e-FOCUS Online Seminars - My Genes Don't Fit, and Other Tales of Applied Biology

Have you ever wondered why we talk about carbon when discussing climate change, or why a stressful semester can make it easier to get sick? And how did that cold virus spread to your school, anyway? How does cancer develop with the body? We ask questions about our living world at all scales; from how changes to your DNA “blueprint” can impact behavior, to what influences the speed of disease spread throughout a population. In this course, you will uncover the answers to these questions by making connections between key biological principles and your lived experience, and more importantly by beginning to ask (and answer) some of your own questions about biology. You will learn to apply key concepts in biology to address broad societal challenges such as climate change, cancer, and disease spread. You will be able to identify the diverse scientific methods (observation, experimentation, theoretical modeling) and processes of science (interpretation of data, uncertainty, peer review) that underlie the generation of knowledge in the biological sciences. We will participate in an interactive case study prompting to investigate current treatment interventions for cancer and discuss how to address misleading information. We will conduct analytical discussions of current research in Immunobiology, circadian rhythms, and their application to interactions with our everyday environment.