From dtae at uw.edu Thu Jan 26 21:10:50 2023 From: dtae at uw.edu (Dan T.A. Eisenberg) Date: Wed Mar 20 12:11:55 2024 Subject: [PopGenLunch] Upcoming biological anthropology seminars Message-ID: Hello, The anthropology department is bringing in candidates for a biological anthropology faculty position which may be of interest--especially Dr. Garcia's. If you attend and have feedback on any of the candidates, feel free to let me know. -Dan Dr. Alex DeCasien, Tuesday Jan 31, 1:30pm Denny Hall 313 *Comparative neuroscience: insights into human distinctiveness and disease* Brains vary both between and within species. For instance, relatively large brains distinguish humans from other primates. Additionally, people differ in their susceptibility to different brain-related disorders, due to their age, biological sex, etc. In this talk, Dr. DeCasien details how the proximate and ultimate explanations for (i.e., the how and why behind) this variation can be illuminated through phylogenetic comparative studies and combined analysis of multi-omic biological levels. Dr. Obed Garcia, Thursday Feb 2, 1:30 pm Denny Hall 313 *Genomic perspectives on immunity: how evolution shapes health and disease* Research in medicine rarely incorporates evolutionary theory, despite the need for collaboration between the two fields. Greater partnerships between these fields would deepen understandings in their respective fields as well as allow for widespread conceptualization of humans as continuously evolving. Immunity is one of the many fields which anthropologists can contribute to understandings of health and disease, while simultaneously reconstructing and contextualizing the evolutionary past. This talk will look at a few key examples, primarily from Latin America, to show how the evolutionary past shapes genetic diversity in the present and how it relates to precision medicine. Dr. Rachna Reddy, Tuesday Feb 7, 1:30 pm Denny Hall 313 *Evolutionary origins of a vulnerable adolescence: insights from chimpanzees and bonobos* Humans have a uniquely prolonged and vulnerable adolescent period between pubertal onset and adulthood. Why does this exist? One possibility is that adolescence is a sensitive window for learning how to be a competent adult in a highly complex and flexible social world. I test this hypothesis by examining how adolescence in chimpanzees and bonobos?our closest living relatives and two of few species who exhibit a prolonged, vulnerable adolescent period ?prepares individuals to become socially successful adults. First I examine the functional basis of the adolescent social re-orientation away from caregivers and toward flexible relationships with group members that contribute to fitness in different ways. I detail how adolescent male chimpanzees become independent yet continue to rely on their mothers, take on new, flexible roles within their maternal ?families,? and invest in relationships with non-family group members of both sexes that ultimately contribute to reproductive success. Then I detail my ongoing research that examines whether adolescent tendencies that incur risk and emotional vulnerability also promote adaptive learning in chimpanzees and bonobos of both sexes. Last I describe my future plans to examine individual variation in adolescent experiences and adult trajectories with the goal of understanding strategies for resilience in chimpanzees, bonobos, and ultimately humans during this life stage and beyond. Dr. Kenneth Chiou, Thursday Feb 9, 1:30 pm Denny Hall 313 *Primate health and evolution at the genome?environment interface* My research program seeks to understand how facets of the environment impact primate physiology, health, and evolution across generations and within lifetimes, focusing on cercopithecoid primates as models of human biology. My talk touches on my work on baboons as a model for human speciation and hybridization, geladas as a model for human high-altitude adaptations, and macaques as a model for human aging. -- Dan T.A. Eisenberg Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Biology University of Washington Campus Box 353100 Seattle, WA 98195 Offices: Denny Hall 138 & Life Sciences Building 473 Lab: Life Sciences Building - 4th Floor www.dtae.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: