UCLA introduces new evolutionary medicine minor

In the eyes of some scientists, anxiety disorders have evolved from primitive human instincts, and examining their histories is crucial for medicine today.

This is the basis of evolutionary medicine, an emerging field of biology and the subject material of a new minor now offered at UCLA.

Evolutionary medicine looks at modern medicine through an evolutionary and historical perspective, said Daniel Blumstein, chair of the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and program director of the evolutionary medicine minor.

Evolutionary medicine is different from modern medicine because it tries to take a step back to analyze the evolutionary history of a pathogen. Modern medicine, however, often focuses on fixing the immediate problems caused by a disease, Blumstein said.

“Evolutionary medicine takes a functional and historical emphasis on understanding disease, and in doing so, we hope it will generate new insights for (modern medicine),” Blumstein said.

The subject of the new minor, though, is not new to UCLA. Blumstein introduced the topic to the campus in February 2010 during the first Evolutionary Medicine Month – an annual event featuring panels of experts on the subject.

The sessions attracted both students and professors and sparked the idea for the minor’s creation, Blumstein said.

The minor will start small, with about 40 to 50 students enrolled for the first year, said Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, an attending cardiologist at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and co-program director of the minor.

Since the minor can be fulfilled by classes from departments ranging from sociology to neuroscience, students from many different majors may be open to take the minor, Natterson-Horowitz said.

Natterson-Horowitz will also teach one of the new courses of the minor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology 186: “Evolutionary Medicine,” this quarter.

The class will focus on giving prospective medical school students a broader perspective on medicine, said David Gold, a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and teaching assistant for the course.

Gold said that he hopes students enrolled in the class will come to appreciate evolution more after the course, as many pre-med students do not have the chance to learn about the subject in-depth in their studies.

“(Students will hopefully) come away with an understanding of how an evolutionary perspective can affect how we understand health,” he said.