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Oxford Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Magazine

This magazine celebrates our alumni community, showcases cutting‑edge medical and scientific work, and strengthens the connection between alumni, students, and the University. 

Check out our latest version

We look forward to sharing new updated Oxford Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Magazine coming soon in 2026! If you would like to get involved please check out our volunteering opportunities or contact us at alumni@smbms.ox.ac.uk

Check out our past editions

JILL AND HERBERT HUNT TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIP 2026

Applicants are invited for the 2026 Jill and Herbert Hunt Travelling Scholarship to support travel abroad for clinical study or research from medical alumni of the Oxford University (Pre-clinical Medicine, Clinical Medicine or Graduate-Entry Medicine).

The scholarship is of the value of about £4,000 and may be held with another award.  This scholarship is offered in every second year. We encourage candidates to submit findings for publication (at least as a research letter) in a peer reviewed journal.

Application deadline: 17 April 2026

For more information about eligibility and application process check out this call for participants

Latest News from Medical Sciences

Clinician taking notes on a tablet whilst a patient does a cognitive test. credit: Shutterstock

Stroke Cognition Calculator could help predict thinking problems after stroke

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a “Stroke Cognition Calculator”, a new tool designed to estimate a person’s chance of having thinking and memory problems six months after a stroke.

Andrea Cipriani discusses antidepressants using the PETRUSHKA tool

Digital tool that personalises antidepressant treatment significantly improves outcomes of people with depression

An AI-driven tool that tailors antidepressant treatment to individual patients was shown to improve outcomes for people with depression, compared to standard treatment, in a major international trial.

The InteroCANCEption team with Ana Domingos wearing yellow on the right

Professor Ana Domingos joins one of five Global Teams Awarded $125 Million to take on the toughest challenges at the frontiers of cancer science

Professor Ruth Travis and Dr Karl Smith-Byrne

Nuffield Department of Population Health researchers to tackle one of cancer’s toughest challenges

Oxford researchers join $25m international effort to uncover immune mechanisms that protect certain people from cancer.

Group of students talking in a circle

New study finds storytelling reduces political polarisation

Study of 380 high school students finds that exchanging stories reduces affective polarisation and promotes empathy.

Row of schoolchildren

British children are growing taller but not for the right reasons

A new analysis of Child Measurement Programme data from England, Scotland, and Wales challenges recent reports suggesting children in Britain are getting shorter. The analysis, conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, reveals that average child height has increased over the past two decades. But these gains are not related to improved child health, the researchers say. The increases in average height are closely linked to rising childhood obesity among poorer children and widening socioeconomic inequalities.

Asian couple enjoying a meal

Excess weight in early adulthood linked to higher risk of premature death

A new study by researchers at the Nuffield Department of Population Health and in China has shown that entering adulthood with a healthy body weight is associated with a substantially lower risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease. The study of approximately half a million Chinese adults is published in Science Bulletin.

Vegetables with a digital background

Largest study of vegetarian diets and cancer shows lower risk of five cancers

The largest ever study of non-meat diets and cancer risk has found that vegetarian diets are associated with lower risks of several cancers ‒ breast, prostate, kidney and pancreatic cancers, and multiple myeloma ‒ but a higher risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus.

A horizontal image of a young male doctor sitting chatting to his patient. They are in a typically British doctor's practice chatting together, while he shows his patient her test results on the digital tablet.

New study questions the evidence behind behaviour-change communication guidance for GPs

Advice on how general practice staff should talk to adult patients about behaviour change is common, but new research from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences found that this behaviour-change communication guidance for general practice is rarely clearly substantiated with relevant evidence.

The figure shows blood vessels (in red) and added astrocyte support cells (in yellow). Astrocytes were cultured with neuronal progenitor cells and then implanted into the murine cerebral cortex.

Study reveals unexpected Astrocyte enlargement enhances brain repair after transplantation

Researchers have uncovered a surprising and potentially transformative finding in the field of regenerative neuroscience: xenotransplanted mouse astrocytes dramatically enlarge following implantation into the injured brain, a response that was not anticipated and that may play a critical role in improving neural repair.