BIOMI 3210

The Gut Microbiome

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The microbes on and in our bodies are as abundant as our own cells. These diverse microorganisms provide us with metabolic capacities beyond our own and are essential to good health, but can also play a role in disease.This course will introduce the microbes of the human body, discuss their origins, adaptations to the body, molecular interactions, and associations with health and disease.

Prerequisites REF-FA25/Corequisites REF-FA25 BIOMI 2900 or permission of instructor. Corequisites: None.

Distribution Requirements (BSC-AG, OPHLS-AG), (BIO-AS)

Last 4 terms offered (None)

Outcomes REF-FA25

• Students will be able to describe how the gut microbiome affects host health.
• Students will be able to explain the potential impact of genetics, environment, and nutrition of the microbiome.
• Students will be able to explain what experimental tools are used to examine the microbiome and how the data those tools generate is evaluated.
• Students will be able to critically analyze news reports and popular press articles that pertain to the gut microbiome and personal/public health.
• Students will be able to evaluate the significance and shortcomings of claims made in primary scientific publications about the gut microbiome.
• Students will be able to aggregate the information needed to produce scientifically justified presentations that describe advances in gut microbiome science and offer an informed opinion about the significance of those advances.

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