Lactose Intolerance and the Evolution of Human Digestion

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/10/03/Dr_Katherine_Pollard_What_Makes_Us_Human

Dr. Katherine Pollard, biostatistics professor at UCSF, illustrates how positive selection has enabled humans to process lactose and digest starch. She traces these mutations to certain ethnic and regional groups, such as the early herders in North Africa and Europe.

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Katherine Pollard received her Ph.D. and M.A. from UC Berkeley Division of Biostatistics under the supervision of Mark van der Laan. Her research at Berkeley included developing computationally intensive statistical methods for analysis of microarray data with applications in cancer biology. After graduating, she did a postdoc at UC Berkeley with Sandrine Dudoit. She developed Bioconductor open source software packages for clustering and multiple hypothesis testing.

In 2003, she began a comparative genomics NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in the labs of David Haussler and Todd Lowe in the Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. She was part of the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium that published the sequence of the Chimp Genome, and she used this sequence to identify the fastest evolving regions in the human genome.

In 2005, she joined the faculty at the UC Davis Genome Center and Department of Statistics. She moved to UCSF in Fall 2008.

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[caltrop69]

PaulCynic:

Yeah...I caught that, too...But, I just assume that those familiar with how evolution works just "talk" that way.

At the end, it sounded like she was implying that we "came" from chimps, as well, rather than a common ancestor.

I'm fairly certain you were down-voted because you used the word "correlation."

Psst..."correlation" is too big a word to use on Youtube. People down-vote you when you use words they don't understand.

[TVismyopiate]

Cannabis developed THC as a SUNBLOCK in order to protect its flowers from the harsh Himalayan sun. We dry those flowers, smoke or eat them, it just happens to get us high. The plant was then selectively cultivated and cherished, leading to it being the fittest plant to survive in that category, and winning the evolutionary race in that sense. What idiot would think they are above evolution (or God for that perspective) and want to criminalise possession of such a successful, well-evolved plant?

[adelle0001]

very informative!

[mininjahwaiyah]

watching this for a science test on mutation :P

[matchbox555]

why do people get so sensitive when the topic of evolution is discussed ? what are they freaking out about ?

[MrMZaccone]

@jijilamorosso Of course we don't come from chimps ... Who ever said we did? Do you have some evidence that what she's saying is absurd or are you just assuming that human diet and nutrition are as simple as you think they are? Fructose is toxic in pure form as well, does that mean we should stop eating fruit? Absurd? Try reading your own posts.

[SpeedyCheeze]

@creamyfilling102 @creamyfilling102 Im sure some cats can, But I have had some that cant, as well as lots of other people. Also regarding farm cats, the more fat in the milk, the less lactose, if that means anything

[creamyfilling102]

@SpeedyCheeze yeah i've heard that, but i don't know where ppl get it.  all the farm cats we've had and they've all drank milk just fine.

[SpeedyCheeze]

@creamyfilling102 actually most cats are lactose intolerant....

[creamyfilling102]

animals can drink milk. our cats drink it, and they're well into adulthood.

[clockwise116]

I'm Mexican. So i have ethnic origins maybe not directly from europe but far back enough and i eat lots of starch products!

[ConditionLefty]

I can't believe someone so high ranking would miss the fact that raccoons, rats and skunks can drink milk in adulthood. They like us are considered omnivores.