Nature Portfolio has compiled a collection of key ancient DNA papers in celebration of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine award to the field’s principal pioneer, Svante Pääbo, which includes the work of Professor Robin Allaby published in Nature Reviews Methods Primers. The paper outlines the best current methodological approaches to the field, the wide range of applications possible and ethics involved. The primer is freely available for a month.

The Nobel Prize was awarded in particular for the discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution which has dramatically changed how we understand human evolution and contributes to our understanding of modern-day human physiology. At Warwick, Professor Allaby has applied ancient DNA to past genomes of crop plants which is rewriting our understanding of domestication, recently reviewed in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Warwick Law School's Dr Rajnaara Akhtar has written a piece for The Conversation UK (published on the 2 August 2022) on marriage laws in England and Wales and the need to update outdated legislation. 'Your dream wedding might not be legal - time to update England's old-fashioned marriage laws.'

'Assessing the Role of Digital Finance for Gender Equality’ by Dr Serena Natile, is the latest in a series of briefs, bringing current legal thinking to bear on public policy issues and contemporary concerns, published by GLOBE, a research centre within Warwick Law School.

Artwork Credit: Pawel Kuczyński

A promising new non-opioid painkiller (analgesic) with potentially fewer side effects compared to other potent painkillers, has been discovered.

A team of scientists, co-led by researchers from the School of Life Sciences, has investigated a compound called BnOCPA (benzyloxy-cyclopentyladenosine), found to be a potent and selective analgesic which is non-addictive in test model systems. BnOCPA also has a unique mode of action and potentially opens a new pipeline for the development of new analgesic drugs.

Press Release (20 July 2022)

Warwick Law School's Dr Andi Hoxhaj has written a piece for The Conversation UK (published on the 18 July 2022) on Russia's increasing influence on the Balkans just as the region's fragile peace is threatened.

Livestock diseases will be better managed by incorporating the behaviours of individual farmers into national infection control policies, according to new research.

The findings are the latest from the BBSRC-funded Farmer-led Epidemic and Endemic Disease-management (FEED) project, an interdisciplinary research group including epidemiologists, mathematical modellers, behavioural scientists and veterinarians from the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham. The research is published this week, in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, in a paper entitled “Modelling livestock infectious disease control policy under differing social perspectives on vaccination behaviour”.

Press Release (15 July 2022)

Marine cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are major contributors to the global carbon cycle and are the basis of the food web in many of the world’s oceans. They only require sunlight, carbon dioxide, plus a panel of essential elements, including metals, to sustain life. However, little is known about whether and how cyanobacteria utilize or regulate zinc, an element often considered to be essential to life.

An interdisciplinary research team including Professor Dave Scanlan and Dr Alevtina Mikhaylina, has identified a remarkably efficient regulatory network that controls zinc accumulation in the open ocean cyanobacterium Synechococcus.

Press Release (9 June 2022)

Dr Ming-Sung Kuo's 2019 paper ‘Between Choice and Tradition: Rethinking Remedial Grace Periods and Unconstitutionality Management in a Comparative Light’ was cited by the Suprme Court of Cananda in R. v. Albashir ([2021] SCC 48). Congratulations Ming-Sung.

Dr Simon Peplow has written an article about the police and "institutional racism" for The Conversation, please see further details at: https://theconversation.com/the-police-wont-acknowledge-institutional-racism-in-their-race-action-plan-heres-why-that-matters-183853,