BI3EHD-Evolution in Health and Disease: Lessons from the Natural World

Module Provider: School of Biological Sciences
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4

Module Convenor: Dr Dyan Sellayah
Email: d.sellayah@reading.ac.uk

Module Co-convenor: Dr Louise Johnson
Email: l.j.johnson@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This interdisciplinary module is suitable for all SBS degree programmes. Biomedicine and evolutionary biology offer two distinct perspectives on the same biological phenomena. One is concerned with diagnosing and treating ill-health caused by dysfunctional biological processes. The other serves to understand how natural selection has shaped the genetics underlying biological processes of populations and species over generations, yet rarely are the two perspectives integrated. We know that many diseases have a genetic basis, yet understanding how evolutionary factors have shaped the underlying genetic basis for disease may provide important mechanistic insight and reveal new approaches for treatment. In this module, we will apply evolutionary principles to the understanding of the causes of modern medical conditions. We will learn how some of the most important medical problems of our time – e.g. infectious disease, obesity, ageing, and mental health disorders – have been shaped by our evolutionary history, study relevant evolutionary processes across the animal kingdom and the Tree of Life, and gain an appreciation of the implications of evolutionary biology to human health and disease.

Aims:

This module aims to foster an understanding and appreciation for diseases from an evolutionary perspective by delving deep into their underlying genetic and evolutionary basis. This module will provide students with a broad understanding of evolutionary principles, concepts and theories and relate them to the pathogenesis of diseases and approaches to disease treatment. The genetic and evolutionary processes which impact on disease will be discussed and students will be encouraged to take a critical and analytical approach to study.

Assessable learning outcomes:

• Gain an understanding of various evolutionary theories and how they apply to modern medical conditions.


• Gain an appreciation for the complex interaction between genetics and environment to bring about disease.


• Understand how selection pressures have acted in evolutionary history and are still acting in modern humans to influence health and disease.


• Gain an understanding of how knowledge of evolutionary principles may be applied to modern medicine to treat or prevent disease.

Additional outcomes:

Outline content:

• Evolution of ageingÌý


• Comparative anatomy


• Nutrition and human evolution


• Evolution of the immune system


• Evolution of resistance to infectious disease


• Evolutionary origins of obesity – the thrifty gene hypothesis


• Archaic human admixture (how Neanderthal genes impact on modern human disease susceptibility and resistance)


• Evolutionary perspectives on cancer


• Developmental plasticity and predictive-adaptive responses in utero


• Evolutionary basis for neuropsychiatric conditions


• Hygiene hypothesis

Brief description of teaching and learning methods: