Biology 350 - SEM: TOPICS IN MOLECULAR BIO

Topics course. Application of New Molecular Technologies to the Study of Infectious Disease The focus of this seminar will be on the study of newly emerging infectious diseases that are of great concern in the public health community. The bird flu (H5N1) is currently causing the greatest apprehension, however, the spread of diseases such as SARS, Ebola, Dengue Fever, West Nile, malaria and many others is also a worrisome trend. What can we learn from the great pandemics of the past (the great influenza of 1918, the Black Death of the Middle Ages, the typhus epidemic of 1914-1921, and others?) How can modern biotechnology be applied to the development of new drugs and vaccines to prevent such pandemics in the future? In addition to natural infections, we now must also be concerned with rare diseases such as anthrax and smallpox that may be introduced to large populations by bioterrorism. The challenges are great but new tools of molecular biology (genomics, proteomics, RNA interference, microarrays and others) provide unprecedented opportunity to understand infectious diseases and to develop new strategies for their elimination. Prerequisite: BIO 152 or permission of the instructor.

Topic: Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases: Application of New Molecular Technologies to the Study of Infectious Disease. Instructor Permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores