Title: “From field fiascos to fitness frenzies: a misanthropologist’s guide to genetics”

First, I’ll dive into the trials and tribulations of doing field work in Argentina, while sprinkling in real facts about yellow fever virus resistance genetic evolution across primates. I had to work with the Argentinian government and park rangers to obtain permits to find and collect feces from a group of howler monkeys that hadn’t been seen in 5 years and were presumed … dead. All of this hard work did pay off though; I found the howler monkeys and discovered a genetic variant that might be the key to yellow fever virus resistance.

Second, I’ll talk about how my background led me to my current career starting a genetically informed personal training company and how your genes can tell you about the most effective way you should be working out!

Dr. Torosin has a PhD in genetic anthropology from the University of Utah where she studied the evolution of yellow fever virus resistance. After doing her postdoc at Rutgers University, she worked at a startup studying epigenetics and longevity. Finally, being too burned out to function, she spent 6 weeks in Thailand and came back with the crazy idea to start a genetically informed personal training business. Trying to make this work now takes the majority of her time.