When most of us consider the driving forces of cancer, not many of us would consider evolution to be one of them. PUP Speaks speaker Athena Aktipis, author of The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer, originally thought of cancer as simply a disease, separate from other more social organisms. It wasn鈥檛 until she began her research that Aktipis realized that not only is cancer a living and ever evolving entity, but it is evolution itself that has paved the way for cancer鈥檚 ubiquity. In this video Aktipis asserts that this knowledge is crucial to creating treatment that鈥檚 smarter, more strategic, and more humane.
For more information about engaging our speakers, please email our PUP Speaks team at pupspeaks@press.princeton.edu
Professor Athena Aktipis is a cooperation theorist, evolutionary biologist and social psychologist working at the intersection of these fields. She is the director of the at Arizona State University and co-director of , the first large-scale transdisciplinary project to investigate the interrelationship between biological and cultural influences on human generosity.