| source Georgetown (X) |
level |
department Microbiology and Immunology (X) |
This is a three-part course covering microbiology and immunology, tumor biology and pharmacology. Lectures explore fundamental aspects of these disciplines and their interrelationships through the presentation and discussion of "hot topics" in each area. Topics include infectious diseases, innate and adaptive immune responses to infection, autoimmunity, biology and epidemiology of cancer, analysis of potential therapeutic targets and drug development, basic concepts of pharmacology as well as recent advances and applications, including cardiovascular pharmacology and the interplay between pharmacology and genetics.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will cover NIH bioterrorism agents (categories A-C), which can be utilized as biological weapons. The microbiology of these agents will focus on structure, pathology, and virulence factors. The immune response to these agents will be presented. Viral agents will include Variola and hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola and Lassa). Bacterial agents will include B. anthracis, Yersinia pestis (plague), and Francisella tularensis (tularemia). Emerging infectious disease threats such as Nipah, Hantavirus, and SARS will also be covered.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will cover the biological safety levels (BSL) for containment working with biological agents - both recombinant DNA and emerging infectious diseases. Radiological safety - will discuss the issues of dirty bombs, containment, and health issues associated with radioactive materials that bioterrorists might employ.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will examine the use of biological weapons. Terrorism in its modern form will be discussed as well as which biological agents are most likely to be used, their techniques for deployment, and their prevention and control. Specific disease agents to be covered will include anthrax, plague, botulism, smallpox, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will critically examine political and organizational controversies about defending against terrorism including bioterrorism. The course opens by studying the debate about terrorism as a type of asymmetrical warfare. What accounts for terrorist attacks against the United States and our allies? What is the relationship between foreign policy, law enforcement and warfare in our response to terrorism? What constraints, if any, should we apply to ourselves in responding to terrorism? The course continues by examining the debate about reforming our governmental bureaucracy responsible for responding to terrorism. Why did we not recognize the emerging threat of the 9/11 attacks? What principles should we apply in reforming our intelligence and homeland defense organizations? The course concludes with close examination of sociological perspectives on designing effective organizations for responding to threats including biothreats. What should we do to improve how our existing food safety bureaucracy protects us against natural biothreats? Why do organizational failures occur even in organizations well prepared for contingencies? Can we design organizations capable of responding to novel threats and unanticipated events? Students should gain an appreciation of the fundamentally political character of biodefense as a result of completing this course.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
The increasing frequency of natural and man-made biological threats poses difficult issues for ethical, sociological and public policy analysis as well as scientific and technological understanding. This multidisciplinary course will examine one domain of managing biological threat, âbiosurveillanceâ, or the collection, analysis and use of information about biological events with adverse consequences for the health and reproduction of human individuals, organizations and institutions. The current US disease surveillance systems have failed to detect these events in a timely fashion. Examples include the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the escape of Rift Valley Fever from Africa, the foot and mouth disease pandemic, West Nile virus translocation to the US and continental ecological establishment, SARS, and recently, the appearance of mad cow disease (BSE) and translocation of monkeypox to the US. This course will examine the historical, sociological and technical reasons for these failures, current attempts to improve American biosurveillance and the public policy debates surrounding the general issue of âbiosurveillanceâ. Students will work on projects designed to produce an integrated approach to biosurveillance, with an emphasis on understanding the key technical issues. âIntegrated biosurveillanceâ refers to merging multiple data sources such as remote sensing, climatology, transportation, vector surveillance, and population density within the virtual environment of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in order to share information across the medical, public health, transportation, agriculture, and animal health communities. Students will participate in simulations of bioterrorist attacks and pandemic outbreaks conducted at the local, national, and international levels for an illustration of the use of surveillance to trigger response and current limitations of global biosurveillance. Given its interdisciplinary approach, the course seeks students from multiple disciplines including ethics, history and the social sciences as well as the basic and applied sciences. Students will choose an appropriate subject and acquire the technical skills necessary to complete a successful project in the course.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will examine four Public Health countermeasures against biological threat agents: vaccines, antimicrobials, isolation, and quarantine. Detailed analyses of the SARS outbreak of 2003, the anthrax attacks of 2001, and the US smallpox vaccination program will include lessons learned that can be applied to preparing for pandemic influenza, pneumonic plague, or catastrophic bioterrorism as anticipated by the US Cities Readiness Initiative. Vaccines, both licensed and investigational, will be emphasized throughout this 30-hour course. The FDA regulatory process required for the study and licensure of vaccines will be also detailed.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This course will study recent infectious disease outbreaks including Marburg virus in Angola 2005; Nipah virus in Bangladesh 2004, Monkeypox in the USA 2003, SARS in Hong Kong and Toronto 2003, West Nile Virus in the USA 1999-2006, Plague in India 2004, Hantavirus in the USA 1993, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic 1981-2006. Emphasis will be two-fold: (1) the interaction between the infectious disease pathogen and the human immune response, and (2) common public health and political themes in these outbreaks and how they will help prepare for future emerging (entirely novel) or re-emerging diseases (new within a given environment) diseases. Students will participate in a âtabletop exerciseâ on how to manage an emerging disease outbreak. Grading will be based on participationin the tabletop exercise, a written final exam, and a term paper.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 3
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Microorganisms and toxins that could be employed by terrorists as biological weapons have been ranked in the order of their potential threat as Category A, B and C agents by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This course will examine the mechanisms by which the most virulent (Category A) and certain Category B and C agents cause severe illness in humans and laboratory animals and will review current approaches to the treatment of these diseases. Students enrolling for this course should have completed MICB-515 or have an equivalent background in biology and immunology.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 1
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This elective course is focused on exploring the various aspects of how the US government, specifically the Department of Defense, works to safeguard America and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, and to mitigate its effects. An initial analysis of the current and potential nuclear/radiological, biological and chemical threat will set the stage; and the medical effects of these weapons will be briefly reviewed. Various threat reduction strategies and their medical consequences including the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty will be surveyed. Moreover, elimination efforts such as the Chemical Demilitarization Program will be covered. Public health and medical consequences related to the enormous task of mitigating the effects of a WMD will be covered. The course will consist primarily of lecture/discussion format with readings designed to enhance student knowledge and provoke discussion; and subject matter experts from various government agencies will present their respective roles in this realm.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
This is an elective multi-disciplinary course and focuses on various human diseases for which development of therapeutics are needed. In the first part of the course, the course will cover basic principles of medicinal chemistry, strategies and techniques used in structure activity relationship and pharmacore identification. The course will also cover synthesis, selection and optimization of drug-like compounds using a variety of modern techniques such as molecular docking based on known three-dimensional structures of therapeutic targets as well as structure determination of target/ligand complexes by using X-ray crystallography, NMR.and/or proteomics. In the second part of the course, applications of drug discovery to specific human diseases. This part will include development of new antibiotics to combat drug-resistant bacteria, anti-fungal, antivirals (HIV-1, HBV/HCV, Flu, HPV and flaviviruses), and anti-malaria drugs as well as drugs against CNS disorders and human cancers.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Introduction to the disciplines of microbiology and immunology through presentation and exploration of several topics of major current interest. Each lecture will begin with a broad introduction to the subject, followed by a discussion of how the topic has been approached experimentally and the impact of recent advances. Potential topics covered include: antigen presentation, natural killer cells, development of antifungal therapeutics, commensal bacteria and the immune system, and host responses to viral infection and viral countermeasures.
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 4
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page
Credits: 2
Score: 11.18526 Details | Listing | Web page