Paper by Levitis '99 Sparks Article
Daniel Levitis '99 co-wrote a paper on the connection between meiosis and failed pregnancy that was published in The Royal Society. His research was also the subject of a Phys.org article.
The Phys.org article, "Pregnancy loss and the evolution of sex are linked by cellular line dance," drew heavily from Levitis' work ("Is meiosis a fundamental cause of inviability among sexual and asexual plants and animals?" and also included an interview in which Levitis spoke about his work.
In his paper, Levitis tackled the question, "why [is] pregnancy loss is so common?" His hypothesis was that failed pregnancies might be related to a process called meiosis.
Levitis "describes meiosis as an intricate cellular line dance, one that mixes up chromosomes to reshuffle genes. This rearrangement helps create offspring that are different from their parents, offspring that might be better equipped to survive in a changing world....But meiosis is also one of the most complex processes that cells undergo, and a lot can go wrong as chromosomes tangle and untangle themselves. Levitis figured that this complexity might lead to problems creating healthy progeny."
Phys.org is "a leading web-based science, research and technology news service which covers a full range of topics." They offer "some of the most comprehensive coverage of sci-tech developments world-wide."
According to their mission statement, the Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. The Society’s fundamental purpose, reflected in its founding Charters of the 1660s, is to recognize, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.