Wednesday seminar: Nutrient signalling: the evolutionary origins of the immune modulating effects of dietary fat 
18 January 2012
4pm - 5pm
Venue: Seminar Room, Level 1 Liggins Institute 2-6 Park Avenue, Grafton
Host: Liggins Institute
Cost: No charge
Contact info: Dr Dongxu Liu ext 89603 or Dr Martin de Bock ext 82769
Contact email: dx.liu@auckland.ac.nz or m.debock@auckland.ac.nz
Liggins Institute academic seminar
presented by Dr Joe Alcock, University of New Mexico, USA
All University staff and students are welcome
Refreshments will be served
In this talk Dr Alcock will discuss an hypothesis that attempts to explain the paradox of inflammation from dietary fatty acids, which contributes to current epidemics of obesity and cardiovascular disease. This hypothesis proposes that nutrients commonly consumed throughout human evolution have had predictable effects on the composition of the human microbiota and the innate immune defences of the intestinal barrier. These effects have allowed the immune system to evolve a signalling function for various nutrients, permitting a compensatory response to the changed bacterial milieu of the intestine.
Biosketch
Dr Joe Alcock is an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA and an adjunct professor in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico, where he teaches a course on evolutionary medicine to undergraduates and graduate students in biology and anthropology, and to students in the combined BA-MD program. His background is in both medicine and evolutionary biology. Dr Alcock is currently enrolling patients with obstructive sleep apnea for a pilot study to investigate whether the gut microbiota influences inflammation in OSA.
