Steven A Frank

Summary

Affiliation: University of California
Country: USA

Publications

  1. ncbi Immune response to parasitic attack: evolution of a pulsed character
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 219:281-90. 2002
  2. ncbi Genetic variation in cancer predisposition: mutational decay of a robust genetic control network
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:8061-5. 2004
  3. ncbi A multistage theory of age-specific acceleration in human mortality
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525 USA
    BMC Biol 2:16. 2004
  4. ncbi Microbial Evolution: Regulatory Design Prevents Cancer-like Overgrowths
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA Electronic address
    Curr Biol 23:R343-6. 2013
  5. ncbi Natural selection. VI. Partitioning the information in fitness and characters by path analysis
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 26:457-71. 2013
  6. ncbi Natural selection. V. How to read the fundamental equations of evolutionary change in terms of information theory
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 25:2377-96. 2012
  7. ncbi Evolution: mitochondrial burden on male health
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    Curr Biol 22:R797-9. 2012
  8. ncbi Natural selection. IV. The Price equation
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    J Evol Biol 25:1002-19. 2012
  9. ncbi Nonheritable cellular variability accelerates the evolutionary processes of cancer
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, United States of America
    PLoS Biol 10:e1001296. 2012
  10. ncbi Natural selection. III. Selection versus transmission and the levels of selection
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    J Evol Biol 25:227-43. 2012

Detail Information

Publications55

  1. ncbi Immune response to parasitic attack: evolution of a pulsed character
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 219:281-90. 2002
    ..The example of host immune response to parasitic attack is used to develop the theory...
  2. ncbi Genetic variation in cancer predisposition: mutational decay of a robust genetic control network
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:8061-5. 2004
    ..An extra buffering component's net contribution to survival and reproduction is often small...
  3. ncbi A multistage theory of age-specific acceleration in human mortality
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525 USA
    BMC Biol 2:16. 2004
    ..Here, I examine mortality patterns separately for each of the leading causes of death. The different causes of death show distinct mortality patterns, providing some clues about the varying acceleration of mortality at different ages...
  4. ncbi Microbial Evolution: Regulatory Design Prevents Cancer-like Overgrowths
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA Electronic address
    Curr Biol 23:R343-6. 2013
    ..Theory predicts that microbial regulatory controls may be designed to limit the origin and competitive potential of rogue lineages. A new study shows how a Salmonella species protects itself against overgrowths...
  5. ncbi Natural selection. VI. Partitioning the information in fitness and characters by path analysis
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 26:457-71. 2013
    ..Kin selection appears as a particular type of causal analysis that partitions social effects into meaningful components...
  6. ncbi Natural selection. V. How to read the fundamental equations of evolutionary change in terms of information theory
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 25:2377-96. 2012
    ..We can now read the equations of selection in terms of their natural meaning. Selection causes populations to accumulate information about the environment...
  7. ncbi Evolution: mitochondrial burden on male health
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    Curr Biol 22:R797-9. 2012
    ..Is there a common cause for this burden on male health? Recent work supports the theory that the female transmission of mitochondria disproportionately increases the mutation load in males...
  8. ncbi Natural selection. IV. The Price equation
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    J Evol Biol 25:1002-19. 2012
    ..I discuss recent critiques of the Price equation by Nowak and van Veelen...
  9. ncbi Nonheritable cellular variability accelerates the evolutionary processes of cancer
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California, United States of America
    PLoS Biol 10:e1001296. 2012
    ..New approaches to drug design may be required to control nonheritable variability and the evolution of resistance to chemotherapy...
  10. ncbi Natural selection. III. Selection versus transmission and the levels of selection
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    J Evol Biol 25:227-43. 2012
    ..The insights from these diverse applications lead to a deeper understanding of kin selection, group selection, multilevel evolutionary analysis and the philosophical problems of evolutionary units and individuality...
  11. ncbi Natural selection maximizes Fisher information
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
    J Evol Biol 22:231-44. 2009
    ..Finally, I discuss possible connections between the fundamental role of Fisher information in statistics, biology and other fields of science...
  12. ncbi The common patterns of nature
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 22:1563-85. 2009
    ....
  13. ncbi Evolutionary dynamics of redundant regulatory control
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 255:64-8. 2008
    ..I conclude that the costs of control structures may influence regulatory architecture...
  14. ncbi Mechanisms of pathogenesis and the evolution of parasite virulence
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
    J Evol Biol 21:396-404. 2008
    ..In our view, relating the sensitivity of pathogenic mechanisms to fitness components will provide a way to build a much richer and more general theory of parasite virulence...
  15. ncbi Barriers to antigenic escape by pathogens: trade-off between reproductive rate and antigenic mutability
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    BMC Evol Biol 7:229. 2007
    ..Both measles and influenza are RNA viruses with high mutation rates, so the mutation rate alone cannot explain the differences in antigenic variability...
  16. ncbi Maladaptation and the paradox of robustness in evolution
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America
    PLoS ONE 2:e1021. 2007
    ..Such buffering mechanisms are often discussed in terms of robustness, which may be measured by reduced sensitivity of performance to perturbations...
  17. ncbi Within-host dynamics of antigenic variation
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Infect Genet Evol 6:141-6. 2006
    ..We illustrate the concept of connectivity pathways by reanalysis of data on transitions between variants from Borrelia hermsii...
  18. ncbi Kinetics of cancer: a method to test hypotheses of genetic causation
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    BMC Cancer 5:163. 2005
    ..We use our method to demonstrate a clear association between somatic mutation rates of different DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genotypes and the kinetics of cancer progression...
  19. ncbi Demography and the tragedy of the commons
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA, and Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
    J Evol Biol 23:32-9. 2010
    ..I conclude that analyses of sociality must account for both the behavioural associations of kin selection theory and the demographic consequences of life history theory...
  20. ncbi A general model of the public goods dilemma
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 23:1245-50. 2010
    ..Given the widespread importance of public goods, better models and tests would greatly deepen our understanding of many processes in biology and sociality...
  21. ncbi Within-host spatial dynamics of viruses and defective interfering particles
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 206:279-90. 2000
    ..At higher replacement rates for host cells, nearly all cells become infected by DI particles and a low level of fluctuating, wild-type viremia persists...
  22. ncbi Natural selection. I. Variable environments and uncertain returns on investment
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 24:2299-309. 2011
    ..The biological understanding of relative success and the hierarchical structure of variability in populations may also contribute to a deeper economic theory of returns under uncertainty...
  23. ncbi Natural selection. II. Developmental variability and evolutionary rate
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 24:2310-20. 2011
    ..This initial survival advantage arises from the way in which developmental variability smooths and broadens the fitness landscape. Ultimately, the synergism between developmental processes and genetic variation sets evolutionary rate...
  24. ncbi Pathology from evolutionary conflict, with a theory of X chromosome versus autosome conflict over sexually antagonistic traits
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:10886-93. 2011
    ..Rapid evolution of conflicting X-linked and autosomal genes may cause divergence between populations and speciation...
  25. ncbi Measurement scale in maximum entropy models of species abundance
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
    J Evol Biol 24:485-96. 2011
    ..This measurement approach can be applied to the similar problem of allelic diversity in population genetics and to a wide variety of other patterns in biology...
  26. ncbi A simple derivation and classification of common probability distributions based on information symmetry and measurement scale
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
    J Evol Biol 24:469-84. 2011
    ..This view presents a fundamentally derived alternative to the largely unproductive debates about neutrality in ecology and evolution...
  27. ncbi Microbial secretor-cheater dynamics
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 365:2515-22. 2010
    ....
  28. ncbi The trade-off between rate and yield in the design of microbial metabolism
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 23:609-13. 2010
    ....
  29. ncbi Age-specific incidence of inherited versus sporadic cancers: a test of the multistage theory of carcinogenesis
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102:1071-5. 2005
    ..My simpler theory for retinoblastoma makes clear the common basis for understanding multistage progression in tissues as different as the retina and colon...
  30. ncbi Genetic predisposition to cancer - insights from population genetics
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 2525, USA
    Nat Rev Genet 5:764-72. 2004
    ..Recent genetic studies and quantitative population-genetic analyses provide a framework for understanding the frequency of inherited mutations and the consequences of these mutations for increased predisposition to cancer...
  31. ncbi Programmed cell death and hybrid incompatibility
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Hered 94:181-3. 2003
    ..We propose that hybrid misregulation of programmed cell death may also spill over into other tissues, explaining various developmental aberrations observed in hybrids...
  32. ncbi Patterns of cell division and the risk of cancer
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 2525, USA
    Genetics 163:1527-32. 2003
    ....
  33. ncbi Somatic mutation: early cancer steps depend on tissue architecture
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Curr Biol 13:R261-3. 2003
    ..Cells progress from a normal to a cancerous state by accumulating mutations. Recent mathematical studies show how the size of the cellular population in a local patch of tissue influences the spread of cancer-promoting mutations...
  34. ncbi Cell biology: Developmental predisposition to cancer
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-2525, USA
    Nature 422:494. 2003
  35. ncbi The probability of severe disease in zoonotic and commensal infections
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Biol Sci 268:53-60. 2001
    ....
  36. ncbi Multiplicity of infection and the evolution of hybrid incompatibility in segmented viruses
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Heredity (Edinb) 87:522-9. 2001
    ..Variable ploidy of viral genetics differs from standard Mendelian genetics...
  37. ncbi Specific and non-specific defense against parasitic attack
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 202:283-304. 2000
    ..This leads to an apparent advantage of specifically defended hosts in the absence of parasites and a measured cost of resistance that is negative...
  38. ncbi Inducible defence and the social evolution of herd immunity
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Biol Sci 265:1911-3. 1998
    ..The evolutionary models presented here therefore provide a basis for further study of human vaccination...
  39. ncbi Multivariate analysis of correlated selection and kin selection, with an ESS maximization method
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 189:307-16. 1997
    ..I emphasize a simple, practical maximization method that can be used to calculate equilibrium conditions for complex social interactions...
  40. ncbi Developmental selection and self-organization
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine 92697 2525, USA
    Biosystems 40:237-43. 1997
    ..The identification of useful aggregate measures is a crucial step in the analysis of selective systems. I apply these concepts to a model of self-organization in ant colonies...
  41. ncbi The design of adaptive systems: optimal parameters for variation and selection in learning and development
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 184:31-9. 1997
    ..These ideas are applied to a model of honey bee foraging. This example clarifies the relation between genes and phenotypes controlled by internal selective systems...
  42. ncbi Perspective: repression of competition and the evolution of cooperation
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 2525, USA
    Evolution 57:693-705. 2003
    ..With the concepts made clear, I then explain the history of the idea. I finish by summarizing many new developments in this subject and the most promising lines for future study...
  43. ncbi Somatic mosaicism and cancer: inference based on a conditional Luria-Delbrück distribution
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Theor Biol 223:405-12. 2003
    ..These sorts of studies will contribute to a broader understanding of the distribution of somatic mutations, a central topic in the study of cancer...
  44. ncbi Commentary: Mathematical models of cancer progression and epidemiology in the age of high throughput genomics
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA
    Int J Epidemiol 33:1179-81. 2004
  45. ncbi Problems of somatic mutation and cancer
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine CA 92717, USA
    Bioessays 26:291-9. 2004
    ..We consider how various aspects of tissue architecture and cellular competition affect the pace of mutation accumulation. We also discuss the rise and fall of somatic mutation rates during cancer progression...
  46. ncbi Age-specific acceleration of cancer
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
    Curr Biol 14:242-6. 2004
    ..In a second application, I demonstrate that the steady decline in age-specific acceleration of breast cancer may occur because precancerous mutations accumulate in many cellular lineages...
  47. ncbi Genetic variation of polygenic characters and the evolution of genetic degeneracy
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    J Evol Biol 16:138-42. 2003
    ..Besides changing the patterns of variance, the averaging model favours the addition of loci to the control of character values, perhaps explaining in part the recent observation of widespread genetic degeneracy...
  48. ncbi Evolution in health and medicine Sackler colloquium: Somatic evolutionary genomics: mutations during development cause highly variable genetic mosaicism with risk of cancer and neurodegeneration
    Steven A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525, USA
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107:1725-30. 2010
    ..Somatic evolutionary genomics will follow from this technology, providing new insight into the origin and progression of disease with increasing age...
  49. ncbi Quantifying interhospital patient sharing as a mechanism for infectious disease spread
    Susan S Huang
    Division of Infectious Diseases and Health Policy Research Institute, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA
    Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 31:1160-9. 2010
    ..Assessments of infectious disease spread in hospitals seldom account for interfacility patient sharing. This is particularly important for pathogens with prolonged incubation periods or carrier states...
  50. ncbi Population and quantitative genetics of regulatory networks
    S A Frank
    Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 2525
    J Theor Biol 197:281-94. 1999
    ..The lower heritability of highly connected nets appeared to reduce the effectiveness of recombination in searching evolutionary space...
  51. ncbi Pathogen escape from host immunity by a genome program for antigenic variation
    Alan G Barbour
    Department of Microbiology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 4028, USA
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:18290-5. 2006
    ..Although the switching hierarchy causes changes in individual cells that are stochastic, ordering of variants within hosts is semipredictable...
  52. ncbi Somatic selection for and against cancer
    Franziska Michor
    Program in Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Dynamics, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
    J Theor Biol 225:377-82. 2003
    ..If both deleterious and advantageous mutations participate in tumor initiation, then we find an intermediate optimum for the compartment size...
  53. ncbi Stochastic elimination of cancer cells
    Franziska Michor
    Institute for Theoretical Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
    Proc Biol Sci 270:2017-24. 2003
    ..We calculate the optimum relative abundance of stem cells that minimizes the rate of generating cancer cells. There is a critical fraction of stem cell divisions that is required for a stochastic elimination ('wash out') of cancer cells...
  54. ncbi Pathogenesis, virulence, and infective dose
    Paul Schmid-Hempel
    Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
    PLoS Pathog 3:1372-3. 2007
  55. ncbi Viral genetics: deadly partnerships
    Steven A Frank
    Nature 425:251-2. 2003