The emphasis of this module is on how the immune system works to combat infection by viruses, bacteria, fungi and worms. The focus is on molecular and cellular aspects and the main areas covered include: (i) the evolution of the immune system, (ii) innate immunity and the role of phagocytes, inflammatory responses and intracellular killing mechanisms, (iii) adaptive immunity and the role of B cells, T cell subsets, antigen presenting cells, interleukins and cell surface receptors, (iv) immunity and infection, killer cells and killing mechanisms, (iv) the structures, signalling pathways, cell biology and interactions involved in antigen recognition, T and B cell responses, antibody-antigen complexes, (v) immunological disorders, including hypersensitivity, autoimmune diseases and transplantation.
The delivery of this module is based on lectures, data interpretation workshops and a practical on the identification of leukocytes using microscopy.