We wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a festive new year!

A recent publication in Cell, leading by Prof. Jianfeng Feng, presents a comprehensive atlas of proteome-phenome associations (https://proteome-phenome-atlas.com/Link opens in a new window) by systematically mapping 2,920 plasma proteins to the presence and onset of 720 diseases and 986 health-related traits in 53,026 individuals. This atlas provides insights into shared and characteristic biological mechanisms among diseases. The proteomic profiles, coupled with machine learning, identify useful biomarkers and prediction models for multiple health conditions simultaneously. Through integrating protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) data, this work also illustrates the use of the atlas for causal protein discovery and further drug target prioritization. The proteome-phenome atlas furnishes an extensive resource supporting future research in screening, diagnosis, and treatment of human diseases and advancing precision medicine.

See here https://statsupai.org/quarto_web/site/posts/S11_interview.html for a more detailed discussion on the article.

Saranjeet Kaur Bhogal, a Research Software Engineer at Imperial College London, is visiting the department this week. She is working with Heather Turner on updates to the R Development Guide (https://contributor.r-project.org/rdevguide), aimed at contributors to the open-source statistical software R. Mastodon links: @saranjeet@fosstodon.org, @heathrturnr@fosstodon.org

Reza Kashtiban has been conferred the Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA/Advance HE)Link opens in a new window through the Academic and Professional Pathway for Experienced staff.

The Department of Chemistry is currently recruiting to six funded PhD Studentships within the Centre of Experimental Fuel Technologies (CEFT). bit.ly/3VOMiCN

Epidemiologist Dr Matt Combes was recently interviewed for the Guardian about Ash die-back in the UK and the scientific efforts to protect ash trees. The publication highlights Matt's review article on ash die-back and his more recent work at Warwick modelling the severity of the disease and how this may interact with the emerald ash borer beetle. The modelling is part of the SMARTIES (Surveillance and Management of multiple Risks to Treescapes: Integrating Epidemiology and Stakeholder behaviour) project.
Read the Guardian article (20 December 2024).
Photograph: Andy Soloman/Alamy

A PhD student from WMG at the University of Warwick, has been honoured at the International Rubber Conference Organisation (IRCO) RubberCon 2024.

The IRCO RubberCon, an annual event organised by a careful selection of rubber societies, gathers industry leaders and experts for insightful discussions. This year’s conference, held in Kerala, India, focused on the theme, “Sustainable Development in the Rubber Industry: Challenges and Opportunities.”

Ajitha Achuthanunni, who is based in WMG’s International Institute of Nanocomposite Manufacturing (IINM), received the Best Presentation Award for her groundbreaking research on composites of 2D materials and rubber blends.

The Warwick team competed at the International Student Team Competition in Mathematics 2024, Katowice, Poland, winning several medals.

A leading UK study aiming to improve outcomes for patients with potentially life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) has successfully completed recruitment at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust.

Dieter Wolke's evidence is mentioned at several places on how prematurity creates inequality in developmental outcome and how to improve transition into school.