Contact Information
607 S. Matthews Ave.
M/C 148
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Hours
Research Interests
Evolution of primate immunity, innate immunity, severe bacterial infections, sepsis, plague, Toxoplasma, host-pathogen interactions, immunogenomics, evolutionary medicine
Research Description
My research addresses the physiological consequences of the human experience and evolutionary past, particularly those that affect innate immune system function. Current projects focus on the functional divergence and diversification of primate immune systems, how past epidemics affect present day immune function diversity and how life experienceaffects the innate immune response.
Education
2012, PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center, Anthropology
Awards and Honors
2013-2015 Quebec Network of Applied Genetic Medicine (RGMA) Fellow
Courses Taught
ANTH 241 - Human Variation and Race
ANTH 499 - Topics in Anthropology (Evolution and Ecology of Immune Systems)/Evolutionary Immunology
ANTH 249 - Evolution and Human Disease
ANTH 499 - Topics in Anthropology (Anthropological Functional Genomics lab)
ANTH 499 - Topics in Anthropology (Anthropological Functional Genomics lab)
ANTH 499 - Topics in Anthropology (Anthropological Functional Genomics lab)
Additional Campus Affiliations
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
External Links
Recent Publications
Brinkworth, J. F., & Valizadegan, N. (2021). Sepsis and the evolution of human increased sensitivity to lipopolysaccharide. Evolutionary anthropology, 30(2), 141-157. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21887
Hawash, M. B. F., Sanz-Remón, J., Grenier, J. C., Kohn, J., Yotova, V., Johnson, Z., Lanford, R. E., Brinkworth, J. F., & Barreiro, L. B. (2021). Primate innate immune responses to bacterial and viral pathogens reveals an evolutionary trade-off between strength and specificity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(13), [2015855118]. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.2015855118
Brinkworth, J. F., & Alvarado, A. S. (2020). Cell-Autonomous Immunity and The Pathogen-Mediated Evolution of Humans: Or How Our Prokaryotic and Single-Celled Origins Affect The Human Evolutionary Story. Quarterly Review of Biology, 95(3), 215-246. https://doi.org/10.1086/710389
Brinkworth, J. F., & Babbitt, C. C. (2018). Immune system promiscuity in human and nonhuman primate evolution. Human biology, 90(4), 251-269. https://doi.org/10.13110/humanbiology.90.4.01
Gassen, J., Prokosch, M. L., Makhanova, A., Eimerbrink, M. J., White, J. D., Proffitt Leyva, R. P., Peterman, J. L., Nicolas, S. C., Reynolds, T. A., Maner, J. K., McNulty, J. K., Eckel, L. A., Nikonova, L., Brinkworth, J. F., Phillips, M. D., Mitchell, J. B., Boehm, G. W., & Hill, S. E. (2018). Behavioral immune system activity predicts downregulation of chronic basal inflammation. PloS one, 13(9), [e0203961]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203961