Press releases
Researchers at King’s College London, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, have identified a group of ‘ageing’ genes that are switched on and off by natural mechanisms called epigenetic factors, influencing the rate of healthy ageing and potential longevity.
30 November 2011
A report by Professor Barbara Prainsack and Dr Alena Buyx reflects on how solidarity plays a role in our society and can facilitate policy making in areas affecting biobanks, pandemics and lifestyle diseases.
30 November 2011
A team of researchers, led by King’s College London and the University of Oxford, have found that a gene linked to type 2 diabetes and cholesterol levels is in fact a ‘master regulator’ gene, which controls the behaviour of other genes found within fat in the body.
16 May 2011
Eight genes which control levels of the main steroid produced by the adrenal gland, believed to play a role in ageing and longevity, have been uncovered by an international consortium of scientists, co-led by King’s College London.
15 April 2011
Scientists have identified a gene that appears to play a role in regulating how much alcohol people drink, in a study of over 47,000 people published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
05 April 2011
Researchers at King’s College London and the University of East Anglia have discovered that women who consume a diet high in allium vegetables, such as garlic, onions and leeks, have lower levels of hip osteoarthritis.
15 December 2010
One of the most ambitious large-scale projects in Human Genetics has been launched today: Epitwin will capture the subtle epigenetic signatures that mark the differences between 5,000 twins on a scale and depth never before attempted, providing key therapeutic targets for the development of drug treatments.
07 September 2010
A world-wide consortium of researchers, including scientists from the Twin Research Unit at King’s College London, has identified 59 novel regions of the human genome that are involved in lipid metabolism. The concentrations of lipids, such as cholesterols, in the blood are the most important risk factors for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).
05 Aug 2010
New research shows that genetic factors affect the risk of a person having vitamin D insufficiency. The research, which was jointly led by the Twin Research Unit at King’s College London and Harvard University, has been published online today and will also appear in an upcoming edition of The Lancet.
10 June 2010
Researchers at King’s College London’s Twin Research Unit have discovered new ways of measuring metabolites in the blood which could be used to diagnose osteoarthritis earlier.
20 April 2010
A research team led by the Twin Research Department at King’s with colleagues from Imperial College London, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Brisbane Institute of Medical Research and Leeds has found new genes for melanoma in one of several studies published in Nature Genetics this week.
08 July 2009
Genes controlling menopause and menarche have been identified in two studies by UK twin researchers at the Department of Twin Research, King’s College London and published today in Nature Genetics.
17 May 2009
Emotional intelligence in women, the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, appears to increase their number of orgasms, suggests a study by the Department of Twin Research and published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
12 May 2009
Researchers from King’s College London have coordinated a multicentre study where two genetic variants have been identified which, when present together in the same individual, increase the risk of male pattern baldness (otherwise known as androgenic alopecia) seven fold.
13 October 2008
Scientists led by a team in the Twin Research Unit at King’s College London have investigated 500,000 gene markers in women with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. The team believe that an examination of these markers will lead to a better understanding of this debilitating condition.
08 May 2008
Research led by a group from King’s has uncovered two genes to aid diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis. The research published in the Lancet, scanned for variations in more than 20,000 human genes, uncovering the OPG and LRP5 genes which are crucial in bone density and fracture.
30 Apr 2008
A study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine by researchers at King’s College London, has shown that people who exercise more in their free time appear to be biologically younger than their more sedentary counterparts.
29 January 2008
Scientists from King's College London have found that vitamin D may be instrumental in protecting us against certain diseases, as well as helping to slow down the ageing process.
08 November 2007
Our diet is largely determined by genetic factors, according to a study from King's College London. In particular, garlic lovers, coffee drinkers and those who eat plenty of fruit and vegetables are likely to have inherited their tastes from their parents.
23 October 2007
UK scientists, including Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King's, are to mount the world's first search of the human genome for genetic risk factors for osteoarthritis.
12 October 2007
People with large numbers of moles may age slower than expected, according to a study from King's. Researchers studied the skin and telomere length (a marker of biological ageing found on all cells in the body) of more than 1800 twins and found that people with a high number of moles had longer telomeres.
11 July 2007
Can future sports stars be predicted just by looking at the length of an individual's fingers? According to new research, led by Professor Tim Spector from the Twin Research Unit at King's, women whose ring fingers are longer than their index fingers should achieve higher levels in sports.
28 September 2006
People of lower socio-economic status appear to be biologically older than those in higher socio-economic groups, suggests a study led by Professor Tim Spector from the Twin Research Unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
July 2006
Could the winner of the BBC programme The Apprentice have been selected on the basis of her genes or are there other factors involved in making people entrepreneurial?
5 June 2006
Protelos® (strontium ranelate) is the first anti-osteoporotic treatment to demonstrate an early and sustained reduction for vertebral and non-vertebral fractures in women over 80 years of age. Results announced last night at the Sixth European Congress on Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ECCEO), from trials of 1,488 women, show that even in the very elderly, it is not too late to effectively treat the disease.
17 March 2006
The results of two landmark studies announced today at the Sixth European Congress on Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ECCEO), confirms the evidence based, long-term efficacy of Protelos (strontium ranelate) for the reduction of nonvertebral and vertebral osteoporotic fractures over five years. This is the first time an anti-osteoporotic treatment has demonstrated fracture reduction efficacy after five years of treatment.
17 March 2006
Eight genes have been identified as playing a major part in the development of osteoarthritis of the knee in a study of 1,200 UK patients published in the leading journal Arthritis & Rheumatism today.
February 2006
Results from a new clinical trial add to mounting evidence that choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid (ch-OSA) supplementation supports physiological roles in bone health and type I collagen synthesis.
September 2005
A joint study from The Twin Research Unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University has found that genes play a significant part in determining body odour and therefore every person’s odour is completely individual to them.
20 September 2005
Around 35 pairs of identical and non-identical twins are today (Thursday, June 23) descending on the University of Aberdeen to help further medical research.
23 June 2005
People who smoke, or are obese, are biologically older than slim individuals and non-smokers, suggests a study published online today (Tuesday June 14, 2005) by THE LANCET.
14 June 2005
The results of the TROPOS (Treatment of Peripheral Osteoporosis) study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism show that strontium ranelate (Protelos®) significantly reduces the risk of all non vertebral and, in a high risk group, hip fractures over three years.
4 May 2005
New research carried out by doctors in the Twin Research Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, indicates that genetic factors make a “substantial contribution” to common sleep disorders.
24 November 2004
A confidential survey of more than 1,600 pairs of female twins has revealed that genetic factors have a substantial impact on how likely women are to cheat on their partner and how many sexual partners they will have.
24 November 2004
Protelos (strontium ranelate), the only osteoporosis therapy to simultaneously increase bone formation and decrease bone resorption, was launched today by Servier Laboratories. The first in a new class of osteoporosis therapies called dual action bone agents (DABAs), Protelos is licenced for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis to reduce the risk of vertebral and hip fracture.
22 November 2004
New research carried out by doctors in the Twin Research Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, indicates that a gene called PAX6 may play a crucial part in the development of myopia.
29 July 2004
Moderate drinking seems to keep brittle bones at bay in women, suggests a study of identical twins published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
1 July 2004
The Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital, London is renowned for have the most widely studied database of twins in the world. It has nearly 10,000 adult twin volunteers on its books and has studied everything from obesity and back pain to sense of humour.
March 2004