A new Simon Fraser University-led study reveals interbreeding between humans and their ancient cousins, Neanderthals, as the likely origin of a neurological condition estimated to impact up to one per cent of people today.

The study, published this week in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, was led by Kimberly Plomp, a recent postdoctoral fellow at SFU and Mark Collard, the Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies and a professor in the Department of Archaeology. Their findings suggest that Chiari Malformation Type 1, a serious and sometimes fatal neurological condition, may be linked to Neanderthal genes that entered the human gene pool through interbreeding tens of thousands of years ago.

A popular species of edible mushroom, golden oyster, has spread rapidly throughout the United States since escaping from cultivation into the wild. Now, a new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows these mushrooms are spreading in every direction from their initial documented escapes in New York, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, also found that ecosystems invaded by the golden oyster support less diversity of fungal species and smaller numbers of native fungal species.

A new experimental design framework could enable scientists to efficiently estimate how combinations of interventions will affect a group of cells, reducing the cost of experiments and providing less biased data that could be used to understand disease mechanisms or develop new treatments.