America Weighs displays someone on a scale weighing themselves and asks the student what public schools should do, if anything, about the growing obesity problem in America.

This course illustrates how knowledge and principles of biology, biochemistry, and engineering are integrated to create new products for societal benefit. It uses a case study format to examine recently developed products of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: how a product evolves from initial idea, through patents, testing, evaluation, production, and marketing. Emphasizes scientific and engineering principles; the responsibility scientists, engineers, and business executives have for the consequences of their technology; and instruction and practice in written and oral communication. The topic focus of this class will vary from year to year. This version looks at inflammation underlying many diseases, specifically its role in cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

This course examines the growing importance of medicine in culture, economics and politics. It uses an historical approach to examine the changing patterns of disease, the causes of morbidity and mortality, the evolution of medical theory and practice, the development of hospitals and the medical profession, the rise of the biomedical research industry, and the ethics of health care in America.

The Endocrine Sequence is a two-week unit designed to teach the basic principles of hormone secretion and action and the clinical disorders which result from abnormalities of hormonal activities. Students are expected to be familiar with the functions of the endocrine glands, the structure, secretion and action of the important hormones, and the major clinical endocrine disorders. Emphasis will be placed on understanding pathophysiology and being able to use general principles in endocrine physiology (e.g. negative feedback) or in the management of endocrine disorders (e.g., insulin management) in consideration of specific circumstances and clinical cases.

How do we communicate with the outside world? How are our senses of vision, smell, taste and pain controlled at the cellular and molecular levels? What causes medical conditions like allergies, hypertension, depression, obesity and various central nervous system disorders? G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) provide a major part of the answer to all of these questions. GPCRs constitute the largest family of cell-surface receptors and in humans are encoded by more than 1,000 genes. GPCRs convert extracellular messages into intracellular responses and are involved in essentially all physiological processes. GPCR dysfunction results in numerous human disorders, and over 50% of all prescription drugs on the market today directly or indirectly target GPCRs.In this course, we will discuss GPCR signal transduction pathways, GPCR oligomerization and the diseases caused by GPCR dysfunction. We will study the structure and function of rhodopsin, a dim-light photoreceptor and a well-studied GPCR that converts light into electric impulses sent to the brain and leads to vision. We will also discuss how mutations in rhodopsin cause retinal degeneration and congenital night blindness. This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching.

This study compared the effect of physical activity and obesity on academic achievement and was based on the premise that the health of a child has an effect on his or her ability to learn and to achieve academically. Specifically, health-related topics of inactivity and obesity were considered. The participants included 12,607 third grade children entering kindergarten for the first time during the 1998-99 school year. The data were obtained from the National Center for Educational Statistics' Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Third Grade), which is a national representative sample of students entering Kindergarten in 1998-99 with the latest wave of individual student, parent, teacher, administrator and school data collected on these same students in third grade.

This unit introduces the parts of the body and processes involved in the development of diabetes.

In this study, the authors examined the relationship of 1,128 sixth and seventh grade students’ grades in four subject areas (i.e., math, reading, science, and social studies) and their scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Reading, Math, and Writing measures for the 2006-2007 school year as a function of their weight status (i.e., Obese versus Non-Obese). Statistically significant differences were found between the percentage of boys and girls who were Obese, as well as among the ethnic categories of Hispanic, African-American, Asian-Pacific Islander, and White and among grade levels. Obese children were found to have statistically significantly lower course grades in math, reading, science, and social studies. Similar results were present for the three TAKS measures. Implications of our findings are discussed, as well as suggestions for further research.

The incidence of obesity is on the increase in affluent societies, and the phenomenon commands increasing attention from health professionals, legislators and the media. This unit looks at the science behind obesity, examining the dietary, physiological and genetic aspects of the topic.

In addition to covering the basics in the Concepts in Endocrine Pathophysiology lecture, the lectures in this course cover a wide range of subjects, from Pituitary Neoplasia to Diabetes and Obesity - Treatment to Goiter and Thyroid Nodular Disease. The course also contains Small Group Discussion sessions which consolidate the concepts and facts acquired during the lectures and pursues the ability to solve common clinical problems in Endocrinology and Metabolism with sample cases and solutions.

This course encompasses the study of eating as it affects the health and well-being of every human. Topics include taste preferences, food aversions, the regulation of hunger and satiety, food as comfort and friendship, eating as social ritual, and social norms of blame for food problems. The politics of food discusses issues such as sustainable agriculture, organic farming, genetically modified foods, nutrition policy, and the influence of food and agriculture industries. Also examined are problems such as malnutrition, eating disorders, and the global obesity epidemic; the impact of food advertising aimed at children; poverty and food; and how each individual's eating is affected by the modern environment.

Alcohol abuse, healthy living and Alzheimer’s disease all regularly hit the headlines. This unit will take a brief look at these issues and introduces you to the type of issues that you would be asked to examine should you wish to study OU course Y158 U