Natural selection is often thought to “perfect” an organism. Yet, real organisms show lots of diversity in their behaviours and morphology. We show that competition for resources can either maintain trait diversity at a constant high level, or lead to wild cycles in trait evolution. Continuous differences in resources like those found in nature are an important part of these outcomes.

DNA mutations causing cancer occur in cells through aging, environmental exposures, and cellular factors. By analysing thousands of cancer genomes, we found that tobacco smoking, APOBEC enzymes, and oxidative stress often introduce harmful “stop-gain” mutations that disable genes. This study highlights how some lifestyle choices and cellular processes can modify genes that protect us from cancer.

Our recent study reveals that in fruit fly embryos, the cell's cytoplasm can divide on its own, without waiting for the nucleus or relying on the usual cell division signals. This discovery challenges what we thought we knew about how cells divide and opens up new questions about how these processes are controlled.

Ammonia (NH3) is emerging as a promising low-carbon fuel and hydrogen carrier in the quest to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. However, in our recent study, we reveal that using ammonia in the energy sector poses significant environmental risks, including the release of nitrogen-based pollutants and potent greenhouse gases. Our research underscores the importance of proactive engineering solutions to mitigate these impacts effectively.

Upon biting, blood sucking insects inject an anti-coagulant to enjoy their meal. These anti-coagulants have inspired approved drug. Combining this concept with supramolecular chemistry, we developed a novel bi-functional drug. It shows strong in vivo effects and can be reversed with an 'antidote,' a sought-after trait in anti-coagulant treatments. This property extends to other therapies like immunotherapies, broadening its potential impact on diverse medical applications.

Nature has always been an interesting source of chemical diversity for the search of molecules of therapeutic interest. Here we showed how large plant extract libraries can be transformed into a chemical library. This library could then be efficiently used to isolate molecules of unreported bioactivity to advance our knowledge on disease treatments.