Advanced Immunology

Course manual 2016/2017

Course content

In this course, students learn from and interact with scientists actively working in various areas of immunology. In addition, students learn from and interact with their peers by actively presenting and discussing published research papers. In 2-day cycles, students will address a specific immunological theme (e.g. macrophages and pattern recognition) that will be presented by staff scientists of the two participating institutes (AMC and Sanquin). Each cycle begins with self-study of specific pages of the textbook "Immunobiology" of Janeway to ensure that all students have gained similar levels of immunological knowlegde and comprehension. The test is followed by an interactive morning lecture session (3-4 hrs) given by a biomedical specialists performing research in the specific theme. Next, students will work towards 1 or 2 contemporary articles in that field. The articles will be posted on Blackboard in advance. All students will read the article(s) in the afternoon and selected students will prepare a presentation of the articles. This will be presented and discussed by all during an interactive tutorial session the next morning (3-4 hrs). Each student will present at least two articles during the course, each with different lecturers. Goal of this part of the cycle is that students will be able to apply their knowlegde and comprehension by learning to analyse and criticize scientific articles. The afternoon that follows, time is reserved to prepare the textbook and possibly articles for the next 2-day cycle. The course thus consists of 9 cycles of lectures and workdiscussion sessions. In addition, 1 morning is reserved for lectures that discuss the use and applicabilities of the state-of-the-art immunological techniques that students are most likely to apply during internships.

The course is intense and will provide a fast learning curve at Master level education.

Study materials

Literature

• Immunobiology (Janeway et al., 8th edition)

Syllabus

• Handouts of articles, pdfs on Blackboard.

Objectives

At the end of the course, the student:

• has a thorough basic as well as state of the art knowledge and comprehension of key immunological themes that enable the students to recognize, reproduce and discuss state-of-the-art findings in a current immunological theme and evaluate and criticieze current opinions in the field. Student will be able to design experiments to answer open questions and interpret results from experiments for further research.
• has enough knowlegde and comprehension about state-of-the-art techniques to be able to choose the appropiate techniques for specific research questions during internships and to execute and evaluate the technique and summarize and interpret data.
• is able to analyse, summarize and criticize current research articles in immunology.
• can clearly interpret and evaluate data from research articles from contemporary literature and present this to a scientific audience and is able to interpret, assess and discuss the potential merits of the article in relation to the specific research field and to immunology as a whole.
• will be able to receive and give constructive (i.e. critical and honest, yet positively towards receiver) feedback on contents and execution of scientific presentations.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study
• Supervision/feedback meeting

 In 2-day cycles, students will address a specific immunological theme that will be presented by staff scientists.

Each cycle begins with self-study of specific pages of the textbook "Immunobiology" of Janeway to be followed by a test containing open questions to test knowlegde and comprehension of these basics of immunology about the specific theme and to ensure that all students have gained similar levels of immunological knowlegde and comprehension.

The test is followed by an interactive morning lecture session (3-4 hrs) given by a biomedical specialists performing research in the specific theme. The lectures are interactive and students will learn to recognize, reproduce and discuss the state-of-the art findings in the specific theme and evaluate and criticize current opinions in the field. In addition, the students will be able to summarize the current knowlegde in the theme and identify the open research questions that remain.

Next, students will work towards 1 or 2 contemporary articles in that field. All students will read the article(s) in the afternoon and selected students will prepare a presentation of the articles. This will be presented and discussed by all during an interactive tutorial session the next morning (3-4 hrs). Each student will present at least two articles during the course, each with different lecturers. In some cycli, all students will get an additional written test on the contents, interpretation and evaluation of the articles. Goal of this part of the cycle is that students will be able to apply their knowlegde and comprehension by learning to analyse, summarize and criticize scientific articles. Students will be able to interpret and evaluate the data and learn to assess the scientific merits and flaws of the articles. 

The afternoon that follows, time is reserved to prepare the textbook and possibly articles for the next 2-day cycle. The courses thus consists of 9 cycles of lectures and workdiscussion sessions.

Learning activities

Attendance

The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).

Additional requirements for this course:

Additional requirements for this course:

The students are expected and highly encouraged to be present and attendance will be recorded. In case of absence, students are requested to contact course coordinators and alternative assignments will be formulated if possible.

Assessment

To pass the course, the final grade should be 5.5 or higher.

Students that miss a test have to contact the course coordinators and the lecturer who gave the test that was missed. Together with the student an alternative test will be designed if possible.

Inspection of assessed work

The date, time and location of the inspection moment are in the DataNose timetable.

Assignments

Janeway's Immunobiology

• Learn specific pages from Janeway's Immunobiology for written test in form of open questions

Article presentation and discussion

• Read, analyse and interpret scientific article and present PowerPoint presentation that summarises, evaluates and criticises article. Prepare scientific discussion about contents of article to be able to discuss and argue in response to scientiifc questions about article from audience. Preparation and presentation will be executed in groups of 2 (sometimes 3) persons.

Article analysis and data evaluation

• Read, analyse and interpret scientific article and evaluate data for merit and points of criticism to be able to answer to open questions about article in written test

Onderstaande opdrachten komen aan bod in deze cursus:

•    Naam opdracht 1 : beschrijving 2
•    Naam opdracht 2 : beschrijving 1
•    ....

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.uva.nl/plagiarism

Course structure

Timetable

Additional information

Location: Sanquin and AMC.

Contact information

Coordinator

• prof. dr. S.M. van Ham

J.A. ten Brinke (a.tenbrinke@sanquin.nl)

Prof. dr. E. Eldering is the second coordinator of this course.