April Cashin-Garbutt

Natural Sciences

April graduated with a first-class honours degree in Natural Sciences from Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. During her time as Editor-in-Chief, News-Medical (2012-2017), she kickstarted the content production process and helped to grow the website readership to over 60 million visitors per year.

Through interviewing global thought leaders in medicine and life sciences, including Nobel laureates, April developed a passion for neuroscience and now works at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, located within UCL.

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Articles from April

Increasing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis research

IPF is an incurable lung condition with the average life expectancy following diagnosis being just three years. It’s one of the many types of interstitial lung disease (ILD). Interstitial means that the disease affects the interstitium, a lace-like network of tissue that supports the air sacs (alveoli) in your lungs.

25 Jan 2017

Characterizing the Brain - Cell by Cell

My group develops approaches to study cell-to-cell signaling in the brain – how the cells of the brain talk to each other. The brain is heterogeneous, probably more so than any other organ in our body, and many of its functions depend on the unique characteristics of these cells.

23 Jan 2017

First symptoms of meningitis

Thankfully, meningitis is a rare condition. Although it can occur in anyone, it's more prevalent in babies and young children, with young people and students being the next most at risk group. In the early stages, it can be very difficult to tell meningitis apart from milder diseases, as it often resembles other common viral illnesses. Symptoms of the disease can develop very quickly.

19 Jan 2017

Impact of IBS on patients

The report reveals a quite alarming situation about the economic impact of IBS on healthcare system, society and patients themselves. In particular, it disclosed that there are a lot of hidden costs related to the utilization of healthcare resources by means of patients, frequently not recognized as IBS...

16 Jan 2017

Could pathogen infection really lead to Alzheimer’s?

New concepts of infectious disease are evolving with the realization that pathogens are key players in the development of progressive chronic diseases that originally were not thought to be infectious. Infection is well-known to be associated with numerous neurological diseases for which...

12 Jan 2017

Childhood obesity starts in the womb?

There is incontrovertible evidence that some harmful drugs and toxins can affect lifelong health. For example, if women take certain drugs in pregnancy, such as thalidomide, there are well documented effects on lifelong health. These have obvious and dramatic effects on the child...

11 Jan 2017

Giving polycystic kidney disease the bump

We launched this campaign at the beginning of October 2016. It's the first time that we've ever had a campaign of this size and scope. It's a European campaign in multiple languages that's coordinated by six of the organizations that represent PKD patients in Europe.

5 Jan 2017

How does the brain control appetite?

Energy balance between energy intake and expenditure in our bodies is important for maintaining energy homeostasis to keep our bodies functioning properly. The appetite determines how much we eat, the energy intake, by communication between the brain and body.

4 Jan 2017

Contact dermatitis or contact eczema?

There is allergic contact dermatitis, which is mediated through an immune mechanism, this means that the person is specifically allergic to what they have come in to contact with their skin. Their body has had to go through a process whereby they have...

21 Dec 2016

How can we tackle antimicrobial resistance?

Antimicrobial resistance happens when bugs, like bacteria, fungi or viruses, change, or evolve, when they’re exposed to drugs, like antibiotics, antifungals, or antivirals. Bugs that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as ‘superbugs’.

20 Dec 2016