Course Identification

Students that have never taken a course in immunology (and/or have no immunology background) and plan to take this course should first contact the lecturer.

The aim of this course is to review, deepen and consolidate your knowledge of immunology by presenting and discussing authentic examples of patients suffering from diverse genetically inherited immune disorders.Each lecture will feature a case study of a patient, briefly describing his/her symptoms, clinical examination, medical history, and therapeutic treatments. Based on this information we will try to determine which part of the immune system is dysfunctional and diagnose the specific disease. We will then discuss cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to the specific disorder, as well as possible genetic predisposition. We will then try to compare how much the human phenotype resembles phenotypes in corresponding mouse models. These case studies will be grouped into four major classes of 1)Immunodeficiencies, 2) Autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, 3) Anaphylaxis and Allergy disorders and 4) Lymphoproliferative disorders.

There will be ten to twelve lectures in total; each lecture will cover three to four different, but related, case studies.

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of the amazing complexity of the immune system.
2. Explain the physiological role and significance of individual immune cell populations in health and disease.
3. Demonstrate understanding of the pathophysiology of multiple diseases caused by the dysfunction of the immune system.

Course textbooks:

1. Fred Rosen and Raif Geha: Case Studies in Immunology
2. Helen Chapel et al: Essentials of Clinical Immunology