Pathogen Trap In tuesday’s broad-ranging discussion, I will present a hypothesis that might explain why blood clots and inflammation are inextricably linked, why heart attacks are common in older age groups, and why novel diseases fool the immune system into thinking it is under attack. Joe Alcock MD
This is an article of mine that was published last year. It describes a phenomenon in which immune cells are fooled into attacking the body in a variety of disease states. These mimic states look like infections to the immune system. See you tuesday! Hemostatic Containment Joe Alcock MD
It is thought that much human evolution occurred during the Pleistocene – 2.8 million to 12 thousand years ago. What are the consequences of genes optimized for a Pleistocene environment now expressed in the modern environment… radically different food, new technology, petro-chemicals, artificial light, drugs? Novelty and extreme environments often […]
First Week: Evolution and the Origin of Disease. Nesse, RM. Scientific American November 1998: 86-93. Optional reading for first week: 2. The Great Opportunity: Evolutionary applications to medicine and public health. Nesse, RM and Stearns SC. Evolutionary Applications 1 (2008) 28-48. Second Week: 3. Two Lessons from the Interface of […]
Welcome UNM students! Please read both articles that are linked to the First Session post. These will help you participate in the discussion on thursday and understand the lecture on tuesday next week. During the course, we will visit and re-visit certain themes important to the topic of evolutionary medicine. I […]
Introduction to Evolutionary Medicine. This First Session will be devoted to an overview of evolutionary medicine. Pictured above is Staphylococcus Aureus that has evolved resistance to methicillin aka “MRSA”. A version from last year’s first lecture is here for preview: introductory-lecture Click here to get the second lecture slides:sickle-cell-handout The […]
The 2009 evolutionary medicine course at the University of New Mexico is shaping up to be the best yet. This course is for undergraduate and graduate students in biology and anthropology and is also open to medical students. The course is now scheduled for tuesday and thursday from 4:00pm to […]
As promised, I am posting final presentations in the Evolutionary Medicine Course. This is Melissa Franklin’s work on tradeoffs, sex steroids, resource allocation, and immune defense.reproductive tradeoff
This article from The Economist has a reference to work on sperm quality, overall health, and intelligence! Article link
Good Job Final Project Presenters! Thus far, the topics that have been presented have been terrific. I want to encourage all the students to keep up the good work. Good presentations so far include the following elements: 1) A description of a disease or a condition that affects human health. […]
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