ABC-E — Advanced Biology Course in Epidemiology : Quantitative methods
PSL Master in Life Sciences - ENS
BIO-PG-ABCE-S1|ABC-E - Advanced Biology Course in Epidemiology : Quantitative methods
Year and Semester : M1, M2 and PhD | S1
Venue : CIRB, Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot | Bâtiment D | Room D2, 2nd floor
Duration : 10 sessions of 2h15
Hours : From September 16th to December 16th, 2026, on Wednesdays, 5:15-7:30 p.m.
Maximum class size : 30 students
This course is open to external students.
Coordination
Samuel Alizon, CIRB, Collège de France
Kévin Jean, ENS Paris
Administration contact : Bofei Ma
Credits
3 ECTS
Keywords
statistics | bioinformatics | populations | environment | public health | surveillance | deep learning | microbiota | pharmacokinetics | causal inference | data
Course prerequisites
This course from the PSL Graduate Program in Life Sciences is open to M1, M2 & PhD candidates. Each speaker will provide a background. However, notions in microbiology, computational biology, and mathematics & statistics will help.
Course objectives and description
Aims
The aim of this interdisciplinary course is to give an introduction to research in human epidemiology. The courses will offer an overview of recent methodological advances to address current research issues related to infectious disease and environmental health.
Themes
The course will cover a variety of aspects such as field work and surveillance, environmental health, clinical studies, interacting with social sciences, modeling (using tools from statistic, mathematics, or machine learning). Applications will be diverse with infectious disease outbreaks, vaginal microbiota, wastewater monitoring, or climate change and health. Speakers will also share their experience in communicating with the general public or public health agencies.
Organization
Each session will consist of a keynote lecture by a guest speaker (1 hour), followed by a discussion and a student-led article presentation. One of the sessions will also include a practical component.
Assessment
Validation for M1/M2 (with grades) : Article presentation or small project. Students that require a validation should contact the organizers in advance.
Validation without grades : presence to at least 8 sessions
It is possible to attend the course without validation and registration. However, registered students will have priority in case of overcrowding.
Course material
Slides and presentations will be made available online by the lecturers and suggested readers will be proposed by the instructors ahead of each session.
Instructors
Samuel ALIZON (CNRS, Paris) – co-coord.
Kévin JEAN (ENS, Paris) – co-coord.
Noémie LEFRANCQ (ETH Zürich, Bâle)
Noémie LETELLIER (INSERM, Rennes)
Pierre MASSELOT (LSTHM, Londres)
Camille PELAT (Santé Publique France)
Mélanie PRAGUE (INRIA, Bordeaux)
Rémy SLAMA (INSERM, Paris)
Jeanne TAMARELLE (CNRS, Paris)
Anna ZHUKOVA (Institut Pasteur, Paris)
Application
As available spots are limited, please send your application (1 page CV and motivation letter) for registration before the deadline of July 17th, 2026 to bofei.ma chez bio.ens.psl.eu