Evolutionary medicine

Timetable

Duration 30h (the course is planned for 1 lab. group).

Lectures: 20 hours

Classes: 10 hours

Module aim (aims)

1) Explaining main evolutionary forces operating in nature and understanding their impact on human health 

2) Understanding how evolutionary thinking is an added in medical practice 

3) Learning about human evolutionary history and its impact on disease susceptibility

4) Understanding pathogen evolution and importance of medicine for their furture fate

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Basisc knowladge in evolutionary biology and genetics

Syllabus

Lecture 1: Inroduction to evolutionary medicine and evolutionary thinking (2 hours)

Lecture 2-3: Patient - evolutionary history, genetic diversity and divergence between populations (4 hours)

Lecture 4-5: Dieseases and importance of genetics - deleterious mutations accumulation, embryo selection and eugenics history (4 hours)

Lecture 6: Immune system evolution (2 hours) 

Lecture 7-8: Pathogen evolution - virulence, SIR model, symbionts vs pathogenes, antimicrobial resitance evolution, host-pathogen co-evolution, hybridization and evolution of new strains (4 hours)

Lecture 9: Tumors -  evolution of ageing, somatic mutation rate, clonal evolution and chemoterapy resistance evolution, game theory in oncology (2 hours)

Lecture 7: Mental health - addictions and evolution of reward system, schizophrenia and mutation-selection balance, parent-offspring conflict and imprinted brain hypothesis (2 hours)

 

Class 1: Discussion and defining main areas and definitions in evolutionary medicine. Writing article on selected topic.  

Class 2: Reviewing artilces of other students 

Class 3: Revising artile and final discussion on popular science writing 

Class 4-5: Presentation on selected topic  

Reading list

Stearns, S. C., Medzhitov, R. (2016). Evolutionary medicine. Sinauer Associates,