Evolutionary medicine asks why natural selection left us with traits that increase vulnerable to diseases. The foci have been on macro traits, such as the size of the birth canal, and micro traits, such as the Apo-e4 allele. However, allostatically stabilized control systems are the essence of life, and control system failures account for most disease.
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Not Uniquely Human: What does a flamingo's heart attack, tiger's breast cancer, or gorilla's eating disorder tell us about human health? Animals share most medical and psychiatric issues with our species. Evolutionary biology and comparative medicine offer illuminating insights into the nature and future of human illness and health.
Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Co-Director, Evolutionary Medicine Program at UCLA
Scared to death
Human and non-human animals can be scared to death. This commonality points to a shared mechanism and evolutionary origin.
Distinguished University Professor and Sarah Idell Pyle Professor
Department of Anthropology
Case Western Reserve University
Adaptation to high altitude by natives of the Andes, East Africa, and the Tibetan Plateau
The principal stress at high altitude is hypoxia, less than the normal amount of oxygen in the air and, as a result, in the body.
Professor, Department of Biology
Duke University
Evolution and mismatch during the evolution of diet in hominins
Environmental and cultural changes imposed major shifts in diet during human origins. The impact of these shifts is apparent in the anatomy, physiology, behavior, and disease susceptibilities of modern humans.
Eiko Fried, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Leuven
Psychiatric symptomics: a new perspective on mental disorders
Why has biological psychiatry been unable to identify biomarkers reliably associated with common psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression—despite three decades of intense research efforts?
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Kansas
Flip the script: evolutionary insights from “reversed” sex chromosomes in moths and butterflies
School of Life Sciences
Arizona State University
Evolution of dosage compensation
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology
Iowa State University, Ames USA
Environmental, genetic, and epigenetic regulation of sex determination and the ecological drivers of its intriguing evolutionary history
Department of Biology
The University of Iowa
The Origin & Evolution of Meiosis: Old Roots & Exceptional Sex