Last week in the Spittoon we reported on a new study that identified an interesting genetic trade-off — a genetic variant known that has one effect on a person’s vulnerability to malaria, and the opposite on susceptibility to HIV infection. The “Duffy negative” version of the gene, which is common among Africans and African Americans, [...]

Tags: diet, hemochromatosis, human evolution, Malaria, sickle-cell anemia

Last month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists studying evolution in everything from bacteria to fruit flies, weeds, worms and our favorite model organism, humans! This is a highly interactive conference: almost everyone [...]

Tags: Duffy, evolution, FOXP2, genetics, HapMap, HGDP, Imprinting, Lactose Intolerance, LCT, Malaria, SMBE