One of the world’s first Omicron-specific variant vaccines is to be trialled in Devon and Cornwall, as the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc works with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The innovative study will see participants receive a first or second booster. In the South West, it is opening first at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, with plans to open at...
The first results for the Sarscov2 Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation, or SIREN study, currently running at University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP), have revealed that past COVID-19 infection does provide some immunity to the virus for at least five months, but people may still carry and transmit the virus.
The study, funded by Public Health England (PHE) and supported by the National...
A survey carried out by mental health organisation, TalkOut, has revealed that 48% of Plymouth workers haven’t received any mental health support or advice from their employer since the pandemic hit in March.
The study found that 33% of respondents had felt anxious and apprehensive about returning to work, while 37% said that their mental health is worse now compared to before the...
Too many homes are being planned for Devon over the next decade, most of them are to be built on greenfield sites, and a staggering two-thirds will be bought by people who have moved into the county. These are the key findings of an independent study, commissioned by the Devon branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, which exposes the stark truth behind ‘official’ assessments of Devon’...
A woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) who has not been able to stand for seven years has praised a standing frame intervention for helping to change her life.
Sally Morgan, from Moorhaven near Ivybridge, Devon, can now stand for more than an hour with minimal joint and muscle pain since taking part in a randomised control study run by the University of Plymouth.
Local patient volunteers are being sought by researchers investigating whether or not adding web-based coaching to a GP exercise referral scheme (ERS) would lead to increased uptake and sustained health enhancing physical activity.
The study has been extended to February/March next year and researchers are looking for patients who can be referred by the GPs to the ERS at either the...
The human body is an ultra-complex system consisting of multiple components that work together to sustain living. From the cells down to the organs, each part of the body plays a key role, and among them are hormones that you may not know a lot about.
What are hormones? They’re naturally-produced chemicals in the human body that act like a messenger that carries vital information to...
A study which aims to evaluate the use of the drug ketamine as a treatment for people with severe alcohol disorder, or alcoholism, is currently recruiting volunteers in the South West.
‘KARE’ (Ketamine for reduction of Alcoholic Relapse) was awarded funding through the Biomedical Catalyst, a joint initiative between the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Innovate UK to support...
All universities running nursing degrees should consider adopting the use of Twitter in their curriculum, according to a new study by a Plymouth University academic.
Professor Ray Jones, Professor in Health Informatics, has published a paper suggesting that including Twitter as an assessed element for first-year nursing students will help them learn to use social media in a...
As the latest in a series of studies, researchers at Plymouth University, National Institutes of Health and University of California, Riverside, have shown the ability of a vaccine vector based on a common herpesvirus called cytomegalovirus (CMV) expressing Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP), to provide protection against Ebola virus in the experimental rhesus macaque, non-human primate (NHP) model...
