Investigations of Human Disease

ME 728 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This 4-week course will provide an in-depth analysis of recent advances in our understanding of human disease, as afforded by contemporary biomedical research in the basic and social sciences.  Topics covered may include: developmental genetics and congenital birth defects, autoimmunity, complex human disease, genomics and bioinformatics, neurological disease, signal transduction, genomic technology, model organisms, cancer genetics, mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis, history of science, medical anthropology, economics, or health policy.  The course format will consist of online lectures devoted to some of the aforementioned topics and faculty-led student group presentations and discussions of assigned scientific literature. Moreover, students will gain exposure to a variety of career paths from invited physician-scientists. Students will also participate in a largely virtual pre-arranged research rotation or paper reading course (as determined by their PhD research interests) outside of the classroom for the duration of this course. The course is required for all incoming MD-PhD students.