West-Eberhard, M. J. (2018). Nutrition, the visceral immune system, and the evolutionary origins of pathogenic obesity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201809046. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809046116

The long-awaited article on the evolution of obesity and its interactions with the immune system has just been published in PNAS, open access. This may offer a key to the pathogenic effects of obesity via inflammation.

Abstract: The global obesity epidemic is the subject of an immense, diversely specialized research effort. An evolutionary analysis reveals connections among disparate findings, starting with two well-documented
facts: Obesity-associated illnesses (e.g., type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease), are especially common in: (i) adults with abdominal obesity, especially enlargement of visceral adipose tissue (VAT), a tissue with important immune functions; and (ii) individuals with poor fetal nutrition whose nutritional input increases later in life. I hypothesize that selection favored the evolution of increased lifelong investment in VAT in individuals likely to suffer lifelong malnutrition because of its importance in fighting intraabdominal infections. Then, when increased nutrition violates the adaptive fetal prediction of lifelong nutritional deficit, preferential VAT investment could contribute to abdominal obesity and chronic inflammatory disease. VAT prioritization may help explain several patterns of nutrition-related disease: the paradoxical increase of chronic disease with increased food availability in recently urbanized and migrant populations; correlations between poor fetal nutrition, improved childhood (catch-up) growth, and adult metabolic syndrome; and survival differences between children with marasmus and kwashiorkor malnutrition. Fats and sugars can aggravate chronic inflammation via effects on intestinal bacteria regulating gut permeability to visceral pathogens. The extremes in a nutrition-sensitive trade-off between visceral (immune-function) vs. subcutaneous (body shape) adiposity may have been favored by selection in highly stratified premedicine societies. Altered adipose allocation in populations with long histories of social stratification and malnutrition may be the result of genetic accommodation of developmental responses
to poor maternal/fetal conditions, increasing their vulnerability to inflammatory disease.

The University of Michigan Evolution and Human Adaptation Program has a fine series of talks coming up. Thursdays 1:30-3:00 in East Hall on the Ann Arbor campus. See this link for details.

Feb 14th  Beverly Strassman (Michigan)
Feb 21st   Marco Del Giudice (New Mexico)
Feb 28th   Alyssa Crittenden (UNLV)
Mar 14th  William Parker (Duke)
Mar 21st   Shinobu Kitayama (Michigan)
Mar 28th   Stephen Colarelli (Central Michigan)
Apr 4th     Charles Nunn (Duke)
Apr 11th   Bruce Robertson (Bard)
Apr 18th   Douglas Kenrick (ASU)

Creating a course on evolution and medicine?  Taking one?  Then you need EvMedEd…and EvMedEd needs you. Your articles, videos, syllabi, and other teaching resources will receive wide attention if you share them on EvMedEd.

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Discounted early registration and abstract submission are now open.

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The Fifth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health will be at the University of Zurich, Switzerland August 13-16. Students, researchers, clinicians and others are all welcome. 

ISEMPH 2019 is 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 register early. Cancellations before June 1 are eligible for a refund.

• Meeting information page
  
• The preliminary program
  
• Travel and lodging information
  
• Abstract submission is now open

The Hosting Committee is chaired by Frank Rühli, Prof. Dr. Dr. med. (Professor of Evolutionary Medicine,  University of Zurich, Switzerland), and Nicole Bender, MD, PhD (University of Zurich, Switzerland).  
The Program Committee is chaired by Jacobus (Koos) Boomsma, PhD (Chair) , Professor of Evolutionary Biology (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

Confirmed Keynote Speakers 

• Prof. Bernard J. Crespi, Simon Fraser University, Canada: How evolutionary biology can frame a unified theory for understanding human mental illness.
  
• Prof. Dario Valenzano, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Germany: African killifishes shed light on the genomic basis of life history trait evolution in vertebrates.
  
• Prof. Kayla King, University of Oxford, UK: Protectors vs. killers: microbes within the host as drivers of pathogen evolution.
  
• Prof. Verena Schünemann, University of Zurich, Switzerland: Ancient DNA and pathogens: uncovering the past of human diseases
• Winners of the George C. Williams Prize and the Gilbert Omenn Prizewill also give plenary talks

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), and Park City, Utah. The 2020 meeting will be at the University of Georgia, the 2021 meeting will be in Lisbon.