BIOL 354: The Ecology & Evolution of Infectious Diseases

The ecology and evolution of infectious diseases encompasses interactions among hosts, pathogens and parasites, and their environments. Disease emergence, including zoonotic diseases spread from wildlife to humans, is increasing with ecological change. Thus, prediction and prevention of disease outbreaks depend on understanding not only human and veterinary medicine, but also the ecological and evolutionary framework. Students will be given an overview of the variety and ubiquity of disease systems, and introduced to conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of disease causation, transmission, emergence, management, and host-parasite coevolution. Because the field is highly interdisciplinary, we will study basic principles of comparative and ecological immunology, parasitology, microbial ecology, epidemiology and spatial modeling, genetics and genomics, and current methodological approaches to disease ecology research in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial systems. This course includes a strong writing component, as well as team projects and student-led discussions of primary literature. Students involved in disease-related research may choose to utilize assignments to advance their research goals.