BIOL 368 (NJIT) and 28:120:368 (Rutgers)
Ecology and Evolution of Disease
Fall 2008
Introduction
Ecology and Evolution of Disease addresses those aspects of ecology and evolutionary biology most relevant to understanding the origin, dynamics and treatment of disease (both infectious and hereditary/genetic). The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion of case studies, including topics of current interest. Material covered will include biology, mathematical models, and some aspects of human behavior.
This course is aimed squarely at pre-med students, including those in the Accelerated Programs, although it is open to all with the necessary biology background.
Course details
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: General Biology I and II (or equivalent with permission). These are required courses for all Biology majors. The basics of cell biology and genetics are absolutely necessary, as is a basic ability in mathematics so that model formulations can be followed. Calculus I is strongly recommended.
Schedule: Class meets Tuesday and Thursday, 11:30 to 12:55, in 207 FMH (Faculty Memorial Hall) on the NJIT campus.
Office hours: After class on Thursdays, or by appointment.
Grading and exams
There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final, and at least one in-class quiz. The grading will be as follows:
Component |
Grade percentage |
|---|---|
Quiz |
10 |
Mid-term exam |
30 |
Final exam |
30 |
Participation in class |
30 |
Please note that in-class participation is very important! It means doing the readings, coming to class prepared with notes, questions, and ideas, and engaging in discussion. If you sit in the corner and don't say anything until asked, or if it transpires that you haven't done the reading, then you will not do well in this class. You will get three scores out of 10, after 5 weeks, 10 weeks, and at the end of the semester. The sum of these will be your participation score. Individual scores greater than 10 are possible if your participation is exceptional, but your final score cannot be greater than 30.
Textbooks
Both of these are required.
- Evolution of Infectious Disease by Paul Ewald. ISBN 9780195111392.
- Infectious Disease Ecology by Ostfeld, Keesing and Eviner. ISBN 9780691124858.
Links
Talk by Paul Ewald from ted.com: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_ewald_asks_can_we_domesticate_germs.html
Talk by Susan Blackmore from ted.com:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html
Syllabus
- This syllabus is a general outline. Exact timings may change if we go slower or faster than anticipated on some topics. Check back with this page for updates.
- Textbook readings are identified as "Ewald" or"OKE" ( Ostfeld, Keesing and Eviner — see above). Other readings are PDF files — click on the name to download them.
Week 1: Introduction. Overview of examples. Need for understanding. Assessment of student knowledge. Case study: Machupo virus and acute hemorrhagic fever. Readings: Ewald Ch1; OKE Ch22, Ch19.
Week 2: Genetic diseases. Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. Selection. Persistence of recessive traits. Case studies: Sickle-cell anemia and malaria. Tay-Sachs disease. Readings: Allison 1954; Koeslag et al. 1984. Class 3 homework.
Week 3: Simple disease models. SIS, SIR, SEIR, etc. Vaccination strategies. Readings: Anderson & May 1979; Anderson & May 1982; [will post soon] Extract from Keeling and Rohani 2008.
Week 4: Tuesday: Quiz on knowledge and math basics. Quiz answer key. Symptoms as defense. Case-study: Cholera. Reading; Ewald Ch2, Ch5; Ewald et al. 1998.
Week 5: Vector-borne diseases. Biodiversity and the dilution effect. Case study: Lyme disease. Readings: OKE Ch1; Ewald Ch3; Keesing et al. 2006.
Week 6: Multi-pathogen systems: Case study: measles and whooping cough. Readings: OKE Ch3.
Week 7: Antibiotic resitstance. Readings: Ewald Ch7; Neu 1992; Levy 2001; Enright et al. 2002; Kennedy et al. 2008 (quite technical, read just introduction and conclusions).
Week 8: Review of material. Thursday: MID-TERM exam.
Week 9: Emerging infectious diseases. Zoonotic origins. Readings: OKE Ch16, Ch20; Daszak et al. 2000.
Week 10: HIV/AIDS. Readings: Ewald Ch8.
Week 11: HIV/AIDS. Readings: Ewald Ch9.
Week 12, Tuesday: HIV/AIDS — recent advances. Readings: Article from CNN; Quiñones-Mateu 2005 (this is a commentary on Ariën et al); Herbeck et al 2008 (the latest on the evoution of virulence). Optional readings: Lipsitch and Nowak 1995 (a quite simple model of an HIV-like disease). Ariën et al 2005 (just the introduction and conclusions). Thursday: Cancer as an ecological and evolutionary process within the body. Transmissable cancer. Case studies: chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and cervical cancer/human papilloma virus (HPV). Readings: Merlo et al. 2006; Abbot and Michor 2006.
Week 13 (Thanksgiving, Tuesday class only): Viral-caused cancer and virus therapies. Required readings: Baseman & Koutsky 2005; Parato et al. 2005; Woodman et al. 2007. Optional reading: Duelli et al. 2007.
Week 14: Video: How Safe Are We?
Week 15: The consequences of climate change for disease. Readings: Patz et al. 2005; Frumkin et al. 2008. Susan Blackmore video from ted.com. Wrap-up and review. Readings: OKE Ch21, all of Part IV; Ewald Ch11.
Final exam: Friday, December 19th, 11:30am–2:00pm.
Example exam question
The mid-term and final exams will be short- and long-answer form. Here is an example of how a question might be worded. I would expect you to take approximately 30 minutes to answer a question like this.
- We have studied two examples of interacting disease pairs: Sickle-cell Anemia/Malaria and Measles/Whooping cough. Compare and contrast the ways in which the diseases within each pair interact. (For example, what aspect of each disease’s life history does the other one influence?)
