Advances in Immunology

3 units

The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the mammalian immune system. 1. We will begin with a general overview of the immune system. 2. We will then discuss the specific cells and factors that constitute the immune system. 3. We will describe how the immune system detects and defends us against attack by pathogenic microbes. 4. We will describe how foreign tissues are recognized, rejected and what therapies for preventing that from taking place. 5. We will discuss aberrant immune responses that would result in under-responsiveness or over-responsiveness. 6. We will finally cover how the immune system responds to malignant tumor growth and how those cancers evade detection and destruction as well as what therapies are available to aid the immune system to attack the cancer. The class will run for 2 hours and fifty minutes and consist of a 75 to 120 minute lecture that is followed by student presented discussions of relevant publications to that topic being discussed that lecture. This will be for those students who select that option for their individual responsibility (see below). In the event that there are no student presentations scheduled for a particular class period, the instructor will present an article associated with that lectures topic.