Introduction to Virology
Credit Hour(s): 3 Units
Instructor(s): Faith
Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Micro 4100
Role in Microbiology Major: Group 1 Elective
Lecture Topics:
- General concepts of viruses
- Virus-host interactions: from the virus, host, and population viewpoints
- Genomes, replication, and expression
- RNA Viruses replication strategies:
- Positive Stranded RNA viruses: Polio and Sindbis viruses
- Negative Stranded RNA viruses: Rabies and influenza viruses
- General features of Retrovirus virus replication
- HIV and disease
- Hepadnaviridae: Hepatitis B virus
- DNA Viruses replication strategies:
- Papillomaviruses
- Herpesviruses
- Pox viruses
- Viruses and cancer
- Emerging and reemerging viruses
- Bioterrorism
Learning Outcomes:
Successful students will understand...
- The structural components and transmissions of viruses.
- Processes that contribute to the evolution of viruses.
- How the host’s immune system (innate and adaptive) restricts viral infections and how this contributes to the disease process.
- The mechanisms by which viruses evade the host’s immune system.
- The molecular processes involved in the replication of specific model viruses and how replication results in tissue injury and disease.
- The mechanisms by which viruses cause cancer.
- Environmental factors and virus properties that enhance the emergence of “new” viruses.