Department: Human Biology

Code Name Description
HUMBIO112 Conservation Biology: A Latin American Perspective Principles and application of the science of preserving biological diversity. Conceptually, this course is designed to explore the major components relevant to the conservation of biodiversity, as exemplified by the Latin American region. The concept...
HUMBIO112G Parks and People on Islands: Lessons for Sustainability Using island systems as a microcosm to study and discuss sustainability, the course will motivate students to think deeper about the implications of sustainability in places that are isolated, fragile and vulnerable to all anthropogenic activities. A...
HUMBIO113 The Human-Plant Connection The intertwined biologies of humans and plants, particularly the ways in which people and plants have imposed selection pressures and ecological change on one another. Topics include evolution and basic plant structure; plant domestication; effects o...
HUMBIO113S Healthy/Sustainable Food Systems: Maximum Sustainability across Health, Economics, and Environment Focus on problems with and systems-based solutions to food system issues. Four particular settings are addressed: University, worksite, hospital, and school food. Traditional vs. disruptive food system models compared and contrasted. The goal is to d...
HUMBIO114 Global Change and Emerging Infectious Disease The changing epidemiological environment. How human-induced environmental changes, such as global warming, deforestation and land-use conversion, urbanization, international commerce, and human migration, are altering the ecology of infectious diseas...
HUMBIO116 Climate Perspectives: Climate Science, Impacts, Policy, Negotiations, and Advocacy The course contains four main parts:Climate Science, Climate Impacts, Climate Policy, Climate Advocacy. Part I begins with a detailed introduction to climate science, including an assessment of arguments by climate science skeptics, and an examinatio...
HUMBIO120B The American Health Care System and Health Policy In this course you will learn about the structure and functioning of the U.S. health care system. The health care system in the U.S. has been challenged by high and rising costs, a failure to ensure universal access to care, and a need to ensure the...
HUMBIO121E Ethnicity and Medicine Weekly lecture series. Examines the linguistic, social class, and cultural factors that impact patient care. Presentations promote culturally sensitive health care services and review contemporary research issues involving minority and underserved po...
HUMBIO122 Beyond Health Care: the effects of social policies on health (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 122. Med/Graduate students must enroll in PEDS 222.) Available evidence at the national and cross-country level linking social welfare interventions and health outcomes. If and how non-health programs and polici...
HUMBIO122A Health Care Policy and Reform (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 122A. Graduate students must enroll in PUBLPOL 156.) Focuses on U.S. health care policy. Includes comparisons with health care policy in other countries and detailed examinations of Medicare, Medicaid, private i...
HUMBIO122E Reducing Health Disparities and Closing the Achievement Gap through Health Integration in Schools (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 122E. Med/Graduate students must enroll in PEDS 229.) Health and education are inextricably linked. If kids aren't healthy, they won't realize their full potential in school. This is especially true for childre...
HUMBIO122H Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status are just a few of the social determinants that contribute to health disparities. Apply a racial equity lens to drive a deeper understanding of how vulnerable populations are uniquely at risk for poorer health...
HUMBIO122M Challenges of Human Migration: Health and Health Care of Migrants and Autochthonous Populations (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 122M. Med/Graduate students enroll in PEDS 212) An emerging area of inquiry. Topics include: global migration trends, health Issues/aspects of migration, healthcare and the needs of immigrants in the US, and...
HUMBIO123E Health Economics & Policy: exploring health disparities, child health & health care spending This course addresses issues related to population health, health care, and health policy using tools from empirical and theoretical economics. We will study topics such as the demand for health care, socioeconomic disparities in population health ou...
HUMBIO124 Health Impact of Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse across the Lifecourse (Human Biology students must enroll in HUMBIO 124 or AFRICAAM 127. Med/Grad students should enroll in SOMGEN 237 for 1-3 units.) An overview of the acute and chronic physical and psychological health impact of sexual abuse through the perspective of...
HUMBIO124C Global Child Health (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 124C. Med/Graduate students must enroll in MED 124 or PEDS 124.) This course introduces students to key challenges to the health and well being of children worldwide. We explicitly focus on child and public heal...
HUMBIO125 Current Topics and Controversies in Women's Health (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 125. PhD minor in FGSS must enroll in FEMGEN 256. Med students must enroll in OBGYN 256.) Interdisciplinary. Focus is primarily on the U.S., with selected global women's health topics. Topics include: leading ca...
HUMBIO126 Promoting Health Over the Life Course: the Science of Healthy Living (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 126. Med/Graduate students must enroll in CHPR 226.) Disease prevention and health promotion topics pertinent at different stages of the life span emphasizing healthy lifestyle and reducing risk factors in both...
HUMBIO128 Community Health Psychology Social ecological perspective on health emphasizing how individual health behavior is shaped by social forces. Topics include: biobehavioral factors in health; health behavior change; community health promotion; and psychological aspects of illness,...
HUMBIO128U Upstreaming Health Reimagine systems to make everyday life healthier by design. Good health doesn¿t begin the minute someone walks into a doctor¿s office. If we want everyday life to become healthier by default, we need to shift our interventions from downstream to ups...
HUMBIO130 Human Nutrition (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 130. CHPR master's students must enroll in CHRP 130.) The study of food, and the nutrients and substances therein. Their action, interaction, and balance in relation to health and disease. Emphasis is on the bio...
HUMBIO131 The Science of Human Movement Lab This course covers the basic principles governing human movement with an emphasis on sports applications. The course spends roughly equal amounts of time on the applied anatomy and biology, meaning both the large and small-scale body structure and fu...
HUMBIO133 Human Physiology Human physiology will be examined by organ systems: cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, gastrointestinal and endocrine. Molecular and cell biology and signaling principles that underlie organ development, pathophysiology and opportunities for regener...
HUMBIO135 Exercise Physiology Explore the amazing capacity of your body to move and adapt within your everyday world. You will learn: how your body systems respond to the stress of acute exercise and adapt to chronic exercise training, how your cardiovascular system adapts to opt...
HUMBIO135S Body Hacking: Applied Topics in Exercise Physiology Our increasing understanding of exercise physiology and biochemistry provide new insights into how we can "hack" the human body to increase the response to exercise training and improve human performance and health. In this discussion based course,...
HUMBIO139S Sport and Exercise Medicine This is an upper division course with a common theme of injury as well as injury prevention in sport and physical activity. The topics include the treatment and evaluation of common sports injuries and illnesses for both musculoskeletal and non-muscu...
HUMBIO140 Sex and Gender in Human Physiology and Disease (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 140. PhD minor in FGSS must enroll in FEMGEN 241. Med students must enroll in MED 240.) Chromosomal, hormonal and environmental influences that lead to male and female and intersex reproductive anatomy and physi...
HUMBIO142 Adolescent Development Underlying changes and their consequences in everyday functioning. Physical, cognitive, social, and sexual development; how these changes influence the emerging sense of identity, autonomy, and intimacy. Contexts in which adolescents move such as f...
HUMBIO142M Special Topics in Adolescent Mental Health Includes the study of aspects of common disorders seen in adolescent populations, such as prevalence, developmental course, gender differences, theoretical explanations, and therapeutic interventions. Topics will include mood/anxiety disorders, eati...
HUMBIO143 Adolescent Sexuality Developmental perspective. Issues related to scientific, historical, and cultural perceptions; social influences on sexual development; sexual risk; and the limitations and future directions of research. Sexual identity and behavior, sexually transmi...
HUMBIO144 Boys' Psychosocial Development Focuses on early childhood through young adulthood. Examines boys' lives and experiences as embedded within interpersonal relationships as well as social and cultural contexts. Includes perspectives from psychology, sociology, gender studies, and edu...
HUMBIO146 Culture and Madness: Anthropological and Psychiatric Approaches to Mental Illness Unusual mental phenomena have existed throughout history and across cultures. Taught by an anthropologist and psychiatrist, this course explores how different societies construct the notions of "madness": What are the boundaries between "normal" and...
HUMBIO149 Psychological and Educational Resilience Among Children and Youth Theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues pertaining to the psychological and educational resilience of children and adolescents. Overview of the resilience framework, including current terminology and conceptual and measurement issues. Adapt...
HUMBIO149L Longevity Interdisciplinary. Challenges to and solutions for the young from increased human life expectancy: health care, financial markets, families, work, and politics. Guest lectures from engineers, economists, geneticists, and physiologists.
HUMBIO151R Biology, Health and Big Data We are living in the midst of a revolution in the accessibility and availability of biological and medical data. How can all this data be used to improve human health? In this course, students will look at case studies from diabetes and cancer resear...
HUMBIO154B Principles of Epidemiology Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in human populations. In this course, students will learn about design, measures of disease occurrence and measures of association between exposures - be they enviro...
HUMBIO154C Cancer Epidemiology Clinical epidemiological methods relevant to human research in cancer will be the focus. The concepts of risk; case control, cohort, and cross-sectional studies; clinical trials; bias; confounding; interaction; screening; and causal inference will be...
HUMBIO154D Models for Understanding and Controlling Global Infectious Diseases (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 154D. Med/Graduate students must enroll in HRP 204.) This course introduces students to the dynamics of infectious diseases of global health importance, focusing on the use of mathematical models to characterize...
HUMBIO158 Building Blocks for Chronic Disease Researchers have come a long way in developing therapies for chronic disease but a gap remains between current solutions and the ability to address the disease in full. This course provides an overview to the underlying biology of many of these disea...
HUMBIO159 Genes and Environment in Disease Causation: Implications for Medicine and Public Health (Formerly HRP 238) The historical, contemporary, and future research and practice among genetics, epidemiology, clinical medicine, and public health as a source of insight for medicine and public health. Genetic and environmental contributions to mul...
HUMBIO160 Human Behavioral Biology Multidisciplinary. How to approach complex normal and abnormal behaviors through biology. How to integrate disciplines including sociobiology, ethology, neuroscience, and endocrinology to examine behaviors such as aggression, sexual behavior, languag...
HUMBIO161 The Neurobiology of Sleep The neurochemistry and neurophysiology of changes in brain activity and conscious awareness are associated with changes in the sleep/wake state. Behavioral and neurobiological phenomena include sleep regulation, sleep homeostasis, circadian rhythms,...
HUMBIO162L The Literature of Psychosis One of the great gifts of literature is its ability to give us insight into the internal worlds of others. This is particularly true of that state clinicians call "psychosis." But psychosis is a complex concept. It can be terrifying and devastating f...
HUMBIO163 The Opioid Epidemic: Using Neuroscience to Inform Policy and Law The opioid epidemic has become a national problem, killing 115 people per day in the United States, and contributing to the first decrease in life expectancy in this country for decades.This is an upper division undergraduate class that aims to help...
HUMBIO164 Autism Spectrum Disorder Deficits in social communication and interaction and repetitive behaviors are the core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects about 1% of all children and costs society an estimated $268B annually. This...
HUMBIO166 Food and Society: Exploring Eating Behaviors in Social, Environmental, and Policy Context (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 166. Med/Graduate students must enroll in CHRP 166.) The material in this course is an introduction to the field and the target audience is undergraduates. It may be of interest to graduate students unfamiliar w...
HUMBIO171E Modern Ethical Challenges in Neuroscience and Organ Transplantation Today we face unprecedented innovations in neuroscience and medicine. While these advances offer new hope, they also challenge medical, legal, and ethical paradigms. We will explore the ethical constructs surrounding topics including brain death, bra...
HUMBIO174 Foundations of Bioethics Classic articles, legal cases, and foundational concepts. Theoretical approaches derived from philosophy. The ethics of medicine and research on human subjects, assisted reproductive technologies, genetics, cloning, and stem cell research. Ethical is...
HUMBIO174A Ethics in a Human Life Ethical questions pervade a human life from before a person is conceived until after she dies, and at every point in between. This course raises a series of ethical questions, following along the path of a person's life - questions that arise before,...
HUMBIO176A Medical Anthropology Emphasis is on how health, illness, and healing are understood, experienced, and constructed in social, cultural, and historical contexts. Topics: biopower and body politics, gender and reproductive technologies, illness experiences, medical diversit...
HUMBIO177 Disability Literature This course explores literary and filmic narratives about disability in the Global South. Authors including Edwidge Danticat, Bapsi Sidhwa, and Ricardo Padilla highlight the unique aesthetic potential of what Michael Davidson calls the defamiliar bod...
HUMBIO178A Intro to Disability Studies: Disability and Technology For a long time, disability studies has focused on the past, early representations of people with disabilities and histories of the movement for disability rights. This course turns toward the future, looking at activism and speculative fiction as cr...
HUMBIO179B Music and Healing To what extent can sound or music heal? This interdisciplinary course asks questions about music and healing around the world, drawing on the fields of medical ethnomusicology, medical anthropology, sound studies, and music therapy. Our case studies...
HUMBIO17SC Evolution and Conservation in Galápagos The tiny remote islands of Galápagos have played a central role in the study of evolution. Not surprisingly, they have also been important to theory and practice in biodiversity conservation. The fascinating adaptations of organisms to the unusual, i...
HUMBIO191 Human Biology Practicum Restricted to Human Biology majors. The Practicum is equal to 1 unit of academic work done throughout the Senior year and involves attending workshops, reflecting on your undergraduate experiences through a portfolio, and consolidating assignments in...
HUMBIO192A Human Biology Synthesis Capstone course series for HUMBIO seniors. Expands the work of the student's Area of Concentration. The Synthesis allows students the opportunity to craft a culminating, creative work of scholarship based on a synthesis of personal and academic inter...
HUMBIO192S Human Biology Synthesis Capstone course series for HUMBIO seniors. Expands the work of the student's Area of Concentration. The Synthesis allows students the opportunity to craft a culminating, creative work of scholarship based on a synthesis of personal and academic inter...
HUMBIO192W Human Biology Synthesis Capstone course series for HUMBIO seniors. Expands the work of the student's Area of Concentration. The Synthesis allows students the opportunity to craft a culminating, creative work of scholarship based on a synthesis of personal and academic inter...
HUMBIO193 Research in Human Biology Independent research conducted under faculty supervision, in junior or senior year, normally but not necessarily in pursuit of an honors project. May be taken for a maximum 3 quarters of credit. Prerequisite: Faculty approval; application must be sub...
HUMBIO194 Honors Restricted to Human Biology majors. Completion of the honors project, normally taken in the student's final quarter. First component: the honors thesis, a final paper providing evidence of rigorous research, fully referenced, and written in an accept...
HUMBIO197 Human Biology Internship Limited to and required of Human Biology majors. A supervised field, community, or lab experience of student's choosing, pre-approved by Human Biology faculty and student advisers, and initiated at least three quarters prior to graduation. Participat...
HUMBIO198 Senior Tutorial in Human Biology Reading for Human Biology majors in exceptional circumstances and under sponsorship of Human Biology associated faculty. Students must apply through Human Biology student services before registering. Reading list, paper, and evaluation required. May...
HUMBIO199 Directed Reading/Special Projects Human Biology majors must obtain a sponsor from the Human Biology associated faculty or the Academic Council. Non-majors and students who have not declared must obtain a sponsor only from the Human Biology associated faculty. Prerequisite: Faculty ap...
HUMBIO200 Teaching of Human Biology For upper division undergraduates and graduate students. Practical experience in teaching Human Biology or serving as an assistant in a lecture course. May be repeated for credit.
HUMBIO26 Designing Research-Based Interventions to Solve Global Health Problems The excitement around social innovation and entrepreneurship has spawned numerous startups focused on tackling world problems, particularly in the fields of education and health. The best social ventures are launched with careful consideration paid t...
HUMBIO27 Traditional Chinese Medicine The philosophy and history behind traditional Chinese medicine. Concepts such as Qi, Yin/Yang, meridians, Chinese organs, and the 5 elements. How these concepts are applied through techniques such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, Qi gong, and massage...
HUMBIO29 Introduction to Global Health The class is an introduction to the field of global health. It focuses on resource-poor areas of the world and explores how human health is affected by poverty, international policy, planetary health, economic development, human rights, and power imb...
HUMBIO29A Well-Being in Immigrant Children & Youth: A Service Learning Course This is an interdisciplinary course that will examine the dramatic demographic changes in American society that are challenging the institutions of our country, from health care and education to business and politics. This demographic transformation...
HUMBIO2A Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology Introduction to the principles of classical and modern genetics, evolutionary theory, and ecology. Topics: micro- and macro-evolution, population and molecular genetics including personal genomics and CRISPR, biodiversity and ecology, emphasizing the...
HUMBIO2B Culture, Evolution, and Society Introduction to the evolutionary study of human diversity, the origins of social complexity, and the field of demography. Topics will include hominid evolution, population dynamics and the demographic transition, the impact of disease on societies, s...
HUMBIO35 Your Body at Stanford: The Physiology of College A lot happens at college besides studying. As a Stanford student, you will experience a new way of living and you will have to make decisions that can impact your health and your success at Stanford and beyond. The goal of this new class is to prov...
HUMBIO3A Cell and Developmental Biology Principles of the biology of cells, embryonic development and pattern formation, biochemistry of energetics and metabolism, the nature of membranes and organelles, hormone action and signal transduction in normal and diseased states (diabetes, cancer...
HUMBIO3B Environmental and Health Policy Analysis Connections among the life sciences, social sciences, climate science, public health, and public policy. The economic, social, and institutional factors that underlie environmental degradation and challenges facing the health care system including hi...
HUMBIO4A The Human Organism Integrative Physiology: Neurobiology, endocrinology, and organ system function, control, and regulation. HUMBIO 4A and HUMBIO 4B are designed to be taken concurrently, Periodically there will be joint module lectures that address related content in t...
HUMBIO4B Behavior, Health, and Development Research and theory on human behavior, health, and life span development. How biological factors and cultural practices influence cognition, emotion, motivation, personality, and health in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. HUMBIO 4B, with HUMBIO...
HUMBIO4Y Practicum in Child Development Learning about young children's physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and language development through guided observations and discussions from Bing Nursery School, Stanford's lab school for research and training in child development. Weekly guided...
HUMBIO51 Big Data for Biologists - Decoding Genomic Function Biology and medicine are becoming increasingly data-intensive fields. This course is designed to introduce students interested in human biology and related fields to methods for working with large biological datasets. There will be in-class activitie...
HUMBIO57 Epidemic Intelligence: How to Identify, Investigate and Interrupt Outbreaks of Disease (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 57. Med/Graduate students must enroll in EPI 247.) We will cover: the components of public health systems in the US; principles of outbreak investigation and disease surveillance; different types of study design...
HUMBIO5E Science Education in Human Biology In this seminar, students will learn about research on science education. They will use this knowledge to create and analyze teaching material such as section plans, exams, and problem sets. Material produced in this course will be related to the top...
HUMBIO77SI Introduction to Performing Arts Medicine Undergraduate musicians experience a wide range of performance injuries that are connected to repetitive motions and inadequate technique. Despite the high prevalence of playing related pain, many undergraduate musicians lack knowledge of the resourc...
HUMBIO82A Qualitative Research Methodology This course introduces students to core concepts and methods of qualitative research. Through a variety of hands-on learning activities, readings, field experiences, class lectures and discussions, students will explore the process and products of q...
HUMBIO82B Advanced Data Analysis in Qualitative Research This course is designed to support upperclass undergraduates who have collected - or are collecting - qualitative data in completion of Honors Thesis research. The course will review methods of qualitative data organization (field note amendment, tra...
HUMBIO88 Introduction to Statistics for the Health Sciences Students will learn the statistical tools used to describe and analyze data in the fields of medicine and epidemiology. This very applied course will rely on current research questions and publicly available data. Students will gain proficiency with...
HUMBIO89 Introduction to Health Sciences Statistics This course aims to provide a firm grounding in the foundations of probability and statistics, with a focus on analyzing data from the health sciences. Students will learn how to read, interpret, and critically evaluate the statistics in medical and...
HUMBIO89X Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Epidemiology (HUMBIO students must enroll in HUMBIO 89X. Med/Graduate students must enroll in EPI 259.) Topics: random variables, expectation, variance, probability distributions, the central limit theorem, sampling theory, hypothesis testing, confidence interval...