Applied Immunology

The overall objective of this course is to give the student a substantial insight into the field of therapy for immune related diseases.

In addition, the student should be prepared to suggest a conceivable plan for a specific drug development project. This course will cover many interdisciplinary disciplines within applied immunology giving to the students a broad understanding of therapeutic strategies for treatment of immune-mediated diseases, biological consequences and adverse effects upon treatment, in addition to basic knowledge of drug discovery and development. With lecturers trained in both basic science and clinical disciplines, the course will give basic understanding of how immunological understanding and techniques can support drug pharmacology, e.g. pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics, as well as implementation of experimental platforms for drug design, development and delivery. In addition, the course will also introduce to intellectual property and patent laws and regulations.

The student will be introduced to different strategies for treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases including anti-inflammatory and/or immuno modulatory small molecular inhibitors together with the concept of biopharmaceuticals e.g. immunoglobulin therapy, vaccination and gene therapy, as well as effects of immune modulators and probiotics.

One important aspect of this course is to introduce the students to different experimental preclinical in vitro and in vivo platforms translating to human diseases, and their importance for clinical development of immune active pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, the course will cover use of biomarkers for diagnosis and the assessment of response to immune therapy with emphasis on the importance of identification, and use, of biomarkers for monitoring drug efficacy.

Through this course the students will gain insight into drug discovery and development of drugs for immune-mediated diseases. In addition, the student will prepare and present a conceivable plan for an innovative drug development project. The ultimate goal is that the students will acquire substantial knowledge to be capable to understand and critically discuss new drug development projects, with researchers in both academia, and the industry.