Sarah Fiddyment

The oral microbiome of King Richard III of England

This study analyzes the oral microbiome of King Richard III using dental calculus metagenomics, finding it similar to other northern European populations despite his royal status and diet.

3,500 years of sheeppox virus evolution inferred from archaeological and codicological genomes

The paper reconstructs 3,500 years of sheeppox virus evolution using ancient genomes from archaeological and medieval parchment sources, showing divergence events and gene inactivation.

An extensive archaeological dental calculus dataset spanning 5000 years for ancient human oral microbiome research

The paper provides a 5000-year-old dental calculus metagenomic dataset from 174 UK archaeological samples to study ancient human oral microbiomes and related topics like diet and antimicrobial resistance.

Parchment Glutamine Index (PQI): A novel method to estimate glutamine deamidation levels in parchment collagen obtained from low-quality MALDI-TOF data

The paper introduces a method to estimate glutamine deamidation levels in parchment collagen using low-resolution MALDI-TOF data, finding it useful for archaeological and industrial applications.

Girding the loins? Direct evidence of the use of a medieval parchment birthing girdle from biomolecular analysis

This study uses a dry non-invasive method to extract and analyze palaeoproteomic evidence from a medieval parchment birth girdle, revealing biomolecular traces of use during childbirth.

The York Gospels: a one thousand year biological palimpsest

The paper reports the first use of a non-invasive DNA sampling technique on the York Gospels to uncover a biological palimpsest spanning over 1,000 years.