July 2020 – Several group members contributed to a publication on “Biodiversity and Biomedicine: Our Future” (published by Elsevier; behind a paywall). GYA alumni and former group co-leads Dilfuza Egamberdieva (National University of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan) and Milica Pesic (University of Belgrade, Serbia) co-edited the book with Munir Ozturk from Turkey. The book examines the diverse connections between conserving Earth’s biodiversity and human healthcare, and provides a new outlook on Earth’s animal, plant, and fungi species as vital sources for human health treatments. While there are over 10 million various species on the planet, only 2 million have been discovered and named. This book identifies modern ways to incorporate Earth’s species into biomedical practices and emphasizes the need for biodiversity conservation.
August 2020 – A policy paper by several group members on “Towards policies that capture the expected value of biomolecular diversity for drug discovery, human health, and well‑being” has been published in Biologia Futura in August 2020 (open access). In the paper, the authors argue that there exists an urgent need to over-come economic, disciplinary, national, cultural, and regional barriers, in order to work out innovative measures to create a sustainable future and prevent the mutual extinction of humans and other species. The paper aims to help policy-makers with a characterization of the intrinsic value of biodiversity and its role as a critical foundation for sustainable development, human health, and well-being.
