I am a broadly trained biological anthropologist whose research focuses on human variation in health and how evolutionarily novel factors shape human biology. Since 2007, I have conducted fieldwork in Amazonian Ecuador as research coordinator of the Shuar Health and Life History Project. The project focuses on a number of different dimensions of health, subsistence, economy, and demography among the Shuar forager-horticulturalists. Many Shuar, as is common in developing regions, are currently experiecing rapid integration into a market economy. My research documents the biological consequences of this transition while highlighting the ways in which local ecological conditions shape Shuar life history. My work has implications for the evolution of health and disease and allows for a better understanding of chronic disease risk in industrialized countries. Moreover, I am interested in the mechanisms that support the role that early developmental life plays in shaping adult health.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (beginning with most recent)
Madimenos FC,
Liebert MA, Cepon-Robins TJ, Urlacher SS, Snodgrass JJ, Sugiyama LS,
Stieglitz J. 2019. Disparities in bone density among contemporary
Amazonian forager-horticulturalists: Cross-population comparison of the
Tsimane and Shuar. Am J Phys Anthropol.
Cepon-Robins, TJ, Gildner TE, Schrock J, Eick G, Bedbury A, Liebert M, Urlacher SS, Madimenos FC, Harrington CJ, Amir D, Bribiescas RG, Sugiyama LS, Snodgrass JJ. 2019. Soil-transmitted helminth infection and intestinal inflammation among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador. Am J Phys Anthropol (in press). doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23897.
Christopher L, Madimenos FC, Bribiescas RG, Urlacher SS, Snodgrass JJ, Sugiyama LS, Pontzer H. 2019. High energy requirements and water throughput of adult Shuar forager-horticulturalists of Amazonian Ecuador. Am J Hum Biol (PDF)
Cepon-Robins, TJ, Gildner TE, Schrock J, Eick G, Bedbury A, Liebert M, Urlacher SS, Madimenos FC, Harrington CJ, Amir D, Bribiescas RG, Sugiyama LS, Snodgrass JJ. 2019. Soil-transmitted helminth infection and intestinal inflammation among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador. Am J Phys Anthropol (in press). doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23897.
Christopher L, Madimenos FC, Bribiescas RG, Urlacher SS, Snodgrass JJ, Sugiyama LS, Pontzer H. 2019. High energy requirements and water throughput of adult Shuar forager-horticulturalists of Amazonian Ecuador. Am J Hum Biol (PDF)
Stagaman K, Cepon-Robins TJ, Liebert MA, Gildner TE, Urlacher SS, Madimenos FC,
Guillemin K, Snodgrass JJ, Sugiyama LS, Bohannan BJ. 2018. Market
integration predicts human gut microbiome attributes across a gradient
of economic development. Msystems 3(1):e00122-17; DOI: 10.1128/mSystems.00122-17. (PDF)
Gerber
LM and Madimenos FC.
2016. Bone health in midlife women. In Biological measures of human
experience across the lifespan: making visible the invisible. (Editors)
LL Sievert and DE Brown. Springer Press. Pg 255-273. (PDF)
Gildner
TE, Cepon-Robins TJ, Liebert MA, Urlacher SS, Madimenos FC,
Snodgrass JJ, Sugiyama LS. 2016. Regional variation in Ascaris
lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura infections by age cohort and sex:
effects of market integration among the indigenous Shuar of Amazonian
Ecuador. J Physiol
Anthropol 35:28-38. (PDF)
Stieglitz
J, Madimenos FC,
Kaplan H, Gurven M. 2016. Calcaneal
quantitative ultrasound indicates reduced bone status among physically
active adult forager-horticulturalists. Bone Miner Res 31(3):663-671. (PDF)
Urlacher
SS, Liebert MA, Snodgrass JJ, Blackwell AD, Cepon-Robins TJ, Gildner
TE, Madimenos FC,
Amir D, Bribiescas RG, Sugiyama LS. 2016. Heterogeneous effects of
market integration on subadult body size and nutritional status among
the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador. Ann
Hum Biol 43:316-329. (PDF)
Madimenos
FC. 2015. An evolutionary and life history perspective on
osteoporosis. Ann Rev
Anthropol 44:189-206. (LINK)
Madimenos
FC, Liebert MA, Cepon TJ, Snodgrass JJ, Sugiyama
LS. 2015. Determining
osteoporosis risk in older Colono
adults from rural Amazonian Ecuador using calcaneal ultrasonometry. Am J Hum Biol
27: 139–142. (PDF)
Stieglitz
J, Beheim BA, Trumble BC, Madimenos
FC, Kaplan H, and Gurven M. 2015. Low mineral
density of a weight-bearing bone among adult women in a
high fertility population. Am
J Phys
Anthropol 156:637-648.
(PDF)
Cepon-Robins
TJ, Liebert MA, Gildner TE, Urlacher SS, Colehour AM,
Snodgrass JJ, Madimenos
FC, Sugiyama LS. 2014. Soil-transmitted helminth
prevalence and infection intensity among geographically and
economically
distinct Shuar communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. J Parasitol
100(5):598-607.
(PDF)
Liebert
MA, Snodgrass JJ, Blackwell AD, Madimenos
FC, Sugiyama LS. 2013. The effects of market integration
on blood pressure, glucose,
cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in an indigenous lowland
Ecuadorian
population. Ann Hum Biol
40(3):228-242.
Recipient
of the Nick Norgan Award for
best paper published in 2013. (PDF)
Madimenos FC,
Snodgrass JJ, Liebert MA, Cepon TJ, and Sugiyama LS.
Reproductive effects on skeletal health in Shuar women of Amazonian
Ecuador: a life history perspective. 2012. Am J Hum Biol
24(6):841-852. (PDF)
McDade
TW, Tallman P, Madimenos
FC, Liebert MA, Cepon TJ, Sugiyama LS, Snodgrass JJ. 2012.
Analysis of biovariability of high sensitivity C-reactive protein in
lowland Ecuador reveals no evidence of chronic low-grade inflammation. Am J Hum Biol
24(5):675-681. (PDF)
Madimenos FC,
Snodgrass JJ, Blackwell AB, Liebert MA, Sugiyama LS. 2011. Physical
activity in an indigenous Ecuadorian forager-horticulturalist
population as measured using accelerometry. Am J Hum Biol 23(4):488-497.
(PDF)
Madimenos FC,
Snodgrass JJ, Blackwell AB, Liebert MA, Cepon TJ, Sugiyama LS.
2011. Normative calcaneal quantitative ultrasound data for
the indigenous Shuar and non-Shuar Colonos of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Archives of Osteoporos
6:39-49. (PDF)
Blackwell
AD, Gurven MD, Sugiyama LS, Madimenos
FC, Liebert MA, Martin MA, Kaplan HS, Snodgrass
JJ. 2011. Evidence for a peak shift in a humoral response to helminths:
Age profiles of IgE in the Shuar of Ecuador, the Tsimane of Bolivia,
and the U.S. NHANES. PLoS
Neglect Trop D 5: e1218. (PDF)
Blackwell
AD, Snodgrass, JJ, Madimenos
FC, Sugiyama LS. 2010. Life history, immune function, and
intestinal helminths: Trade-offs among immunoglobulin E, C-reactive
protein, and growth in an Amazonian population. Am J Hum Biol 22(6):836-848.
(PDF)
Nelson
GC, Madimenos FC.
2010. Obelionic cranial deformation in the Puebloan Southwest. Am J
Phys Anthropol 143(3):465-472. (PDF)