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Incorporating Evolutionary Theory Into The Field Of Biomedical Science

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Biomedical science is a continually growing field with new treatments and medicines being developed at a rapid rate. Incorporating evolutionary theory into the field of biomedical science has allowed us to slow down pathogenic evolution as pathogens have been acquiring resistance to medicine at an alarming rate. We can learn about the evolutionary origins of diseases which may provide the answers we require to treat them and possible reasons why certain recessive conditions have still not been filtered out by natural selection. However, it has been argued that evolutionary theory has hindered science by assuming that parts of the human body have simply been left over from evolution and therefore have no purpose.

Natural selection works by …show more content…

Davies & Davies (2010) suggests that by applying evolutionary theory to bacteria, we knew that when a selective pressure was introduced (antibiotics) the bacteria would evolve and understanding this enabled biomedical scientists to invent strategies such as not using antibiotics to treat viral infection because antibiotics will not destroy the viruses present but will introduce a selective pressure on the bacteria within your body causing some of them to develop an antibiotic resistance which could be a problem if they cause an infection one day, another strategy would be to avoid using mild does of antibiotics of a long period of time as this would leave a small number of bacteria, who would have survived the antibiotics, who could potentially develop a resistance to the antibiotic so using a stronger selective pressure over a shorter space of time would eliminate all the illness-causing bacteria and not enable them to evolve into their resistant forms also make sure that all the prescription is taken because if the course is not complete then the bacteria that have a selective advantage will survive and then will pass on this advantage to other bacteria. The “preventative” use of antibiotics within livestock and crops is unnecessary as this leads to …show more content…

Human populations have been exposed to many plagues over time which has lead the human genome to be littered with past remnants of these plagues, there is one remnant which may lead researchers to discover a new treatment for HIV, a mutation in the gene CCR5, as the allele for the mutant CCR5 gene confers resistance to HIV and the allele for the mutant CCR5 gene has been left over from a past plague that ravished northern Europe where it conferred some resistance to the plague and therefore increased in frequency which is why the mutation in the CCR5 is rare in the rest of the world. Evolutionary theory has shown us that there is a “trade off” for resistance to a drug and it has been shown that if resistant and non-resistant

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“Antibiotic sensitivity tests showed that the two groups differed in sensitivity to penicillin and erythromycin, but no other antibiotics.” (Article abstract).Out of the nine hundred samples they took, the group showed the bacteria was defeated by the antibiotic penicillin and the antibiotic erythromycin but the other antibiotics didn’t touch the bacteria. The experiment showed people only two antibiotics were fighting off the bacteria. The two of which are being over used and over time will no longer work. If the bacteria continues to grow bigger and better, the antibiotics for ear infections aren’t going to work which leads to hearing loss, even to the extent of going

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Dr. Moalem’s unique view on disease and humanity’s complex relationship with it inspired many questions in the mind of the reader. He theorizes that diseases passed on genetically remained in the gene pool because they may have provided advantages to our ancestors, and this theory casts a new light and creates a new perspective on such diseases. The diseases discussed in the book, such as hemochromatosis, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, would ordinarily be considered harmful. However, the author explains that under different circumstance, these illnesses might have been viewed as beneficial instead, and that these benefits are worth

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According to Recent and Ongoing Selection in the Human Genome published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the human genome appears to be targeted by selection. The researchers estimate that at least 38% of all new amino-acid altering mutations in the human genome are being eliminated by negative selection. As Homo sapiens outlived Homo neanderthalensis, it is a plausible conclusion that genetically humans are more adapted to Earth’s

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In Neil Shubin’s book Your Inner Fish the genetic blueprint of human life, and all animal life, is revealed. The book’s main message is that everything, every feature humans or any other animal can have, is part of the same genetic history. The features and mechanisms that make up our bodies have evolved through “descent with modification” over time. Slight changes to cells, bones, and genes have all culminated into new species that while different still carry reminders of their evolutionary past. When most learn of evolution they learn humans and primates evolved from a common ancestor, and they stop there, they do not look any further.

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For instance, Rifampin, an antibiotic used to treat Tuberculosis, Neisseria meningitidis- also known as Meningitis- or infections in the nose and throat. Another treatment is a vaccine known as Bacillus Calmette- Guerin to prevent T.b. or to heal bladder tumors or bladder cancers. “It wasn’t that all these infectious diseases had simultaneously changed to be less deadly (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15). It was the environment in which they had existed had shifted from one where they were very often deadly to one where they were they were not a significant threat (Humphries/ Bystrianyk 15).

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But when it comes to us evolving, many scientists believe that we have stopped. They claim we are close to the end of human evolution because of all the genetic engineering and medicinal use, that is causing us now not to evolve naturally by natural selection, and survival of the fittest but by our own means. But at the same time, with all the evidence that scientists like Elisabeth Bolund of Uppsala University in Sweden show, one could argue that we are still evolving. This evidence being that between 4 and 18 percent of the variations among individuals in lifespan, family size and ages of the first and the last childbirth are influenced by genes.

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