Geeta N Eick

Geeta N Eick
University of Oregon | UO · Department of Anthropology

PhD

About

112
Publications
20,909
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3,557
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2005 - May 2006
Yale University
Position
  • PostDoc Position
January 2004 - December 2005
Stellenbosch University
Position
  • PostDoc Position
January 2007 - June 2014
University of Oregon
Position
  • PostDoc Position

Publications

Publications (112)
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: Bone is a dynamic organ under continual turnover influenced by life history stage, energy dynamics, diet, climate, and disease. Bone turnover data have enormous potential in biological anthropology for testing evolutionary and biocultural hypotheses, yet few studies have integrated these biomarkers. In the present article we systematic...
Article
Point‐of‐care testing (POCT) allows researchers and health‐care providers to bring the lab bench to the field, providing essential health information that can be leveraged to improve health care, accessibility, and understanding across clinical and research settings. Gaps in health service access are most pronounced in what we term RIR settings—rur...
Article
Objectives: Refugees seeking safety across international borders are often exposed to a wide breadth of psychosocially stressful experiences that may fracture existing sources of social support and impair the generation of new social relationships, with implications for their long-term health and resilience. Using data from recently settled refuge...
Article
Objective Hair cortisol is a noninvasive, long-term biomarker of human stress. Strengths and weaknesses of this biomarker as a proxy measure of perinatal stress are not yet well understood. Hair cortisol data were collected from pregnant women in Puerto Rico to investigate maternal cortisol level variance across pregnancy. Methods In 2017, we recr...
Article
Full-text available
Objective Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with age-related chronic disease, and co-infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may compound disease risk. We aimed to assess the frequency of CMV infection and its relationship with age among EBV seropositive individuals in an Indigenous Amazonian population. Methods We report concentration...
Article
Objectives: The rise and fall of the health technology startup Theranos is emblematic of the promise and peril of point-of-care testing (POCT). Instruments that deliver immediate results from minimally invasive samples at the location of collection can provide powerful tools to deliver health data in clinical and public health contexts. Yet, POCT...
Article
Despite advances in cancer medicine and research, invasive and potentially risky procedures such as biopsies, venous blood tests, imaging, colonoscopy, and pap smear tests are still primarily used for screening, staging, and assessing response to therapy. The development and interdisciplinary use of biomarkers from urine, feces, saliva, scent, and...
Preprint
Full-text available
The genetic and biophysical mechanisms by which new protein functions evolve are central concerns in evolutionary biology and molecular evolution. Despite much speculation, we know little about how protein function evolves. Here, we use ancestral proteins to trace the evolutionary history of ligand recognition in a sub-class of steroid receptors (S...
Article
Significance Disgust likely evolved to regulate exposure to pathogen-related stimuli and behaviors. One key prediction, that individuals with greater pathogen disgust sensitivity (PDS) will be exposed to fewer pathogens and thus suffer fewer infections, has never been tested directly. To function adaptively, PDS must respond to the local cost/benef...
Article
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Background: The prevalence of allergic and autoimmune conditions has been steadily increasing in wealthy nations over the past century. One hypothesis put forward to explain this is the Old Friends Hypothesis, which posits that increased hygiene, urbanization, and lifestyle changes have reduced our exposure to parasites and microbes that we co-evo...
Article
Objectives Establish the variability of C‐reactive protein (CRP) within a population of first‐generation immigrants living in the United States. Prior work has theorized that individuals with high levels of childhood pathogen exposure may have lower CRP levels in adulthood, and therefore that for these individuals, CRP may not be as accurate an ind...
Article
Purpose: The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein-E gene has been associated with disease activity including Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, and cardiovascular disease. Individuals who possess the ε4 variant of this gene (ε4 carriers) also demonstrate higher levels of cognitive impairment and lower motor scores compared with noncarriers. The pur...
Article
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Objectives Diabetes and depression are commonly present in the same individuals, suggesting the possibility of underlying shared physiological processes. Inflammation, as assessed with the biomarker C‐reactive protein (CRP), has not consistently explained the observed relationship between diabetes and depression, although both are associated with i...
Article
Objectives: Investigating factors that contribute to bone loss and accretion across populations in remote settings is challenging, particularly where diagnostic tools are scarce. To mitigate this challenge, we describe validation of a commercial ELISA assay to measure osteocalcin, a biomarker of bone formation, from dried blood spots (DBS). Metho...
Article
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Identification of sarcopenia in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited by access to technologies that assess muscle mass. We investigated associations between two functional measures of sarcopenia, grip strength and gait speed (GS), with functional disability in adults from six LMICs. Data were extracted from the World Health Organiz...
Article
Developmental environments influence individuals' long‐term health trajectories, and there is increasing emphasis on understanding the biological pathways through which this occurs. Epigenetic aging evaluates DNA methylation at a suite of distinct CpG sites in the genome, and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) is linked to heightened chronic morbidi...
Article
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Non-industrial societies with low energy balance levels are expected to be less vulnerable than industrial societies to diseases associated with obesity including knee osteoarthritis. However, as non-industrial societies undergo rapid lifestyle changes that promote positive energy balance, individuals whose metabolisms are adapted to energetic scar...
Article
Objectives: Little research exists documenting levels of intestinal inflammation among indigenous populations where exposure to macroparasites, like soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), is common. Reduced STH exposure is hypothesized to contribute to increased prevalence of elevated intestinal inflammation in wealthy nations, likely due to coevoluti...
Article
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Over 40 species of nonhuman primates host simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs). In natural hosts, infection is generally assumed to be nonpathogenic due to a long coevolutionary history between host and virus, although pathogenicity is difficult to study in wild nonhuman primates. We used whole-blood RNA-seq and SIV prevalence from 29 wild Uganda...
Preprint
Full-text available
Over 40 species of nonhuman primates host simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs). In natural hosts, infection is generally assumed to be nonpathogenic due to a long coevolutionary history between host and virus, although pathogenicity is difficult to study in wild nonhuman primates. We used whole-blood RNA-seq and SIV prevalence from 29 wild Uganda...
Article
Significance The energetic impact of immune function on human growth remains unclear. Using data from Amazonian forager-horticulturalists, we show that diverse, low-level immune activity predicts reduced childhood growth over periods of competing energy use ranging from 1 wk to 20 mo. We also demonstrate that modest body fat stores (i.e., energy re...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: Telomere length (TL) is a biomarker of aging and age-related decline. Although venous blood is considered the "gold standard" for TL measurement, its collection is often not feasible or desired in nonclinical settings. Saliva and dried blood spots (DBS) have been used as alternatives when venipuncture cannot be performed. However, it i...
Article
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Few studies have combined genetic association analyses with functional characterization of infection-associated SNPs in natural populations of non-human primates. Here, we investigate the relationship between host genetic variation, parasitism, and natural selection in a population of red colobus (Procolobus rufomitratus tephrosceles) in Kibale Nat...
Article
Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) is a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease, which remains the leading cause of mortality in both higher and lower income countries. Here, we adapted an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) development kit for quantitative determination of ApoB levels in serum and plasma for use with dried blood spots (DBS). After c...
Article
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In this paper, we examine patterns of self-reported diagnosis of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and prevalences of algorithm/measured test-based, undiagnosed, and untreated NCDs in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. Nationally representative samples of older adults aged ≥50 years were analyzed from wave 1 of the World Health Or...
Article
Full-text available
Hypotheses about the functions of ancient proteins and the effects of historical mutations on them are often tested using ancestral protein reconstruction (APR) - phylogenetic inference of ancestral sequences followed by synthesis and experimental characterization. Usually, some sequence sites are ambiguously reconstructed, with two or more statist...
Article
Objectives: Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is a strong predictor of cardiovascular health, yet few humans living in industrialized societies meet current recommendations (150 min/week). Researchers have long suggested that human physiological requirements for aerobic exercise reflect an evolutionary shift to a hunting...
Article
Our objective was to validate a commercially available ELISA to measure antibody titers against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in dried blood spots (DBS) to replace a previously validated assay for DBS that is no longer available. We evaluated the precision, reliability, and stability of the assay for the measurement of EBV antibodies in matched plasma,...
Article
Full-text available
Significance Most organisms contain families of related proteins that evolved from duplication of an ancestral gene. Using the example of DNA binding by the steroid hormone receptors, this work examines the structural mechanisms by which these related proteins evolved separate functions during their history. We show that a functionally promiscuous...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
As part of WHO's Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), dried blood spots (DBS) were collected from adults in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Before we can measure telomere length, it is first necessary to assess if genomic DNA extracted from DBS filter paper cards is sufficient for TL assays. We sought to determine i...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Frailty and disability are interrelated yet distinct conditions often more prevalent in older adulthood. Whichever current method is used to operationalize and measure these conditions, more information is available in higher income countries about levels of frailty and disability than in lower and middle-income countries. The criteria of deficit a...
Article
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Much attention has been paid to the effects of climate change on species' range reductions and extinctions. There is however surprisingly little information on how climate change driven threat may impact the tree of life and result in loss of phylogenetic diversity (PD). Some plant families and mammalian orders reveal nonrandom extinction pat-terns...
Article
Full-text available
The genetic and biophysical mechanisms by which new protein functions evolve is a central question in evolutionary biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. Of particular interest is whether major shifts in protein function are caused by a few mutations of large effect and, if they are, the mechanisms that mediate these changes. Here we combine ancest...
Data
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Unreduced ML steroid receptor phylogeny based on alignment of 184 steroid receptors and related sequences used to reconstruct AncSR2. (PDF)
Data
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Omit maps showing that progesterone and 11-deoxycorticosterone bind directly to AncSR2 to promote receptor activation. (PDF)
Data
The reconstructed sequence of AncSR2. (PDF)
Data
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Percent similarity of the ligand-binding domains of AncSR1 and AncSR2 to those of extant steroid receptors in humans. (PDF)
Data
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Representative dose activation curves of AncSR2 in response to cholesterol and a library of hormones (#0-23). (PDF)
Data
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Sensitivities of extant human receptors to an estrogen, androgen, progestagen, and corticosteroid. (PDF)
Data
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Unreduced ML steroid receptor phylogeny based on alignment of 213 steroid receptors and related sequences used to reconstruct AncSR1. (PDF)
Data
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Data collection and refinement statistics for the AncSR2 crystal structure in complex with 11-DOC and progesterone. (PDF)
Data
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List of receptors and the organisms they were isolated from used in this study. (PDF)
Data
Histogram of distribution of posterior probabilities for AncSR2 and posterior probabilities of amino acid residues lining the binding pocket. (PDF)
Data
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The specificity of AncSR1 is robust to uncertainty in the reconstruction. (PDF)
Data
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The specificity of AncSR2 is robust to uncertainty in the reconstruction. (PDF)
Data
Activation of the estrogen receptor ligand binding domains of two annelids and human ERα. (PDF)
Data
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AncSR2 is not activated by the nonsteroidal ER agonists diethylstilbestrol and genistein and is not inhibited by ICI182870 and 4-hydroxytamoxifen. (PDF)
Data
Unreduced 184-taxon steroid receptor gene duplication phylogeny. (PDF)
Data
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The reconstructed sequence of AncSR1. (PDF)
Data
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Fold preferences of AncSR1 and AncSR2 for the hormone pairs indicated in Figure 2. (PDF)
Data
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Comparison of the sequence of AncSR2 as reconstructed on the ML phylogeny and gene duplication phylogeny. (PDF)
Data
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Histogram of distribution of posterior probabilities for AncSR1 and posterior probabilities of amino acid residues lining the binding pocket. (PDF)
Data
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Representative dose activation curves of AncSR1 in response to cholesterol and a library of hormones (#0-23). (PDF)
Data
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Pubmed compound identifier (CID) numbers for cholesterol and the synthetic and natural steroid hormones tested in this study. (PDF)
Article
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Most proteins are regulated by physical interactions with other molecules; some are highly specific, but others interact with many partners. Despite much speculation, we know little about how and why specificity/promiscuity evolves in natural proteins. It is widely assumed that specific proteins evolved from more promiscuous ancient forms and that...
Article
Full-text available
Chiroptera, the second largest order of mammals, comprises more than 1,000 species in 18 highly morphologically diverse families. Chromosome painting with human probes has been applied to 10 bat species from 8 families. Except for the combination 10/12pq/22q, all syntenic segmental associations proposed for the mammalian ancestor have been found in...
Article
Members of the steroid hormone receptor (SR) family activate transcription from different DNA response elements and are regulated by distinct hormonal ligands. Understanding the evolutionary process by which this diversity arose can provide insight into how and why SRs function as they do. Here we review the characteristics of the ancient receptor...
Data
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Sites in NR alignment classified by evolutionary rate. (1.10 MB PDF)
Data
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Profile of lipids associated with AqNR1, detected using mass spectrometry. (0.65 MB PDF)
Data
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Reconstruction of ancestral structural and functional characters on an alternate NR phylogeny. (0.58 MB PDF)
Data
Key to nuclear receptor nomenclature. (0.44 MB PDF)
Data
Expression of AqNR1 and AqNR2 during sponge development, visualized using in situ hybridization. (0.49 MB PDF)
Data
Maximum likelihood NR phylogeny with fast-evolving sites removed. (0.81 MB PDF)
Data
Mutations known to cause constitutive activity in liganded NRs or ligand-activation in constitutive receptors. (0.18 MB PDF)
Data
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Cavity volumes of modeled nuclear receptors using different templates (0.75 MB PDF)
Data
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Protein data bank accession numbers for structures referred to in the text. (0.30 MB PDF)
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Maximum likelihood phylogeny of the nuclear receptor superfamily. (0.33 MB PDF)
Data
Phylogeny of the nuclear receptor family inferred using Bayesian MCMC. (1.24 MB PDF)
Data
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Maximum likelihood NR phylogeny on a dataset with reduced taxon sampling. (0.68 MB PDF)
Data
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Next-best phylogenetic arrangement of the basal split between sponge NR paralogs. (0.61 MB PDF)
Data
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Reconstruction of NR ligand-binding and evolution if AncNR is assumed to have been a ligand-independent activator. (0.54 MB PDF)
Data
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Species, taxonomic classification, abbreviations, and accession numbers of NR sequences used in phylogenetic analyses. (2.00 MB PDF)
Data
Protein structures and ligands used for calculating cavity volumes. (0.53 MB PDF)
Article
Full-text available
Author Summary Many protein families are so diverse that it is hard to determine their ancestral functions and to understand how their derived functions evolved. The existence of so many different functions within protein families often creates the impression that complex, novel functions must have evolved repeatedly and independently. Nuclear rece...
Article
Six species of gall midge are described from Australian acacias. Asphondylia bursicola Kolesik sp.n. and A. occidentalis Kolesik sp.n. form galls on fruit; A. germinis Kolesik sp.n., A. pilogerminis Kolesik sp.n. and A. glabrigerminis Kolesik sp.n. induce severe deformation of flower buds; and A. acaciae Kolesik sp.n. causes galls on both fruit and...