognised by MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 programme include Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, who was named to the list in 2008 and later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, and Professor Radha Boya, who was recognised in 2017.

Read more about Dr Zhonghua Zheng’s research:

• https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/helping-cities-tackle-heatwaves-and-air-pollution-with-ai-innovation/

• https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/enhanced-climate-models-to-reveal-how-our-cities-are-driving-and-feeling-the-effects-of-climate-change/

• https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/heat-from-traffic-is-contributing-to-rise-in-city-temperatures-new-study-finds/
• https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/harvesting-rainwater-from-rooftops-could-help-cities-stay-cool-and-cut-the-number-of-heatwave-days/
• https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/new-research-calls-for-global-action-on-micro-and-nanoplastics-in-the-atmosphere/

Analysing the X-ray image sequences manually would have taken the team months, so instead they developed a machine learning system which was trained to recognise and track individual dendrite. The system measured how each dendrite grew, the direction it took, how quickly it expanded and how it interacted with neighbouring dendrite.

Their results show that without the disturbances that are usually caused by gravity on Earth, dendrites grew more stably and rotated far less. Most of the dendrites followed the growth patterns scientists would normally expect. But even in microgravity, where many of the usual disturbances were removed, some crystals still grew in unexpected directions. This shows that crystal growth is more complex than previously thought, and that some of the underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood.

The researchers also used post-flight analysis at Diamond Light Source, one of the UK’s national science facilities, to create three-dimensional images of the solidified sample and map the internal structure of individual crystals.

These findings have practical implications for how metal components are designed and manufactured. Casting, welding and metal 3D printing all depend on controlling how metal solidifies, so better computer models of that process, grounded in reliable data, could help manufacturers improve the quality and consistency of components used in aerospace, medical and energy applications.

Dr Wajira Mirihanage, Senior Lecturer in Materials Science at The University of Manchester, said: “What makes this work important is not just what we observed, but what it makes possible. Solidification underpins almost every metal manufacturing process, but the models we use to simulate it have always had to account for gravity’s influence. These new results give the field a dataset from conditions where gravity was essentially absent, and that kind of reference point is genuinely valuable for testing whether the models we rely on to design and manufacture are getting the physics right.”

This research was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) through its PRODEX programme, the UK Space Agency, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Henry Royce Institute. Access to Diamond Light Source was granted under proposal CM31134-1.

The challenge, now in its third year, saw teams of Year 10 and 11 pupils spend four weeks developing metal-detecting robotic systems before returning to the University's Nancy Rothwell Building for a series of live detection challenges.

The competition is inspired by research carried out by the University's electromagnetic sensing team and gives young people hands-on experience of electronics engineering while highlighting the real-world challenge of detecting buried landmines and other hidden objects underground. It also aims to inspire more young people to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Teams started with an introductory workshop in June, where they received their robot kits and took part in practical engineering sessions, careers talks and got the chance to meet and ask questions to professionals from across the electrical engineering sector. They were then paired with University of Manchester undergraduate mentors, who visited their schools to help guide teams through the design and build process.

The competition culminated in a final event on 14 July, with pupils putting their creations to the test in a series of practical arena challenges designed to assess their detection and engineering skills.

Co-op Academy Swinton took first place overall. St Ambrose Barlow RC High School were named runners-up and Chorlton High School South received the award for ‘Best Presentation’, all receiving specially engraved trophies.

Competition led, Dr Michael O’Toole said: “Manchester Minesweeper challenge gives pupils the chance to take on a genuine engineering challenge and build something that works in the real world.

“Over the course of four weeks, they learn about electronics, problem-solving, teamwork and design, while working alongside current engineering students who help them develop their ideas and gain confidence that university and a career in STEM could be within their reach."

InstMC Vice-President Dave Green said: “It's incredibly rewarding to see the creativity, determination and technical skills that the teams develop, and we hope the experience encourages some of them to consider studying engineering or another STEM subject in the future.”

The initiative was originally established with support from a Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious award. For the first time this year, it was supported by leading local engineering businesses through the sponsorship of the Institute of Measurement Control (Central Northwest), Endress+Hauser, Technical Partners, and Tetra Tech Consulting, whose representatives joined the final event and helped judge the competition.

Professor Alexander Lanzon, Chair in Control Engineering, and Dr Chao Chen, Lecturer in Control Systems, both from the Control Systems and Robotics group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, received the Automatica Paper Prize Award, together with their collaborator Professor Sei Zhen Khong, from National Sun Yat-sen University, for their paper in the 2023–2026 IFAC triennium entitled Feedback Stability Analysis via Dissipativity with Dynamic Supply Rates 

Published in Automatica in February 2025, this paper (DOI: 10.1016/j.automatica.2024.112000) develops a new fundamental control theoretical framework to analyse feedback stability of nonlinear dynamical systems via a new energy dissipation notion that permits dynamic supply rates. This framework advances classical dissipativity theory and has important implications in practical applications particularly for nonlinear electrical and mechanical dynamical systems. 

Automatica is one of the two foremost international journals in systems and control. The Automatica Paper Prize is awarded every three years to three papers for outstanding contributions in the theory and practice of control engineering and control science.

The award represents significant international recognition for research undertaken in the University’s Control Systems and Robotics group, reflecting Manchester’s strength in fundamental control theory and in the mathematical scientific foundations that underpin modern engineering technology and innovation.

Congratulations to the winners of the Automatica Paper Prize. For further information, read the official award announcement.

The Henry Royce Institute will receive £95 million for research into advanced materials to help deliver the National Materials Strategy, launched in February 2026.

The Royce will continue its world-leading work to keep the UK at the forefront of advanced materials research and turn scientific discoveries into commercial products. The institute's work helps to create solutions to some of the key issues facing our society, including developing lighter, more efficient battery technology or using AI to design a new alloy that could replace scarce rare-earth materials used in electrical equipment. It works closely with businesses to commercialise new tech quickly and fuel growth in the UK.

The Rosalind Franklin Institute, a research centre dedicated to developing new technologies to address health challenges, will also receive a £67.7 million investment to build on its pioneering work in next-generation imaging, engineering, biology and diagnostics.

Science Minister Chris McDonald said: “We have world leading science research in the UK that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. It is the foundation of our mission to reindustrialise the country, creating good, well paid jobs by developing new technologies and growing British companies.

“The Rosalind Franklin Institute and the Henry Royce Institute are world leading in their fields. Combining biological knowledge, advanced physics and materials development to understand how the cells in our bodies function, and can be repaired and treated with precision medicines.

"The research gives our country a competitive edge, so long as we commercialise it in industry. Developing new medical technologies and treatments and bringing them to market is good for jobs and good for health, making a real impact on people's lives."

Turning research into reality

Executive Director for the Strategy Directorate at the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (UKRI), Dr Kedar Pandya, said: “The Rosalind Franklin Institute and Henry Royce Institute have a proven track record of turning public investment into research that advances knowledge, improves lives and drives growth.

“This continued funding from UKRI builds on that success. It will give researchers the tools and resources to answer some of the biggest questions in the health and advanced materials industries, keeping the UK at the forefront of global science and engineering.”

These two institutes are turning brilliant science into real-world impact, and contributing to the UK’s leadership in two vital sectors – life sciences and the advanced materials industry, both of which are among the eight high growth sectors targeted for support in the government’s Industrial Strategy.

Their world-leading facilities, anchored at Harwell in Didcot for the Franklin and Manchester for the Royce, will provide new equipment and infrastructure for scientists, industry partners and as well as working closely with businesses across the country.

Already, Royce’s battery development facility has supported Molyon, a University of Cambridge spin-out, in creating a new generation of lithium-sulphur batteries that are lighter, more sustainable and can store twice as much energy as current models. The breakthrough has helped Molyon raise $4.6 million in seed funding to bring the technology to market.

This is just one example of how these institutes support connections between cutting edge research and British businesses, helping to make sure that the UK’s scientific excellence translates into jobs, new investment and economic growth in every part of the country, as set out in the government's 10-year Industrial Strategy. This funding is delivered through UK Research and Innovation, with the intention to deliver the greatest possible impact.

Professor Paul Monks, Chair, Henry Royce Institute said: “The achievements of the Henry Royce Institute demonstrate what can be accomplished when the UK brings together outstanding people, facilities and institutions around a shared national purpose, but ultimately the measure of our success is in the outcomes that this enables.

“This renewed investment is both a recognition of what the Royce Partnership has achieved and a huge vote of confidence in its future. Advanced materials underpin almost every technology that will shape a more sustainable and prosperous economy, and our next phase will be increasingly focused on translating our national capability into tangible outcomes for the economy, society and the environment.

“By deepening our national and international impact and forging stronger connections between research and industry, we want to ensure that great materials science leads to real-world innovation, while keeping the UK at the forefront of advanced materials.”

Professor Sarah Sharples, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Member of the Royce Governing Board, said: "We are living through a period of profound technological and societal change, and meeting the challenges and opportunities that brings depends on strong partnerships between universities, industry and government.

"Royce demonstrates the power of that approach. By bringing together outstanding expertise, facilities and industrial partners from across the UK, it has built a world-leading advanced materials innovation ecosystem that translates extraordinary research into the technologies and businesses that will shape our future.

"As the lead partner and home of the Henry Royce Institute, The University of Manchester is proud to play a convening role at the heart of this national partnership and all it has achieved. This renewed investment will strengthen the UK's position as a global leader in advanced materials and help ensure that discoveries made in our laboratories continue to deliver benefits for the economy, society and the environment."

A “peculiar” new species of Jurassic squid-like animal has been unearthed in Wyoming, USA, following the discovery of two exceptionally rare fossils dating back around 160 million years.

The newly named species, Wyoteuthis linsterorum, has been identified as a type of ancient cephalopod, called a belemnite, cousins of modern squid and octopus. They say unusually thick, barrel-shaped skeleton makes it the "chunkiest” or “fattest" belemnite ever discovered.

An international team of researchers from the USA, UK and New Zealand, including Dr Dean Lomax, Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, describe the discovery in the journal Papers in Palaeontology today.

Belemnites are among the most common fossils found worldwide and are recognised by their bullet-shaped remains, known as a rostrum or guard. Millions have been discovered in Wyoming's Sundance Formation, an ancient inland sea that once covered the western USA.

Co-author and Wyoming palaeontologist, Jessica Lippincott, said in Wyoming, they are nicknamed “squid butts”.

The chunkiest belemnite ever discovered

Most Wyoming belemnites are bullet-shaped measuring around 5 to 10 centimetres long and only 1 to 2 centimetres wide. By contrast, the newly discovered species had an unusually broad, barrel-shaped rostrum around 10 centimetres long but up to six centimetres wide, making it the thickest belemnite ever recorded.

Researchers estimate the living animal would have reached around 60 centimetres in total length including its arms.

The work was instigated by Wyoming palaeontologist and co-author Bill Wahl, who has spent much of his career searching for fossils in Wyoming and said this belemnite “stuck out like a sore thumb”. He brought together an international team of researchers to investigate the remarkable specimens, including belemnite expert Alexey Ippolitov, now at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Using computed tomography (CT) scanning, the team were able to examine the fossils without damaging them, revealing internal features that confirmed the animal belonged to an ancient family of belemnites previously thought to have disappeared millions of years earlier.

PhD student, Ippolitov said he was "deeply surprised" to discover a fossil from such a well-studied group that differed so radically from anything previously known. After more than 200 years of palaeontological research on belemnites, he said, discoveries like this are exceptionally rare.

Ippolitov explains: “A possible explanation is that their relatively large size gave them an advantage when hunting co-occurring smaller belemnites of the genus Pachyteuthis. Modern squid, after all, are hardly picky when it comes to prey: they readily hunt not only other species of cephalopods, but sometimes even their own kind.”

30 years in the making

The discovery was almost 30 years in the making. The first specimen was unearthed in the late 1990s by Dr Burkhard Pohl, founder of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, after he spotted a belemnite much bigger than any he had seen before. The fossil sat unstudied in the museum's collection draw for many years until a second specimen was discovered by fossil collector Cliff Linster near Ten Sleep, Wyoming, and donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in 2019. Together, the two fossils provided the evidence needed to identify and formally describe the new species.

Honouring a fossil collector's legacy

The name Wyoteuthis translates to “a squid from Wyoming”, while the species name, linsterorum, honours Cliff Linster and his family. Cliff discovered one of only two known specimens of the new species and donated it for scientific study.

Co-author and Wyoming palaeontologist, Jessica Lippincott, said: “After spending years fossil hunting in Wyoming and collecting countless fossils of the common Pachyteuthis belemnites here in Wyoming, this one is unlike anything I have ever seen! It goes to show that we are still finding new species of fossils all the time, and people who rockhound or collect invertebrate fossils can also contribute to science.”

Cliff Linster passed away in June this year. He knew researchers were studying his remarkable discovery and was excited to see it formally described. The Linster family are no strangers to finding amazing fossils, perhaps most famously the dinosaur Bambiraptor.

Co-author and British palaeontologist, Dr Dean Lomax, an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester and an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, in the UK, dug up dinosaurs with Cliff and his wife, Sandy, when he was a teenager. He said: “I met Cliff and Sandy in 2009, when I spent a week digging up a dinosaur bonebed on their property in northern Montana. I have fond memories of that dig, listening to Cliff share his passion for fossils, including this belemnite. I’m honoured to help name this fossil after Cliff. It’s bittersweet that he didn’t get to see it published, but it’s wonderful that we can immortalise him and his family name in the history of palaeontology. The find is incredibly rare, which might be due to some ecological adaptations to the environment at the time. Perhaps its rarity is a result of narrow specialization.”

Dr Lomax is also the author of the recently published book, “The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs”, which highlights Wyoming fossils, and he has spent time collecting fossils and excavating plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs in Wyoming’s Sundance Formation.

Both specimens are on display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming USA.

Publication details

The new study has been published in the international journal, Papers in Palaeontology.

DOI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.70123

At a time when governments and organisations are introducing new AI rules and standards, including under the EU AI Act, the study suggests that many current efforts to govern AI focus on producing documents, policies and reports that demonstrate ethical commitment.

However, the findings indicate that unless organisations also change how AI is developed in practice, these measures may amount to little more than a box-ticking exercise.

Professor Caroline Jay, who supervised the research, said: "This is not a story about bad companies or bad engineers. It is a story about the difference between the appearance of ethical practice and the substance of it. The infrastructure of AI ethics has grown faster than the technology it was designed to govern. What this research shows is that the infrastructure is largely aimed at the wrong level."

The study argues that meaningful change must address the way AI projects operate day to day, including how ethical concerns are raised, who is responsible for addressing them and whether careful testing and safety work are recognised and rewarded.

It also calls on regulators to look beyond whether organisations have produced the correct documentation and examine whether ethical safeguards are being followed in practice.

The research forms part of a wider doctoral project examining the relationship between AI engineers’ intentions, public perceptions of AI and the outcomes produced by AI systems.

The researchers now plan to test these findings through a larger-scale survey involving a broader engineering population. They hope the work will help inform future AI governance approaches by focusing greater attention on the organisational conditions that shape how AI systems are developed and deployed.

Biological ion channels, which have angstrom-scale constrictions, can respond to multiple signals from their surroundings and regulate the movement of ions across cell membranes. Inspired by this principle, researchers investigated whether naturally occurring angstrom-scale channels in vermiculite could also exhibit responsive ion transport when exposed to different external stimuli, e.g., mechanical, electrical and chemical signals.

Depending on the conditions applied, the channels altered both the amount and direction of ion flow, showing behaviours similar to the ion gating behaviour in biological channels.

The clay channels naturally favour positively charged ions. The team found that by changing the acidity of the surrounding solution, they were able to influence this selectivity. Pressure and electrical voltage also altered how ions travelled through the channels, revealing a complex interplay between the different stimuli.

Dr Raj Kumar Gogoi, first author of the study added, “We observed that applying pressure and voltage together could change the behaviour of the flowing ions in ways not seen when either stimulus was applied alone. Under certain conditions, the direction of the pressure-driven current could even reverse, highlighting the sensitivity of the system to multiple environmental inputs.”

To understand these observations, the researchers combined laboratory experiments with computational modelling. Prof Narayana R Aluru, from University of Texas-Austin, said "The experimental observations could not be fully explained using conventional models. We introduce a modified surface-charge regulation model, where pressure, voltage and ion concentration influence the distribution of ions inside the channels and modify the charge at the channel surface, which in turn affects ion transport.”

Unlike conventional models, which typically consider surface charge as a function of ion concentration alone, the new approach incorporates the combined effects of voltage, pressure and concentration, to describe how these coupled factors influence ion transport in highly confined channels The findings suggest that naturally layered materials could offer a versatile platform for studying and controlling ionic transport at extremely small scales. The authors say future applications could include adaptive nanofluidic systems, energy conversion devices and bioelectronic platforms, though these applications were not explored in the present study.

The research was conducted by scientists from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, National Graphene Institute and Photon Science Institute at The University of Manchester; the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

Funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and in partnership with researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, the programme will use atomic-scale materials engineering to unlock new capabilities in future secure communications systems, ultra-sensitive quantum sensors and scalable quantum computing – all areas recognised as strategically important to the UK's future economic prosperity, security and technological resilience. 

The five-year Materials Engineering for Advanced Devices (MEAD) EPSRC Programme Grant will bring together researchers to address one of the most significant challenges facing modern technology: how to engineer materials with such precision that their properties can be controlled at the level of individual atoms to realise new devices and capability. 

Materials underpin every advanced electronic and optical device. However, translating breakthroughs made at the atomic scale into technologies that can be manufactured reliably and at scale remains a major challenge. 

MEAD will exploit deterministic single-atom doping and isotopic engineering to create materials with entirely new functionalities, crucially demonstrating they can be manufactured and deployed in devices for future technologies.

Turning atomic-scale research into future technologies

The programme will draw on an extensive network of national research facilities and expertise across the three partner institutions, underpinned by more than £150 million of existing infrastructure investments in advanced materials characterisation, semiconductor fabrication and quantum technologies. Together, these facilities provide a unique environment for translating fundamental scientific discoveries into technologies with real-world impact.

Professor Neil Alford of Imperial College London said: "Many of the technologies that society will depend on in the coming decades will require levels of precision and performance that cannot be achieved using today's materials alone. MEAD is about creating the materials, devices and measurement capabilities needed to unlock the next generation of communications, quantum technologies and sensing systems."

Professor Edmund Linfield of the University of Leeds added: "The UK is already globally renowned in areas such as quantum technologies, semiconductor engineering and advanced materials. MEAD brings these strengths together with a shared ambition to create technologies that will support future economic growth, scientific discovery and national capability."

Developing next generation devices

The programme's scope includes:

• Design and fabrication of quantum devices based on precisely engineered semiconductor materials, including advanced "qudits", which can carry more information than conventional quantum bits. Using the fabrication capabilities of the Bragg Centre for Materials Research at the University of Leeds, and selective deterministic ion implantation at The University of Manchester, MEAD will create devices with previously unachievable levels of atomic control, providing a pathway towards more scalable and efficient quantum computing systems.
• Development of highly sensitive "masers", the microwave equivalent of lasers, in work led by Imperial College London. These devices are capable of amplifying extremely weak signals with exceptionally low noise, making them attractive for both advanced communications and quantum technologies. They are likely to play a vital role in future terrestrial communications systems that are less reliant on satellites, offering greater resilience in an increasingly connected world.
• Investigation of new approaches to measuring motion, gravity and environmental changes by harnessing the properties of quantum systems. The programme will aim to generate sensing performance improvements of up to five orders of magnitude beyond current state-of-the-art technologies.
• Development of new AI-powered imaging and characterisation techniques capable of helping scientists identify and analyse materials at the scale of individual atoms. This will provide insight into how atomic-scale changes influence device performance, accelerating the development of future technologies.

Leading UK materials expertise

Today’s announcement builds on Manchester, Imperial and Leeds’ long-standing leadership in advanced materials engineering and quantum technologies, with recent research highlights including:

• Highly 28Si enriched silicon by localised focused ion beam implantation, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s43246-024-00498-0
• A High-Resolution Versatile Focused Ion Implantation Platform for Nanoscale Engineering, Advanced Engineering Materials, 10.1002/adem.202300889
• “Maser-in-a-shoebox”: A portable plug-and-play maser device at room temperature and zero magnetic field, Applied Physics Letters, 10.1063/5.0181318
• Exploring the spin dynamics of a room-temperature diamond maser using an extended rate equation model, Journal of Applied Physics, 10.1063/5.0164930
• Analysis of plasmon modes in Bi2Se3/graphene heterostructures via electron energy loss spectroscopy, Scientific Reports, 10.1038/s41598-024-81488-7
• Optimizing Hot Electron Harvesting at Planar Metal–Semiconductor Interfaces with Titanium Oxynitride Thin Films, Applied Materials and Interfaces, 10.1021/acsami.3c02812

In the new study, published in Physical Review X, researchers developed a graphene device that allowed them to test this question directly. The device consisted of two twisted graphene bilayers separated by less than a nanometre but kept electronically separate. This design enabled the team to weaken interactions between electrons in the magic-angle graphene layer and observe how superconductivity responded. The international collaboration involved researchers from the National Graphene Institute, the Henry Royce Institute, Washington University in St Louis, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Antwerp, Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science and the National University of Singapore.

Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene, created by stacking two sheets of graphene with a rotational offset of approximately 1.1 degrees, has become one of the most intensely studied quantum materials over the past decade. However, researchers have continued to debate what causes its superconductivity. While some theories propose that electrons themselves drive the pairing responsible for superconductivity, others suggest a more conventional mechanism involving vibrations of the atomic lattice.

Dr Julien Barrier, the lead author of the study, explained: “To make a difference, we had to solve two issues. First, to build a device in which the screening layer sits extremely close, a fraction of a nanometre, to the superconducting graphene while remaining electronically separate. Second, we had to make that screening layer tuneable. To this effect, we used a twisted graphene bilayer in atomic contact to the magic-angle graphene”.

Professor Alexey Berdyugin from the National University of Singapore, the corresponding author of this study, added: “When we switched on the screening, we were surprised to find that superconductivity was completely suppressed. This provides clear experimental evidence that superconductivity in this system originates from strong electron-electron interactions. This behaviour offers a new opportunity to better understand the mechanisms underlying superconductivity in other materials with strong electronic interactions, including high-temperature superconductors.”

Professor Sir Andre Geim, the corresponding author of this work, said: "Personally, I am interested only in high-temperature superconductivity – preferably at room temperature or above. This study was done at temperatures so low that even helium turns liquid. But unless we understand what makes superconductivity work, we are unlikely ever to reach room-temperature superconductivity, let alone make this remarkable phenomenon commercially useful. Our study takes only a tiny step - but still a step - in that direction, helping to nail down the mechanism of exotic superconductivity in graphene. Rome was not built in a day.”

The team found that increasing the carrier density in the neighbouring graphene bilayer progressively weakened superconductivity in the adjacent magic-angle graphene. At sufficiently high carrier densities, superconductivity was completely suppressed.

The researchers also observed that correlated insulating states, another characteristic feature of magic-angle graphene, disappeared under the same conditions. Measurements showed that the superconducting critical temperature could be reduced by more than an order of magnitude through screening.

The effect was substantially stronger than reported in earlier screening experiments. According to the researchers, the enhanced response resulted from the exceptionally small separation between the superconducting layer and the screening layer, allowing Coulomb interactions to be modified much more effectively.

To understand the observations, the team compared the experimental results with theoretical modelling. Conventional phonon-mediated superconductivity would be expected to remain largely unchanged or increase slightly when Coulomb interactions are screened. Instead, the researchers observed the opposite behaviour, indicating that conventional phonon pairing does not explain the superconductivity in this class of materials.

While the authors emphasise that the work does not identify a single definitive pairing mechanism, several unconventional theories remain consistent with the results, including mechanisms based on collective electronic interactions. However, the findings place much tighter constraints on future theories seeking to explain superconductivity in magic-angle graphene.

Professor Berdyugin concludes: “In this study, we introduced a method for screening electron-electron interactions over scales as short as 0.3 nm, which turned out to be crucial for controlling superconductivity in magic-angle graphene. We anticipate that this unprecedented level of short-range screening could also help clarify many other debated phenomena.”

Researchers at The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University have developed a laboratory method that transforms sheep bone into a realistic model of osteoporosis, providing a potential alternative for early-stage testing of orthopaedic implants and treatments.

The study, published in JBMR Plus, describes how researchers used a controlled demineralisation process to alter the structure and mechanical properties of sheep bone, creating samples that closely resemble osteoporotic human bone.

Osteoporosis affects an estimated 500 million people worldwide and contributes to around 2.7 million hip fractures each year. The development of new implants and treatments requires extensive testing, often involving human cadaveric bone or animal studies, both of which can be costly, time-consuming and subject to regulatory constraints.

To address this challenge, the research team investigated whether sheep femurs sourced from the food chain could be converted into a representative model of osteoporotic bone. Sheep bone shares similarities in size with human bone and is more readily available for laboratory research.

The researchers treated sheep femurs with hydrochloric acid for different periods, removing minerals from the bone and causing progressive changes to its internal structure and strength. They then measured how the process affected bone density, architecture and mechanical performance.

The team found that longer demineralisation times resulted in weaker, more porous bones, closely mirroring the deterioration seen in osteoporosis. Young's modulus, a measure of stiffness, fell from 110.7 MPa in untreated samples to 57.7 MPa after 96 hours of demineralisation. Volumetric bone mineral density decreased by around 33%, while porosity increased by approximately 30% compared with untreated bone.

Microscopic analysis also revealed significant changes in the trabecular structure, the network of bone tissue that helps provide strength and support. As demineralisation increased, trabecular thickness decreased while trabecular separation increased, both hallmarks of osteoporotic bone.

According to the researchers, the resulting bone properties fall within ranges reported for human osteoporotic trabecular bone. This suggests the model could provide a useful and cost-effective tool for investigating osteoporosis and evaluating orthopaedic technologies before progressing to more complex testing.

The researchers note that the approach aligns with the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement, often known as the 3Rs, which aim to minimise the use of animals in research where suitable alternatives are available.

The study was conducted by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University and The University of Manchester. Lead author, Fahad Alabdah returned to Saudi Arabia as a lecturer at the University of Hail.

Titled 'Sustainability of Nuclear Energy—A Critical Review of Closed Fuel Cycle Options', the review compares six fuel cycle pathways of varying complexity, from the simplest once-through cycle where all spent fuel is treated as waste, to more advanced options incorporating multiple stages of recycling.

To make the comparison accessible, the authors present the six options as a ‘Tube map’, modelled on the London Underground - a first for the field.

Today’s nuclear reactors already compare well with renewable technologies when it comes to many sustainability metrics. However, this review finds that closing the fuel cycle could improve sustainability further still, delivering benefits for natural resource use, environmental footprint, management of high-level radioactive waste, and energy security. 

Co-author Professor Robin Taylor, of the Dalton Nuclear Institute and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory, said: “Closing the fuel cycle does come with real challenges, including those around safety, security, and cost. However, by drawing on the UK’s own experience as a case study, our review finds that these challenges can be addressed and do not necessarily rule out the benefits of reusing nuclear fuel”.

Co-author Dr William Bodel, of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, added: “Our review shows that while nuclear energy is already a sustainable source of low-carbon energy, successfully closing the fuel cycle could enhance this further. Visualising various fuel cycle options together is hard given the amount of information which needs to be presented simultaneously. Harry Beck’s 1930s London Underground map does an excellent job at communicating complicated information, so applying its design here seemed a good solution to aid visual understanding.”

Read the full review: Sustainability of Nuclear Energy—A Critical Review of Closed Fuel Cycle Options

The review was authored by:

• Dr William Bodel
• Professor Anthony Banford
• Professor Gregg Butler
• Professor Francis Livens
• Professor Robin Taylor

The ERC Starting Grant is one of Europe's most competitive and prestigious funding schemes, supporting outstanding early-career researchers pursuing ambitious, high-risk, high-gain research.

Custom-made materials that behave like biological molecules

Metal-peptide frameworks are microscopic structures formed when short peptides connect to metal ions and assemble into an ordered network. By changing the peptide building blocks or the metals used, researchers could create materials with tailored properties, from speeding up chemical reactions to conducting electricity.

While metal-peptide frameworks have shown promise as highly versatile materials, discovering new frameworks currently relies on slow and laborious chemical synthesis.

To address this, the project will harness a specially engineered bacterial strain with an expanded genetic code that allows the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids, molecular building blocks not found naturally in living organisms. By programming cells to produce diverse libraries of metal-binding peptides, the team aims to accelerate the discovery of entirely new materials that can self-assemble and be optimised through directed evolution.

The research could open up new possibilities for designing biological materials that combine the sophisticated functions of proteins with the scalability and accessibility of synthetic materials. In the longer term, these materials could be engineered to act as sustainable biocatalysts, conductive biological components or multifunctional biomaterials with applications across biotechnology and green manufacturing.

The project builds upon Martin’s previous work in synthetic genomics and genetic code expansion, an area of synthetic biology that enables researchers to introduce new chemical building blocks into living organisms. His previous research has helped expand the range of molecules that can be genetically encoded.

By combining these capabilities with materials science, the ERC-funded research aims to establish metal-peptide frameworks as an entirely new class of evolvable biomaterials. Researchers hope that understanding how these structures form and function could eventually enable the development of materials capable of coupling renewable energy sources with biological processes, contributing to future sustainable technologies and a circular bioeconomy.

The award continues a strong run of ERC Starting Grants success for Manchester, with Dr Rebecca Tyne receiving £2.1 million to investigate how gases move through the Earth's crust.

Further information about the 2026 ERC Starting Grants can be found on the ERC website.

There is no credible scenario in which expansion at Heathrow can go ahead without blowing a hole in the UK’s legally binding climate targets, new modelling published by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at The University of Manchester reveals today.

The report, commissioned by the environmental justice organisation Friends of the Earth, provides the first detailed analysis of whether Heathrow expansion is compatible with the UK’s legal carbon budgets.

Recent approvals of airport expansion at Gatwick, Stansted Luton and many other locations mean that UK aviation is already projected to exceed its share of the Seventh Carbon Budget (2038-42) by between 21 and 50%, depending on how much sustainable aviation fuel materialises. That is before any Heathrow expansion takes place.

The analysis concludes that the two technologies relied upon to enable passenger growth or airport expansion to fit within carbon budgets – Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) – are not even close to being on track for sufficiently capacity within the required timeframe.

The report concludes that Heathrow expansion cannot credibly meet the UK’s climate targets thanks to three key findings:

• Aviation emissions: The UK’s aviation sector will already exceed its share of the Seventh Carbon Budget by around 40%, even before Heathrow expansion is considered. The research highlights how even the government’s own modelling reaches a similar conclusion.

• Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF): Based on existing evidence SAF would be unable to close the emissions gap. Even optimistic deployment of this technology would leave aviation above its carbon budget share. Previous studies have shown that current SAF production methods face major structural constraints or compete with agriculture for land and water, just as farmers have experienced what could be the worst harvest on record and are already warning about the impact of the climate crisis on food production.

• Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs): GGR describes methods that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it long-term, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. The report highlights how global GGR deployment is significantly off track and that no engineered removal plants are operating yet in the UK. Despite this, aviation emissions modelling heavily relies upon future potential GGR to offset additional emissions. Even before any airport expansion is taken into account aviation is the biggest projected user of GGR capacity. On top of this, these scenarios all depend on SAF pulling its weight; if SAF fails to deliver, even more GGR will have to be deployed. The report concludes that the building capacity for more aviation demand before large scale GGR facilities are operational is inconsistent with taking climate targets seriously.

• Non-CO₂ impacts are not accounted for: Aviation's full warming effects are not captured within carbon budgets. Non-CO₂e impacts including from nitrogen oxides and contrails, account for around two-thirds of aviation's climate warming and should be incorporated into future climate targets.

What do the researchers say?

The lead researchers, Dr Lois Pennington, Professor Alice Larkin and Dr Chris Jones recommend decisionmakers reject any proposed expansion at Heathrow Airport.

Dr Lois Pennington, Research Fellow at the Tyndall Centre said:

“Every aviation scenario the UK Government has published overshoots the carbon budget Parliament has legislated, before a third runway at Heathrow is even taken into account.

“Our analysis shows that aviation cannot continue to grow if the sector is to make a proportionate contribution to meeting the UK’s carbon budgets. Sustainable aviation fuels and carbon removals can contribute to limiting aviation emissions, but there is currently no evidence that these technologies can support the scale of aviation expansion envisaged by the government.

“Further aviation expansion carries a significant risk of exacerbating climate impacts by relying on the growth of technologies that are unlikely to materialise in the timescale needed.

“The UK is experiencing another exceptionally hot summer, while record-breaking severe wildfires have burnt across Western Europe. The Government must reassess the case for expansion. Climate policy must be grounded in what we can demonstrate and evidence, rather than what we hope may become possible.”

Mike Childs, head of policy, science and research at Friends of the Earth, said: 

"After this summer of record-breaking heat and nearly 3,000 excess deaths, this third runway is the equivalent of pouring petrol on a raging wildfire.

"The evidence is clear: there is no route where expansion at Heathrow can be in line with our legally binding climate targets. Suggesting that sustainable aviation fuel and greenhouse gas removals can enable airport expansion is simply trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes.

"The government has a choice: commit to taking action on the climate seriously, reject Heathrow expansion and constrain excessive flying, or abandon the UK's climate targets and future generations by giving the third runway the go ahead.

"With a weak economic case to support expansion set against a huge impact on the climate and communities, this is the opportunity for the new Prime Minister to truly set a precedent by turning his back to corporate lobbying and say no to a third runway at Heathrow."

The public consultation on the government's Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS) closed earlier this week on Tuesday 1 September, the same day that members of parliament returned from recess to scrutinise the proposal.

Friends of the Earth and the researchers are calling on the UK Government to reject Heathrow expansion and ensure future aviation policy remains consistent with legally binding carbon budgets under the Climate Change Act.

Read the full report here: Heathrow Airport expansion risks for the Climate Change Act - Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

Using South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope, the international team measured radio emissions from neutral hydrogen dating back to a time when the Universe was several billion years younger than it is today.

The findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, demonstrate the potential of a technique known as hydrogen intensity mapping, which allows astronomers to study vast regions of the cosmos more efficiently than ever before.

Key findings

• Researchers directly detected the hydrogen intensity mapping signal using MeerKATradio observations alone.
• The signal comes from hydrogen that existed when the Universe was several billion years younger than today
• The measurement traces cosmic structures across scales of millions of light years.
• The results validate hydrogen intensity mapping as a practical new tool for cosmology, enabling scientists to probe the large-scale structure of the distant Universe.
• The technique could help future telescopes map the Universe more efficiently than traditional galaxy surveys.

How hydrogen intensity mapping works

Neutral hydrogen naturally emits a faint radio signal known as the 21-centimetre line. As the Universe expands, this signal is stretched to longer wavelengths, allowing astronomers to observe hydrogen at different stages of cosmic history.

Rather than detecting individual galaxies one by one, hydrogen intensity mapping measures the combined radio emission from many unresolved galaxies. This makes it possible to study enormous volumes of the Universe and build a three-dimensional picture of its structure.

Until now, reliable detections of this signal at these distances have typically relied on combining radio observations with optical galaxy surveys. In this new study, however, the team has directly detected the hydrogen intensity mapping signal using MeerKAT radio observations alone.

The team analysed around 96 hours of observations from MeerKAT and detected the signal from two periods in cosmic history, corresponding to emissions that have travelled approximately four to five billion years before reaching Earth. The measurements trace hydrogen across scales of several million light years - comparable to the distance between the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxy Andromeda.

What the researchers say

“This is a very exciting milestone,” said Dr Sourabh Paul, lead author of the study. “Hydrogen intensity mapping has long been seen as a promising way to map the Universe efficiently, but the signal is extremely faint and difficult to isolate from foreground emission, human-made radio-frequency interference, and instrumental effects. Detecting it directly with MeerKAT shows that this technique is becoming a practical tool for cosmology.”

“This was a challenging data analysis process, requiring a detailed understanding of the many sources of contamination that can affect such a faint measurement,” Professor Santos added. “It is particularly remarkable that the data used in this study were taken in 2018, when MeerKAT had only just started science operations. There is now a rich trove of MeerKAT data waiting to be explored with this method.”

The researchers say the work opens up new opportunities to measure neutral hydrogen over cosmological distances and study how galaxies form and evolve over cosmic time.

Dr Zhaoting Chen, co-author of the study, said: “Neutral hydrogen is one of the key ingredients for understanding how galaxies form and evolve.

“With intensity mapping, we do not need to detect every individual galaxy. Instead, we can measure the collective signal from hydrogen across large cosmic volumes, giving us a new way to study both galaxy evolution and the underlying matter distribution of the Universe.”

The detection also has important implications for future cosmological surveys. Hydrogen intensity mapping is expected to become a major science driver for the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, for which MeerKAT is a precursor telescope.

Professor Laura Wolz, co-author of the study from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester, added: “MeerKAT continues to open new windows for cosmology. The fact that this signal can be extracted from observations that were not originally designed for hydrogen intensity mapping is very encouraging. It shows the enormous scientific value of MeerKAT data and points the way to future observations with SKAO.”

The researchers say future observations covering larger areas of the sky and using longer observing times will enable astronomers to map hydrogen in even greater detail, helping reveal how galaxies formed, how dark matter shapes the cosmic web, and how the Universe has evolved over billions of years.

Publication details

The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae808f

The $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA's next flagship astrophysics mission that will investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy, study how galaxies have evolved over cosmic time, and discover more than 100,000 planets beyond our Solar System.

Using a powerful 2.4-metre mirror, Roman will conduct fast, detailed scans of the sky in infrared light. The telescope will combine Hubble-quality imaging but with a field of view that is more than 200 times larger. Scientists estimate that observations Roman can complete in a day would take the Hubble Space Telescope around four years to achieve.

The mission will also generate an unprecedented volume of data. Roman is expected to capture around 1.4 terabytes of observations every day, producing more than 500 terabytes of data each year. By comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope has collected around 400 terabytes during more than 35 years of operation.

Dr Eamonn Kerins, from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at The University of Manchester was appointed by the European Space Agency to the Roman mission. He leads the Exoplanet Demographics Working Group for the Transits in the Roman Exoplanets Survey (TRExS), one of two science teams working with Roman data to find planets around other stars. TRExS will focus on planets orbiting closer to their host star.

Dr Kerins is also a member of the Roman Galactic Exoplanets Survey (RGES). RGES will use the gravitational lensing effect to find planets further out from their hosts. Roman is the first survey to combine two detection methods to gain a more complete picture of distant planetary systems. Dr Kerins was also part of the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC), the NASA panel responsible for determining the mission's final survey design.

The mission is expected to discover more than 100,000 planets orbiting other stars, dramatically increasing the number of known exoplanets and helping astronomers build the most comprehensive picture yet of planetary systems across our galaxy. NASA Senior Project Scientist Julie McEnery, who helps to lead Roman's scientific programme, is also a Physics alumna of The University of Manchester.

Scientists believe about 25% of the Universe consists of dark matter and around 70% of dark energy, yet neither is fully understood. Roman will study tiny changes in the shapes of millions of galaxies to map the distribution of matter and dark matter and trace how galaxies evolved. The mission will also investigate how the Universe has expanded over time and why that expansion appears to be speeding up, with dark energy thought to be the driving force behind it.

Beyond its studies of exoplanets and the dark Universe, Roman will observe black holes, quasars and other rare cosmic events, providing astronomers with new insights into some of the most extreme objects in the Universe.

The mission follows the launch of the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope in 2023, another major international astronomy mission involving researchers from The University of Manchester. Together, Euclid and Roman will provide complementary observations that will help scientists better understand the evolution and structure of the Universe.

Roman is expected to operate for at least five years, producing vast quantities of data that will be used by astronomers around the world to address some of the most important unanswered questions in astrophysics.

Roman is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 30 August 2026 at 07:26 EDT /12:26 BST / 13:26 CEST. Watch the launch live via NASA’s YouTube channel. Follow NASA for updates.

In recent weeks, a range of open letters have been published highlighting the importance of Jodrell Bank, e-MERLIN and the wider radio astronomy capabilities based at the Observatory. Support has come from leading figures in science, culture and public life, as well as from organisations representing the international radio astronomy community.

Lending their voices to support the positive impact, which the whole of the Jodrell Bank site has given to UK science and culture, signatories include Professor Brian Cox, Sir Brian May, Tim Peake, Chris Hadfield, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Simon Armitage, Johnny Marr, members of New Order and Elbow, Jarvis Cocker and Christopher Eccleston. Many have longstanding links with Jodrell Bank through public engagement programmes, artistic collaborations and the Bluedot festival.

Alongside this, letters have been received from international research organisations, observatory directors, scientific advisory groups and astronomy institutes from across the UK and Europe. Together, they underline the value placed on Jodrell Bank's scientific capabilities, its role in training future generations of scientists and engineers, and its contribution to international research partnerships.

The letters follow the announcement that funding for e-MERLIN, the UK's national radio telescope network operated from Jodrell Bank Observatory, is due to end in March 2028 unless alternative support can be secured.

At the heart of Jodrell Bank's scientific work is e-MERLIN, the UK's national radio telescope network. By linking seven radio telescopes across England, it enables scientists to study the universe with a level of detail comparable to some of the world's most advanced astronomical instruments.

The University has made clear its commitment to securing the future of the Lovell telescope and radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank and is continuing discussions with partners on potential long-term funding solutions.

The growing body of support from across the scientific community and beyond, underlining the importance of Jodrell Bank to research, skills, education and inspiration for future generations.

Find the full list of letters here: e-MERLIN News

Fighting antimicrobial resistance

Dr Will Smith has been awarded a University Research Fellowship to investigate how microbes deploy and evolve multiple weapons during competition with one another. His project, the evolution of multi-weapon fighting in microbes, will combine computational modelling, laboratory experiments and large-scale genomic analysis to reveal the rules governing microbial conflict.

Although antibiotics have transformed modern medicine, they represent just one example of the sophisticated weaponry that microbes use against their rivals. Bacteria can inject toxins directly into neighbouring cells using microscopic harpoons, fire toxic protein weapons, or deploy virus-derived nanomachines capable of destroying competitors from a distance.

Scientists have made major advances in understanding how many of these weapons work at the molecular level. However, a fundamental mystery remains: why do bacteria invest in multiple weapons rather than relying on just one? Will’s research aims to answer that question.

Choosing the most effective defence

Using Pseudomonas bacteria – a medically important group known for its diverse arsenal – he will investigate when different weapons are most effective, how they interact with one another, and whether carrying several weapons helps microbes adapt to changing environments and opponents. The project will also explore how rival bacteria evolve resistance, and whether combinations of weapons can make it harder for resistance to emerge.

The findings could have implications far beyond understanding microbial ecology. By uncovering the evolutionary logic behind bacterial weapon systems, the work could inform the development of new antimicrobial approaches and more resilient biocontrol technologies.

The fellowship will support an ambitious five-year programme of research examining how bacterial arsenals evolve, how different weapons perform under different environmental conditions, and which combinations are most resistant to evolutionary counter-attacks. The project will draw on expertise in evolutionary biology, microbiology, genomics and mathematical modelling to build a comprehensive picture of how microbial conflicts shape the communities that surround us. Will says of the award “I'm absolutely thrilled to receive this award, and I couldn't have done it without the amazing support Manchester has given me during my Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship."

Ultimately, Will hopes the research will help scientists predict competitive interactions within microbial communities and develop new ways of harnessing beneficial microbes for applications in health, biotechnology and agriculture. His long-term vision is to understand how microbial weapons and defences co-evolve, opening the door to new generations of antimicrobials designed to remain effective for longer in the face of resistance.

The study, published in Nature Communications, examined clusters made from three thorium atoms and found that they display an unusual field-induced magnetic behaviour. The discovery helps explain conflicting interpretations of these materials and could improve how chemists assess aromaticity in metal-based systems.

A long-running debate about metal aromaticity

Aromaticity is a fundamental concept in chemistry that helps explain the stability and behaviour of molecules. While it is traditionally associated with carbon-containing compounds such as benzene, researchers have recently discovered forms of aromaticity in all-metal systems. One such example involves clusters of three thorium atoms that had previously been reported to show signs of so-called Jellium aromaticity, a form of electron delocalisation found in metal clusters.

However, those earlier findings sparked debate because experimental measurements suggested the clusters were aromatic, while some computational studies argued otherwise. To investigate the disagreement, researchers synthesised and characterised an expanded family of one-electron and two-electron trithorium clusters and compared their magnetic behaviour with that of conventional organic aromatic compounds.

An unexpected magnetic response

Using a combination of synthesis, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, crystallography, magnetic measurements and quantum chemical calculations, the team found that all of the thorium clusters exhibited unusually strong diamagnetism, a magnetic signature associated with aromatic behaviour. This was true for both open-shell and closed-shell systems, demonstrating that all the clusters behaved as aromatic "superatoms".

The researchers also observed something unexpected. Instead of responding immediately and linearly to an applied magnetic field, the thorium clusters initially showed a weak paramagnetic response before switching to strong diamagnetism as the field increased. By contrast, familiar organic aromatic molecules including benzene, naphthalene and anthracene displayed the expected linear response from near zero field.

The findings suggest that electrons in the thorium clusters must first reorganise under the influence of an external magnetic field before establishing the coherent electronic motion responsible for aromaticity. According to the authors, this behaviour helps explain why some computational methods, which assume a linear response, have produced conflicting conclusions about whether the clusters are aromatic.

The work highlights an important distinction between classical organic aromaticity and emerging forms of all-metal aromaticity. While organic aromatic systems appear to be naturally arranged to sustain aromatic currents, the thorium clusters seem to require an external field to trigger the electronic reorganisation needed to produce the same effect.

The researchers say the study demonstrates the need for caution when using magnetic current calculations alone to assign aromatic character, particularly in systems containing heavy metals where non-linear magnetic responses may be more common than previously recognised. The findings could help researchers better understand bonding in complex metal systems and refine future approaches for evaluating aromaticity.

Mitochondria provide the energy that cells need to function. Mutations in their DNA can cause serious, progressive conditions affecting organs and tissues with high energy demands, including the brain, heart and muscles. Around one in 5,000 people is affected by a mitochondrial disease, and there is currently no cure.

The Manchester team, led by Sarah Lovelock, Professor of Biological Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, will combine genome mining, computational enzyme design and laboratory evolution to develop next-generation base editing tools capable of selectively targeting the most common disease-causing mutations in mitochondrial DNA.

Led by the University of Cambridge, the centre includes partners at the universities of Birmingham, Manchester, Heidelberg and Queensland, the Imagine Institute in Paris, patient charity The Lily Foundation and industry organisations worldwide.

By bringing together academic, clinical, patient and industry perspectives, the centre aims to establish a long-term research platform that can define the causes of mitochondrial disease and accelerate progress towards therapies.

Collecting rainwater from rooftops and using it to spray buildings during hot weather could help cities cut air conditioning use, lower urban temperatures and lessen the impact of heatwaves, according to new research from The University of Manchester.

Cities around the world are facing rising temperatures, putting pressure on public health, infrastructure and energy systems. As people rely more on air conditioning to stay cool, energy demand increases and waste heat released from buildings can make urban areas even hotter.

Urban watering technologies are becoming important ways for reducing extreme heat in cities, but their use is often limited by the availability of water.

How does rainwater keep cities cool?

In the study, published in Earth’s Future, researchers used process-based numerical simulations and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to test a system that stores rainwater collected from rooftops and automatically sprays it onto buildings during hot weather.

Using Tokyo as their case study, they found that cooling rooftops, the system reduced the amount of energy needed for air conditioning. The cooler roofs transferred less heat into buildings, while lower air conditioning use meant less waste heat was released into the city. Together, these effects helped reduce urban temperatures, cutting the number of heatwave days overall and lessening the intensity of extreme heat events.

What do the reserchers say?

Lead author Dr Zhonghua Zheng, Co-Lead for Environmental Data Science & AI at Manchester Environmental Research Institute (MERI) and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Data Science and Environmental Analytics at The University of Manchester, said: "Cities around the world are facing growing challenges from extreme heat. Air conditioning can help keep people safe and comfortable, but it also consumes large amounts of energy and releases additional heat into the urban environment.

"Our study shows that harvesting rainwater from roofs and using it strategically for cooling could provide a practical way to reduce both energy demand and urban temperatures.

"What is particularly encouraging is that the benefits become even greater during hotter years, suggesting this approach could become increasingly important as the climate continues to warm.”

How would the rainwater sprinklers work?

The study suggests that when the sprinklers switched on - for example, when the roof reached a certain temperature - had a greater impact than either the size of the tank or the amount of water applied. The researchers also found that bigger is not always better. Very large tanks delivered only modest additional reductions in energy use and extreme heat, while applying extra water did not always lead to more cooling because some of it remained on the roof instead of evaporating.

The researchers say the approach could help local authorities and urban planners evaluate how rainwater-based cooling systems might work in their own regions while balancing practical considerations such as cost, water availability and local regulations.

Can rainwater cooling help with other urban challenges?

As cities continue to grapple with rising temperatures, the team believes roof-based rainwater cooling systems could form part of a wider suite of urban climate adaptation measures designed to improve resilience and protect public health.

Junjie Yu, PhD researcher at The University of Manchester, added: “The rainwater tank also provides an additional co-benefit on reducing the extreme urban runoff. This approach exemplifies a ‘natural solution to natural challenges’, in which rainwater serves as a natural resource to mitigate both thermal stress and hydrological extremes.”

The research, published today in Nature, describes a new family of antifungal agents, which - when tested in mice - are more potent and less toxic than existing treatments.

A growing threat

Fungal diseases are an escalating global health threat, becoming harder to treat as resistance to existing drugs grows and the development of new antifungal medicines lags behind. The urgency for new treatments was emphasised by a recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

While existing antifungal medicines can be highly effective, many can cause serious side effects because fungal cells share similarities with human cells, making it difficult to target infections without harming healthy tissue.

Discovering new antifungal compounds

In the new study, researchers from the Micklefield Lab focused on polyenes — a class of powerful antifungal agents. Using an approach called genome mining, they identified bacterial species capable of producing new, undiscovered antifungals.

Dr Saadia Nasr Mirza who worked on the project said: “The most effective antifungal agent currently available is a polyene molecule called amphotericin produced by soil bacteria. Although amphotericin is very potent, it is highly toxic, so we set out to discover if bacteria can produce different types of polyenes that are safer than amphotericin. We developed a bioinformatics pipeline, which surprisingly showed that many bacterial species have the capability to produce novel polyenes.”

More potent, less toxic treatments

Using a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the team determined the structures of the newly discovered polyenes, showing that each one had a unique structure that differed from any existing antifungal compounds. The researchers also characterised the enzymes responsible for producing them and generated a library of polyene derivatives for testing.

Several of the new compounds showed increased antifungal activity, reduced toxicity and improved solubility compared with the parent drugs. The findings demonstrate that enzymes can be used to redesign these important medicines in a cleaner, more efficient way, producing new compounds that retain strong antifungal activity while reducing toxicity and harmful side effects.

One compound, known as Nys34, showed particularly promising results. In a mouse model of invasive aspergillosis, a serious fungal infection caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, the compound reduced fungal burden without substantive signs of toxicity.

Professor Jason Micklefield who led the project said “We were pleased to find that several of the new polyene derivatives were more potent and less toxic than amphotericin and nystatin, which is another important polyene that is also used in the clinic.

“Surprisingly, we found that one of the most effective new polyene derivatives, Nys34, has a different mode-of-action to the widely used amphotericin. Because Nys34 kills fungal cells in a different way, it could prove very useful to combat emerging pathogens that have evolved resistance to amphotericin.”

A cleaner way to develop new medicines

Polyene antifungal drugs are highly complex molecules. Previous efforts to improve them have typically relied on lengthy chemical synthesis processes that are expensive, inefficient and can require environmentally harmful reagents.

The Micklefield lab, based at Imperial’s Molecular Sciences Research Hub, developed an enzyme-based approach that can produce improved polyenes by cleaner and more efficient biological processes, generating promising new drug candidates without the need for complex multi-step chemical manufacturing.

Because the process is potentially scalable and cost-effective, it could help make improved antifungal treatments more widely available, particularly in lower-income regions where fungal diseases are highest place a substantial burden on public health.

The researchers hope that further development of Nys34 could ultimately lead to clinical testing in people. Beyond Nys34, their enzyme platform provides a powerful new way of generating and refining polyene antifungal compounds that could be used to create additional treatments for a range of fungal diseases, helping to expand the limited pipeline of new antifungal medicines.

Published in Physical Review Materials, the research, led by Dr Sam Azadi demonstrates that this electronic “reheating” alone can cause metals to switch between different crystal structures in a fraction of a picosecond.

A different way to drive phase changes

In most phase transitions – such as melting or structural rearrangement – heat flows through the lattice of atoms. But in this work, the team shows that another mechanism can dominate: electronic entropy, a measure of how electron populations spread across energy states at high temperatures.

By modelling 17 different elemental metals, the researchers found that almost all undergo one or more solid-to-solid phase transitions driven purely by this electronic effect.

This means materials can change structure before the atomic framework has time to respond, creating a short-lived but physically meaningful state governed entirely by electronic properties.

Predicting how metals respond under extreme conditions

The team used advanced simulations to calculate how the free energy of different crystal structures changes as electronic temperature rises. These calculations revealed consistent patterns across groups of metals, including transitions between common structures such as hexagonal (hcp), face-centred cubic (fcc), and body-centred cubic (bcc).

A key finding is that increasing electronic temperature tends to favour structures with lower density, driven by an effect known as electronic thermal pressure.

However, the behaviour is not universal. In some elements, subtle differences in electronic structure (especially the distribution of electrons near the Fermi level) lead to more complex or unexpected phase changes.

Understanding materials on ultrafast timescales

These results help explain how metals behave under extreme, nonequilibrium conditions, such as those created in laser experiments or high-energy environments.

Because the transitions occur on femtosecond to picosecond timescales, they could be observed using ultrafast experimental techniques, including time-resolved X-ray or electron diffraction.

The findings suggest that researchers may be able to use ultrafast laser pulses to temporarily switch materials into new structural states, opening possibilities for controlling material properties in ways not accessible under equilibrium conditions.

Toward new approaches in materials design

By showing that electronic entropy alone can drive structural changes, the study provides a new framework for understanding and designing materials under extreme conditions.

The research could inform future developments in areas such as ultrafast electronics, high-energy physics, and advanced manufacturing technologies, where materials are routinely pushed far from equilibrium.

Published in Nature Communications, the study led by researchers from The University of Manchester, the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis and the University of Münster describe a family of tellurium-based catalysts that use chalcogen bonding to control reaction outcomes through non-covalent interactions.

Chalcogen bonding, which arises from electron-deficient regions known as σ-holes, has attracted growing attention as a tool for catalysis. However, translating these comparatively weak interactions into effective asymmetric catalysis has proved difficult, particularly when using neutral catalyst systems. Most successful examples reported to date have relied on charged catalysts to strengthen substrate binding.

To address this limitation, the researchers used computational modelling to design a series of chiral tellurium-triazole catalysts capable of forming a confined binding environment around reacting molecules. They identified a catalyst incorporating a 1,3-diaminocyclohexane backbone that could adopt a bidentate binding arrangement, allowing two tellurium centres to interact cooperatively with a substrate.

When tested experimentally, the catalyst was able to induce asymmetry in benchmark Reissert-type reactions of quinolines and isoquinolines. The best-performing examples reached enantiomeric ratios of up to 89:11, providing evidence that neutral chalcogen-bond donors can transfer chiral information during catalysis.

Dr Olga García Mancheño, corresponding author and Professor of Catalysis in Organic Chemistry at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis, who led the experimental catalysis work, adds: "Chalcogen bonding has enormous potential as a tool for catalysis, but translating these relatively weak interactions into reliable asymmetric control has proved challenging. This was only possible by bringing together computational design, synthesis and experimental catalysis. The study shows that carefully designed neutral chalcogen-bond donors can overcome an important limitation in the field and opens the door to more selective systems in the future."

The team combined computational design, synthesis and mechanistic studies to understand why some catalyst architectures performed better than others. Spectroscopic and computational analyses showed that the most effective catalyst forms two cooperative chalcogen-bond interactions with a bound chloride ion, supported by additional hydrogen-bonding contacts that help stabilise the catalytic complex.

Alternative catalyst designs either failed to bind effectively or produced little or no enantioselectivity, highlighting the importance of catalyst geometry in controlling stereochemical outcomes.

"The computational analysis allowed us to understand why certain catalyst structures were successful while others were not", says James O'Brien, who carried out the computational studies at The University of Manchester. "It revealed how subtle changes in catalyst geometry influence binding and selectivity, helping us identify the features needed for effective chalcogen-bonding catalysis."

Lary Massold, who conducted the experimental studies says: “From the two most promising synthesised chalcogen donors, the catalyst with a weaker binding but more directive bidentate interactions with the substrate showed higher selectivity and stereocontrol. With this study we proved that fine-tuning of weak interactions plays a crucial role in this area of supramolecular catalysis.”

Although the levels of stereocontrol remain below those routinely achieved with more established classes of asymmetric catalyst, the work provides a proof of principle for neutral chalcogen-bonding catalysis and offers a framework for designing more selective systems.

The authors say the design principles identified in the study could help guide future efforts to harness weak non-covalent interactions for increasingly complex catalytic transformations.

Alcohol-related harm continues to place a significant burden on health services. The study highlights that these harms are most common late at night, particularly at weekends, when higher levels of intoxication can contribute to injuries, violence and emergency healthcare demand. The researchers note that Scotland recorded more than 31,000 alcohol-specific hospital admissions between 2022 and 2023.

The team says the findings provide important evidence for policymakers considering future licensing decisions. They argue that both the scale of licensing extensions and the types of venues receiving them should be carefully considered when assessing potential impacts on public health and community safety.

The authors also note that previous international research has linked reductions in late-night trading hours with decreases in alcohol-related harm. As the first UK study to examine the relationship between extended opening hours and alcohol-related ambulance call-outs, they believe the results can contribute to future national and local licensing policy discussions.

Professor Niamh Fitzgerald of the University of Stirling, and Principal Investigator of the wider study, said: “Our study shows that local authorities need greater powers to control the number and type of venues that are allowed to open later at night because large-scale extensions will result in increased health harms and crimes. Whilst this part of the research didn’t find measurable impacts in Glasgow, local stakeholders reported in interviews that the 4am extension in just 10 nightclubs had put frontline services under severe strain.”

The study was a collaboration between The University of Manchester, the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian University, the University of Sheffield, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Ambulance Service, and forms part of a wider project led by the University of Stirling.

Dr Henriques-Cadby’s role on this work and the wider NIHR funded ELEPHANT project focused on advising the statistical design and methodologies proposed for the analyses, including analyses of changes in the geographical distributions of harms.

The College was formally launched on 18 June 2026 at the Royal Society in London and brings together experts from universities, industry and research organisations across the UK. Professor Dixon is one of 71 members selected through a highly competitive process that attracted nearly 1,200 applications. College members volunteer their time to support government decision-making through expert advice, workshops and peer review.

The appointment comes at a time when engineering biology is increasingly recognised as a strategic technology for the UK’s future prosperity. The sector is expected to play a pivotal role in developing new routes to manufacture chemicals, materials and consumer products from renewable resources, strengthening supply-chain resilience while helping industries reduce their reliance on fossil-derived feedstocks.

“The launch of the College of Experts at the Royal Society brought together an extraordinary group of independent specialists from across the UK, spanning AI, quantum, life sciences, cyber security, and far beyond. The experts volunteer their time to support us, reflecting a real commitment from the UK’s research and innovation community to contribute to government policymaking. Seeing DSIT colleagues and world-leading academics and practitioners in the same room was a powerful reminder of what this department can achieve when it draws on the best available expertise.”

— Professor Chris Johnson, DSIT Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the College of Experts

Engineering biology’s role in UK growth and net zero

Professor Dixon joins the College in recognition of more than two decades of leadership in engineering biology, sustainable biotechnology and industrial biomanufacturing. His research focuses on developing advanced biological systems that enable renewable and waste-derived carbon feedstocks to be transformed into valuable chemicals, materials and products, supporting the transition towards a more sustainable manufacturing economy.

His work aligns closely with the UK’s science and industrial priorities: engineering biology has been identified as a critical technology for future growth, while sustainable manufacturing, resource efficiency and net zero are central to the UK’s long-term economic resilience.

From Manchester for the UK

Manchester has long been at the forefront of engineering biology and sustainable biotechnology, bringing together the scientific expertise, facilities and industry partnerships needed to turn discovery into practical solutions. As the UK looks to strengthen its industrial base, build resilience and meet its net zero commitments, engineering biology will have a significant role to play – from cleaner routes to chemicals, fuels and materials, to new ways of reducing waste and using resources more sustainably. We are pleased to be part of this national conversation and to contribute evidence, insight and innovation that can help shape a more sustainable and competitive future for UK industry.

The study, published in Nature and led by the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, found that concentrations of airborne desert dust have increased across Europe over the past decade.

Researchers combined measurements from more than 100 monitoring stations across Europe with artificial intelligence to create what is believed to be the most comprehensive assessment of desert dust pollution on the continent.

The University of Manchester contributed data from the Air Quality Supersite at The Firs, which forms part of a Europe-wide network of atmospheric monitoring stations.

The study found that average desert dust concentrations are highest in southern Europe, where levels are more than twice those measured in central and northern Europe. Overall, the amount of dust increased by around 10–25% over the study period.

Professor James Allan, Professor of Air Pollution Measurement at The University of Manchester, said: "This study demonstrates the value of the long-term and detailed monitoring of air quality across Europe. Data from The University of Manchester's Air Quality Supersite at The Firs contributed to a unique dataset that has helped researchers build a clearer picture of how desert dust pollution is changing over time.

"While air pollution from many human activities has declined in recent decades, this research highlights how natural sources of particulate matter can also affect air quality, public health and energy infrastructure. Continued monitoring will be essential to understanding these trends and their impacts in the years ahead."

Using aluminium as a chemical marker of desert dust, the researchers were able to distinguish airborne particles originating from the Sahara from other sources of particulate matter, such as transport, industry and construction activities.

The team suggests the increase is linked to growing dryness in the Sahara and changing atmospheric circulation patterns that transport dust towards Europe. The researchers say climate change may be contributing to these trends by creating drier conditions and supporting desert expansion.

Alongside environmental impacts, the study highlights potential health concerns. Previous research has linked days with elevated desert dust concentrations to increased deaths from heart and respiratory conditions. Desert dust can also reduce the efficiency of solar panels by blocking sunlight and accumulating on their surfaces.

The findings provide an important new dataset for understanding how natural sources of particulate matter are changing across Europe and how they may affect health, energy systems and air quality in the future.