Teaching
The contents and structure of the teaching will be changing with our impending move to Penn State University.Quantitative Zoology
This is a course for fourth year Zoology Honours students, which graduate students and others are welcome to attend. It runs in Term 2 (early January to mid March). Andrew is the course organiser, and the course is taught entirely by biologists, rather than statisticians, with the express aim of using simple (and hopefully interesting!) biological examples to get across key concepts relevant to practising biologists. More emphasis is put on why something is being done than on how to do it. In the practical work, emphasis will be on interpretation of computer output as much as the mechanics of generating the output. Click here to learn more about Course aims and rationale. For Course Structure click here, for lecture content (syllabus) click here, and for links to useful stats websites, click here. More stuff will be posted here as the 2004 course progresses.
Pathogen Evolution
This is an Honours year module offered to Microbiology and Infection Honours students (formerly Medical Microbiology Honours). In future years, it will hopefully be available to Honours students in other Schools, and should be of interest to Zoology Honours students. The module is organised by Andrew and will be taught in conjunction with members of his research group. This academic year, it runs for two weeks 26 Jan - 6 Feb 2004. There is a combination of lectures, student presentations and computer practicals. The course synopsis is as follows.
Pathogen evolution poses the critical challenge for infectious disease management in the 21st Century. We will examine how medical and veterinary interventions like chemotherapy and vaccination can prompt evolution that erodes the effectiveness of those measures. We will look at the factors determining the evolution of drug resistance, virulence and vaccine-escape virulence, including initial frequencies, fitness differences, and details of the underlying genetics. Understanding pathogen evolution requires integration of evidence from a range of disciplines, from molecular biology to epidemiology and population genetics. We will focus on a number of diseases, such as malaria, whooping cough, Marek’s disease and tuberculosis.
Teaching aims:
• To get across that pathogens evolve; that this evolution can have clinical consequences
• To demonstrate that medical and veterinary intervention can prompt pathogen evolution, which can be good or bad for public health
• To demonstrate that understanding pathogen evolution requires integration of evidence from a range of disciplines (molecular biology to epidemiology and population genetics)
• Specific themes: evolution of drug resistance, virulence, vaccine escape
Malaria Module
This is an Honours year module offered to Zoology Honours students. In future years, it will hopefully be available to Honours students in other Schools. It deals with many aspects of malaria, including epidemiology, the historical context, vaccination, chemotherapy and entomology. David Walliker is the Module Organiser, and he teaches it together with Richard Carter and Andrew. It runs in Term 2 (early Jan-mid March). Andrew’s contribution focuses on the possible evolutionary consequences of malaria vaccination, and medical entomology, including an assessment of the link between biting rates, force of infection and disease burden of larval control, and discussion of whether malaria control is possible via (i) larval control, (ii) bednets or residual sprays, and (iii) GM mosquitoes.Quantitative Immunology
Andrew does two half day sessions with Immunology Honours students called ‘Making sense of variability in immunology’. This is where he heroically attempts to convince students who have for the most part, avoided anything numerical for most of their education and certainly all of their University careers, that immunological data is intrinsically variable, and therefore requires formal statistical analysis as an aid to drawing the right conclusion and to make the most of the data. Topics covered include: hypothesis tests, what a p-value is, types of error, measures of variability (standard errors, confidence intervals, standard deviations, variances, and when to use which), parametric versus non-parametric analyses, and existence of multivariate techniques and what they can do for immunologists.
Environmental and Community Biology 1h
This is a 1st year course organised by Jim Deacon. For full course details, click here . Andrew does four lectures on extinction, aimed at the following questions. 1. How do we know that contemporary extinction rates are higher than background historical rates? 2. Does species extinction matter? 3. What genetical and ecological factors cause extinctions? Much of this is illustrated with New Zealand examples, reflecting Andrew’s earlier life, and the fact that much New Zealand fauna is seriously at risk of extinction; see for instance here.
Zoology Honours
This is a wide ranging course in Zoology. For further details, click here . Andrew is Exam Board convener, and is responsible for implementing the examining regulations and dealing with requests for deadline extensions and Special Circumstances. Questions about arrangements for Honours Projects should go to John Deag. All other questions about the course should go to the Course Organiser, Vernon French.
Zoology Honours for Intercalating Medics
Zoology Honours is available to Medical Students wanting to do an intercalated degree. Medical students wanting exposure to parasitology and tropical medicine can use this route, now that Parasitology Honours has been withdrawn. However, a 4th year Zoology degree is also a very stimulating mix of subjects such as evolution, developmental biology, and animal behaviour. Zoology Honours may therefore be of interest to medical students looking to broaden their minds. It also gives a good grounding in the generic quantitative skills necessary to interprete (or contribute to) the medical literature. Project work can involve molecular biology, developmental biology, bioinformatics, infectious diseases and medical entomology, as well as more tradition zoology projects. For more information, Edinburgh Medics can get more information by clicking here; those outside the .ed domain by clicking here. Interested medics are welcome to discuss the possibilities with Andrew.Biometrics Project
This is offered to second year students as part of Biometrics 2h. The project concerns the cost of reproduction in birds: is reproduction costsly, and if so why? Is it due to disease? It’s a analysis of data collected during the project summarised in Norris, K., Anwar, M., & Read, A.F. 1994. Reproductive effort influences the prevalence of haematozoan parasites in great tits. Journal of Animal Ecology 63: 601-610. Full details will appear on the Biometrics site during the appropriate period of the course.
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