23421c
Internship
P Evolutionary Parasitology
Sophie Armitage, Jens Rolff
Information for students
Additional module information: Evolutionary Parasitology close
Additional information / Pre-requisites
Binding preliminary meeting: 17.04.2026, 12:00, Kursraum D/E (R 2/3)
Comments
Parasites are everywhere! They will infect almost all organisms at some point in their life, and they can potentially have very harmful effects on host health and fitness. Parasites are therefore a strong evolutionary force – they place strong selection on their hosts and at the same time they themselves are under strong selection from hosts (and medicines etc). Not only do parasites lie at the heart of big questions in biology but they are also of enormous medical and economic importance. This course will introduce parasitic systems within the context of evolution, parasitology, ecology and immunology.
Learning objectives
The module will give you experience in/enable you to:
- Assemble knowledge about the general principles and theories underlying evolutionary parasitology including topics such as parasite life histories, virulence evolution and host-parasite co-evolution
- Recognise and differentiate between major parasite taxa and their life history strategies
- Gain hands-on experience with a host-parasite system
- Examine parasites from an applied and a basic perspective
- Summarise and orally explain a paper, and a self-proposed question, to your audience in a clear way
- Formulate questions about specific parasite examples from the literature and discuss them in class
- Carry out an in-depth literature review on a topic related to the course, and generate a research question about it
- Develop and practice your group-work skills
12 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Tue, 2026-05-26 11:00 - 16:00
Wed, 2026-05-27 11:00 - 16:00
Thu, 2026-05-28 11:00 - 16:00
Fri, 2026-05-29 11:00 - 16:00
Mon, 2026-06-01 11:00 - 16:00
Tue, 2026-06-02 11:00 - 16:00
Thu, 2026-06-04 11:00 - 16:00
Fri, 2026-06-05 11:00 - 16:00
Mon, 2026-06-08 11:00 - 16:00
Tue, 2026-06-09 11:00 - 16:00
Thu, 2026-06-11 11:00 - 16:00
Fri, 2026-06-12 11:00 - 16:00