Clinical Immunology
Course content
This course is designed to bring an in-depth understanding of the immune system’s role in the development of several common inflammatory human diseases.
To achieve this aim, we will take a disease-oriented approach with teaching sessions from experts in various inflammatory disorders that affect the lung (eg, asthma, COPD), intestines (eg, IBD, celiac disease), brain (eg, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers), and other bodily tissues (eg, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjøgren’s Syndrome, SLE).
Teaching sessions will describe the structure and composition of our body’s tissues - the cell types that can be expected to be found in these tissues and how immune cells live in these organs. We will touch on how these organs and immune cells operate in health, and what happens in the case of inflammation/disease. Different types of white blood cells (leukocytes) and their interplay with non-immune cells will be reviewed along with the role of various immune molecules such as antibodies, cell surface receptors, cytokines and chemokines (immune hormones).
When it comes to the different inflammatory conditions, we will ask:
1) what are the critical failures that lead to disease?
2) what are the major cell types that cause disease?
3) what are the critical molecules that cause disease?
4) how can we target the immune system to alleviate disease?
As well as learning from experts in the field by way of lectures and other types of teaching sessions, students will learn to analyse publicly available RNA-Sequencing datasets from some inflammatory conditions. The aim here will be to become more familiar with the R programming language and applications related to analysis of sequencing data. We will use datasets rich in immune cell infiltrates so that students can also explore the how immune cells behave and change in these disease conditions.
MSc in Immunology and Inflammation - compulsory
After completing the course the student will acquire several competencies.
Knowledge:
- They will understand the clinical, immunological and inflammatory mechanisms involved in the most common allergic, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases
- They will be able to explain the characteristics of different categories of inflammation and application of these in diagnosis and therapeutic strategies
- They will be able to explain the interplay between different parts of the immune system and with stromal and epithelial cells of various bodily organs
- Understand how our environment and genetics interplay to cause inflammatory diseases, gaining and understanding of disease epidemiology
- They will understand how computational tools may be used to analyse the immune response in human disease and the advantages and disadvantages of using such approaches
Skills:
- Be able to propose relevant immunological studies aimed at clarifying the role of endogenous and exogenous antigens, life style and environment, and genetic background in chronic inflammatory diseases.
- Be able to hypothesize experimental approaches that could give greater insights into specific inflammatory diseases
- Be able to conceptualise new strategies for immune-based treatments of inflammatory diseases
- Be able to analyse RNA-Sequencing datasets and produce standard outputs from data including gene expression analysis, principal component analysis and statistical analyses.
General Competences:
- Be able to critically analyze and discuss clinical and experimental data in the field of inflammation and inflammatory diseases
- Be able to outline small research projects within experimental immunology and inflammation
- Be able to provide immunological inputs to interdisciplinary projects involving basic research, clinical research, biomarker and drug development within allergy, autoimmunity and inflammation
Lectures online and on campus. Project work in the form of hands-on computational classes with leading experts, journal clubs and group learning sessions.
Literature will stem from books, primary articles and reviews provided by lecturers of the course
Comprehensive knowledge in basic immunology and immune pathology is recommended.
This course is not available for credit transfer students and other external students.
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
On-site written exam, 2 hours under invigilation
- Type of assessment details
- The exam will draw from course content and will be conducted without aids.
- Examination prerequisites
-
Examination prerequisite are:
Students need to have completed group work and course work prior to attending the exam.
- Aid
- No aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Internal examiners
- Re-exam
-
In case of 10 or fewer students registered for re-exam
Type of assessment: Oral examination
Assessment details: 30 minutes examination
Preparation: None
Aids: None
Criteria for exam assessment
To achieve the maximum grade of 12 the student must be able to demonstrate competence in the learning outcomes stated above. This includes having a knowledge of the process of inflammatory diseases, with intimate knowledge of the immune and tissue cells that play a role, the genes and molecules at the heart of the disease and a knowledge of the treatments used that target the immune system. Students will also need to show that they can hypothesise and conceptualise experiments that address key concepts in the field of clinical immunology.
- Category
- Hours
- Lectures
- 30
- Preparation
- 130
- Project work
- 44
- Exam
- 2
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- SIIK24003U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
-
1 block
- Placement
- Block 3
- Schedulegroup
-
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- Capacity
- 30
- Studyboard
- Study Board for Human Biology, Immunology and Neuroscience
Contracting department
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Course Coordinator
- Jonathan Coquet (15-6e737265786c6572326773757969784477797268326f7932686f)
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