A scientific pioneer in the field of bio-inspired medicine, Dr. Natterson-Horowitz leads audiences on a fascinating journey as she shares her research on what giraffes, lions, pandas, and other animals can teach us about how our minds and bodies work. Widely celebrated for redefining the boundaries of medicine, she advocates a species-spanning approach that recognizes the natural world as an untapped source of insights for human health.

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A Harvard evolutionary biologist and UCLA cardiologist, Dr. Natterson-Horowitz coined the term Zoobiquity, which recognizes that virtually every condition that strikes people occurs in animals, too. By unraveling our evolutionary past, her research illuminates why animals, including the human variety, get sick—and reveals clues to new treatments for becoming and staying healthy. 

 

Her latest studies aim the Zoobiquity lens at women’s health and mental health, discovering new solutions to challenges like heart failure, infertility and breast cancer, as well as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. 

 

In 2011, Natterson-Horowitz hosted the first Zoobiquity conference, inviting the world’s top experts in human and animal health to tackle universal medical problems together. Its success blossomed into a dozen annual meetings in the U.S. and overseas, including a 2019 Zoobiquity event before the Nobel Conference in Stockholm. Natterson-Horowitz was invited to deliver the meeting’s keynote address on bio-inspired medicine to members of the Nobel Assembly, the group responsible for selecting the Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine.

 

Reaction to her bestselling books, Zoobiquity and Wildhood, led to global speaking engagements, a popular TED Talk, and interviews with media around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air,” Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Scientific American, New Scientist, Der Spiegel and more. 

 

Natterson-Horowitz is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and founder of the Evolutionary Medicine program at UCLA. She is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Harvard's Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. 

 

Natterson-Horowitz directs the Board on Animal Health Sciences, Conservation and Research for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She is a commissioner on the Lancet One Health Commission and past president of the International Society for Evolution, Medicine and Public Health. She serves as a cardiovascular consultant on the medical advisory board of the Los Angeles Zoo.