The course covers the concepts, principles and research methods used if the field of genetics. Students learn about the major types of genetic variation and how they are generated, distributed, and maintained across genomes and between individuals. The course covers concepts such as mutation, recombination, transmission systems, cytoplasmic inheritance, population genetics, and multifactorial inheritance. Emphasis is placed on the patterns of Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance in humans and the use of genetic methods to analyze protein function, gene regulation, and disease.
The course provides a concept-driven overview of the most fundamental concept in biology: evolution. The course explores the principles of evolutionary biology through lectures, discussion, and basic genetic data analyses. This course covers concepts such as variation, speciation, fitness, adaptation, mutation, genetic drift, natural selection, phylogenetic systematics, and evolutionary medicine. The course focuses on developing students' understanding of these concepts while reviewing the evidence supporting evolutionary theory.
