Biology subjects

Akbari, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Akbari, A..

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Sample preparation for direct nanopore based protein identification via tryptic peptide recognition

Rapid, cost-efficient and miniaturized protein analysis is essential for point-of-care clinical diagnostics. Nanopores offer a promising alternative to mass spectrometry, offering high-resolution, single-molecule sensing with a minimal footprint. However, peptide-level protein identification remains challenging due to difficulties in assigning nanopore signals to peptide sequences and the incompatibility of conventional proteolysis workflows with nanopore sensing. Here we integrate a single-pot, solid-phase-enhanced sample preparation (SP3) workflow with nanopore sensing. The SP3 protocol decouples proteolysis from interfering components via magnetic bead cleanup, yielding a digest compatible with nanopore sensing. As a proof of concept, tryptic digests of myelin basic protein measured with an engineered aerolysin variant (AeL-R220S) generated a reproducible five-peak peptide fingerprint. Cross-validation against a synthetic peptide library and LC-MS/MS enabled reference-based assignment of blockade signatures to four MBP-derived peptides. This approach establishes SP3 as a sample-preparation workflow for nanopore sensing, paving the way for label-free identification and characterization of protein targets.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2026

Ancient DNA reveals matrilineal organisation and recurrent unions between dominant matrilines in Iron Age Britain

Kinship practices underpin all traditional societies, forming the basis for socially sanctioned reproductive unions, residence patterns and the inheritance of rights and property1,2. Although the relationship between biological relatedness and kinship is not always straightforward, ancient DNA studies are increasingly used to examine the extent to which biological relatedness underpinned social constructs of kinship in prehistoric societies3-6. Here, we report the analysis of genome-wide data for 534 individuals from the Arras Culture of Middle Iron Age northeast England (including 390 from Wetwang Slack, 100 from Pocklington, and 29 from Melton), finding evidence for communities with kinship systems structured along matrilineal lines. At Wetwang Slack, we reconstruct a 13-generation pedigree comprising 195 individuals structured around female-line connections: matrilineal transmissions greatly outnumbered patrilineal ones and male reproductive partners were largely absent from the cemetery, plausibly because they were buried in their own natal communities. Furthermore, the three main sites with robust sample sizes were characterised by non-overlapping dominant mitochondrial haplogroups, implying a maternal clan-based structure. Reproductive unions at Wetwang Slack suggest a recurrent alliance between two dominant maternal descent groups, with members of each group never reproducing with members of their own maternal lineage. Meanwhile, three individuals from lavishly furnished chariot burials at Wetwang Slack were close maternal relatives belonging to a lineage with consecutive generations of close kin unions, a pattern largely absent among other individuals at the site. These results indicate highly distinctive social practices among an elite group embedded in the wider kinship network of the Arras community.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2026

Buried in two places: Lineages from elite Maya tombs also found in distant caves

Classic Maya societies (250-900 CE) carved out urban centers in the rainforest reaching population heights and political complexity previously unknown in the Mesoamerican tropics. Kinship was a central feature of the social fabric, and rulership was legitimized through claims of direct descent from mythical ancestors. Mortuary practices kept the dead close to the living, and ancestor veneration sometimes produced complex deposits of disarticulated remains that are difficult to identify and whose biological relationships to one another cannot be understood without genetic data. We screened 487 human tooth and bone samples and successfully generated genome-wide data for 430 of them. Of these, 341 samples representing 107 distinct individuals were recovered from both elite and non-elite tombs in a Classic period kingdom (250-900) CE in the rugged Maya Mountains of Belize. Remarkably, 24 of these individuals have skeletal elements in both an elite tomb and in a ritual tooth cache in a distant cave located 26.5km away on the other side of the Maya Mountains. These results indicate that elite lineages created ancestors from their deceased relatives in geographically expansive ways and highlights the importance of caves in the belief system of Classic Maya elites.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2026

Ancient DNA reveals that natural selection has upregulated the immune system over the last 10,000 years

The specific mechanisms through which human biology and disease susceptibility evolved with major shifts in West Eurasian environments and societies over the last 10,000 years(1)--particularly rising infectious burden(2)--remain poorly characterized, despite ancient DNA studies(3-6) identifying hundreds of candidate loci under positive selection(6). Here, we identify specific immune diseases/traits, genes/variants, pathways, and tissues/cell types impacted by natural selection by systematically integrating variant-level selection statistics with genome-wide association study (GWAS), quantitative trait locus (QTL), and molecular bulk/single-cell and gene pathway data. Genome-wide, positively-selected alleles are associated with reduced susceptibility to infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB), influenza, and intestinal infections; consistent with selection-signal enrichments in immune cells within barrier tissues such as the respiratory tract and gut mucosa. In contrast, positively-selected alleles increase risk of intestinal inflammatory disease and autoimmune hypothyroidism, supportive of a tradeoff between infection and immune-mediated pathology, and consistent with adaptive alleles being QTLs for genes upregulating inflammation and other host-defense pathways. We reveal many novel adaptive loci with convergent signals from selection, infectious disease GWAS and immune-gene QTLs (including at FUT6 for intestinal infections; at ASAP1 for TB; and at LYZ, an antimicrobial enzyme), fine-mapping selection onto likely causal variants. Surprisingly, adaptive alleles had a protective effect on allergic conditions like asthma and dermatitis, challenging a common view that these conditions arose through evolutionary mismatch of present-day hygienic contexts relative to past, pathogen-rich environments(7).

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2026

Convergent natural selection at both ends of Eurasia during parallel radical lifestyle shifts in the last ten millennia

Ancient DNA-based studies of natural selection have focused on West Eurasia due to the availability of large sample sizes, but rich insights are expected to come from comparative studies that can reveal which patterns are shared and which region-specific. We test around seven million variants for selection in 1,862 ancient East Eurasians (867 with new data) distributed over the last ten millennia. Using a generalized linear mixed model to control for population structure, we identify 40 genome-wide significant signals of selection, which have a particularly strong impact on immune and cardiometabolic traits just as in West Eurasia. East and West Eurasia show highly correlated signals of adaptation both for individual alleles and for complex traits, showing how these geographically separate groups experienced convergent evolution in response to parallel transitions to food producing economies and the accompanying lifestyle changes. An exception is the genetic determinants of light skin color: West Eurasians depigmented in the last 10,000 years, but most skin lightening in East Asians arose prior to the Holocene.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

namiRa: A Comprehensive, Manually Curated Database for MicroRNA Expression, Function, and Deregulation in Cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have the potential to serve as oncogenes or tumor suppressors, playing important roles in the pathogenesis of human cancers. Despite the growing recognition of miRNA significance, the contributed information remains scattered in the publications. This fragmentation underscores the need for a centralized and comprehensive database that consolidates miRNA expression patterns, functional roles, and regulatory interactions across diverse cancer types. So far, several miRNA databases have been developed, but neither of them enables in-depth functional analysis or comparative visualization of miRNA data. Here, we present namiRa, a manually curated database, to offer a comprehensive resource for miRNA expression and functional significance in various types of cancer, describing miRNA-cancer associations based on a thorough review of the literature. namiRa provides an extensive collection of miRNA expression profiles, detection methods, functional analyses for miRNAs in vitro and in vivo, and visualized regulatory networks across different cancer types. The current version of namiRa documents curated relationships between 1,077 human miRNAs and 33 types of human cancers, based on data from 9,884 published papers. namiRa is accessible at https://www.namira-db.com.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2025

TCR germline diversity reveals evidence of natural selection on variable and joining alpha chain genes

T cell receptors (TCRs) orchestrate adaptive immunity, yet the complex, repetitive architecture of the TCR loci has impeded systematic characterization of human genetic variation in the genes encoding the TCR. Using public long-read sequencing data from 2,668 donors, we build a near-complete map of common alleles in TCR V, D, and J genes, revealing amino acid variation at almost every position within V genes. We discover pervasive evidence of natural selection on TCR genes, including balancing selection on a TRAJ gene recognizing an immunodominant influenza epitope and positive selection on a TRAV gene. We find TCR allelic polymorphism alters core functional properties of T cells, including thymic fate commitment, phenotypes in diseased tissues, and cell-surface receptor abundance. Collectively, our findings position inherited variation in TCR genes as a key axis of immunological diversity that may shape interindividual differences in immune responses.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Ancient DNA reveals diverse community organizations in the 5th millennium BCE Carpathian Basin

Little is known about the genetic connection system and community organization of Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age populations of the Carpathian Basin. Here, we present a comprehensive genetic investigation of these populations, leveraging whole genome data from 125 individuals. Using population genetics, kinship analyses and the study of networks of identity-by-descent haplotype segment sharing, we elucidate the social and genetic dynamics of these communities between 4800-3900 calibrated years BCE. Despite changes in settlement patterns, burial practices, and material culture, we document a high degree of genetic continuity. While one set of individuals from a large community cemetery is genetically diverse, another site is more homogenous and closed, with numerous consanguineous relationships and evidence of patrilineality and patrilocality. In this work, we document important differences in kinship systems in contemporaneous Early Copper Age communities using similar material culture and living only about 100 km apart.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2024

Pervasive findings of directional selection realize the promise of ancient DNA to elucidate human adaptation

We present a method for detecting evidence of natural selection in ancient DNA time-series data that leverages an opportunity not utilized in previous scans: testing for a consistent trend in allele frequency change over time. By applying this to 8433 West Eurasians who lived over the past 14000 years and 6510 contemporary people, we find an order of magnitude more genome-wide significant signals than previous studies: 347 independent loci with >99% probability of selection. Previous work showed that classic hard sweeps driving advantageous mutations to fixation have been rare over the broad span of human evolution, but in the last ten millennia, many hundreds of alleles have been affected by strong directional selection. Discoveries include an increase from [~]0% to [~]20% in 4000 years for the major risk factor for celiac disease at HLA-DQB1; a rise from [~]0% to [~]8% in 6000 years of blood type B; and fluctuating selection at the TYK2 tuberculosis risk allele rising from [~]2% to [~]9% from [~]5500 to [~]3000 years ago before dropping to [~]3%. We identify instances of coordinated selection on alleles affecting the same trait, with the polygenic score today predictive of body fat percentage decreasing by around a standard deviation over ten millennia, consistent with the "Thrifty Gene" hypothesis that a genetic predisposition to store energy during food scarcity became disadvantageous after farming. We also identify selection for combinations of alleles that are today associated with lighter skin color, lower risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disease, slower health decline, and increased measures related to cognitive performance (scores on intelligence tests, household income, and years of schooling). These traits are measured in modern industrialized societies, so what phenotypes were adaptive in the past is unclear. We estimate selection coefficients at 9.9 million variants, enabling study of how Darwinian forces couple to allelic effects and shape the genetic architecture of complex traits.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Multi-scale reactor designs extend the physical limits of CO2 fixation

CO2 valorization is a promising strategy for climate adaptation and transitioning towards a circular carbon economy. Here, we present a multi-scale, integrated systems approach for designing biomanufacturing systems that can utilize CO2 as a feedstock, focusing on the Wood-Ljungdahl and reductive glycine pathways. This approach relies on first principles, coupling the optimization of pathway and process variables. We examine the CO2-fixation capacity of both pathways in single- and multi-compartment reactor systems, demonstrating that the reductive glycine pathway has the potential to fix CO2 at significantly higher rates than photosynthetic organisms. We show that small differences in the energy-dissipative and stoichiometric structures of carbon-fixation pathways could significantly impact optimal designs and feasible design spaces. Our first-principle, systems-level approach quantifies these differences and uncovers strategies to expand the design space and extend the physical limits of carbon fixation, offering insights into pathway selection and process configurations for efficient biomanufacturing.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Long shared haplotypes identify the Southern Urals as a primary source for the 10th century Hungarians

During the Hungarian Conquest in the 10th century CE, the early medieval Magyars, a group of mounted warriors from Eastern Europe, settled in the Carpathian Basin. They likely introduced the Hungarian language to this new settlement area, during an event documented by both written sources and archaeological evidence. Previous archaeogenetic research identified the newcomers as migrants from the Eurasian steppe. However, genome-wide ancient DNA from putative source populations has not been available to test alternative theories of their precise source. We generated genome-wide ancient DNA data for 131 individuals from candidate archaeological contexts in the Circum-Uralic region in present-day Russia. Our results tightly link the Magyars to people of the Early Medieval Karayakupovo archaeological horizon on both the European and Asian sides of the southern Urals. Our analyes show that ancestors of the people of the Karayakupovo archaeological horizon were established in the Southern Urals by the Iron Age and that their descendants persisted locally in the Volga-Kama region until at least the 14th century.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

Postglacial genomes from foragers across Northern Eurasia reveal prehistoric mobility associated with the spread of the Uralic and Yeniseian languages

The North Eurasian forest and forest-steppe zones have sustained millennia of sociocultural connections among northern peoples. We present genome-wide ancient DNA data for 181 individuals from this region spanning the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. We find that Early to Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherer populations from across the southern forest and forest-steppes of Northern Eurasia can be characterized by a continuous gradient of ancestry that remained stable for millennia, ranging from fully West Eurasian in the Baltic region to fully East Asian in the Transbaikal region. In contrast, cotemporaneous groups in far Northeast Siberia were genetically distinct, retaining high levels of continuity from a population that was the primary source of ancestry for Native Americans. By the mid-Holocene, admixture between this early Northeastern Siberian population and groups from Inland East Asia and the Amur River Basin produced two distinctive populations in eastern Siberia that played an important role in the genetic formation of later people. Ancestry from the first population, Cis-Baikal Late Neolithic-Bronze Age (Cisbaikal_LNBA), is found substantially only among Yeniseian-speaking groups and those known to have admixed with them. Ancestry from the second, Yakutian Late Neolithic-Bronze Age (Yakutia_LNBA), is strongly associated with present-day Uralic speakers. We show how Yakutia_LNBA ancestry spread from an east Siberian origin [~]4.5kya, along with subclades of Y-chromosome haplogroup N occurring at high frequencies among present-day Uralic speakers, into Western and Central Siberia in communities associated with Seima-Turbino metallurgy: a suite of advanced bronze casting techniques that spread explosively across an enormous region of Northern Eurasia [~]4.0kya. However, the ancestry of the 16 Seima-Turbino-period individuals--the first reported from sites with this metallurgy--was otherwise extraordinarily diverse, with partial descent from Indo-Iranian-speaking pastoralists and multiple hunter-gatherer populations from widely separated regions of Eurasia. Our results provide support for theories suggesting that early Uralic speakers at the beginning of their westward dispersal where involved in the expansion of Seima-Turbino metallurgical traditions, and suggests that both cultural transmission and migration were important in the spread of Seima-Turbino material culture.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

A data-driven approach for timescale decomposition of biochemical reaction networks

Understanding the dynamics of biological systems in evolving environments is a challenge due to their scale and complexity. Here, we present a computational framework for timescale decomposition of biochemical reaction networks to distill essential patterns from their intricate dynamics. This approach identifies timescale hierarchies, concentration pools, and coherent structures from time-series data, providing a system-level description of reaction networks at physiologically important timescales. We apply this technique to kinetic models of hypothetical and biological pathways, validating it by reproducing analytically characterized or previously known concentration pools of these pathways. Moreover, by analyzing the timescale hierarchy of the glycolytic pathway, we elucidate the connections between the stoichiometric and dissipative structures of reaction networks and the temporal organization of coherent structures. Specifically, we show that glycolysis is a cofactor driven pathway, the slowest dynamics of which are described by a balance between high-energy phosphate bond and redox trafficking. Overall, this approach provides more biologically interpretable characterizations of network dynamics than large-scale kinetic models, thus facilitating model reduction and personalized medicine applications.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Social and genetic diversity in first farmers of central Europe

The Linearbandkeramik (LBK) Neolithic communities were the first to spread farming across large parts of central Europe, settling fertile regions from Ukraine to France during the second half of the 6th millennium BCE. The LBK had a high degree of material culture uniformity, albeit with regional differences in settlement patterns, subsistence, and mortuary practices. To date, ancient DNA data from LBK individuals have been generated for a limited number of locations and often in small sample sizes, making it challenging to study variation within and across sites. We report genome-wide data for 178 LBK individuals, from the Alfold Linearbankeramik Culture (ALPC) eastern LBK site of Polgar-Ferenci-hat in Hungary, the western LBK site of Nitra in Slovakia, and the enclosed western LBK settlement and massacre site of Schletz in Austria, as well as 42 LBK individuals from 18 other sites. We also report genome-wide data for 28 Early Neolithic Koros and Star[c]evo individuals from 13 sites, viewed as the predecessors of the LBK. We observe a higher percentage of western hunter-gatherer (WHG) admixture among individuals in the eastern LBK than in the far more widely distributed western LBK, showing that these two archaeologically distinct cultures also had different genetic trajectories. Most WHG-farmer mixture occurred just before the dawn of the LBK culture and there is no evidence that the WHG ancestry came systematically more from males or females. However, we do find strong genetic evidence for patrilocality among the LBK, extending previous findings based on isotopic analysis, with more genetic structure across sites on the male than on the female line, and a higher rate of within-site relatives for males. At Schletz we detect almost no first-degree relatives despite reporting data from almost every skeleton present at the site, showing that this massacre involved people from a large population, not a small community.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

Layer Dependence of Monocular and Binocular Responses in Human Ocular Dominance Columns at 7T using VASO and BOLD

The neurons located in the striate cortex (V1) preferentially respond to the input from one eye or another, forming a fingerprint-like pattern of ocular dominance columns (ODCs). At this mesoscopic scale, accessible by ultra-high field fMRI, V1 is supplied/drained by a network of surface (pial) vessels that connect to descending/ascending tangential vessels that penetrate the cortex and supply/drain a capillary bed whose density is also layer dependent. In this study, we measured the layer dependence of monocular and binocular responses of ocular dominance columns in V1 at 7T using Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) and VAscular Space Occupancy (VASO) contrasts. Our results indicate that the microvascular blood volume changes that give rise to VASO are well confined to the site of neural activity across the layers of the cortex and between the columns. Pial veins dominate the BOLD response and mix the signal between columns. When the GRE BOLD response was examined in only the VASO specific voxels (thus eliminating the pial vein signal), the laminar profile was very similar to VASO, however, the columnar response was still blurred. Caution needs to be exercised in the interpretation of signal changes in BOLD at the mesoscale both in terms of feedforward/feedback effects and inhibitory and excitatory effects. Highlights- VASO produced laminar profiles that were consistent with the known layer-dependent neuronal response to monocular and binocular stimulations. - VASO better differentiated the response between columns belonging to the left and right eyes. - GRE BOLD signal spatial specificity was poor in both laminar and columnar directions, however, when the pial veins were suppressed, the laminar BOLD signal was very similar to the VASO signal. - Caution needs to be exercised when interpreting cognitive neuroscience BOLD studies at the mesoscale level due to the confounding effects of pial and sub-pial veins and venules.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

ancIBD - Screening for identity by descent segments in human ancient DNA

Long DNA sequences shared between two individuals, known as Identical by descent (IBD) segments, are a powerful signal for identifying close and distant biological relatives because they only arise when the pair shares a recent common ancestor. Existing methods to call IBD segments between present-day genomes cannot be straightforwardly applied to ancient DNA data (aDNA) due to typically low coverage and high genotyping error rates. We present ancIBD, a method to identify IBD segments for human aDNA data implemented as a Python package. Our approach is based on a Hidden Markov Model, using as input genotype probabilities imputed based on a modern reference panel of genomic variation. Through simulation and downsampling experiments, we demonstrate that ancIBD robustly identifies IBD segments longer than 8 centimorgan for aDNA data with at least either 0.25x average whole-genome sequencing (WGS) coverage depth or at least 1x average depth for in-solution enrichment experiments targeting a widely used aDNA SNP set ( 1240k). This application range allows us to screen a substantial fraction of the aDNA record for IBD segments and we showcase two downstream applications. First, leveraging the fact that biological relatives up to the sixth degree are expected to share multiple long IBD segments, we identify relatives between 10,156 ancient Eurasian individuals and document evidence of long-distance migration, for example by identifying a pair of two approximately fifth-degree relatives who were buried 1410km apart in Central Asia 5000 years ago. Second, by applying ancIBD, we reveal new details regarding the spread of ancestry related to Steppe pastoralists into Europe starting 5000 years ago. We find that the first individuals in Central and Northern Europe carrying high amounts of Steppe-ancestry, associated with the Corded Ware culture, share high rates of long IBD (12-25 cM) with Yamnaya herders of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, signaling a strong bottleneck and a recent biological connection on the order of only few hundred years, providing evidence that the Yamnaya themselves are a main source of Steppe ancestry in Corded Ware people. We also detect elevated sharing of long IBD segments between Corded Ware individuals and people associated with the Globular Amphora culture (GAC) from Poland and Ukraine, who were Copper Age farmers not yet carrying Steppe-like ancestry. These IBD links appear for all Corded Ware groups in our analysis, indicating that individuals related to GAC contexts must have had a major demographic impact early on in the genetic admixtures giving rise to various Corded Ware groups across Europe. These results show that detecting IBD segments in aDNA can generate new insights both on a small scale, relevant to understanding the life stories of people, and on the macroscale, relevant to large-scale cultural-historical events.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2022

Metabolic homeostasis and growth in abiotic cells

Metabolism constitutes the core chemistry of life. How it began on the early Earth and whether it had a cellular origin is still uncertain. A leading hypothesis for lifes origins postulates that metabolism arose from geochemical CO2-fixing pathways, driven by inorganic catalysts and energy sources, long before enzymes or genes existed. The acetyl-CoA pathway and the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle are considered ancient reaction networks that hold relics of early carbon-fixing pathways. Although transition metals can promote many steps of these pathways, whether they form a functional metabolic network in abiotic cells has not been shown. Here, we formulate a nonenzymatic carbonfixing network from these pathways and determine its functional feasibility in abiotic cells by imposing the fundamental physico-chemical constraints of the early Earth. Using first principles, we show that abiotic cells could have sustainable steady carbon-fixing cycles that perform a systemic function over a relatively narrow range of conditions. Furthermore, we find that in all feasible steady states, the operation of the cycle elevates the osmotic pressure, leading to volume expansion. These results suggest that achieving homeostatic metabolic states under prebiotic conditions was possible, but challenging, and volume growth was a fundamental property of early metabolism.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

1,000 ancient genomes uncover 10,000 years of natural selection in Europe

Ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding of human population history. However, its potential to examine how rapid cultural evolution to new lifestyles may have driven biological adaptation has not been met, largely due to limited sample sizes. We assembled genome-wide data from 1,291 individuals from Europe over 10,000 years, providing a dataset that is large enough to resolve the timing of selection into the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Historical periods. We identified 25 genetic loci with rapid changes in frequency during these periods, a majority of which were previously undetected. Signals specific to the Neolithic transition are associated with body weight, diet, and lipid metabolism-related phenotypes. They also include immune phenotypes, most notably a locus that confers immunity to Salmonella infection at a time when ancient Salmonella genomes have been shown to adapt to human hosts, thus providing a possible example of human-pathogen co-evolution. In the Bronze Age, selection signals are enriched near genes involved in pigmentation and immune-related traits, including at a key human protein interactor of SARS-CoV-2. Only in the Historical period do the selection candidates we detect largely mirror previously-reported signals, highlighting how the statistical power of previous studies was limited to the last few millennia. The Historical period also has multiple signals associated with vitamin D binding, providing evidence that lactase persistence may have been part of an oligogenic adaptation for efficient calcium uptake and challenging the theory that its adaptive value lies only in facilitating caloric supplementation during times of scarcity. Finally, we detect selection on complex traits in all three periods, including selection favoring variants that reduce body weight in the Neolithic. In the Historical period, we detect selection favoring variants that increase risk for cardiovascular disease plausibly reflecting selection for a more active inflammatory response that would have been adaptive in the face of increased infectious disease exposure. Our results provide an evolutionary rationale for the high prevalence of these deadly diseases in modern societies today and highlight the unique power of ancient DNA in elucidating biological change that accompanied the profound cultural transformations of recent human history.

genomics↗