Applications in Life Sciences

Controlling the Spread of Infectious Diseases

SARS.
Avian Flu.
Malaria.

Whether they appear naturally or through a bioterrorist attack, these diseases can threaten the health of many thousands of people.

You can't prevent an epidemic simply by treating sick individuals. You must also be able to predict how the disease will spread. And that's where computational science comes in. Scientists use it to decide:

• Which immunization program to choose
• How to distribute resources where they will do the most good
• How to combine control and eradication techniques

In a course called "Computational Science I," you will learn to predict how diseases spread using the same techniques employed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You will construct, solve and analyze the results of a model that describes how a disease moves through a large population.

This is only one example of how computational science can be used to advance the study of biology and related life sciences.