Imperial College
New citation data place two Imperial researchers amongst the top in their fields. Thomson’s Essential Science Indicators essentially indicate that Prof Andre Balogh is the world’s fifth most cited geoscientist. Meanwhile, Prof Sir John Pendry’s 2006 Science paper Controlling electromagnetic fields lists in the top 0.01% of the world’s most cited papers.

A study published in PNAS explores the spread of HIV in Zimbabwe. A team led by Dr Simon Gregson of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology found that the impact had not been as severe as predicted in 1989, with the birth rate still outpacing the rate of death. Even so, around a third of town-dwellers aged 15–54 carry the disease.

King’s College
King’s are strengthening internal collaboration in neurobiology through a new initiative – the King’s Neuroscience Consortium. Headed by Prof Peter McGuffin, the consortium brings together the College’s Institute of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and School of Biomedical and Health Sciences.

A team from the Cardiovascular division headed by Dr Philip Eaton report a new mechanism for lowering blood pressure (Science). The study shows that protein kinase G can be regulated independently of nitric oxide, offering a potential alternative pathway for drug development.

UCL
Researchers in the Wellcome Trust centre for neuroimaging are learning about the fear response by getting volunteers to play a version of Pac-man. In a study published in Science gamers were wired up to receive an electric shock if an on-screen predator intercepted their game character. Using MRI, researchers headed by Dean Mobbs showed that different areas of the brain were activated, depending on the level of threat. When there was little danger of the virtual predator capturing its digital prey, the prefrontal cortex – used for complex planning tasks – was most active. As the danger closed in, the more primitive midbrain lit up on the scan.

UCL Advances, a new collaboration between industry, academia and investors, has appointed an Executive Director. Timothy Barnes joins the team from the private sector, where he ran LodestoneIP Ltd, a company that helps universities to spin out start-ups.