Praise for book by Liggins Institute researchers

Media release
09 September 2009

Praise for book by Liggins Institute researchers

A review published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal Science has commended authors Professor Sir Peter Gluckman and Dr Alan Beedle of Auckland’s Liggins Institute and Professor Mark Hanson, University of Southampton, for their book Principles of Evolutionary Medicine published by Oxford University Press in July this year.

The book is the first text on this subject written specifically for medical students and as such, claims reviewer Peter Ellison of Harvard University’s Department of Evolutionary Biology, “it succeeds brilliantly.”

“The authors attain their goal in large part because they neither assume too much prior knowledge nor underestimate the capacity of their readers to absorb copious and sophisticated material at a rapid rate. They also succeed because the book is clearly written and wonderfully organized,” writes Ellison.

Reviewing the book’s structure he highlights the side boxes which “present compelling examples drawn from current research literature that convey the excitement and relevance of research in human evolutionary biology.”

Evolutionary medicine is a topic which to date has made its way into few medical training programmes around the world. For more than a century experts have argued that students were overburdened absorbing crucial information on human anatomy, physiology and pathology to warrant the introduction of broad topics like evolutionary biology. However just this year, says Ellison, 150 years since the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, “a panel of deans and faculty from leading medical schools around the world endorsed the incorporation of evolutionary principles in medical curricula.”Their recommendations were also published in Science.

Ellison observes that introduction of the topic is likely to be hampered by the lack of appropriate teachers and resources but concludes: “The task for medical schools is to figure out how to teach it—a task that has just been made much easier.”

Gluckman and Beedle are principal investigators in the Centre for Human Evolution Adaptation and Disease at the Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland. Their work draws on concepts from evolutionary and developmental biology to inform and interpret experimental and clinical research performed by the Liggins Institute and its international collaborators.

Gluckman describes evolution by natural selection as the fundamental organising principle of biology. Without it, he says it is not really possible to understand how an organism works, how its parts fit together. “Yet despite this, medicine has been slow to recognise its importance.” His response has been Principles of Evolutionary Medicine, the first organised summary of evolutionary medicine.

Professor Gluckman will give a public lecture “Darwin and Medicine” on Wednesday 16 September at 6pm in the Robb Lecture Theatre at The University of Auckland Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, 85 Park Road, Grafton. In it he will explain the evolutionary origins and paradoxes of many problems in modern medicine. “Evolution is geared for survival of the species rather than for individuals to have long and healthy lives,” he says.

This is the fourth of five lectures in the Liggins Institute’s 2009 Seasons of Life lecture series. The lectures last approximately one hour and are intended to provoke thought and debate. They are presented in a way that is easily understood by non-scientists and designed to engage the audience in discussion. Bookings and further information: +64 9 303 5972 or www.liggins.auckland.ac.nz

Principles of Evolutionary Medicine by Peter Gluckman, Alan Beedle, and Mark Hanson
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009. 312 pp. ISBN 9780199236381. Paper ISBN 9780199236398.
www.evomedicine.org

Peter T Ellison “Evolutionary Biology for Doctors” Science 4 September 2009. Vol 325. no. 5945, p.1207
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/325/5945/1207

ENDS

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