Biology 3730 Goals and Outcomes

Successful students in this course will be able to:

• Explain how evolutionary processes like mutation, drift, natural selection, and sexual selection can help us understand the ultimate causes of disease;
• Apply the tools of evolutionary biology to biomedical problems, such as pathogen evolution;
• Analyze human health problems and identify whether and how an evolutionary perspective can help with understanding the causes and/or treatment of disease and the development of therapeutics;
• Apply an understanding of evolutionary processes to predict the response of humans and their parasites to changes in the environment;
• Analyze the effects of various biotechnological innovations on human health and pathogen evolution;
• Effectively communicate complicated scientific ideas using both written and oral modalities.