SoS 177: The Wandering Path to Biological Anthropology; Breastmilk and Immune Function

Cara returns to join Chris in interviewing Kathy Wander, a biological anthropologist and epidemiologist working at the intersection of human evolutionary biology and health. Much of Dr. Wander's research seeks to understand how humans (and in particular, children) cope with nutritional and infectious disease stress and the impact of malnutrition and infectious disease on the protective and pathological capacity of the immune system. She has recently published papers about a method developed in her lab (https://www.wanderlab.org) to describe immune activity in human milk; the impact of gender and kinship on risk for chronic disease; and, how genetic adaptations to high altitude may decrease the risk for chronic disease among Himalayan-descended populations. She has active grants to investigate nutrition and infectious disease risk in Tanzania and Nigeria. Check them out here: "Tradeoffs in milk immunity affect infant infectious disease risk" https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoac020 "Human milk lactoferrin variation in relation to maternal inflammation and iron deficiency in northern Kenya" https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23812 ------------------------------ Kathy's e-mail: katherinewander@binghamton.edu -------------------- Contact the Sausage of Science Podcast and Human Biology Association: Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/humanbiologyassociation Website:humbio.org/, Twitter: @HumBioAssoc Cara Ocobock, Website: sites.nd.edu/cara-ocobock/, Email:cocobock@nd.edu, Twitter:@CaraOcobock Chris Lynn, HBA Public Relations Committee Chair, Website: cdlynn.people.ua.edu/, Email: cdlynn@ua.edu, Twitter:@Chris_Ly Cristina Gildee, HBA Junior Fellow, SoS producer: E-mail: cgildee@uw.edu