Human and Environmental Microbiomics

Module code: BS3013

‘Environmental microbiology’ illustrates the essential role microbes play in planetary and human health and how our understanding of microbiology has been transformed over the last decade by advances in sequencing technology, which has facilitated a deep understanding in microbial diversity and evolution and physiology. This module will critically assess current views on the origins of life and the evolution of the major microbial taxa, drawing on evidence from the fossil record, abiogenic syntheses experiments and molecular evidence in gene sequences and consider the non-pathogenic roles of microbes in the human body.