Nathan H. Lents | |
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![]() Nathan H. Lents in 2017 | |
Born | 1978 |
Occupation | Author Professor |
Nationality | American |
Genre | Popular Science |
Website | |
nathanlents |
Nathan H. Lents is an American scientist, author, and university professor. He has been on the faculty of John Jay College since 2006 [1] and is currently the director of the Cell and Molecular Biology program and the former head of the honors program and the campus Macaulay Honors College program. [2] Lents is noted for his work in cell biology, genetics, and forensic science, as well as his popular science writing and blogging on the evolution of human biology and behavior. Lents is also a visiting faculty member at the University of Lincoln in the UK and a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Lents was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois and graduated from St. Teresa High School. [3] He then attended Saint Louis University and graduated summa cum laude with a B.S degree in biology.[ citation needed ]
Lents moved to Saint Louis University School of Medicine for his doctoral work and graduated with a Ph.D. in Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences in 2004. [4] He completed postdoctoral training in cancer genomics at NYU Medical Center under the direction of Brian David Dynlacht. [5] He then joined the faculty of forensic science at John Jay College and the doctoral faculty of biochemistry at the CUNY Graduate Center.[ citation needed ]
Lents was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2011 and attained the rank of full professor at John Jay College in 2016, his tenth year on the faculty. [6]
While an undergraduate at Saint Louis University in the 1990s, Lents conducted research with Biology Department chair Robert I. Bolla on the biochemical interactions between soybean plants and the soybean cyst nematode, a key cause of soybean crop loss in the United States. Specifically, he discovered that the CF-9 gene cluster correlated with resistance to nematodes in soybean strains.[ citation needed ]
During this same time period, Lents also worked in the fermentation research division of agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, conducting basic microbiology research on the soil bacteria Corynebacterium glutamicum , which is used in the production of amino acids for food additives. Specifically, he worked on the production of lysine, a product that was the subject of a global price-fixing conspiracy. ADM plead guilty to antitrust violations and was forced to pay $100 million, the largest antitrust fine in US history. Several top ADM executives served prison sentences, but none of the scientists in the lysine group were implicated in any wrongdoing.[ citation needed ]
Since 2000, Lents has published research reports in the area of cell and cancer biology, genetics, forensic science, as well as the teaching and learning of science, particularly evolution. [7] Lents has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the US Department of Education. [6] His early work focused on the cell cycle and cancer biology, particularly the G1 to S phase transition. Specifically, Lents and colleagues showed that activation of the MAP kinase cascade is necessary and sufficient for a key phosphorylation step in the activation of cyclin-dependent kinase 2, an important cell cycle enzyme. [8] In addition, as a PhD student, Lents developed an innovative "reverse mutational" approach to discovering key phosphorylation sites on the Retinoblastoma protein, one of the most important tumor suppressors. [9]
In 2008, Lents discovered a new splice variant for the Mdm2 oncogene that is induced upon treatment with DNA-damaging cancer chemotherapies. [10] His laboratory later discovered new genetic connections between Vitamin D, the transcription factor MZF1, and the CCN gene family, [11] work that has led him and others to call for exploration of the usefulness of vitamin D as a possible enhancement for cancer treatments. [12]
Lents has also published research in the area of forensic biology and toxicology. His laboratory was among the first to note that zinc supplements can be effective in masking the presence of certain drug metabolites during routine drug testing. [13] In 2016, he published work on the skin microbiome of decomposing human cadavers. [14] He also developed and patented a DNA-based forensic method of species identification of trace plant material. [15]
Most recently, Lents has turned his research focus to the evolutionary genetics of human uniqueness. His laboratory recently discovered a set of microRNA genes on human chromosome 21 that are not shared with other apes and that appear to have originated de novo through genomic rearrangements. [16]
In 2016, Lents published his first book, Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals with Columbia University Press. The book has received favorable reviews from Publishers Weekly , The Quarterly Review of Biology , Psychology Today , and several others.[ citation needed ] Lents says "…by exploring why animals behave as they do, we learn a lot about ourselves." He says the book is about us, it only pretends to be about animals. [17] Lents said his goal, when writing this book, was to: "dispel two big misconceptions: that evolution produces perfection or anything like it, and that humans are the pinnacle of evolution." [18]
In 2018, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published his second book, Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes, [19] which was listed by Publishers Weekly as a "Big Title" for spring 2018 in the Science category. [20] In this book, Lents explains that humans no longer need to rely on the body's physical ability because we learned to solve life's challenges by using our brains to invent tools and our social capabilities to allow for division of labor and cooperation. [17] Human Errors received many favorable reviews and was included on recommended summer reading lists in The Wall Street Journal , Discover Magazine, EndPoints, the Financial Times , and was "Book of the Month" for August 2018 in Geographical Magazine . [21]
Lents's next book will be published in early 2025 by HarperCollins and is tentatively titled Rewilding Sex: Modern Attitudes, Ancient Truths. Its subject will be the evolution of sex, gender, sexuality, and sexual relationships, and it will discuss how agriculture and civilization constrained and narrowed the diverse sexual expression of prehistoric humans. Lents will argue that human sexuality is "flexible", able to conform to the mandates of heteronormative power structures but not inherently monogamous. [22]
Lents' book Human Errors elicited much criticism from supporters of Intelligent Design. Even though the book was intended for an audience that accepted the scientific consensus on evolution, it does argue that the quirks of evolution, not an intelligent designer, account for the flaws in the human body. [22] [23] Lents was thrust into the public eye as a defender of evolutionary science, especially in the context of education and politics in the United States. As part of this debate, Lents and a few colleagues deconstructed and rebutted a popular book on Intelligent Design, Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution, written by creationist and biochemist Michael Behe. According to Lents, the exercise provided an opportunity both to clarify how evolution actually works and "how strongly bias can affect your interpretation of evidence". A version of this critique was published in the journal Science. [22] [24] Proponents of Intelligent Design reacted with a flurry of negative articles, but Lents responded to their arguments and personal attacks by keeping the discussion focused on the science. [18]
Lents has had articles published in journals and magazines, including Skeptic Magazine , The Wall Street Journal , The Observer , Psychology Today , [25] and The Chronicle of Higher Education .[ citation needed ] He regularly contributes modules for the Visionlearning science education project. He also maintains The Human Evolution Blog and authors most of its content. [26] He blogs for Psychology Today under the tagline "Beastly Behavior: How Evolution Shaped Our Minds and Bodies." [27]
Lents is the host and executive producer of the This World of Humans podcast, a collaboration with the Visionlearning project, focusing on new research in the area of biology and social science. [28]
In 2019, Lents was a featured presenter at CSICon, speaking about "Human Errors: What Our Quirks Tell Us about Our Past". [17]
As of 2022, Lents is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. [29]
Lents has appeared on television, radio, and news articles commenting about forensic science, human evolution, and other science issues. His television appearances have included The Today Show , [30] 48 Hours , [31] The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper (CNN), [32] Access Hollywood , [33] The Brian Lehrer Show , [34] BBC World Service Television, [35] and Al Jazeera. [36]
Lents's work has been quoted by various publications, including the Associated Press, Vice, The New York Times , Scientific American and others. [37] His blog has been quoted by USA Today , the Daily Mirror , the Daily Mail , The Daily Telegraph , New York Magazine , the New York Post , IFL Science , People Magazine , and was mentioned on Live with Kelly and Ryan .[ citation needed ]
Lents and his husband [38] Oscar live in Queens and have two children.[ citation needed ] In an April 2020 article for Psychology Today , Lents chronicled his personal battle with COVID-19. [39]
Microevolution is the change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population. This change is due to four different processes: mutation, selection, gene flow and genetic drift. This change happens over a relatively short amount of time compared to the changes termed macroevolution.
A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. They have a higher mutation rate than other areas of DNA leading to high genetic diversity. Microsatellites are often referred to as short tandem repeats (STRs) by forensic geneticists and in genetic genealogy, or as simple sequence repeats (SSRs) by plant geneticists.
Biological determinism, also known as genetic determinism, is the belief that human behaviour is directly controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment, whether in embryonic development or in learning. Genetic reductionism is a similar concept, but it is distinct from genetic determinism in that the former refers to the level of understanding, while the latter refers to the supposedly causal role of genes. Biological determinism has been associated with movements in science and society including eugenics, scientific racism, and the debates around the heritability of IQ, the basis of sexual orientation, and sociobiology.
Michael Joseph Behe is an American biochemist and an advocate of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design (ID).
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by the biologist E. O. Wilson, in which the author discusses methods that have been used to unite the sciences and might in the future unite them with the humanities.
Molecular genetics is a branch of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the structure and/or function of genes in an organism's genome using genetic screens.
DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA damage, resulting in tens of thousands of individual molecular lesions per cell per day. Many of these lesions cause structural damage to the DNA molecule and can alter or eliminate the cell's ability to transcribe the gene that the affected DNA encodes. Other lesions induce potentially harmful mutations in the cell's genome, which affect the survival of its daughter cells after it undergoes mitosis. As a consequence, the DNA repair process is constantly active as it responds to damage in the DNA structure. When normal repair processes fail, and when cellular apoptosis does not occur, irreparable DNA damage may occur. This can eventually lead to malignant tumors, or cancer as per the two-hit hypothesis.
The argument from poor design, also known as the dysteleological argument, is an argument against the assumption of the existence of a creator God, based on the reasoning that any omnipotent and omnibenevolent deity or deities would not create organisms with the perceived suboptimal designs that occur in nature.
Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease. Modern biomedical research and practice have focused on the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying health and disease, while evolutionary medicine focuses on the question of why evolution has shaped these mechanisms in ways that may leave us susceptible to disease. The evolutionary approach has driven important advances in the understanding of cancer, autoimmune disease, and anatomy. Medical schools have been slower to integrate evolutionary approaches because of limitations on what can be added to existing medical curricula. The International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health coordinates efforts to develop the field. It owns the Oxford University Press journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health and The Evolution and Medicine Review.
Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abnormal cell division. Cell division is a physiological process that occurs in almost all tissues and under a variety of circumstances. Normally, the balance between proliferation and programmed cell death, in the form of apoptosis, is maintained to ensure the integrity of tissues and organs. According to the prevailing accepted theory of carcinogenesis, the somatic mutation theory, mutations in DNA and epimutations that lead to cancer disrupt these orderly processes by interfering with the programming regulating the processes, upsetting the normal balance between proliferation and cell death. This results in uncontrolled cell division and the evolution of those cells by natural selection in the body. Only certain mutations lead to cancer whereas the majority of mutations do not.
Homeobox protein NANOG(hNanog) is a transcriptional factor that helps embryonic stem cells (ESCs) maintain pluripotency by suppressing cell determination factors. hNanog is encoded in humans by the NANOG gene. Several types of cancer are associated with NANOG.
Paul Montgomery Bingham is an American molecular biologist and evolutionary biologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University and Vice President for Research at Rafael Pharmaceuticals. He is known for his work in molecular biology, and has also published recent articles and a book on human evolution.
Evolutionary psychology seeks to identify and understand human psychological traits that have evolved in much the same way as biological traits, through adaptation to environmental cues. Furthermore, it tends toward viewing the vast majority of psychological traits, certainly the most important ones, as the result of past adaptions, which has generated significant controversy and criticism from competing fields. These criticisms include disputes about the testability of evolutionary hypotheses, cognitive assumptions such as massive modularity, vagueness stemming from assumptions about the environment that leads to evolutionary adaptation, the importance of non-genetic and non-adaptive explanations, as well as political and ethical issues in the field itself.
Cyclin-dependent kinase 7, or cell division protein kinase 7, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the CDK7 gene.
Transcription factor E2F3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the E2F3 gene.
40S ribosomal protein S27, also known as metallopan-stimulin 1 or MPS-1, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the RPS27 gene. Metallopanstimulin is a zinc finger protein proposed to be involved DNA repair as well as oncogenesis.
In molecular biology mir-451 microRNA is a short RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several mechanisms.
Siddhartha Mukherjee is an Indian-American physician, biologist, and author. He is best known for his 2010 book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, that won notable literary prizes including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, and Guardian First Book Award, among others. The book was listed in the "All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books" by Time magazine in 2011. His 2016 book The Gene: An Intimate History made it to #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, and was among The New York Times 100 best books of 2016, and a finalist for the Wellcome Trust Prize and the Royal Society Prize for Science Books.
Brian David Dynlacht, is an American biochemist and professor in the department of pathology of New York University Grossman School of Medicine at NYU Langone Health. Before moving his lab to New York University, he was an associate professor in the department of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard University. In 2002, while researching at the Harvard University, Dynlacht reported the discovery of CP110, which is now thought to be at the center of a molecular switch governing the centriole to ciliary transition in mammalian cells. His lab identified the first centriolar deubiquitinating enzyme, USP33, whose expression regulates centrosome biogenesis via deubiquitination of the centriolar protein CP110, and thus regulates the centrosome duplication.
Tumour heterogeneity describes the observation that different tumour cells can show distinct morphological and phenotypic profiles, including cellular morphology, gene expression, metabolism, motility, proliferation, and metastatic potential. This phenomenon occurs both between tumours and within tumours. A minimal level of intra-tumour heterogeneity is a simple consequence of the imperfection of DNA replication: whenever a cell divides, a few mutations are acquired—leading to a diverse population of cancer cells. The heterogeneity of cancer cells introduces significant challenges in designing effective treatment strategies. However, research into understanding and characterizing heterogeneity can allow for a better understanding of the causes and progression of disease. In turn, this has the potential to guide the creation of more refined treatment strategies that incorporate knowledge of heterogeneity to yield higher efficacy.
My husband and I made the decision to keep my illness from all of our friends and family until I recovered. Our mothers are both worriers, and we saw no value in adding to their already excessive worry about us when there was absolutely nothing they (or anyone) could do to help us. My mom will be angry with me for some time, but I still think I made the right decision, especially since she's been checking on me constantly even though I'm now recovered.