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Campendium
CAM's summary of what's been happening across the University.
Published on:
28 November 2024
Cambridge Children’s Hospital to deliver integrated healthcare
Ministers have given the go-ahead for Cambridge Children’s Hospital – the UK’s first hospital designed to bring mental and physical health together for young people.
“This is fantastic news and an exciting moment in our journey to build a truly integrated children’s hospital for the East of England,” says Professor Isobel Heyman, Clinical Lead for Mental Health at Cambridge Children’s Hospital.
Approval from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care recognises that the hospital will meet the needs of patients and staff across the East of England, and that the appropriate funding streams are in place to deliver the specialist facility.
The process of appointing a contractor to build the groundbreaking new facility in 2026 has now begun. Groundworks are already complete, access roads have been installed, and hoardings have gone up around the five-storey, 35,000m2 hospital site on Robinson Way and Dame Mary Archer Way.
Work now continues to reach the hospital’s philanthropic target of £100m, £50m of which has already been raised.
Dr Rob Heuschkel, Clinical Lead for Physical Health at Cambridge Children’s Hospital, says: “I want to thank our healthcare staff, young people and their families from across the region who have been contributing valuable feedback and helping us shape our plans, right from the very start. The East of England is the only region in the UK without a specialist children’s hospital, and we look forward to changing that very soon.”
Nyobolt
Cambridge spinout’s ultra-fast charging electric battery hits the road
Cambridge University spinout Nyobolt, from Professor Dame Clare Grey’s lab, has demonstrated its ultra-fast batteries in an electric sportscar. Initial in-vehicle testing confirmed that the Nyobolt EV’s battery can be charged from 10% to 80% in four minutes 37 seconds. The compact battery-pack size enables energy-efficient electric vehicles that are cheaper to buy and run, and – crucially – use fewer resources to manufacture.
Nyobolt co-founder Dr Sai Shivareddy says the company’s research has unlocked “a new battery technology that is ready and scalable right now.”
Michael Kirkham
Three-minute Tripos
There’s more to the diarist Samuel Pepys than meets the eye. Discuss.
Mr Pepys! You go a little handsomer than you have hitherto.
Ah yes. I was up betimes, called up by my tailor, and there first put on a summer suit this year – but it was not my fine one of flowered tabby vest and coloured camelott tunic, because it was too fine with the gold lace at the hands, that I was afeard to be seen in it – but put on the stuff-suit I made the last year, which is now repaired.
But why should you be afeard of such a suit, very rich and fine?
Povey told me of my gold-lace sleeves in the Park yesterday so as to resolve never to appear in Court with them, but presently to have them taken off, as it is fit I should.
So, while you cherish your ability to afford fine accessories and textiles, you remain perpetually respectful of your social status.
Why, yes; these conflicting attitudes foster an inherent tension between my dual personas of sophisticated and fashionable urbanite and humble civil servant. So writes my lady Marlo Avidon in the journal The Seventeenth Century; she is a PhD student and the first to mightily peruse my beloved French fashion engravings, which now do reside in my library at Magdalene College, and have been for her objects of great interest.
From this day, I will see a plain Pepys, yes?
Certainly, I find myself lately under a great expense of money upon myself in clothes. Now, come to my office, there to see my new shagg purple gowne, with gold buttons and loop lace…
A collection of French fashion engravings offers precious new insights into the life of Samuel Pepys years after his premature final diary entry.
Artificial intelligence outperforms clinical tests at predicting Alzheimer’s
A new AI tool developed by Cambridge scientists is better at predicting the course of dementia than clinical tests, a team led by scientists from the Department of Psychology has found.
This new approach can work out – in four cases out of five – whether people with early signs of dementia will remain stable or develop Alzheimer’s disease. It could reduce the need for invasive and expensive tests and enable patients to make lifestyle changes or start medication early.
The team used real-world, routinely collected patient data from the USA, UK and Singapore to build and test their model. “This shows our model will be generalisable to a real-world setting,” says senior author Professor Zoe Kourtzi.
Their algorithm was around three times more accurate at predicting the progression to Alzheimer’s than the current standard of care – demonstrating that it could significantly reduce misdiagnosis.
“This has the potential to significantly improve patient wellbeing, showing us which people need closest care, while removing the anxiety for those patients
we predict will remain stable,” says Kourtzi.
Sustainability
Researchers have developed a low-cost, energy-efficient ‘sponge’ made of activated charcoal that can soak up CO2 from the air. Dr Alexander Forse at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry and his team say their discovery could have potential for carbon capture and beyond.
Philanthropy
£524 million: the Student Support Initiative target has been reached, enabling the brightest students from all backgrounds to thrive at Cambridge.
Jelly batteries
Inspired by electric eels, researchers at the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry have created soft and stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ which could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics – or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions including epilepsy. They can stretch to more than 10 times their original length without affecting their conductivity – the first time such stretchability and conductivity has been combined in a single material.
For more news from across the University, see our news page.
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