About Barbara

Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz is a leading cardiologist and evolutionary biologist at UCLA whose unique work connects human medicine with animal health. She holds positions as a professor in both the School of Medicine and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, channeling the perspective of Charles Darwin into medical debates. She believes that many human conditions—from anxiety and heart disease to eating disorders—have similar versions in other species, like gorillas and lions. This approach is called Zoobiquity, and it means that veterinarians and physicians can learn from one another. Barbara sometimes takes her medical knowledge to the Los Angeles Zoo to treat animals, and she also brings veterinarians into discussions at the UCLA Medical Center to discuss human cases. To promote this shared learning, she co-authored the best-selling book, Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health in 2012. She also co-founded the Zoobiquity Conferences, which are educational meetings designed to bring doctors and vets together for species-spanning collaboration. Her later work, the book Wildhood (2019), explores how both human and animal adolescents navigate the difficult path from being young to becoming independent adults. Her research helps doctors and scientists gain a much wider, clearer view of how all life on Earth shares health challenges.