Description: This course is designed for students with biology or genetics background, that are interested in understanding genetics in public health. This course will provide an in depth examination of genetics in public health including newborn screening diseases and practices, fundamentals of population genetics, and the genetics of common chronic diseases.
Prerequisites: Epid 503 or equivalent; Epid 515 or equivalent; Biostat 503 or equivalent
Description: This course relates genomics to the core public health discipline of epidemiology emphasizing the use of genomics to help describe disease frequency and distribution and to gain insights into biological etiologies. Topics include genetic material in disease, in families and in populations; the investigation of multifactorial traits; model-based linkage analysis; model-free linkage analysis; segregation analysis; allele association and linkage disequilibrium; and gene-gene interactions and gene-environment interactions. Issues related to implementing studies are considered.
Description: Application of epidemiological methods and concepts to analysis of data from epidemiological, clinical or laboratory studies. Introduction to independent research and scientific writing under faculty guidance.
Prerequisites: Enrolled in Epidemiology MS programs
Description: This capstone research project course is designed for Epidemiology MS students (30-credit or 48-credit CESM programs). Working with their mentor, students are expected to develop an original research project to address public health problems using epidemiologic methods.
Students will have the opportunity to apply what they learned in their coursework to important public health questions. Students will work with a faculty mentor to conduct a literature review, develop a research project, develop and implement an analysis plan, write up the results and discuss the implications of the findings, and present their work in the annual Epidemiology Poster Day.
Students are expected to begin their capstone project in their first term and complete it in the second term of their final year (or only, for one-year programs) of training (three credits per term, for a total of six credits). The Epidemiology Master’s committee will help students find an appropriate mentor. Details regarding the structure of capstone writing products and evaluation guidelines will be provided in the MS Student Handbook.
Learning Objectives: The learning objectives of and skills employed in this course are determined by the specific research project. The list below (which is not exhaustive) provides examples of learning objectives for this course:
1. Assess knowledge gaps in the scientific literature;
2. Develop a scientific research question designed to address a gap in the scientific literature
3. Identify appropriate data sources to address a research question;
4. Better understand the role of data in understanding public health problems;
5. Create a data collection instrument and/or collect data;
6. Analyze data (quantitative or mixed data – including both quantitative and qualitative) to test research hypotheses relevant to public health in a manner that reflects principles of epidemiology (e.g., study design, measurement, confounding, etc);
7. Generate appropriate data visualizations and/or presentations;
8. Communicate the significance, approach, and implications of epidemiological research in a written format appropriate for the target audience;
9. Complete research ethics training through the Program for the Education and Evaluation of Responsible Research and Scholarship (PEERRS). Two modules are required: Human Subjects Research Protections and Responsible Conduct of Research and Scholarship (RCRS).
Description: Course designed for those with limited exposure to biology who are interested in human genetics. Will include basics of genetics at both the molecular and population level, plus some ethical, legal, and social implications of genetics research will be examined. Examples relevant to public health will be emphasized.
