Infectious disease in a sexual world Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology

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Why does the same infection kill some individuals but not others? This variation has profound implications for treatment strategies and disease management. Heterogeneity between host individuals is prevalent, and sex differences are an important part of that. Sex differences in the risk of being infected, and in how severe infections can be, occur across the animal kingdom. I will use examples from my research to show that the differences between sexes can be seen with a host-centric view (i.e. males and females have specific optimal strategies and therefore have finely tuned functions that lead to major differences in outcomes) but also with a pathogen-centric view (i.e. how being inside a male vs a female host affects pathogen activity and evolution). By the end of this talk, you'll see why ignoring sex differences means missing half the story—for both the host and the parasite.