Online course: Microbiomes and their Impact on Viral Infections

Looks like a potentially interesting course… certainly topical!  Information below, website here.   The study of the microbiome is one of the most promising scientific and medical revolutions in recent times. It is now clear that changes in the microbiome composition (referred to as dysbiosis) are major drivers to several human diseases and public health …

A microbial sequencing discussion course built around a paper and a blog post

So – just a quick post for now.  More details to come.  But I wanted to get a little bit about this out there. For a few years I have been teaching a mid-level course at UC Davis on “DNA sequencing based studies of microbial diversity’.  The course has evolved over the years from a …

Geobiology 2018 summer course at Caltech

Just heard about this course from a former undergraduate in our lab who spoke very highly of the opportunity.  “GEOBIOLOGY 2018 An International Training Course in a Rapidly Evolving Field”.  Takes place during summer 2018 at Caltech.  Information from the website below. Now entering its 15th year, the International Geobiology Course is an intense, multidisciplinary …

Biology of Vector-borne Diseases Course at @uidaho June 24-29, 2018

This looks really good. Posting at the request of one of my ex-UC Davis colleagues – the amazing/brilliant Shirley Luckhart – who has recently moved to Idaho and is helping run the course. The Center for Health in the Human Ecosystem at the University of Idaho is hosting its inaugural annual “Biology of Vector-borne Diseases” six-day course. This …

Kristen DeAngelis slides for “Microbial Diversity” Course

My course slides are updated for 2017 with a new lecture on acellular life. Lecture 01 (3-21-2017) slides from Kristen DeAngelis Lec02 phylogeny (3-23-2017) from Kristen DeAngelis Lecture 03 (3-28-2017) slides from Kristen DeAngelis Lecture 20 (4-20-2017) slides from Kristen DeAngelis Lecture 22 (4-27-2017) slides from Kristen DeAngelis   Lecture 23 (5-2-2017) acellular life slides …

A serendipitous demonstration of the power of social media in the classroom

“Social media is a waste of time”, “You should be writing grants”, “Spend more time at the bench and less time on Twitter” I don’t really want to wade into this discussion too strongly… there are a number of great resources out there documenting the utility of social media in science and science communication (examples …

Koala Poop Microbiome Class: Week 10, Antibiotic Resistance Measurements

Since this was the last week of the quarter, we didn’t require the students to blog as in the previous 9 weeks.  Also, mostly we recapped what had happened in the class and discussed various assignments.  But the students did measure the antibiotic resistance of their strains, and we also had a powerful demonstration of …

STAMPS course at MBL

A few weeks ago I attended a course entitled “Strategies and Techniques for Analyzing Microbial Population Structure” at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, along with a number of other students, postdocs and faculty engaged in the study of the microbiology of the built environment (as well as the oceans, humans, animals, plants). This excellent …

Course Materials: Human Health and the Design of the Urban Microbiome

This last winter, Gwynne Mhuireach at the University of Oregon taught a really interesting course entitled “Human Health and the Design of the Urban Microbiome”.  She posted a description of the final “design charrette” here on microBEnet awhile back.  I just asked her if she’d be willing to share her course materials for others interested …