Suchergebnisse

Conservation biology was founded on the idea that efforts to save nature depend on a scientific understanding of how it works. It sought to apply ecological principles to conservation problems. We investigated whether the relationship between these fields has changed over time through machine reading the full texts of 32,000 research articles published in 16 ecology and conservation biology journals. We examined changes in research topics in both fields and how the fields have evolved from 2000 to 2014. As conservation biology matured, its focus shifted from ecology to social and political aspects of conservation. The 2 fields diverged and now occupy distinct niches in modern science. We hypothesize this pattern resulted from increasing recognition that social, economic, and political factors are critical for successful conservation and possibly from rising skepticism about the relevance of contemporary ecological theory to practical conservation.

Conservation biology was founded on the idea that efforts to save nature depend on a scientific understanding of how it works. It sought to apply ecological principles to conservation problems. We investigated whether the relationship between these fields has changed over time through machine reading the full texts of 32,000 research articles published in 16 ecology and conservation biology journals. We examined changes in research topics in both fields and how the fields have evolved from 2000 to 2014. As conservation biology matured, its focus shifted from ecology to social and political aspects of conservation. The 2 fields diverged and now occupy distinct niches in modern science. We hypothesize this pattern resulted from increasing recognition that social, economic, and political factors are critical for successful conservation and possibly from rising skepticism about the relevance of contemporary ecological theory to practical conservation.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 50,000 unique associations with common human traits. While this represents a substantial step forward, establishing the biology underlying these associations has proven extremely difficult. Even determining which cell types and which particular gene(s) are relevant continues to be a challenge. Here, we conduct a cell-specific pathway analysis of the latest GWAS in multiple sclerosis (MS), which had analyzed a total of 47,351 cases and 68,284 healthy controls and found more than 200 non-MHC genome-wide associations. Our analysis identifies pan immune cell as well as cell-specific susceptibility genes in T cells, B cells and monocytes. Finally, genotype-level data from 2,370 patients and 412 controls is used to compute intraindividual and cell-specific susceptibility pathways that offer a biological interpretation of the individual genetic risk to MS. This approach could be adopted in any other complex trait for which genome-wide data is available. ; This investigation was supported in part by the following sources: NIH/NINDS awards R01NS088155 and 1R01NS099240, the Valhalla Charitable Foundation, and the Heidrich Family and Friends Foundation (Sergio E. Baranzini). US National Multiple Sclerosis Society (TA 3056-A-2), the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center and an Intel Parallel Computing Center award (Nikolaos A. Patsopoulos). Swedish Medical Research Council; Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, AFA insurance, Swedish Brain Foundation, the Swedish Association for Persons with Neurological Disabilities. Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, UK Medical Research Council (G1100125) and the UK MS society (861/07). NIH/NINDS: R01 NS049477, NIH/NIAID: R01 AI059829, NIH/NIEHS: R01 ES0495103. Research Council of Norway grant 196776 and 240102. NINDS/NIH R01NS088155. Oslo MS association. Research Council KU Leuven, Research Foundation Flanders. AFM, AFM-Généthon, CIC, ARSEP, ANR-10-INBS-01 and ANR-10-IAIHU-06. Research Council KU Leuven, Research Foundation Flanders. Inserm ATIP-Avenir Fellowship and Connect-Talents Award. German Ministry for Education and Research, German Competence Network MS (BMBF KKNMS). Oslo MS association, Research Council of Norway grant 196776 and 240102. Dutch MS Research Foundation. TwinsUK is funded by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, European Union, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)-funded BioResource, Clinical Research Facility and Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. German Ministry for Education and Research, German Competence Network MS (BMBF KKNMS). Italian Foundation of Multiple Sclerosis (FISM). NMSS (RG 4680A1/1). German Ministry for Education and Research, German Competence Network MS (BMBF KKNMS). Lundbeck Foundation and Benzon Foundation. ; publishedVersion