BIED 0371 - How does cancer make us sick?
Course Description
Cancer is caused by unregulated growth of our own cells. What makes these proliferating cells more harmful than their normal counterparts? How are tumors characterized and why is this important for treatment? We learn how cancer cells exit their primary organ and through the process of metastasis find a secondary organ. We will take a look at the critical role that our immune system plays in fighting cancers, and how the rare percentage of cancers that evade the immune system find ways to do that. In this course we zoom out from looking at cancer as a disease of abnormal cells, to looking at how it causes system-wide disease in a human body.
This course is intended for high school science instructors as part of the Teaching the Great Diseases program.
Notes
This is an online course that will not meet on campus. Most course activities and interactions will occur asynchronously and online through Tufts Canvas, the university's learning management system. You can take this course from anywhere, as long as you have a reliable internet connection (broadband highly recommended).
Online courses are held to the same academic standards as campus-based courses and students can expect high levels of interaction with faculty and classmates. Online courses at Tufts are not self-paced, however they offer much more flexibility for students. Typically, course content is organized in a weekly structure, so students will be expected to login and participate regularly. However students can generally set their own schedule within each week as long as assignments and activities are completed on time.