Overview

The list of content below is indicative. The final content is influenced by current events at the time of module delivery, such as in the past the outbreaks of SARS, MERS, or Zika, or breakthroughs in research and understanding of parasite and pathogen action and behaviour. If new content is added, present content is withdrawn to keep the number of lectures constant. It is the aim of the module to be as up-to-date as possible. During the first lecture students will also be asked about any special interests, for example, in parasitic plants, plant pathogens, influence of pathogens on the evolution of animals, or transmissible cancers of animals. • Pathogenesis – Pathogenesis cycle; asymptomatic infections; forms of transmission with examples of major human pathogens and parasites; cancer cells as infectious parasites; environmental effect on parasite diversity • Malaria of humans and animals – most important parasitic disease; biology of Alveolata; malaria life cycle; malaria and climate change; premunition • Coccidia – Eimeria, specificity of parasites; Hepatozoon transmission; Cryptosporidium and drinking water quality; Toxoplasma, premunition, behaviour alterations, environmental impact • Schistosomiasis – biology of flatworms, life cycle of blood flukes • Trypanosomiasis –cellular and molecular biology of kinetoplasts, African sleeping sickness as a human disease and as a zoonosis, immune evasion • Leishmaniasis – a range of symptoms, importance of Th1 and Th2 immune response • Nematodes (round worms) – pinworms (threadworms); Anisakosis, raw seafood, paratenic hosts; filariases, dog heartworm, elephantiasis, river blindness, summer bleeding, mansonelliases • from whitewater to Tyrannosaurus – Giardia and Trichomonas, amitochondriates, biology of diplomonads and parabasalids • Beneficial effects of bacteria, viruses, and parasites – probiotics, caries; beneficial viruses; parasites and endemicity of animals, nagana, brain worm; hygiene hypothesis and atopic diseases, wipworms, hookworms; schistosomes against artherosclerosis; Clostridium and cancer • Diarrheal diseases – food poisoning in humans and animals, keriorrhoea, rotavirus, winter-vomiting disease, E. coli (EPEC, EIEC, ETEC, EHEC), Cholera, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium botulinum in humans and animals • Tuberculosis of animals and humans – mycobacteria, Gram staining • HIV and AIDS – epidemiology, origins, pathogenesis • Influenza – Myxoviridae and hemagglutination • SARS and MERS – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus, clinical perspective of an infection and difficulty of identifying new pathogens • Ebola infections • Epidemiology – investigating disease patterns; current disease outbreaks • Plaques, epidemics, and biological warfare

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the interaction between parasites, host and their environment. (Biosciences benchmarks: 3.2 subject knowledge & 3.5 intellectual skills)

• Demonstrate a conceptual understanding of what unifies parasites and pathogens in pathogenesis cycles and evolution, and why parasites and pathogens cause disease or kill their host. (Biosciences benchmarks: 3.2 subject knowledge & 3.5 intellectual skills)

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of different parasites and pathogens and the diseases they cause. (Biosciences benchmarks: 3.2 subject knowledge & 3.5 intellectual skills)

• Develop an effective approach to exam revision by exploring the research interface. (Biosciences benchmark: 3.9 Self-management and professional development skills)