UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Luis Barreiro, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, will present the Russell E. Marker Lectures in Evolutionary Biology, collectively titled “Epigenomics from Plants to Brains: Evolutionary Genomics of the Human Immune System,” on Feb. 11 and 12 in Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library, on the Penn State University Park campus. These free public lectures are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science.
The series includes a lecture intended for a general audience, titled “The Eternal Tug-of-War: Humans, Pathogens, and the Evolution of Immunity” at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, as well as a more-specialized lecture, “Exploring Evolutionary Immunogenomics: Lessons from Our Ancestors and Past Pandemics” at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
Lecture series abstract
Humans have been coevolving with pathogens since the emergence of our species, leaving traces of these interactions embedded in our genome. Infectious diseases have exerted strong selective pressures on human populations throughout history and continue to pose significant global health challenges, accounting for nearly 15 million deaths annually despite advancements in vaccines and antibiotics. These enduring interactions highlight the profound influence of microbes on human evolution and underscore the need to understand the genetic and evolutionary factors shaping immune responses.
In his talks, Barreiro will discuss how single-cell genomic technologies provide a powerful lens to uncover the role of host genetic factors, natural selection, and epigenetic variation in driving differences in innate immune responses across populations. By integrating evolutionary perspectives with cutting-edge genomic tools, scientists can identify pathways critical to protective immunity and begin to explain the variation in susceptibility to infectious diseases observed among populations. Additionally, he will highlight ongoing efforts to expand this research to a broader range of populations, aiming to capture the full spectrum of human genetic diversity and deepen our understanding of immune function at single-cell resolution.
About the speaker
Luis Barreiro received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in biotechnology at Lusófona University, in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2008, he obtained his doctorate in human population genetics from the University of Paris VII, followed by a postdoc in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. From 2011 to 2018 he was a professor at the Université de Montréal and a researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine pediatric hospital center. He is currently a professor in the Genetics division at the University of Chicago and chair of the Committee on Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology. His work uses population genomic data to characterize the genetic basis of interindividual differences in immune response to infectious agents. Highlights from his research include papers showing that genetic ancestry and natural selection drive population differences in immune responses in humans, mapping genetic variants that are associated with functional variation in immune response to infectious agents, and describing how epigenetic changes play a key role in the regulation of innate immune responses to infection.
About the Marker Lectures
The Marker Lectures were established in 1984 through a gift from the late Russell Earl Marker, professor emeritus of organic chemistry at Penn State, whose pioneering synthetic methods revolutionized the steroid hormone industry and opened the door to the current era of hormone therapies, including the birth control pill.
The Marker endowment allows the Penn State Eberly College of Science to present annual Marker Lectures in astronomy and astrophysics, the chemical sciences, evolutionary biology, genetic engineering, the mathematical sciences, and the physical sciences.