Join us for a conversation with Athena Aktipis, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University and co-Director of The Human Generosity Project. She’ll be discussing her new book, The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer.
Cancer began at the dawn of multicellular life. It arises from cheating in the cellular cooperation that usually defines multicellularity: division of labor, restrictions of cellular proliferation and resources use, controls on cell death and more. Because cancer arises from a breakdown of multicellular cooperation, this means that humans are not alone in their struggle with cancer; cancer affects all multicellular life forms from humans to elephants and from coral to cacti. Multicellular life has evolved to keep cancer under control, through mechanisms like the gene TP53, which detects cellular cheating and responds by halting the cell cycle or initiating apoptosis to protect the organism. Treating cancer effectively also requires an understanding of the evolutionary processes among cells within the body. Cancer cells evolve to overproliferate and overconsume resources inside the body. They also evolve resistance when cancer is treated aggressively. By using evolutionarily informed approach to treatment we can transform cancer from being a disease that threatens our lives to one we can live with, as our multicellular ancestors have for millions of years.
Sign up here for the meeting link.
Join us for a conversation with Sean B. Carroll, Balo-Simon Endowed Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland and Vice President for Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He’ll be leading a discussion on the role of chance in evolution and the contributions of mutation and natural selection to innovation. Attendees are encouraged to read Carroll’s upcoming popular science article on biologist Jacques Monod and a chapter from his new book out this fall, A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You, both of which will be shared upon registration. Sign up here for the meeting link.
Current members: Use your email address to sign into your member account. To get a password, click "Forgot Password" even if you never had a password for your account before. Your account must be up to date to get the member's meeting discount. New members: Through February 29, 2020, new members can receive a 20% discount on membership using the code LUVISEMPH. Join today.
The Sixth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health will be at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education and Hotel from July 15-18, 2020. Students, researchers, clinicians and others are all welcome.
ISEMPH 2020 is a profoundly interdisciplinary meeting that emphasizes the multiple interfaces between evolutionary biology and human health in medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology and epidemiology. Students and clinicians at all stages of professional development are especially welcome. Only 300 seats are available, so please register early. Cancellations before June 1, 2020 are eligible for a refund.
Registration includes welcome reception with hors d'oeuvres, breakfast, lunch and snacks each day of the conference, and a dinner banquet on the last (Friday) evening.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
The mission of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health's is to foster communication among scientists, students, clinicians and public health professionals who use evolutionary insights to improve medical research and practice, and information on human health and disease to advance evolutionary biology. Previous meetings have been at Arizona State University, Duke University, Groningen, Netherlands (with ESEB), Park City, Utah, and Zurich, Switzerland. The 2021 meeting will be in Lisbon, Portugal.
In addition to annual meetings, ISEMPH sponsors the Oxford University Press journal Evolution, Medicine, & Public Health, The Evolution and Medicine Review, and EvMedEd.
Topics covered in ISEMPH meetings include:
· Adaptation and host defenses
· Antibiotic resistance
· Cancer evolution
· Cardiovascular disease
· Chronic degenerative diseases
· Comparative medicine
· Developmental plasticity
· Emerging diseases
· Epigenetic causes of disease
· Evolutionary arms races
· Evolutionary aspects of aging
· Evolutionary aspects of pharmaceuticals
· Evolutionary genetics
· Evolutionary psychology
· Gene-environment mismatch
· Health-related evolutionary trade-offs
· Hygiene and public health
· Immunology
· Life history theory
· Lifestyle diseases
· Obesity and diabetes
· One health
· Oral Health
· Mental health and disorders
· Microbiomes
· Molecular and population genetics
· Pathogen evolution
· Pediatrics
· Personalized medicine
· Pharmacogenomics
· Phylogenomics
· Reproductive diseases and women's health
· Sleep disorders
· Stress response
· Veterinary medicine
· Viral evolution
Virus replication produces a large mutational landscape that permits virus to rapidly adapt to changing environments. Emerging viruses pose a major threat to both human and veterinary health. This workshop will explore virus evolution and its consequences in transmission, immune evasion, and antiviral resistance. The 2020 ISEMPH Pre-Meeting Workshop has a separate registration fee ($150) from the ISEMPH Annual Meeting. You can register for both the ISEMPH Annual Meeting and Pre-Meeting Workshop using the ISEMPH Registration Portal. This registration site is for individuals who wish to only attend the ISEMPH Pre-Meeting Workshop on July 15, 2020. Cancellations for the pre-meeting workshop are accepted until June 30, 2020 (minus approximately 3% banking fees). No cancellations will be accepted after June 30, 2020. If you wish to cancel your registration, please email meeting@isemph.org.