Skip to main page content
Ideas
  1. Course Search
  2. SCRB 297

Science at the Frontier of Unsolved Medical Problems
SCRB 297

Course Information

Description

We ask in this class how fundamental science, pathophysiological insights, and AI can be harnessed to understand disease and to design approaches to improve human health. We begin with an introduction to some areas where fundamental knowledge -- for example in genetics, immunology, and oncogenes -- have led to striking recent changes in therapy. We then focus on two areas where medicine has made less progress: disorders of the brain and failure of organ systems. As in Frontiers in Therapeutics, the prior version of this class, each session will begin with a lecture by an expert in the field.  This will then be followed by student-led discussions of papers relevant to the topic. Students will learn how to evaluate the relevance of fundamental science to seemingly intractable medical problems, as well as the credibility of proposed novel therapeutic opportunities.

Course Notes

Only for graduate students enrolled in the MS/MBA program in Biotechnology: Life Sciences. All undergraduates should register for SCRB 197.

School Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Available for Harvard Cross Registration

Course Component Lecture
Grading Basis FAS Letter Graded
Exam/Final Deadline Dec. 10, 2026
General Education N/A
Quantitative Reasoning with Data N/A
Divisional Distribution Science & Engineering & Applied Science
Course Level Primarily for Graduate Students