Availabilities:
2024 unit offering information will be available in November 2023
Unit description
Extends students' knowledge of the immune system, including concepts of innate and acquired immune responses and how specificity, diversity, memory and tolerance develop. Students gain an understanding of various types of immune functions and dysfunctions, and explore these in laboratory investigations. Herein, students learn how to generate, analyse and interpret immunological data to support the clinical diagnostic process.
Unit content
- Foundation concepts of the immune system, including communication, integration and innate and adaptive immunity
- Organisation, expression and function of the complement system and immune receptors, including B cell receptors, antibody, T cell receptors and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
- Humoral and cellular immunity, including B and T cell development, activation, differentiation and memory, with an understanding of the regulation involved
- Immune responses to infectious diseases, and an overview of vaccine development
- The development of tolerance with the microbiome, and the importance of immune tolerance in tissue transplantation
- Overactive and underactive immune system dysfunctions, including allergy, hypersensitivity, chronic inflammation, autoimmunity and immunodeficiency
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | |
|---|---|
| 1 | summarise and compare immune system development, innate and adaptive immunity, and the generation of immune memory and tolerance |
| 2 | compare immune cell activation, differentiation and effector responses, including the influence different antigens have on these processes, and on vaccine development |
| 3 | participate with proficiency in a group setting to investigate dysfunctions of the immune system |
| 4 | generate, analyse and interpret experimental immunological data to solve scientific problems in the biomedical setting, individually and in collaboration |
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
- summarise and compare immune system development, innate and adaptive immunity, and the generation of immune memory and tolerance
- compare immune cell activation, differentiation and effector responses, including the influence different antigens have on these processes, and on vaccine development
- participate with proficiency in a group setting to investigate dysfunctions of the immune system
- generate, analyse and interpret experimental immunological data to solve scientific problems in the biomedical setting, individually and in collaboration
Teaching and assessment
Fee information
Domestic
Commonwealth Supported courses
For information regarding Student Contribution Amounts please visit the Student Contribution Amounts.
Fee paying courses
For postgraduate or undergraduate full fee paying courses please check Domestic Postgraduate Fees OR Domestic Undergraduate Fees
International
Please check the international course and fee list to determine the relevant fees.