CANADA 

Minority candidates – including women and LGBTQ2S+ – in federal elections are positioned to be sacrificial lambs

Despite attempts to improve the representation of minorities in Canadian political institutions, researchers from the University of Ottawa found significant barriers exist

OUR RIDING IS LUCKY IN HAVING ELECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME LAST ELECTION A YOUNG FIRST NATION 2 SPIRIT MP AND OUR PROVINCIAL RIDING IS REPRESENTED BY OUR OUT LESBIAN FEMINIST MLA, BOTH ARE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS WITH THE NDP, NOT DESIGNATED BY THE PARTY BUT BY THE RIDINGS MEMBERS

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

 

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CO-AUTHOR LUC TURGEON, FULL PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF POLITICAL STUDIES, FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA.

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CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

A new study from researchers at the University of Ottawa’s School of Political Studies paints a stark picture for minority candidates’ success in Canada’s federal elections, with the Liberal Party and Conservative Party particularly guilty of positioning their minority candidates to fail. 

The past decade has seen Canadian federal political parties increase their efforts to diversify their pool of candidates through representation targets, particularly The Green Party of Canada and the NDP.  An analysis of candidates who ran in the past three federal elections revealed:

• Women and LGBTQ2S+ candidates are particularly overrepresented in hard-to-win districts.
• Minority candidates of the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party are much more disadvantaged than minority candidates of other parties and are more likely to be nominated in districts their party lost by a landslide previously compared to minority candidates of the NDP and Green Party.
• Incumbent minority candidates are less likely to be re-elected than non-minority candidates, indicating they previously won in more difficult districts to secure.

“Despite attempts to improve the representation of minority in Canadian political institutions, there are still significant barriers to their representation. The more minority groups a candidate belongs to, the more they are likely to be sacrificial lambs,” says Luc Turgeon, co-author of the study along with Valérie Lapointe (PhD candidate) and Benjamin Ferland, an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The study, published in Electoral Studies, considered how partisanship, incumbency, and intersectionality impact the likelihood of minority candidates to be nominated in (non-) winnable electoral districts.

“These obstacles do not come from voters, but from political parties that tend to nominate minority candidates in hard to win ridings. Such obstacles are a significant reason why certain minority groups remain significantly under-represented in Canada,” added Full Professor Turgeon.

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JOURNAL

Electoral Studies

DOI

10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102717 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Still sacrificial lambs? Yes! Minority groups in Canadian federal elections, 2015–2021

 

Countries and companies need to address declining global fertility rates, doctors say

Infertility risk factors must be reduced and access to affordable fertility care improved

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FERTILITY SOCIETIES

The global fertility rate is declining and most governments are failing to recognize and address the impact on economies and societies, say a group of physicians invited by the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) in a new paper and campaign launched today.

“Not including the effects of migration, many countries are predicted to have a population decline of more than 50% from 2017 to 2100,” the physicians write in “Declining global fertility rates and the implications for family planning and family building,” published January 10, 2024 in Human Reproduction Update. 

“By 2050, 77% of predominantly high-income countries, and by 2100, 93% of all countries will have a total fertility rate below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman,” write the paper’s authors who include fertility specialists from Australia, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Greece, The Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.

With underpopulation becoming a great concern in a rapidly increasing number of countries, the paper provides recommendations for what governments, policymakers, companies, health care professionals, and patients can do to address infertility risk factors and make fertility care more affordable and accessible.

“Choosing to have a family is a human right,” said Bart CJM Fauser, co-first author of the paper, IFFS Scientific Director and Professor Em. of Reproductive Medicine at Netherlands’ Utrecht University. “But access to fertility care is often unaffordable, inaccessible, and inequitable and that needs to change.”

The authors point out that there have been “major advances in fertility care that have dramatically improved family building opportunities (for infertile couples, singles and members of the LBGTQ+ community) over the last three decades,” but equity remains a challenge across countries, cultures, and economies.

“The good news is that infertility is often preventable,” said IFFS President Edgar Mocanu. “A simple step is offering balanced fertility and contraceptive education so that everybody can decide when to prevent pregnancy and when it is ideal for them to start a family, if they choose.”

One in six people of reproductive age grapple with infertility and the problem affects women and men equally. Some sexually transmitted infections, “smoking, excessive alcohol intake, obesity, and poor nutrition can negatively affect both male and female fertility,” say the authors. Alarmingly, infertility risk factors such as air pollution and the proliferation of harmful and poorly regulated chemicals are increasing, making it critical for policymakers to develop and implement policies that reduce environmental infertility risk factors.

Solutions to improving birth rates, the authors say include “policy measures supporting families and working women” such as compensation for extended pregnancy leave and childcare, parental leave, and increased access to assisted reproductive technology services (ART).

“While more than 10 percent of all children are born with fertility assistance in some wealthy countries, there is great variation in access to care and the high cost remains a barrier across the board,” said Dr. Luca Gianaroli, IFFS Director of Education, and former chairman of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. “A limited number of countries have started public funding of fertility treatment to mitigate falling birth rates, and the IFFS is asking that more countries consider providing financial assistance for individuals needing fertility care.” 

Among their many recommendations, the physicians cite four main calls for action that will be part of their ‘More Joy’ global awareness and education campaign:

1. Governments and companies need to develop policies to reduce infertility risk factors and make fertility care more affordable, accessible, and equitable.
2. There is an urgent need to develop simpler, less intensive and less expensive assisted reproductive technologies.
3. Health care professionals need to educate their patients about infertility prevention and include fertility awareness as part of family planning and contraceptive education.
4. Infrastructure and support are needed to increase access to care, especially in low-resource countries.

“The economic benefits to society of providing fertility care clearly exceed the cost of treatment, and these benefits will only increase as populations become more aged,” the physicians write.

More Joy Campaign materials are available in 15 languages and can be found at https://www.iffsreproduction.org/morejoycampaign/

Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmad028

Authors: Bart C.J.M. Fauser, University Medical Center Utrecht, University of Utrecht, Netherlands; G. David Adamson, ARC Fertility, USA; Jacky Boivin, Cardiff University, UK; Georgina M. Chambers, University of New South Wales, Australia; Christian de Geyter, University Hospital, University of Basel, Switzerland; Silke Dyer, Groot Schuur Hospital and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Marcia C. Inhorn, Yale University, USA; Lone Schmidt, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Gamal I. Serour, Al Azhar University, Egypt; Basil Tarlatzis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; and Fernando Zegers-Hochschild, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Susan Lamontagne, susan@publicinterestmedia.com or 1-917-568-0969

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JOURNAL

Human Reproduction Update

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Declining global fertility rates and the implications for family planning and family building

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Jan-2024

 JAMA NETWORK

Global prevalence of adolescent use of nonprescription weight-loss products

JAMA Network Open

About The Study: This meta-analysis that included 90 studies with 604,000 participants found that use of weight-loss products occurs at high levels in adolescents, especially girls. These findings suggest that, given the ineffectiveness of these products for weight loss coupled with their harmful long-term health consequences, interventions are required to reduce use of weight-loss products in this group. 

Authors: Natasha Yvonne Hall, Pharm.B., M.H.E., of Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.50940)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.50940?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=011024

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Almost 1:10 adolescents use non-prescription weight loss products globally

Too many adolescents use ineffective and potentially harmful non prescribed weight loss products, review finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MONASH UNIVERSITY

One in ten adolescents globally have used ineffective and potentially harmful non prescribed weight loss products in their lifetime, with 2% using them in the previous week.

A review, of over 90 studies of 600,000+ participants, headed by Ms Natasha Hall fro0m Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that adolescent use of non prescription weight loss products is 5.5% overall, 2% in the past week; 4.4% in the past month, 6.2% in the past year and 8.9% in their lifetime.

The authors caution against the long term consequences of these ineffective treatments.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.50940 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Global Prevalence of Adolescent Use of Nonprescription Weight-Loss Products

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Jan-2024

 

Scientists name the commonest tropical tree species for the first time

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

 

A major international collaboration of 356 scientists led by UCL researchers has found almost identical patterns of tree diversity across the world’s tropical forests.

The study of over one million trees across 1,568 locations, published in Nature, found that just 2.2% of tree species make up 50% of the total number of trees in tropical forests across Africa, the Amazon, and Southeast Asia. Each continent consists of the same proportion of a few common species and many rare species.

While tropical forests are famous for their diversity, this is the first time that scientists have studied the commonest trees in the world’s tropical forests.

The scientists estimate that just 1,053 species account for half of the planet’s 800 billion tropical forest trees. The other half are comprised of 46,000 tree species. The number of rare species is extreme, with the rarest 39,500 species accounting for just 10% of trees.

Lead author Dr Declan Cooper (UCL Geography and UCL Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research) said: “Our findings have profound implications for understanding tropical forests. If we focus on understanding the commonest tree species, we can probably predict how the whole forest will respond to today’s rapid environmental changes. This is especially important because tropical forests contain a tremendous amount of stored carbon, and are a globally important carbon sink.”

He continued: “Identifying the prevalence of the most common species gives scientists a new way of looking at tropical forests. Tracking these common species may provide a new way to characterise these forests and in the future possibly gauge a forest’s health more easily.”  

The researchers found strikingly similar patterns in the proportion of tree species that are common, at close to 2.2%, despite the tropical forests of the Amazon, Africa and Southeast Asia each having a unique history and differing contemporary environments.

The Amazon consists of a large region of connected forest, while Southeast Asia is a region of mostly disconnected islands. People only arrived in the Amazon around 20,000 years ago, but people have been living in African and Southeast Asian forests for more than twice that length of time. In terms of the contemporary environment, African forests experience a drier and cooler climate than the other two tropical forest regions. 

Given these striking differences, the near-identical patterns of tree diversity suggests that a fundamental mechanism may govern the assembly of tree communities across all the world’s tropical forests. The researchers are not yet able to say what that mechanism might be and it will focus future work on identifying it.

The estimates of common species derive from statistical analyses, which does not provide the names of the common trees. To overcome this, the scientists used a technique known as resampling to estimate which are the most likely names of the common species. Their list of 1,119 tree species names, the first list of common species of the world’s tropical forests, will allow researchers to focus their efforts on understanding the ecology of these species, which in turn can give scientists a short-cut to understand the whole forest.

See table below for a list of the most common tropical tree species.

 

Senior author, Professor Simon Lewis (UCL Geography and University of Leeds) said: “We wanted to look at tropical forests in a new way. Focusing on a few hundred common tree species on each continent, rather than the many thousands of species that we know almost nothing about, can open new ways to understand these precious forests. This focus on the commonest species should not take away from the importance of rare species. Rare species need special attention to protect them, but quick and important gains in knowledge will come from a scientific focus on the commonest tree species.”

The researchers assembled forest inventory data from intact tropical forests that hadn’t been affected by logging or fire. In each of 1,568 locations, teams identified and recorded every tree with a trunk greater than 10 centimetres in diameter, in a patch of forest, usually one hectare, which is a square of forest measuring 100 metres on each side.

Professor Lewis has been collecting and collating this data for 20 years. The effort is a collaboration of the largest plot networks across the Amazon (Amazon Tree Diversity Network; RAINFOR), Africa (African Tropical Rainforest Observatory Network, AfriTRON; Central African Plot Network), and Southeast Asia (Slik Diversity Network; T-FORCES), brought together for the first time for the published analysis. 

This collaboration across hundreds of researchers, field assistants, and local communities resulted in a total of 1,003,805 trees sampled, which included 8,493 tree species, across 2,048 hectares, equivalent to almost eight square miles of forest. The teams inventoried 1,097 plots in the Amazon totalling 1,434 hectares, 368 plots in Africa totalling 450 hectares, and 103 plots in Southeast Asia totalling 164 hectares.

This research was supported by the Natural Environmental Research Council.

Most common tropical forest tree species:

Continent	Scientific name	Local Names
Africa	Gilbertiodendron dewevrei	Limbali, otabo, agbabu, ekpagoi-eze
Africa	Greenwayodendron suaveolens	Africa Teak, atorewa, ẹ́wáé, nchua, eleku, agudugbu
Africa	Anonidium mannii	Junglesop, imido, asumpa, ọ̀ghẹ́dẹ́gbó
Africa	Petersianthus macrocarpus	Stinkwood tree; soap tree abalé, tun-tue, pèh, ésiv, kpa
Africa	Santiria trimera	adjouaba à racines aériennes, damzin, an-thanjka, kafe, poh, gólógóló.
Africa	Strombosia pustulata	itako, afina, poé, mba esogo
Africa	Tabernaemontana crassa	Adam's-apple flower, k-poŋgbo, opuko, patié patié, pete-pete
Africa	Staudtia kamerunensis	Niové, ichala, ọbara-okisi, íyìp ókōyò
Africa	Strombosiopsis tetrandra	Bwika, Mbazoo
Africa	Dichostemma glaucescens	Mangamba, Mongamba
Amazonia	Oenocarpus bacaba	Bacaba, Turu Palm
Amazonia	Eschweilera coriacea	matamatá
Amazonia	Iriartea deltoidea	bombona
Amazonia	Pentaclethra macroloba	pracaxi
Amazonia	Euterpe oleracea	açaí palm
Amazonia	Astrocaryum murumuru	murumuru
Amazonia	Geissospermum sericeum	quina-quina branca, pao pereira
Amazonia	Eperua falcata	bootlace tree, bi udu, wapa
Amazonia	Euterpe precatoria	mountain cabbage; açai, açaizeiro, açaí-do-amazonas, palmiche, wassaï, huasaí, manaca
Amazonia	Rinorea racemosa	branquinha
Southeast Asia	Shorea multiflora	yellow meranti
Southeast Asia	Tristaniopsis merguensis	Hill Tristania
Southeast Asia	Cotylelobium melanoxylon	Resak hitam; Khiam khaao; Resak tempurong; Giam tembaga
Southeast Asia	Dehaasia caesia	Magasil, Medang
Southeast Asia	Streblus ilicifolius	Jungle Holly, Merlimau
Southeast Asia	Shorea xanthophylla	seraya kuning barun
Southeast Asia	Shorea parvifolia	light red meranti, white lauan
Southeast Asia	Elateriospermum tapos	Perah, Buah Perah, Pogoh Nut, Tapos
Southeast Asia	Ixonanthes reticulata	Pagar Anak, Ten Men Tree, Inggir Burong, Nyiran Burong
Southeast Asia	Gluta oba	Rengas

 

Notes to Editors

For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact Michael Lucibella, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0)75 3941 0389, E: m.lucibella@ucl.ac.uk

Declan Cooper, Simon Lewis, et. al, ‘Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities’ will be published in Nature on Wednesday 10 January 2024, 16:00 UK time, 11:00 US Eastern Time, and is under a strict embargo until this time.

The DOI for this paper will be 10.1038/s41586-023-06820-z

Upon publication, the paper will be available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06820-z

Additional material

• Declan Cooper’s academic profile
• Professor Simon Lewis’ academic profile
• UCL Geography
• UCL Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences

About UCL – London’s Global University

UCL is a diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni. Our powerful collective of individuals and institutions work together to explore new possibilities.

Since 1826, we have championed independent thought by attracting and nurturing the world's best minds. Our community of more than 50,000 students from 150 countries and over 16,000 staff pursues academic excellence, breaks boundaries and makes a positive impact on real world problems.

The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year 2024, we are consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the world and are one of only a handful of institutions rated as having the strongest academic reputation and the broadest research impact.

We have a progressive and integrated approach to our teaching and research – championing innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary working. We teach our students how to think, not what to think, and see them as partners, collaborators and contributors.  

For almost 200 years, we are proud to have opened higher education to students from a wide range of backgrounds and to change the way we create and share knowledge.

We were the first in England to welcome women to university education and that courageous attitude and disruptive spirit is still alive today. We are UCL.

www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow @uclnews on Twitter | Read news at www.ucl.ac.uk/news/ | Listen to UCL podcasts on SoundCloud | View images on Flickr | Find out what’s on at UCL Minds

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06820-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Jan-2024

 

Ancient DNA reveals reason for high multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s rates in Europe

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

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THE NEW STUDY HAS FOUND THE GENES THAT SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE A PERSON’S RISK OF DEVELOPING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (MS) WERE INTRODUCED INTO NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE AROUND 5,000 YEARS AGO BY SHEEP AND CATTLE HERDERS MIGRATING FROM THE EAST.

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CREDIT: SAYOSTUDIO

Researchers have created the world’s largest ancient human gene bank by analysing the bones and teeth of almost 5,000 humans who lived across western Europe and Asia up to 34,000 years ago.

By sequencing ancient human DNA and comparing it to modern-day samples, the international team of experts mapped the historical spread of genes – and diseases – over time as populations migrated.

The ‘astounding’ results have been revealed in four trailblazing research papers published today (10 January 2024) in the same issue of Nature and provide new biological understanding of debilitating disorders.

The extraordinary study involved a large international team led by Professor Eske Willerslev at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen, Professor Thomas Werge at the University of Copenhagen, and Professor Rasmus Nielsen at University of California, Berkeley and involved contributions from 175 researchers from around the globe.

The scientists found:

• The startling origins of neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis
• Why northern Europeans today are taller than people from southern Europe
• How major migration around 5,000 years ago introduced risk genes into the population in north-western Europe – leaving a legacy of higher rates of MS today
• Carrying the MS gene was an advantage at the time as it protected ancient farmers from catching infectious diseases from their sheep and cattle
• Genes known to increase the risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and type 2 diabetes were traced back to hunter gatherers
• Future analysis is hoped to reveal more about the genetic markers of autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression

Northern Europe has the highest prevalence of multiple sclerosis in the world. A new study has found the genes that significantly increase a person’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) were introduced into north-western Europe around 5,000 years ago by sheep and cattle herders migrating from the east.

By analysing the DNA of ancient human bones and teeth, found at documented locations across Eurasia, researchers traced the geographical spread of MS from its origins on the Pontic Steppe (a region spanning parts of what are now Ukraine, South-West Russia and the West Kazakhstan Region).

They found that the genetic variants associated with a risk of developing MS ‘travelled’ with the Yamnaya people - livestock herders who migrated over the Pontic Steppe into North-Western Europe.

These genetic variants provided a survival advantage to the Yamnaya people, most likely by protecting them from catching infections from their sheep and cattle. But they also increased the risk of developing MS.

“It must have been a distinct advantage for the Yamnaya people to carry the MS risk genes, even after arriving in Europe, despite the fact that these genes undeniably increased their risk of developing MS,” said Professor Eske Willerslev, jointly at the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen and a Fellow of St John’s College, an expert in analysis of ancient DNA and Director of the project.

He added: “These results change our view of the causes of multiple sclerosis and have implications for the way it is treated.”

The age of specimens ranges from the Mesolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking period into the Middle Ages. The oldest genome in the data set is from an individual who lived approximately 34,000 years ago.

The findings provide an explanation for the ‘North-South Gradient’, in which there are around twice as many modern-day cases of MS in northern Europe than southern Europe, which has long been a mystery to researchers.

From a genetic perspective, the Yamnaya people are thought to be the ancestors of the present-day inhabitants of much of North-Western Europe. Their genetic influence on today’s population of southern Europe is much weaker.

Previous studies have identified 233 genetic variants that increase the risk of developing MS. These variants, also affected by environmental and lifestyle factors, increase disease risk by around 30 percent. The new research found that this modern-day genetic risk profile for MS is also present in bones and teeth that are thousands of years old.

“These results astounded us all. They provide a huge leap forward in our understanding of the evolution of MS and other autoimmune diseases. Showing how the lifestyles of our ancestors impacted modern disease risk just highlights how much we are the recipients of ancient immune systems in a modern world,” said Dr William Barrie, a postdoc in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and co-author of the paper.

Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the ‘insulation’ surrounding the nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord. This causes symptom flares known as relapses as well as longer-term degeneration, known as progression.

Professor Lars Fugger, a co-author of the MS study professor and consultant physician at John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, said: “This means we can now understand and seek to treat MS for what it actually is: the result of a genetic adaptation to certain environmental conditions that occurred back in our prehistory.”

Professor Astrid Iversen, another co-author based at the University of Oxford, said: “We now lead very different lives to those of our ancestors in terms of hygiene, diet, and medical treatment options and this combined with our evolutionary history means we may be more susceptible to certain diseases than our ancestors were, including autoimmune diseases such as MS.”

The Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre – the resource underpinning the discoveries

The new findings were made possible by the analysis of data held in a unique gene bank of ancient DNA, created by the researchers over the past five years with funding from the Lundbeck Foundation.

This is the first gene bank of its kind in the world and already it has enabled fascinating new insights in areas from ancient human migrations, to genetically-determined risk profiles for the development of brain disorders.

By analysing the bones and teeth of almost 5,000 ancient humans, held in museum collections across Europe and Western Asia, the researchers generated DNA profiles ranging across the Mesolithic and Neolithic through the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking period into the Middle Ages. They compared the ancient DNA data to modern DNA from 400,000 people living in Britain, held in the UK Biobank.

“Creating a gene bank of ancient DNA from Eurasia’s past human inhabitants was a colossal project, involving collaboration with museums across the region,” said Willerslev.

He added: “We’ve demonstrated that our gene bank works as a precision tool that can give us new insights into human diseases, when combined with analyses of present-day human DNA data and inputs from several other research fields. That in itself is amazing, and there’s no doubt it has many applications beyond MS research.”

The team now plans to investigate other neurological conditions including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and psychiatric disorders including ADHD and schizophrenia.

They have received requests from disease researchers across the world for access to the ancient DNA profiles, and eventually aim to make the gene bank open access.

The research was funded by a €8M grant from the Lundbeck Foundation, and conducted at the Lundbeck Foundation Geogenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen.

Jan Egebjerg, Director of Research at the Lundbeck Foundation, said: "The rationale for awarding such a large research grant to this project, as the Lundbeck Foundation did back in 2018, was that if it all worked out, it would represent a trail-blazing means of gaining a deeper understanding of how the genetic architecture underlying brain disorders evolved over time. And brain disorders are our specific focus area." 

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06618-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Elevated Genetic Risk for Multiple Sclerosis Originated in Steppe Pastoralist Populations

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Jan-2024