Tag: Evening Standard

Imperial in the news: obese children

Last month’s biggest story involving research at Imperial looked at the increase in children admitted to hospital with obesity-related conditions.

During the period studied there was a four-fold increase in admissions for children experiencing obesity-related conditions, from 872 in 2000 to 3806 in 2009.  Teenage girls with pregnancies complicated by obesity accounted for hospital admissions in 2009.

Surveys suggest that around 30 per cent of children aged 2-15 are overweight and up to 20 per cent are obese.

“The burden of obesity is usually thought to have its serious consequences in adulthood, but we now see it manifesting earlier, in childhood,” said Dr Sonia Saxena, from the School of Public Health at Imperial, who led the study.

Imperial in the news: DNA beauty

The Evening Standard reported last night on a new method of selecting beauty treatments: by checking your DNA. The 30-minute makeover is carried out by taking a saliva test of the customer, which identifies the key traits of their DNA that can be enhanced by different cosmetic products.

The test was designed by Professor Christopher Toumazou [Engineering] after first discovering how to transfer DNA onto a computer microchip. Alongside working with pharmaceutical companies that are looking to develop drugs to tackle diseases such as cancers and Alzheimer’s, the potential application of the product in the beauty industry saw The Organic Pharmacy in King’s Road jump at the opportunity to match his science with beauty treatments for their clients.