Symposium: The Adaptable Phenotype

进化生物学的最新进展正在遗传学、发育生物学、生理学和生态学等领域之间建立新的联系。拟议的会议将汇集一个由人类学家和非人类学家组成的小组，他们的工作体现了这些当前趋势，展示了它们在人类和灵长类动物进化、人类生物变异和适应以及健康等问题上的应用。会议将突出生物人类学对这一新综合的贡献，同时为人类学家提供机会，使他们受益于在相关领域工作的同事的见解和发现。为了最大限度地在这门学科中展示，这次会议将由美国体质人类学家协会和人类生物学协会联合主办，将于2007年3月在费城举行。智力优势：适应是一个基本概念，统一生物人类学的子学科。通过突出适应研究的前沿发展，提议的会议将引起所有人类学分支学科成员的极大兴趣，同时促进人类学内部以及人类学家与相关领域研究人员之间的合作。更广泛的影响：发育可塑性的研究正在对公共卫生和医学产生深远的影响。然而，很少有人尝试使用比较生物学和进化理论来帮助阐明发育和表观遗传过程的起源和功能，作为理解它们对健康和疾病贡献的基础。与会者包括生物医学研究人员和需要这种综合的倡导者，这将有助于确保会议对医学和公共卫生等应用领域产生影响。

Recent advances in evolutionary biology are forging new links between such fields as genetics, developmental biology, physiology and ecology. The proposed session will bring together a panel of anthropologists and non-anthropologists whose work exemplifies these current trends, showcasing their application to problems in human and primate evolution, human biological variation and adaptation, and health. The session will highlight the contributions of biological anthropology to this new synthesis, while providing opportunities for anthropologists to benefit from the insights and discoveries of colleagues working in related fields. To maximize exposure within the discipline, the session will be jointly-sponsored by the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and the Human Biology Association at meetings, to be held in Philadelphia in March of 2007. Intellectual Merits: Adaptation is a foundational concept that unites the sub-disciplines of biological anthropology. By highlighting cutting edge developments in the study of adaptation, the proposed session will be of great interest to members of all anthropological sub-disciplines while promoting collaboration both within anthropology and between anthropologists and researchers from related fields.Broader Impacts: Research on developmental plasticity is having a profound influence on public health and medicine. However, there have been few attempts to use comparative biology and evolutionary theory to help illuminate the origin and function of developmental and epigenetic processes as a basis for understanding their contribution to health and disease. The participants include biomedical researchers and advocates of the need for such a synthesis, which will help ensure that the session has impacts on applied fields like medicine and public health.