Course Logistics

Course Objectives

  1. Understand the cells and tissues that comprise the immune system
  2. Distinguish between innate and adaptive immunity
  3. Know why, and how the immune system is selective, tolerant and has memory
  4. Design an experiment to predict cytokine signaling events, analyze and interpret data
  5. Explore how immunity relates to disease
  6. Understand how infectious microbes interact with the immune system

Text and Reading

The required text for the course is the sixth edition of Kuby Immunology by Kindt, Goldsby and Osborne, 2007, W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY. You will find copies of it on reserve in the Hauser Library. If you have access to, or wish to buy a used copy this is perfectly acceptable, as I am aware of the cost of textbooks. We will also read some research articles (primary) and review (secondary) literature in the course. Primary journals will include Vaccine, Immunology, Journal of Immunology, Infection and Immunity. Secondary, or review journals from which we will read will include Nature Reviews Immunology and Frontiers in Immunology.

Laboratory

You will conduct on lab exercise during Weeks 9 and 10. Biology is a laboratory-based science, and the field of immunology, like all others, only progresses with thoughtful investigation. Thus there is one hypothesis-driven exercise to investigate the production of the cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) by mouse splenocytes in response to different stimuli. You will therefore read associated literature, make predictions, test those predictions in the laboratory using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), analyze and interpret your data and then write a formal lab report to convey your findings. Reports should be written in the format of a scientific manuscript, about 5 to 7 single-spaced pages, including figures, in total. The format is described below. They are due Tuesday November 20nd.

Format for laboratory exercise write-up

  1. Title - Concise, appropriately descriptive title.
  2. Abstract - Brief description of your project.
  3. Introduction - Pertinent, properly referenced, background information.
  4. Hypothesis - Clearly stated hypothesis, which is set up by the Introduction.
  5. Methods - How did you answer the question(s) posed? This does not need to be exhaustive, but should be detailed enough so that other researchers could reproduce your results.
  6. Results - Results of your experimentation, and whether they support or refute your hypothesis. Any graphs should have properly labeled axes, and all figures must have informative legends.
  7. Discussion - Discuss the significance of your results as they pertain to the current literature, any difficulties you encountered, and suggest alternate approaches and/or future experiments to address the question posed.
  8. Literature cited.

Evaluation

Homework 80 pts.
Midterm exam 100 pts.
Essay exams  2 X 100 pts.
Lab report 100 pts.
Final essay exam    100 pts.

Not completing any of the above assignments may result in failure of the course.