Athena Aktipis

Athena Aktipis
Born 1981
Nationality United States
Education Reed College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Arizona
Occupation Professor
Employer Arizona State University
Known for psychology, biology, cancer research
Website athenaaktipis.org

Christina Athena Aktipis (born ca 1981) is the co-director of the Human Generosity Project, the director of the Cooperation and Conflict lab at Arizona State University, vice president of the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer (ISEEC)], and was the Director of Human and Social Evolution and co-founder of the Center for Evolution and Cancer at UCSF. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology] at Arizona State University.[1] She is a cooperation theorist, an evolutionary biologist, an evolutionary psychologist, and a cancer biologist who works at the intersection of those fields.[2] Dr. Aktipis is the author of the forthcoming book from Princeton University Press "Evolution in the flesh: Cancer and the transformation of life."[3]

Career

Aktipis earned a B.A. in psychology from Reed College in 2002. She earned an M.A. in 2004 and a Ph.D. in 2008 in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2011, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in ecology and evolutionary biology with John Pepper at the University of Arizona. Between 2011-2014, Dr. Aktipis was an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, while also serving as Director of Human and Social Evolution at the Center for Evolution and Cancer, at University of California San Francisco. During 2013-2014, Dr. Aktipis was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin. Upon her return to the United States, Dr. Aktipis and her colleague Dr. Lee Cronk, a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University, co-founded The Human Generosity Project. Since 2015 Dr. Aktipis holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University.

Projects

The Human Generosity Project

A large focus of Dr. Aktipis' work is cooperation in humans, focusing especially on helping behavior that occurs in times of need. Dr. Aktipis co-directs the Human Generosity Project with Dr. Lee Cronk of Rutgers University. Together with the team, Drs. Aktipis and Cronk study the relationship between biological and cultural influences on human generosity by using multiple methodologies such as field work, laboratory experiments, and computational models[4].

Microbiome and Human Behavior

Microbes have access to many systems underlying human behavior[5]. In her lab, Dr. Aktipis and colleagues explore how the microbiome may play a role in eating behavior and social behaviours.

Kombucha

Kombucha is a popular drink made by the fermentation of tea by symbiotic bacteria and yeast[6]. Dr. Aktipis uses this beverage to explore microbial resource exchange and to determine whether the kombucha symbiosis is able to fight off pathogens that single species of microbes cannot.

Cancer and Multicellular Cooperation

Multicellular bodies are societies of cells that must cooperate and coordinate to contribute to organism fitness. Cancer represents a breakdown of multicellular cooperation[7]. Dr. Aktipis examins cancer through this lens, using evolutionary theory, computational modeling, and clinical collaborations. Dr. Aktipis' most recent work on cancer is through the Arizona Cancer and Evolution Center, where she co-leads Project 1: Organismal Evolution and Cancer Defenses and the Outreach Unit.[8]

Selected Publications

Aktipis, A. (2016). From human sharing to multicellularity and cancer. Evolutionary applications, 9(1), 17-36.

Wasielewski, H., Alcock, J., & Aktipis, A. (2016). Resource conflict and cooperation between human host and gut microbiota: implications for nutrition and health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1372(1), 20-28.

Aktipis, A., De Aguiar, R., Flaherty, A., Iyer, P., Sonkoi, D., & Cronk, L. (2016). Cooperation in an uncertain world: for the Maasai of East Africa, need-based transfers outperform account-keeping in volatile environments. Human Ecology, 44(3), 353-364.

Aktipis, C. A., Boddy, A. M., Jansen, G., Hibner, U., Hochberg, M. E., Maley, C. C., & Wilkinson, G. S. (2015). Cancer across the tree of life: cooperation and cheating in multicellularity. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 370(1673), 20140219.

Boddy, A. M., Fortunato, A., Wilson Sayres, M., & Aktipis, A. (2015). Fetal microchimerism and maternal health: A review and evolutionary analysis of cooperation and conflict beyond the womb. BioEssays, 37(10), 1106-1118.

Aktipis, C. A. (2011). Is cooperation viable in mobile organisms? Simple Walk Away rule favors the evolution of cooperation in groups. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(4), 263-276.

Aktipis, C. A. (2004). Know when to walk away: contingent movement and the evolution of cooperation]. Journal of theoretical biology, 231(2), 249-260.

Selected Talks

Why Cancer Is Everywhere, Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, 2018

Do You Believe in Generosity, TEDxASU, 2016

The Science of Sharing, The Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco, 2015

Why Do We Get Cancer?, Institute for Advanced Study, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, 2014

Conferences

Between 2011 - 2017, Dr. Aktipis organized four bi-annual conferences of the International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer.

She is currently the Chair of the Zombie Apocalypse Medicine Meeting (ZAMM), scheduled to take place in October 18-21, 2018, at Arizona State University.

References

  1. ↑ "Athena Aktipis | The Biodesign Institute | ASU".
  2. ↑ "Cancer and the transformation of life: An Interview with Athena Aktipis – The Evolution Institute".
  3. ↑ "New study describes cancer's cheating ways".
  4. ↑ "The Human Generosity Project".
  5. ↑ "Our Microbiome May Be Looking Out for Itself".
  6. ↑ "What is Kombucha".
  7. ↑ "Cellular 'Cheaters' Give Rise to Cancer".
  8. ↑ "Arizona Cancer and Evolution Center".
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