Impact of Infectious Disease on Humans & Our Origins
Victor Nizet, UC San Diego
Elizabeth Winzeler, UC San Diego
Summary:
As the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates, infectious diseases can have profound influences on their host populations. Human evolution has unquestionably been shaped by past infections. However, humans have also shaped pathogen dynamics and virulence via a multitude of factors. Some ancient human influences range from changes in social organization, group size, and the exploitation of more varied ecosystems. More recently, developments such as settlement, agriculture, technology, rapid long-distance travel, medicine, and global economic integration, continue to shape epidemics and the human host populations. The goal of this public symposium is to explore how infectious agents and humans shape each other’s evolutionary trajectories.
Event Sessions
Media for each talk can be played by clicking on icons in the "Media" column, or by clicking on the individual talk titles below and then the attachment file at the bottom of the page.
Media | Session | Speakers |
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Welcome & Opening Remarks | Pascal Gagneux, University of California, San Diego |
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SARS CoV2: A Third Coronavirus Takes to the Air | Robert (Chip) Schooley, UC San Diego |
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Dengue and Zika: Mosquito-borne viral infections | Sujan Shresta, La Jolla Institute for Immunology |
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Are there human-specific infectious diseases? | Nissi Varki, UC San Diego School of Medicine |
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Streptococcal molecular mimicry: Pathogenesis, autoimmunity, and vaccines | Victor Nizet, UC San Diego |
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The microbiome and infections of the reproductive tract in human females | Amanda Lewis, UC San Diego |
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Salmonella in humans and other animals | Manuela Raffatellu, UC San Diego |
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Malignant malaria in humans | Elizabeth Winzeler, UC San Diego |
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Human adaptive immunity against viral infections | Susan Kaech, Salk Institute for Biological Studies |
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Audience Questions & Answers | All Speakers |
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Event Glossary
A glossary for this event is available as a Searchable List and a PDF.
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