Isabel Torres

Isabel is a freelance science writer and Health editor at The Munich Eye. She has an MPhil and a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in the UK. She began her research career as a developmental biologist but she gradually focused her research on cell biology. During her postoc at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council, she got involved in several science outreach projects and fell in love with science communication. Amongst other things, she co-founded Microscopes4Schools, a workshop on cells and microscopy for primary school children that now reaches thousands of people through an interactive website that she developed (www.microscopes4schools.co.uk). She is currently based in France where she works as a freelance science journalist and runs a science blog (www.scienceintheclouds.blogspot.com). Follow Isabel on twitter @Isabel_L_Torres

Role: Section Editor, Health
Email: Please use the contact form to contact Isabel Torres.

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine causes cancer

Two new studies show that a natural compound found in many Chinese herbal medicines triggers genetic mutations that may...

Antioxidants don't improve fertility, study shows

Researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Auckland, New Zealand, have shown that there is...

MERS patient dies in Munich hospital

On March 26, a patient in a Munich hospital was the first person in Germany to die of a new SARS-like viral infection...

Molecule that triggers itch sensation is found

Researchers from the National Institute of Dental and Cranofacial Research in Maryland, USA, discovered the molecule that...

Mood swings on wings

Have you got a deadline coming up soon? Does it make you feel anxious, sleepless and stressed out? Some of us respond to...

Brain cells made from skin raise hopes for new neurodegenerative disease treatments

A research team led by Dr Paul Tesar at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, USA, has...

A mathematical window into schizophrenia

The Oscar-winning movie "The Beautiful Mind" shows the mathematical prodigy John Nash having many imaginary conversations...

Cancer research: fruit flies take it down a notch

You wouldn't think that those pesky flies hovering around your fruit bowl could help scientists understand cancer. Flies...

Lung-on-a-chip: a human disease model that could revolutionize drug discovery

Scientists used a microchip that recreates a breathing lung to study pulmonary edema and test a new drug against this...

Promiscuous female guppies have the upper hand

New research shows that mating with multiple partners brings benefits for females. In a study published this week in the...

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine causes cancer

Two new studies show that a natural compound found in many Chinese herbal medicines triggers genetic mutations that may...

Antioxidants don't improve fertility, study shows

Researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Auckland, New Zealand, have shown that there is...

Nerve growth triggers prostate cancer

New research suggests that the formation of new nerve fibers in and around prostate tumors increases cancer growth and...

Economic incentives increase blood donations

Blood transfusion is critical to save lives, but often the availability of safe blood at the time when is needed is...

New MS treatment successful in early clinical trials

A new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) had a successful first phase of clinical trials, shows a study published in...

Migraines linked to sleep disorders

New research from the University of California San Francisco, US, has identified a gene alteration linked to both...

Heroin vaccine blocks drug addiction in rats

A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in California, USA, has reported promising results for a new...

New technique detects early oesophageal cancer

Almost 500,000 new cases of oesophageal cancer are diagnosed worldwide every year. However, diagnosis usually only occurs...

Does air pollution increase heart attacks and strokes?

The longer you live in a polluted city, the more quickly you develop risk factors for heart attack and stroke, researchers...

Cancer drug works by recruiting tumor 'killer' cells

New research from the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammatory Research in the UK explains why the cancer drug...

How breast cancer spreads into the brain

Cancer cells can escape from tumors, sneak through the bloodstream, and seed new tumors, or metastases, in distant organs....

How breast cancer spreads to the brain

Cancer cells can escape from tumors, sneak through the bloodstream, and seed new tumors, or metastases, in distant organs....

Kidneys grown in the lab work in animals

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US have grown rat kidneys in the laboratory that produced urine...

Scientists find new clues on how bacteria resist antibiotics

New research shows how some bacteria manage to evade a widely used antibiotic by removing it from their protein factories....

Licence to die?

The first time on an airplane is one of those experiences that leave a stamp on your memory. My first plane trip was about...

Scientists hear the music of your brain

Science and art often go hand in hand. M.C. Escher played with geometry in his famous prints of impossible realities, and...

Scientists find bacteria that can function as electric cables

At the bottom of the ocean, there is a strange world of microbes thriving in mud sediments. They all strive toward the...

Musical training in childhood, good for your brain

Parents may have found a new reason to encourage their children to play a musical instrument. A new study led by...

Bees know their way around

The 'travelling salesman problem' has puzzled mathematicians for over eight decades, but bees might just have the answer....