• Question: how does epidemiology miricularbiology affect us in our day to day lives?

    Asked by sinca to Emma, Monica, Sebastian, Sinead, Thomas on 14 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Sinead Loughran

      Sinead Loughran answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and characteristics of disease, and the application of this study to the control of diseases and other health problems.

      It is important to study disease in this way so that cures and research investment, public awareness and disease prevention can be targeted to control diseases. For example, it is because of epidemiology that we know the the flu season is at its peak in our part of the world from December to March.

      Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the structure and function of the macromolecules (e.g. proteins and nucleic acids) essential to life. It is like taking a look inside the cell to find what makes it tick. For example; understanding the molecular biology of cancer can lead to the identification of new treatment options.

    • Photo: Emma Roycroft

      Emma Roycroft answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      If you know your enemy, you will defeat it! Epidemiology allows us to get to know a disease and the patterns of infection across a country, or the world. Molecular epidemiology does this by looking at the DNA of an organism that causes the disease (for instance, TB). We look at every single case of TB in Ireland in my lab. Whenever the DNA of two cases looks the same, this could be the start of an outbreak, so we tell Public Health ASAP and they go out and interview the two people and find out who they have been in contact with, and treat those people for TB before they develop it, stopping the spread of the outbreak. So it does effect our everyday lives, we just don’t see it all the time.

    • Photo: Thomas McLoughlin

      Thomas McLoughlin answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      This question is answered very well by both Sinead and Emma. It is so an important part of understanding human diseases

    • Photo: Sebastian Gornik

      Sebastian Gornik answered on 17 Nov 2016:

      I dont have much to add to that as the answer above are very good already! I would just repeat what they have said!

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