Although this is an introductory immunology course, we will deal with the subject in quite some detail, which will build as the course progresses. Immunological aspects of disease will be covered in the classroom as well as in case-based tutorial sessions, and in evening clinical discussions at selected teaching hospitals.
Apart from the lectures there will be eight tutorial sessions at which attendance is required. At these sessions immunologically relevant clinical cases will be discussed. The goal will be to use these sessions to review and revise basic immunological issues as well as to get a feel for disease processes.
There will be four tutorial groups each of which will be led by a faculty tutor. Students and individual tutors will remain in the same tutorial group for the duration of the course. The entire class will reconvene after the tutorials for a short lecture or for special discussion sessions. Students will research assigned diseases of immunological interest in small groups and will present their findings to the class.
There will be a midterm as well as a final examination (short answers and brief essays).
Two textbooks are recommended. Obtaining any one of them is essential. The books are Cellular and Molecular Immunology by Abbas, Lichtman and Pober, 4th edition, 2000, or the 5th edition of Immunobiology by Janeway, Travers, Walport and Capra. Reading of textbook chapters before the class is strongly recommended. The lecture notes should be considered as supplementary to the textbooks.