Hi friends :) I am the only person in our lab that will not be attending the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists next week. It’s gonna be pretty quiet on the 5th floor, no keyboard staccato or friendly chitchat… |
I wanted to encourage anyone that will be going to the meeting to check out all the awesomeness that Perry Lab People will be bringing, with regards to their research and just generally being wonderful human beings. Here are their talk times and events, please go say hi and support them for me!
Perry Lab People, including one of our awesome undergrads Mariah Elser, will definitely be going to the AAPA COD Undergraduate Research Symposium and Reception on Wednesday from 17:30-20:00 in CC Ballroom BC.
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Margarita (Maggie) Hernandez [also check out her Sully Asks A Scientist post!] Invited poster symposium, Anthropology outreach initiatives: How to get involved in the local community as a graduate student Room CC 22, Session 21: Teaching bio anth within and without a classroom Thursday, 14:30-18:00 Our poster will detail the various outreach initiatives that have been conducted by the Anthropology Graduate Student Association: Outreach Committee, including various tabling events, a teacher workshop, and several student workshops. We will also emphasize the importance of participating in outreach activities that provide unique opportunities for graduate students to share their research and fulfill broader impacts requirements. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Christina Bergey & Kathleen (Katie) Grogan [also check out Katie’s SAAS post!] Contributed podium presentation, In vitro gene regulatory responses to growth factors in short-statured African rainforest hunter-gatherers Room CC 26 C, Session 20: Genotype-Phenotype Studies Thursday, 14:30 Our work examines the functional and genomic basis of short stature in rainforest hunter-gatherers from Uganda. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Stephanie Marciniak [also check out her Sully Asks A Scientist post!] Contributed podium presentation, Investigating human stature variation in prehistory with per-individual ancient DNA and osteological data Room CC 26 C, Session 20: Genotype-Phenotype Studies Thursday, 14:45 Our work focuses on integrating ancient DNA datasets with osteological data from the same individual to explore ‘predicted’ genetic height and ‘achieved’ osteological height before, during, and after the subsistence shift to agriculture in Europe (~12,000 BP to 2,000 BP). Our approach can ultimately be used to inform how gene-environment interactions impacted individual growth trajectories in diverse contexts across prehistory. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Audrey Arner [also check out her Sully Asks A Scientist post!] Contributed podium presentation, Evolutionary genomic patterns of recent natural selection on body size sexual dimorphism in Homo sapiens Room CC 26 C, Session 20: Genotype-Phenotype Studies Thursday, 15:15 Our work examines the recent evolutionary history of loci associated with sexual dimorphism in human height in a population from the UK using a genome wide association study (GWAS) approach. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | George (PJ) Perry & Diego Hernandez [Diego’s also one of 2019’s IDEAS Scholars!] Invited podium symposium, Anthropology-parasitology-microbiome perspectives on human evolutionary medicine Room CC 25, Session 17: Primate hosts and microbial interactions and communities: disease, development and evolution Thursday, 15:30 By studying how our parasites have adapted to human biology and behavior we can learn about our own evolutionary history. Furthermore, many parasites host their own diverse communities of microorganisms. How are the microbiomes of our parasites affected by the human environment, or by how our parasites have biologically adapted to us? Given that parasites can be vectors for dangerous pathogens, these are critical questions! This talk will highlight cases in which the pathogen vector competency status of our parasites may be related to the human niche environment or adaptation of the parasite to this habitat. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Tina Lasisi [also check out her Sully Asks A Scientist post!] Contributed podium presentation, New insights into human hair variation: High-throughput phenotyping paves way for genome-wide association studies and selection screens Room CC 26 C, Session 20: Genotype-Phenotype Studies Thursday, 16:45 We will be presenting a new and efficient method of quantifying hair morphology that we hope will facilitate genome-wide association studies aiming to study the genetic underpinnings of human scalp hair variation. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Richard Bankoff Contributed podium presentation, Modeling rainforest ecology as a product of local socioeconomic pressures in Masoala National Park, Madagascar Room CC 26 C, Session 34: Primate Conservation Friday, 09:00 Understanding human drivers of rainforest loss is a critical prerequisite to crafting policy that addresses the conservation of these ecosystems while promoting the economic development of their human denizens. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Pre-registered Perry Lab People [Tina Lasisi will be moderating!] Workshop, Citing Marginalized Scholars in Biological Anthropology Room CC 20 Friday from 10:00-12:00 “This workshop will cover strategies for shifting citational practices in biological anthropology, providing participants with tools for producing more inclusive syllabi and publications that recognize the work of historically marginalized scientists.” |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Ziyu (Raining) Wang Contributed poster presentations, A newly generated whole genome of Treponema pallidum subsp. endemicum strain Iraq B: implications for reconstructing the evolutionary history of treponematosis CC Ballroom BC, Session 45: Genetics Saturday, All day Bejel (Treponema pallidum subsp. endemicum; TEN) is a human endemic treponematosis with strikingly similar pathogenesis to syphilis (T. pallidum subsp. pallidum; TPA). Since there were limited TEN strains available for study, we reconstructed a high-quality genome of the TEN Iraq B strain in order to better understand the TEN genotype and its the evolutionary relationship with the other T. pallidum subspecies (T. pallidum subsp. pertenue; TPE, and TPA). This study will ultimately contribute to ongoing studies on the evolution and pathogenesis of syphilis. |
WHO: WHAT: WHERE: WHEN: WHY: | Ebony Creswell - IDEAS Scholar COD IDEAS Scholars Workshop Hilton Center Street B Wednesday, All day The Committee on Diversity IDEAS group at the AAPAs focuses on addressing underrepresentation of racialized minority scholars in biological anthropology. The IDEAS workshop includes a range of activities throughout the length of the AAPA meetings where selected applicants at the graduate and undergraduate level engage in a day-long science and mentoring workshop. During the workshop mentors and mentees engage issues of scholarship, professional preparation, and community building. We’re excited to have two Perry lab members participating in the workshop this year, Ebony Creswell and Diego Hernandez, who both hope to learn how their diverse backgrounds can inform their scientific process and how they can best represent and serve the many communities and identities they represent. |