News: AIBS to cohost symposium on evolution, disease and human health.
- From: Ye Old One <usenet@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:34:39 GMT
AIBS to cohost symposium on evolution, disease and human health
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/aiob-atc091807.php
The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), in conjunction
with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, will host the fourth
annual symposium on evolution on December 1, 2007, at the Hyatt
Regency Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The symposium, titled ?Evolution:
Applications in Human Health and Populations,? is part of the 2007
Professional Development Conference sponsored by the National
Association of Biology Teachers.
The aim of the symposium is to familiarize biology teachers with
current research on evolution?s role in disease, medicine, and human
health, and to explore the ethical questions attendant to that role.
The following eminent scientists will make presentations:
* Gregory Wray, director of the Institute for Genome Sciences and
Policy at Duke University, will give a presentation titled ?Genomic
Perspectives on the Evolution of Human Health and Disease.? Wray has a
long-standing interest in the evolution of developmental mechanisms.
Through his research, he has addressed the evolution of life history
modes and larvae in echinoderms, the evolution of embryonic patterning
mechanisms in metazoans, the timing of the metazoan radiation, and the
role of regulatory gene expression in testing hypotheses of anatomical
homology. His current projects focus on the evolution of developmental
gene networks and mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. These
projects use a variety of approaches and organisms to ask questions
about the role that developmental processes play in the evolution of
the genotype-phenotype relationship.
* Carlos Bustamante, assistant professor of Biological Statistics
and Computational Biology at Cornell University, will give a
presentation titled ?Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign: Interpreting
Evident for Recent Natural Selection on the Human Genome.?
Bustamante?s work focuses on developing statistical methods for
inference in population and comparative genomics. He is particularly
interested in approaches for testing evolutionary hypotheses regarding
the importance of natural selection and demographic history in
patterning genetic variation. Much of his work deals with development
of population genetic theory as well as application of tools to make
inference from genome-wide data sets. His recent work with domestic
dogs was highlighted in the journal Science.
* Marc Lipsitch, professor of Epidemiology in the Department of
Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, will give a
presentation titled ?Sex, Drugs and Natural Selection: Evolutionary
Perspectives on Antibiotic Resistance.? Lipsitch researches population
biology and the evolution of populations of infectious agents in
response to selection from host immunity (natural and vaccine
induced), antimicrobial agents, and other pressures. A central
question in his research is whether widespread use in humans of
conjugate vaccines, against a subset of serotypes will result in
increased carriage of nonvaccine serotypes (?serotype replacement?),
and if so, what the public health consequences will be. He is also
interested in the within-host population dynamics of antimicrobial
resistance, the development of improved treatment protocols to reduce
selection for resistant bacteria, and the design of studies to measure
the selective effect of treatment on antimicrobial resistance. His
article ?The Secret Life of Hospital Bugs: Non-resistant Bacteria
Shown to Be Hidden Ally in Fight Against Drug-resistant Strains? was
recently published in Harvard Focus.
* Sandra Romero-Steiner, senior investigator in the Meningitis and
Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch of the Division of Bacterial
Diseases at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory
Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will give
a presentation titled ?The Race between Bacterial Adaptation and
Protection of the Host." Romero-Steiner has developed numerous
methodologies for the measurement of the immune response to licensed
and candidate vaccines to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus
influenzae, and Neisseria meningitides. She has developed assays for
the measurement of functional antibody activity specific for
pneumococci and Haemophilus species. Romero-Steiner has also been
involved in immunogenicity studies of people who have undergone bone
marrow transplants and splenectomies, have sickle cell anemia, or are
HIV positive.
* George Armelagos is the Goodrich C. White Professor of
Anthropology and Department Chair at Emory University. He will give a
presentation titled ?The Road to the Viral Super Highway: Emerging
Disease in the Time of Globalization.? Armelagos is a biological
anthropologist who researches the interaction of biological and
cultural systems within an evolutionary context, particularly focusing
on diet and disease in human adaptation. He revolutionized the study
of ancient disease in human populations by promoting an
epidemiological approach and highlighting the evolutionary and
ecological factors that are instrumental to the disease process.
Armelagos has been a central player in the establishment, development
and promotion of the field of bioarchaeology. His current research
looks at race and its utility as a concept for understanding
biological variation in human populations. He is the coauthor, with
Peter Farb, of Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating.
* Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, the senior research scholar at the Stanford
Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University, will give a
presentation titled ?The Ethical Implications of Representing
Evolution and Interpreting Difference.? Lee is an anthropologist who
studies race, ethnicity, and culture in science, technology, and
biomedicine. Her research focuses on the social and scientific
meanings of race in human genetic variation research and their
implications for understanding human differences. She has conducted a
study on the social and ethical issues related to DNA sampling of
human populations, as well as policies around the use of racial
taxonomies by publicly funded cell repositories. Her current project,
?Race and Distributive Justice in Pharmacogenomics Research,? includes
the development of an anthropology of racial justice, with a
particular focus on health disparities among populations.
* David Sloan Wilson, a professor in the departments of Biology
and Anthropology at Binghamton University, will give a presentation
titled ?Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way
We Think About Our Lives.? Wilson uses evolutionary theory to study
foraging behavior, altruism, and the nature of individual differences
among organisms as diverse as microbes, zooplankton, insects, birds,
fish, and humans. He is well known for his work on multilevel
selection, in which the fundamental ingredients of
evolution--variation, heritability, and fitness differences--can exist
at all levels of the biological hierarchy. Dr. Wilson?s newest book,
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We
Think About Our Lives, is written for a general audience.
###
For more information on the 2007 evolution symposium, and for links to
previous symposia, see
www.aibs.org/special-symposia/2007_evolution-in-human-health-populations.html.
About AIBS: The American Institute of Biological Sciences is a
nonprofit 501(c)(3) scientific association dedicated to advancing
biological research and education for the welfare of society. Founded
in 1947 as a part of the National Academy of Sciences, AIBS became an
independent, member-governed organization in the 1950s. Today, with
headquarters in Washington, DC, and a staff of approximately 50, AIBS
is sustained by a robust membership of some 5,000 biologists and 200
professional societies and scientific organizations; the combined
individual membership of the latter exceeds 250,000. AIBS advances its
mission by participating in coalition activities in research,
education, and public policy; publishing the peer-reviewed journal
BioScience and the education Web site ActionBioscience.org; providing
scientific peer review and advisory services to government agencies
and other clients; convening meetings; and managing scientific
programs.
Web site: www.aibs.org.
About NESCent: The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), a
center funded by the National Science Foundation, is designed to
promote synthetic research in evolutionary biology. NESCent is a
collaboration among Duke University, the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. More information
about NESCent is available at www.nescent.org
--
Bob.
.
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