Time: 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, September 20th

Location: Armenise Amphitheater at Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston (link to directions)

There’s no question that infectious diseases have a huge impact on our lives and our societies. But did you know that these infections have also shaped our very biology? In this talk, we will explore the influence that infectious diseases have had on human evolution. In part one, we will provide an overview of both historical and contemporary disease outbreaks. We will also talk about two of the most deadly diseases—malaria and HIV/AIDS—delving into the history of these infections in humans. In part two, we will discuss the details of how human evolution occurs and how infectious diseases can impact this process. In part three, we will examine these concepts in depth through specific examples—again focusing on malaria and HIV/AIDS. We will end with a discussion of how infectious diseases will continue to impact human evolution in the future.