Athena Aktipis will be talking about her research and her podcast, "Zombified," at this CEMinar. She is an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at Arizona State University, co-director of the Human Generosity Project, director of human and social evolution and co-founder of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at the University of California, San Francisco. Aktipis completed her BA at Reed College (psychology), her PhD at University of Pennsylvania (psychology) and post-doctoral work at University of Arizona (ecology and evolutionary biology).
Melissa Wilson will be talking about her recently published paper about "Women caught in a pickle by their own immune systems." She is a computational evolutionary biologist whose main research interests include sex-biased biology. She studies the evolution of sex chromosomes (X and Y in mammals), why mutation rates differ between males and females, and how changes in population history affect the sex chromosomes differently than the non-sex chromosomes. Generally she studies mammals, but is also curious about the sex-biased biology of flies, worms and plants.
This event is the USA launch for Randolph Nesse’s new book, "Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: Insights from the Frontier of Evolutionary Psychiatry," just published by Dutton (Penguin Random House). The book argues that evolutionary biology provides a missing foundation for psychiatry that can resolve persistent controversies and lead to new research and treatments. Dr. Nesse will provide a brief overview, then three distinguished panelists will address the question “Can Evolutionary Thinking Improve Psychiatric Treatment?”
The microbiota is transmitted vertically, and in mammals, the primordial microbiota is transmitted in a matrilineal way, throughout generations. Labor initiates exposure to live microbes that colonize the baby body sites and play a role in development. Early microbiota perturbations are associated with increased risk of immune and metabolic disorders. Perturbations caused by modern practices will require new approaches in the restorative medicine of the future.
Dr. Martin J. Blaser is the Muriel and George Singer Professor of Medicine, professor of microbiology and director of the Human Microbiome Program at the NYU School of Medicine. He served as chair of the Department of Medicine at NYU from 2000-2012. He served as president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute, and chair of the Advisory Board for Clinical Research of the National Institutes of Health. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy for Arts and Sciences.
Using CT scanning, the physician/anthropologist HORUS research team found atherosclerosis in mummies from all six different cultures they studied. Why would atherosclerosis be this common? How does it differ among cultures? Is it fundamental to aging? What are the implications for etiology, prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis today?
Needhi Bhalla is an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is interested in the mechanisms that ensure that chromosomes segregate correctly during cell division, particularly in meiosis. Bhalla is specifically interested in how chromosome structure and function contribute to meiotic chromosome segregation. Early in meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair, synapse and recombine with their unique partner. All of these events are required for the proper segregation of chromosomes during meiosis.
Esther Dyson has made a huge commitment to make it possible for Wellville to do whatever can be done to improve the health of whole communities. She and her group selected five communities from many applicants.
They are deeply engaged with those communities, asking what their health priorities are, and custom crafting sophisticated programs to improve health. How are they doing? What obstacles have they encountered? What have they learned?
This Center for Evolution and Medicine Seminar features Melissa Ilardo. Ilardo’s research focuses on production and analysis of whole genome sequencing data and the investigation of molecular mechanisms underlying genetic adaptations using in vitro and in vivo methods.