BIOL 3400B, Section B, CRN 93892, Fall 2025
MWF 10:50 am – 11:40 am in LAFAYETTE HALL L411 (8/25 to 12/5)
Welcome to the wonders of parasites!
Course Description:
In this course we will venture across all kingdoms of life and all continents on Earth to take a closer look at the lives of parasites. Although remarkably diverse, abundant, and widespread, parasites are vastly understudied. We will cover parasite diversity including prions, viruses, bacteria, protozoan parasites, and multicellular parasites of humans, wildlife, domestic animals, and plants. We will investigate the parasite’s way of life, host defense and parasite evasion, pathology and disease, the ecology and evolution of parasites as well as their effects on host populations, species, and communities. As parasites are a rising concern for global human public health and conservation alike, we will also focus on the current parasites wreaking havoc on humans, animals, and plants as well as the shifts in host-parasite dynamics that lead to the emergence of infectious diseases and the ongoing challenges of parasite control.
Course Expectations:
This course requires weekly readings including selected articles from the scientific literature, life cycle drawings, as well as textbook readings.
Evaluation:
Attendance, class participation, write-ups on readings, life cycle assignments, and an end of semester oral presentation on a parasite of your choice.
Instructor:
Ellen Martinsen is a biologist who has been studying parasites for over two decades with a focus on the parasites of birds, mammals, ticks, and mosquitoes. Her research centers around unveiling the true diversity of parasites in nature, identifying which parasites are able to switch into novel hosts, the factors that drive parasite diversity and distribution across hosts, time, and geography, and the ecological disruptions that lead to changes in host-parasite ecology. Ellen loves field work, lab work, mentoring research students, teaching, and discovering new parasites and new host-parasite associations.
Course Materials:
We will be reading selections from the textbook, Parasitology, A Conceptual Approach (published August 2022), as well as scientific articles from the primary literature to broaden our perspectives on the ecology and evolution of parasites as well as focus on particular parasites and the diseases they cause.
Wildlife Pathogens Lab 