SPAAM Newsletter #8Hello from the SPAAM Steering Committee in the New Year 2026! As winter settles in and the world is in its seasonal quiet, the SPAAM community is anything but dormant! We’re moving full speed into 2026, and we’re excited to bring you the latest updates, new articles, upcoming events, and exciting opportunities. 🧬💀 We hope you enjoy this edition of the SPAAM Newsletter! Aida, Marcel, Maria, Mariana, Joanna, Davide, Rémi, Laura, Sierra, Wenqin and Anastasia SectionsAnnouncementsSPAAM Constitution 📖The Steering Committee is happy to announce that the new constitution has been formally accepted through a ballot ending on Dec 19, with 13/13 YES votes. The steering committee will now move forward to implement the new constitution and plan the first election for the Steering Committee in summer 2026. Hackathon for AMDirThe AncientMetagenomeDir is having its next metadatathon on the 6th of February! AncientMetagenomeDir is a community project that aims to collect all the metadata for all the published ancient metagenomic datasets. If you want to learn more about the project, please visit our website and our Github page. We have made the experience that metadatathon are the most efficient way to keep the database updated, so we want to take this occasion to invite you to the next one and to share some information about our event on February 6th! For this metadatathon we have the following objectives: compile radiocarbon dates or archaeological/historical dates for the host associated ancient metagenomes, tackle any open issues in AncientMetagenomeDir, review documentation, update amdirt, the accompanying toolkit for AncientMetagenomeDir. We will provide initial training on how to introduce data to the GitHub repository, as well as on interpretation of radiocarbon dates, and we will work together to collect all the information for the C14 dates, close any open issues in AMDir and update our docs and tooling. Join us in this effort and make your future self happy!
When? 6th of February 2026, and we will adjust the actual hours to the time zones of the participants.
So please feel welcome from any part of the world!
Where? virtual, link and platform details will be sent before the event.
The goals adding C14 radiocarbon dates or archaeological/historical dates
for host associated ancient metagenomes, update AMDir with open issues, the documentation and amdirt.
If you would like to join, please fill out the form by Monday 26th of January 2026. SPAAM Blog Post Competition!
The SPAAM Community is thrilled to announce our first-ever blog post competition! We invite all members of the SPAAM community to submit an original blog post on a topic of their choice related to ancient DNA; whether it’s a reflection on your research, an exciting methodological advance, an ethical discussion, or a creative take on the field. 📝 What you need to know:
🏆 The winner: You will not only get a chance of having your post featured on the SPAAM website, but also win a mystery book prize! 🌟 Publication: All submissions will be considered for publication after an editing and proofreading process. This is a great opportunity to share your perspective, practice science communication, and engage with the community. 📢 We can’t wait to read your stories and insights. Let your creativity shine! Introduction to Ancient Metagenomics 2025 edition
The 2025 edition of the Ancient Metagenomics textbook is now released! This includes minor updates to some chapters, and one brand new shiny one that covers the content of the 'Introduction to NGS sequencing' section of the summer school! Reminder: this practical theory and bioinformatics textbook is open-access and you are welcome to use any/all of it in your own teaching! Upcoming eventsConferences
EMBL Symposium: Reconstructing the human past: using ancient and modern genomics
32nd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists
XXI World Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric
and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP)
Relevant Physalia courses23-27 February 2026 This course offers a practical introduction to comparative genomics for both biologists and bioinformaticians. Participants will work with a variety of tools and workflows spanning genome assembly and annotation, detection of SNVs and structural variants, and evaluation of their functional and evolutionary significance. Introduction to population genomics 16-20 March 2026 This five-day course provides an in-depth introduction to population genomics, combining conceptual teaching with hands-on analytical practice. Participants will explore a broad range of topics, from foundational bioinformatics and population structure to introgression, demographic inference, genome scans, and landscape genomics, beginning with core skills for managing large short-read datasets. AI for Genomics: From CNNs and LSTMs to Transformers 7-9 April 2026 This course introduces participants to the use of contemporary AI methods for analysing genomic and metagenomic data. Through interactive coding sessions and guided notebooks, learners will practice building models for sequence analysis, identifying biologically relevant patterns, and interpreting model outputs. The training highlights practical applications, including predicting functional elements, classifying sequences and their origins, and generating new biological sequences. ONLINE, 7-10 April 2026 This course provides an introduction to applying population genomic approaches within conservation biology. Participants will be guided through designing genomic studies, generating and processing raw sequencing data, and filtering SNPs to build a workable dataset. 4-6 May 2026 And our favourite course! Ancient Metagenomics introduces the major analytical challenges in ancient metagenomics and provides a practical, in-depth guide to implementing the aMeta workflow for robust ancient metagenomic analysis. Open positionsPhD
Postdoc
Tenure-track
💰 Funding opportunitiesPhD Studentships
Postdoctoral Fellowships & Grants
Small Grants
Recent publicationsPublication highlightsIn this edition of Publication Highlights, we want to shed light on a fascinating article that was recently published in Science! The paper by De Martino and colleagues took a closer look at how and when domestic cats conquered the world, telling us a time-travel story using ancient genomics. The authors generated and analysed 70 ancient cat genomes alongside 17 modern representatives. To anchor genetic patterns in time, 37 specimens were directly radiocarbon dated, providing a well-resolved genomic time transect covering ~11,000 years. The dispersal of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe around 2000 years ago
What are the key findings?
By moving beyond mtDNA and tapping into genome-wide 🧬 data, this study gives us a much clearer picture of how cats 🐱 actually made their way into Europe. It nicely illustrates how deep-time admixture and hybridisation can muddy the waters when we rely on single genetic markers alone, and why palaeogenomics is such a powerful tool for untangling complex human–animal relationships that are otherwise hard to see in the archaeological record. A purr-fect reminder that when it comes to ancient DNA, curiosity really didn’t kill the cat! 🐈 Wow you made it all the way to the end! Great job – we hope this email has something useful for you! Until next time! 
|