Date/Time
Date(s) - 17/01/2024
10:30 am - 11:20 am

Location: HH 207

Title: Maternity and the Stronger Immune Response in Women

Speaker: Evan Mitchell (McMaster University)

Abstract: Medical research reports that women often exhibit stronger immune responses than men, while pathogens tend to be more virulent in men. Current explanations cannot account for this pattern, creating an obstacle for our understanding of infectious disease outcomes and the incidence of autoimmune diseases. This talk details a paper that offers an alternative explanation that relies on a fundamental difference between the sexes: maternity and the opportunities it creates for transmission of pathogens from mother to child. This work will touch on the intersection between infectious disease modelling and evolutionary theory.