Springer Nature

A number of drugs that are used recreationally are now being studied for their use in psychopharmacology. But while the ways in which these drugs are similar or different has been described anecdotally by recreational users, they haven’t been studied in comparison to one another. Dr. Matthias Liechti and his team of researchers recently published a study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, in...

It’s known that there’s a relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and a higher rate of opioid abuse. What isn’t understood, though, is what that relationship is. Does PTSD cause people to turn to opioids in particular among all the potential drugs of abuse, or is there something about opioid use that makes users particularly sensitive to trauma? This is just what Michael Fans...

In episode three of our editorial series we meet forest engineer turned plant geneticist Prof. Dario Grattapaglia. A highly experienced researcher and editor, Dario brings a unique and heavily applied focus to his work. His story and views on publishing are sure to inspire many!

Despite all the tools available for the clinical diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders, about half remain undiagnosed”, states Dr. Stefan Rentas, first author of a recently published article in GIM. For many patients with neurodevelopmental disorders, a genetic diagnosis doesn't come easy. Genetic testing often comes back negative, even when a Mendelian disorder is very likely, leaving more th...

When a variant of unknown significance (VUS) shows up in a genetic test, it's frustrating. Without clinical data backing the pathogenicity of a variant, it is difficult to advise patients. As genetic screening increases, more VUS crop up, and become even harder to classify due to an expanding pool of clinical characteristics of patients. For BRCA1/BRCA2 testing, VUS occur in 2-4% of cases, and the...

Every winter population geneticists gather for the Population Genetics Group Meeting. This year, the 53rd meeting took place at the University of Leicester, and with the help of Michael Pointer, a PhD student at the University of East Anglia, we are going to bring you the highlights! From world-renowned researchers to rising stars, settle in and listen to the best of PopGroup 53!

In episode two of our editorial series, we meet Dr Marc Stift (University of Konstanz). A plant evolutionary geneticist with three years under his belt at Heredity, Marc has also authored five papers in the journal (so far). This gives him valuable perspectives from both sides of the process. What has he learnt? What tips can he give for writing a successful manuscript? And what makes him scientif...

Charles Darwin described it as the most complex mating system in the natural world. Famed statistician Ronald Fisher was fascinated by it. And this episode’s interviewees braved 40 °C heat and caimans to unravel some of its mysteries. What is it? Tristyly — a rare and mysterious plant mating system. Tune in to hear what Dr Nicolay Cunha and Prof. Spencer Barrett learnt about this system from the p...

Behind the pages of Heredity there lies a group of incredibly dedicated, brilliant scientists—our editors! Who are they? What do they actually do? What kinds of research are they passionate about? What are they looking for in a good manuscript? These are the kinds of questions we are going to explore in a new series of episodes dedicated to these unsung heroes of scientific publishing. First up, w...

Medical Simulation is a powerful model for pediatric education. This type of experiential training is used to teach various skills including stressful medical tasks like resuscitation, without putting patients at risk. In order to better understand the behaviour of healthcare providers during these situations, researchers have started to use eye-tracking technology. In this episode, we meet Early...

The sound produced by the vocal tract of a 3,000 year-old Egyptian mummy has been synthesized using CT scans, 3D printing and an electronic larynx. The findings are presented in a study published in Scientific Reports. Read the paper here: https://go.nature.com/2TUueZ4

Clinical studies have shown that newborns can experience up to 14 painful procedures each day of admission at the neonatal intensive care unit. There is evidence that these early experiences can cause changes to the developing nervous system affecting, amongst other things, nociception in adulthood. Preterm infants are at particular risk from repeated noxious procedures owing to the extensive deve...

In this episode we explore the nature vs. nurture debate in one of humanities closest companions – Dogs! Why do they do the things they do? Are their behaviours hardwired into their DNA? Tune in and listen to Dr Juliane Friedrich, Dr Pamela Wiener and Dr Marie Haskell as they discuss complex genetic behaviour traits in German shepherd dogs, collaborating with the Swedish Armed Forces, and how thei...

The annual Population Genetics Group Forum is an important, and much beloved, conference in the fields of genetics and evolution. As registration opens for the 53 meeting of PopGroup (to be held at the University of Leicester, 5th – 8th January 2020), we hear what’s in-store from three of the people organising it: Dr Rob Hammond, Dr Richard Badge and PhD student Max John. We then delve into the hi...

Fish farming, or aquaculture, is an important source of animal protein, particularly in developing nations. Unfortunately, aquaculture is highly susceptible to outbreaks of infections disease. In this episode, Lior David and Roni Tadmor-Levi (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) discuss their work trying to identify the genetic basis of disease survival in the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) when cha...

An essential aspect of life is reproduction, and an essential aspect of reproduction is sex… except when it isn’t. While common in invertebrates, asexual reproduction is only seen in around 90 vertebrate species. And in this episode, Dr Susana Freitas (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) explains her work looking at the hybrid origin of parthenogenesis in what may be the best-studied asexual vert...

Species are often thought of as discreet and separate from one another. However, hybrid zones often form between closely related species, providing the opportunity to test many evolutionary hypotheses. In this episode, we talk to Dr Henrique Batalha-Filho (Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil) and Dr Marcos Maldonado-Coelho (Lund University, Sweden) about their work characterising a hybrid zone b...

The Faroe Islands are a North Atlantic archipelago, famed for being a Viking stronghold. However, for the past few centuries the islands have themselves been besieged by one of the world’s greatest invaders: the brown rat. In this episode, Dr Emily Puckett (University of Memphis) and Dr Eyðfinn Magnussen (University of the Faroe Islands) discuss their recent paper looking at the current and histor...

How do you breed a high-production cow fit for a changing world? It’s rare that we discuss the impact of climate change on cattle agriculture, yet it’s important to consider how rising temperatures will impact this important part of the global food chain. In today’s episode, Prof. Ismo Strandén, Prof. Juha Kantanen and Prof. Michael Bruford discuss a simulation-based approach for identifying optim...

Collaboration is an essential aspect of modern science, and the authors featured in today’s episode epitomise this relationship. In our most ambitions interview to date, all four first authors of a recent Heredity paper come together to discuss their work looking at range expansions in the blacktip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus). Their results provide a cautionary tale for researchers inte...

Some like it hot. Some like it cold. But whatever an organism’s preference, our changing climate is likely going to force them to adapt to new temperature regimes. This raises a particularly interesting question for those species with complex life-cycles: do different life stages respond to thermal pressures in a similar way? Or do they display distinct evolutionary trends? In this episode we spea...

Storytelling facilitated both the emergence of the scientific discipline and the evolution of human intelligence. At least, that’s what Prof. Enrico Coen argues. A former President of the genetics society, Prof. Coen, from the John Innes Centre, has two articles in the recent Heredity Special issue commemorating 100 years of The Genetics Society. In the first, he creatively recounts the rise of Ho...

We tend to think of science as objective, but as with any human endeavour it is fraught with biases: cognitive, technical, personal and cultural. Interestingly, it turns out that inheritance can also be biased, with the transmission of genes often displaying anything but ‘fair’ segregation. As the Genetics Society celebrates its centenary, join president Prof. Laurence Hurst as he discusses 100 ye...

A precision medicine approach has advanced the development of new cancer therapies and researchers who study neurodegenerative diseases would like to replicate that model. Yet, few neurologists recommend genetic testing to patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Roy Alcalay, a neurologist and associate professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and c...

It’s widely understood that early life adversity has an impact on mental illness and cognitive problems later in life. There are theories as to the mechanisms of how this works, but it’s difficult to test in humans. Tallie Baram is a professor of neurophysiology and biophysics at the UC Irvine department of pediatrics. And she co-authored a recent study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology with...