virology blog

About viruses and viral disease

A virology course at Columbia University

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winter3My virology course at Columbia University, Biology W3310, has begun. This course, which I taught for the first time in 2009, is aimed at advanced undergraduates and will be taught at the Morningside Campus of Columbia University.

Columbia University encompasses two principal campuses: the historic, neoclassical campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood and the modern Medical Center further uptown, in Washington Heights. The two are separated by fifty-two city blocks, a distance of over two miles and 20-30 minutes by subway. My laboratory is at the Medical Center, where I’ve taught a variety of virology courses over the years. However, until last year, a virology course had not been offered at the Morningside Heights campus since the late 1980s. This is a serious omission for a first-class University. Sending graduates into the world without even a fundamental understanding of viruses and viral disease is inexcusable. Remedying this problem is one reason why I developed a new virology course. The other is that I love teaching about viruses.

Biology W3310 will be taught on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:10 PM. The course rationale and schedule can be found at the course website. The recommended textbook is Principles of Virology, Third Edition, by Flint et al. Students in the course will also read virology blog and listen to the podcast This Week in Virology.

Videocasts of each lecture will be posted at the course website and at iTunes University. An archive of last year’s course material is available online or at iTunes University.

The goal of Biology W3310 is to provide an understanding of how viruses are built, how they replicate and evolve, how they cause disease, and how to prevent infection. After taking the course, some of the students might want to become virologists. The course will also provide the knowledge required to make informed decisions about health issues such as immunization against viral infections.

Thanks to the internet, the information in my virology course is accessible to everyone.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Judy Mikovits:
    to quote John Mellors “how many negative will it take to get rid of these religious fanatics” you may blog it and discourage anyone from [participating ..Their goal is to prove everyone negative fro XMRV/MRV total corruption…crime against humanity.

  2. Let it be known the CFS community want nothing to do with Dr Mellors and if XMRV is proven to cause disease, he should never be aloud to work on XMRV again.

  4. Enveloped viruses are common among the viruses infecting animal cells but rare among the bacteriophage. can someone tell me what features of bacterial and animal cells might lead to this disparity.