Fifty years ago it seemed that bacterial pathogens were about to become a problem of the past. In 1969, at the height of antibiotic development, the U. S. Surgeon General declared victory over infectious disease. However, bacterial diseases persisted, and have reemerged across the globe. Viral diseases such as the flu and AIDS pose an even more challenging threat. Emerging diseases such as Ebola and CJD continue to perplex scientists. Perhaps most frighteningly, antibiotic resistant bacteria lurk in the very places that people go to get well – hospitals. This course will explore infectious disease from a variety of angles. We will examine topics ranging from the basic biology of pathogens to the social cost of disease on a global scale. Along the way we will study how our immune system fights disease and how we develop and use antibiotics and vaccines to treat and prevent disease. We will explore epidemiology and public health and consider the range of strategies available to fight and contain infectious agents.

In addition to lectures and readings, students will gain hands-on laboratory experience examining microbes and antibiotic resistance. We will learn how to model epidemics and evaluate disease containment options. Students will gain experience writing at the college level. The course will culminate with a scientific poster session.

Course Faculty

Peter Wyckoff – Associate Professor of Biology; Ph.D., Duke University
Timna Wyckoff – Assistant Professor of Biology; Ph.D., Duke University

Peter and Timna Wyckoff grew up on opposite sides of the Twin Cities--he in Falcon Heights, she in Crystal.  The two met for the first time in a summer college experience for high school students held on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota.  Peter then went off to New Jersey to attend Drew University for his undergraduate studies in biology and political science, while Timna chose to stay in Minnesota and study chemistry and music here at University of Minnesota, Morris.  After college graduation, Peter and Timna moved together to North Carolina to pursue Ph.D.s at Duke University--she in biochemistry, he in ecology.  Peter's first teaching job was at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC during which time Timna pursued post-doctoral research in microbiology at Wake Forest University.  In 2001, Timna and Peter got jobs in the UMM Biology Discipline and moved to Morris along with their daughter Acacia.  Peter teaches Ecology, Evolution of Biodiversity, Global Change Ecology and State of the Planet.  Timna teaches Biochemistry and Microbiology.  Timna is currently doing research involving antibiotic resistance on organic and conventional dairies, for which she has learned to milk cows for the first time in her life.  Peter is looking at the effects of climate change and earthworms (yes, worms!) on the composition of forests (including the nasty invasive plant, buckthorn) here at the prairie-forest border.  In any time left over after those pursuits and answering the ceaseless questions of our 4 and 6 year-old kids (we have a second daughter named Sequoia), both Professors Wyckoff enjoy caring for their "This Old House" inside and out and working out at the Regional Fitness Center in town.