Background: Although the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance have been well studied for endemic infections, comparably little is understood for epidemic infections such as influenza. The availability of antimicrobial treatments for epidemic diseases raises the urgent question of how to deploy treatments to achieve maximum benefit despite resistance evolution. Recent simulation studies have shown that the number of cases prevented by antimicrobials can be maximized by delaying the use of treatments during an epidemic.

Theoretical ideas have a rich history in many areas of biology, and new theories and mathematical models have much to offer in the future.

In a laboratory exercise for undergraduate biology majors, students plated bacteria from swabs of their facial skin under conditions that selected for coagulase-negative Staphylococcus; added disks containing the antibiotics penicillin, oxacillin, tetracycline, and erythromycin; and measured zones of inhibition. Students also recorded demographic and lifestyle variables and merged this information with similar data collected from 9,000 other students who had contributed to the database from 2003 to 2011.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instructors have been charged with improving the performance and retention of students from diverse backgrounds. To date, programs that close the achievement gap between students from disadvantaged versus nondisadvantaged educational backgrounds have required extensive extramural funding.