DNA test links ageing and poverty

26 July 2011 Last updated at 23:16 GMT The ageing process can be measured by studying chromosomes Scientists in Glasgow have developed a new test of the ageing process based on DNA evidence.

They have said it could provide faster feedback on public health measures.

Until now, evidence of health improvement has involved waiting a generation or more to measure how many people become ill.

Work by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health has confirmed the link between social factors and the rate at which people age.

Their findings have been published in the Public Library of Science.

The scientists measured the length of telomeres, the tails on the ends of chromosomes, in sample groups in the Glasgow area.

The Telomeres tend to become shorter over a person's lifetime, indicating the speed of the ageing process.

The Glasgow researchers found that, over a 10-year period, telomeres shortened by an average of 7.7% in people whose household income was below ?25,000. For those on higher incomes, the shortening averaged 0.6%.

Changes in diet

A similar trend in telomere lengths was found in comparisons of those in rented housing with home owners, and of those with the poorest diets and those who ate well.

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This study is a first for Glasgow and indicates that socio-economic conditions do affect the rate at which you age”

End Quote Dr Paul Shiels Glasgow University Dr Paul Shiels, of the Institute of Cancer Studies at Glasgow University, said: "We show that accelerated ageing is associated with social status and deprivation in Glasgow.

"This is most prevalent in the over-55s and those with household incomes under ?25,000.

"This effect is exacerbated by diet - simply not eating your five portions of fruit and veg a day."

The test gives an indication of ageing within population groups, but does not accurately measure the life expectancy of an individual, because of natural differences in telomere length.

Dr Shiels said: "Its value is at a population level, where large numbers of subjects allow us to observe trends over a period of time.

"It is a tool for looking at the impact of changes in diet, for example.

"This study is a first for Glasgow and indicates that socio-economic conditions do affect the rate at which you age."

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Links 'key to forensic research'

4 July 2011 Last updated at 16:52 GMT By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News Website The FSS has been a major contributor to research and development in forensic science Universities can help form the core of a research and development hub for forensic science in the UK, a Home Office review has suggested.

The report recommended improved links between those engaged in forensic research and those who used it.

The review followed the government's decision to wind down the Forensic Science Service, which analyses crime scene evidence in England and Wales.

But one expert said devolving research to universities would not work.

The review also encompasses the roles played in research by government labs and private forensic providers.

The Silverman Review came to light last week, on the same day that MPs published the findings of an inquiry that criticised the government's plans for shutting down the Forensic Science Service, or FSS. The report has now become available on the internet.

The FSS had an international reputation for innovation in forensic science, and many experts have voiced dismay over the likely effect of the closure on UK R&D. Sir Alec Jeffreys, who helped pioneer the technique of genetic fingerprinting, called the move "potentially disastrous".

In the review, its author Dr Bernard Silverman, who is chief scientific adviser to the Home Office, wrote: "With better co-ordination and linkages, paying attention not only to making new developments but also to their validation and communication, the energy and commitment in the area has the potential to drive innovation more effectively."

It added: "It is not appropriate or even possible to take a top-down approach to this essential communication aspect of research and development; rather it is incumbent upon all involved to be particularly aware of this need and to build on the formal and informal networks that already exist."

Funding sources

The review outlines a range of university research areas relevant to forensic science, but notes that "the difficulty, or perceived difficulty" of obtaining funding for forensic research was a recurrent theme in submissions to the review from academic institutions.

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To be useful [as a forensic researcher] you need to be part of a caseworking laboratory because the two feed off each other”

End Quote Professor Peter Gill University of Oslo It recommends that consideration be given to making forensic science a strategic research priority for the research councils, which fund academic research in the UK. It added: "In the first instance, the Home Office should facilitate contacts between Research Councils UK and academics, industry and end users to explore this possibility in detail."

The review says that one of the major means for funding research in universities - the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) - contains provisions to encourage research of "social, economic or cultural impact or benefit", which could include forensic research.

Dr Silverman also points out that the existing framework agreement used by police to procure forensic services sets out a requirement for private providers to carry out R&D.

But last week, an inquiry carried out by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee described UK forensic R&D as "not healthy" and called for a new national research budget for forensic science.

It said the Home Office had not consulted Dr Silverman over the decision and that the government had not considered enough evidence before coming to its conclusion. The committee added that the chief scientific adviser's satisfaction at his exclusion from the decision-making process was "unacceptable".

Speaking to BBC News last week, forensic scientist Professor Peter Gill, at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Oslo, warned that simply devolving the responsibility for research to universities was unlikely to work.

He said: "To be useful [as a forensic researcher] you need to be part of a caseworking laboratory because the two feed off each other. You develop the method and then there is a way to implement them into casework, which is a joint collaboration between caseworkers and researchers.

"If you separate the research out it would not work properly. You have to have the right environment."

Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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Europe links space with defence

22 June 2011 Last updated at 06:39 GMT By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, Paris Esa is looking to build a radar system that will scan low-Earth orbits to detect hazardous debris objects Two European organisations - one concerned with space, the other with defence - have signed an agreement on closer co-operation.

The European Space Agency (Esa) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) penned their accord at the Paris Air Show.

The pair hope closer ties can help them avoid duplication and reduce the cost of space activity where they have shared interests.

These areas include satellite remote-sensing and communications.

Although both organisations include many of the same states in their membership (EDA is part of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy), they are actually separate legal entities.

One obvious example of overlap concerns Esa's desire to develop a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme.

This will use radar and other technologies to track and catalogue the precise movements of all bodies moving in orbit - from spacecraft to asteroids.

It is a priority for Esa because it frequently has to shift its satellites to avoid a collision with a piece of debris, of which there are now thousands of items floating above Earth.

But European armed forces also have an intelligence interest in knowing what is moving overhead - for example, others' spy satellites - and they already deploy radar capability to ascertain such information.

"There is a need to define civilian requirements and that is clearly to be done by the European Space agency, but also to see what would be more security[-orientated] requirements, and particularly in the military field. That is something that requires co-operation between us," EDA chief executive Claude-France Arnould told BBC News.

The agreement signed at Le Bourget should make it easier to exchange technical and catalogue data.

She cited other areas where "synergies" existed - such as the safe introduction into civilian airspace of unmanned aerial vehicles using satellite communications; and in the development of space technologies that gave Europe industrial independence.

Cooperation in the defence sphere is a delicate issue for the European Space Agency.

Its convention states that it must only engage in activities that have "exclusively peaceful purposes". A country like Switzerland, which maintains absolute neutrality, would not be part of Esa if this declaration were broken.

"Obviously, I could not sign this agreement if it was not consistent with the convention of Esa," said the space agency's director general, Jean-Jacques Dordain.

"I invite you to read the Esa convention; you will not find the adjective 'civilian'. Nowhere is it written 'civilian' - just 'for peaceful purposes'.

"So as long as we are working for peaceful purposes - and Madame Arnould has mentioned a list of topics that are only for peaceful purposes - then I think that we are entitled to work on all these aspects."

Mr Dordain said there were checks in place to ensure technologies developed within the agency were not simply passed over to be used in weaponry.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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