Molecular Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In a world ever more connected, and inhabited by an increasing human population, the number of infectious disease outbreaks is rising. Understanding the epidemiology of viruses, bacteria, and parasites is crucial for the design of strategies to interrupt transmission. In the last two decades, molecular methods to study DNA, RNA, proteins, and antibodies have increasingly been used for such studies. Diagnosis by molecular tools increases the sensitivity over traditional methods such as microscopy. The genetic diversity of the pathogen and the host can be exploited to identify genes responsible for drug resistance, or to establish transmission networks. Antibody measurements allow the study of the human response to infection. This course will provide an overview of current laboratory methods to study infectious disease dynamics and discuss examples from the literature.