3.0

Average Course Rating

In the age of Molecular Biology, DNA sequencing allows the identification of genes. Biochemical assays allow the measurement of gene expression. Reverse transcriptase and PCR are used to determine the RNA made by activated genes. These tools allow the study of disease organisms on the molecular level with emphasis on particular genes, known as virulence genes, which enable the disease organisms to attack the human body. This First-Year Seminar will introduce students to the disease tuberculosis, to human innate and adaptive immune systems and to the molecular biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an intracellular pathogen which infects humans and manipulates the human immune response to escape detection and elimination. We will even grow cultures of Mycobacterium smegmatum, M. tb’s harmless relative. In addition, millions worldwide have tuberculosis, and this disease is a case study in the measures that are being used to control the spread of an epidemic disease. Students will learn through by readings from books such as The White Plague by Rene’ and Jean Dubos, The Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif, The Aetiology of Tuberculosis by Robert Koch and Fever by John Fuller, videos, class interactions and discussions, and after the introductory portion of the course, by presentations of research papers about M. tuberculosis pathogenesis and treatment. Finally, we will explore recent genomic research that has yielded specific Mtb peptides that give evidence of being the basis of first effective vaccine for tuberculosis.