Science of Covid-19

This course is designed to help you solidify fundamental biology concepts and to appreciate their relevance to solving real world problems using Covid-19 as a case study. From the time we learned about the outbreak of a "pneumonia of unknown cause," we have learned so much. We will examine the origin of SARS-CoV-2, how it attacks cells, how the immune system responds, how viral variants emerge and how we can leverage all this information to design treatments and to address larger questions such as how this pandemic might end. Emphasis will be placed on critical thinking and scientific experimentation. You will use open-source online tools, read scientific papers on vaccine development and virus evolution, and use the skills you have developed to investigate a new area of research on Covid-19 that is of interest to you. This course is suitable for students who have taken a Foundations level course and/or AP biology, and have a basic understanding of DNA and how information in DNA is transcribed and translated to make proteins.