Evolution of Infectious Diseases

Catalog description

Infectious diseases have been adapting to humans for as long as we have been organized into communities - from small agricultural ones to the megacities of the twenty-first century. Malaria, tuberculosis, and plague shaped important aspects of human history. And modern emerging pathogens like Zika, Ebola, avian influenza, and coronaviruses have shaped public health opinion and a new global response to the potential threat of deadly pandemics. This course will explore how infectious diseases adapt to and evolve in humans and human societies. Major topics covered will include how infectious diseases jump from animals to humans, how pathogens are forced into a race with the human immune system, why some diseases evolve to be benign and others deadly, and how pathogens evolve in response to human interventions like vaccination and drug treatment. Examples covered in this course will include influenza, malaria, HIV, dengue virus, and enteric infections. Students will learn the evolutionary principles underlying the constantly shifting relationship between these pathogens and their human hosts and will explore the basics of molecular evolution and phylogenetic tree interpretation. An understanding of basic concepts in evolution and population genetics is expected.