Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine
Human microbiota have been linked with coronary artery disease. One potential mechanism involves translocation of microbes from oral and lower GI sites into the blood. From there, certain bacteria find their way into atheromas. It has been well established that the pro-inflammatory effect of lipopolysaccharide promotes atherosclerosis. Another mechanism involves pro-inflammatory […]
Why have clinical trials in sepsis failed? One potential answer is that the underlying assumptions about immune function in sepsis are mistaken. What are the underlying assumptions? The main assumption of immunomodulatory treatments for sepsis is that the observed host response is different from the optimal host response. Is it? […]
Sepsis is an important cause of mortality, causing an estimated 60,000 deaths yearly. Sepsis is also expensive to treat, and is associated with expensive medical procedures, such as life support and intensive care. Despite advances in supportive care over the last 30 years, the mortality rates have remained stubbornly high, […]
It has been an article of faith, enshrined in the mnemonic MONA, to give supplemental oxygen to patients having heart attacks. (MONA is morphine, oxygen, nitrates, aspirin) The idea of course is that heart muscle is dying during a heart attack because a blood clot causes a lack of blood […]
Welcome UNM SOM students to the University of New Mexico Evolutionary Medicine Elective (CLNS 835). Readings and assignments will be posted here weekly. For the first session we will focus on the evolution of aging. As an example, I am more likely to admit a 70 year old with chest […]
Just a brief reminder of my dissertation defense on Friday morning. “Discovery of Novel Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Genes Unique To Marsupials and Monotremes” Time: 9:00 am Date: December 5th, 2014 Place: Castetter Hall, Room 107 Refreshments and snacks will be provided. I hope to see you there! Katina
Start this Tuesday! Here’s what to expect: Be sure to click on the link that describes the grading rubric and has a template that you can (or not) use. Here is what I will be looking for: Try to spend more than 50% of your time talking about the evolutionary […]
On November 25th, Jon Femling MD PhD will give a lecture for the Evolutionary Medicine class. His talk will focus on the topic of microbial virulence evolution, pointing out several novel ways to prevent the evolution of antibiotic resistance using molecules that target virulence without killing microbes. Dr. Femling will […]
A remarkable study pointing to gut microbiota involvement in jet lag was recently published in Cell by Elinav and colleagues : Transkingdom control of microbiota diurnal oscillations control metabolic homeostasis. Until now, little recent evidence has linked sleep with gut microbiota. This study changes that. A major finding of Elinav’s […]
Melanie Martin will be giving a guest lecture Nov 18, 2014 at 5:30pm for the evolutionary medicine class and UNM community: Becoming your microbiome: how early life shapes human microbial composition and function Melanie Martin is a biological anthropologist who studies how variation in nutritional and microbial ecologies shape infant […]
EvolutionMedicine 