It is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has. - Hippocrates
Welcome to Genetics 210 for Spring 2015
This is a new course in which students have the option to be genotyped in the winter, and then to explore their genotypes in course exercises in the spring. Please see the FAQ for more information.
What is this course about?
This course will expose physician-scientist trainees to the design, use, and interpretation of genetic studies of human populations and diseases. It will cover principles of genetics underlying associations between genetic variants and disease susceptibility and drug response. Topics will include: genetic and environmental risk factors for complex genetic disorders; design and interpretation of genome-wide association studies; pharmacogenetics; full genome sequencing for disease gene discovery; population structure and genetic ancestry; use of personal genetic information in clinical medicine; ethical, legal, and social issues with personal genetic testing.
Topics covered in this course will include current approaches in analysis of human genomes, assessment of disease risk, pharmacogenomics, human ancestry, and next generation sequencing technologies. The course is designed and intended for MD students preparing for personalized medicine in the clinic, PhD students interested in human genetics research and any student interested in learning how to interpret and understand his or her genotype.
The course format will be a mix of lectures, hands-on data workshops, and small group presentations. We will make use of personal and publicly available genetic data. Laptops will be required for most sessions where students will explore publicly available or their own personal genetic data using software tools developed for this course.
The sequencing of the human genome, followed by the related HapMap project, and the explosive number of genome-wide association studies conducted over the last several years, have heralded a new era of genetics and medicine. The potential of genetics and genomics to provide new paradigms for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease is immense, but before the vision of a personalized medicine can be fully realized, medical trainees must be given the proper educational foundation.
The FAQ covers course requirements and logistics in more detail.
If you prefer to use an anonymous genome rather than your own, you can download a genome here.