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Evolutionary Dynamics

News

May 1

Our paper Reliable detection of subclonal
single-nucleotide variants in tumor cell populations
appeared in Nature Communications today (see also ETH Life). In this work, we present the deepSNV algorithm and demonstrate its capability to detect subclonal mutations present in only 1/10,000 cells.

Gerstung et al. (2012) Nat Commun 3:811. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1814.

Abstract Evolutionary dynamics is concerned with the mathematical principles according to which life has evolved. This course offers an introduction to mathematical modeling of evolution, including deterministic and stochastic models.
Objective The goal of this course is to understand and to appreciate mathematical models and computational methods that provide insight into the evolutionary process.
Content Evolution is the one theory that encompasses all of biology. It provides a single, unifying concept to understand the living systems that we observe today. We will introduce several types of mathematical models of evolution to describe gene frequency changes over time in the context of different biological systems, focusing on asexual populations. Viruses and cancer cells provide the most prominent examples of such systems and they are at the same time of great biomedical interest. The course will cover some classical mathematical population genetics and population dynamics, and also introduce several new approaches. This is reflected in a diverse set of mathematical concepts which make their appearance throughout the course, all of which are introduced from scratch. Topics covered include the quasispecies equation, evolution of HIV, evolutionary game theory, birth-death processes, evolutionary stability, evolutionary graph theory, somatic evolution of cancer, stochastic tunneling, cell differentiation, hematopoietic tumor stem cells, genetic progression of cancer and the speed of adaptation, diffusion theory, fitness landscapes, neutral networks, branching processes, evolutionary escape, and epistasis.

Course Details

Number and title: 636-0009-00L Evolutionary Dynamics

  Date
Room
Lecture
Friday, 09-11h
CHN G 46
Tutorial Friday, 11-13h (bi-weekly)
CHN G 46

All lectures will be given in English and are accompanied by a bi-weekly 2h tutorial. For each tutorial, there will be assignments that need to be handed in on Thursdays before each tutorial 8.00am. This can be done either electronically to teaching.cbg(at)bsse.ethz.ch, or as a hardcopy to Madeleine Bernard, Institute for Computational Science, CAB H 81.1. Each student has to obtain at least 60% of the available points in the assignments to be admitted to the final exams. These will be held during the winter exam session as a 20 min oral exam for each student.

Literature

Schedule

  Date
Title
Slides
Assignment
 Tutorial
1 Sep 23
What is evolution?
Lecture 01
Assignment 01
Tutorial 01
 1
2 Sep 30
Genetic diversity of HIV
[Lecture given by Osvaldo Zagordi]
Lecture 02   -
3 Oct 7 Antigenic variation of HIV, Evolution of virulence Lecture 03 Assignment 02  2
4 Oct 14
Stochastic models of finite populations
Lecture 04   -
5 Oct 21
Evolutionary dynamics of cancer
Lecture 05 Assignment 03  3
6 Oct 28
Cancer progression: the speed of adaptation
Lecture 06   -
7 Nov 4
Hematopoietic tumor stem cells
[Lecture given by Janos Kelemen]
Lecture 07 Assignment 04  4
8 Nov 11
Diffusion theory
Lecture 08   -
9 Nov 18
Evolutionary game theory Lecture 09 Assignment 05  5
10
Nov 25
Evolutionary games in finite populations Lecture 10   -
11 Dec 2
Evolutionary graph theory, Spatial games Lecture 11 Assignment 06  6
12 Dec 9
Branching processes Lecture 12   -
13 Dec 16
Evolutionary escape Lecture 13 Assignment 07  7
14 Dec 23
Coalescent theory Lecture 14   -
 

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© 2012 ETH Zurich | Imprint | Disclaimer | 19 December 2011
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