Immunology

This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of immunology. The study of the principles of immunology will provide students with an understanding of how the immune system functions in protecting the human body against non-self, including infectious threats and transformed cells. These concepts will also form the basis of understanding altered immune responses including autoimmune disorders, allergic reactions and immunodeficiencies. Using a diversity of teaching approaches including lectures and case discussions, it is expected that this course will provide the basic scientific principles necessary for developing a solid foundation needed for the clinical immunology course to be offered in the senior year of this program.

This course will build on the basic concepts the students learnt in Immunology course. In the first weeks of the course, the applications of these concepts in the context of normal host immune responses such as inflammatory response and mucosal immunity, immunodiagnostic approaches, immunotherapy and immunization will be addressed. In the second half of the course, we will use examples of various immunological disorders as the basis for correlating basic concepts, clinical presentation, immunodiagnostic and immunotherapy approaches. Large group tutorial and laboratory demonstration sessions will be used to reinforce various concepts. In addition, this course will expose the students to emerging clinical immunotherapeutic applications.