Course Outline

Specialist Diploma in Immunology & Infectious Diseases

Investigating Viruses

• Overview of viruses

• Prevalent viral diseases

• Elements of the immune system

• Immune response to viral infections

• Measuring antibody levels

• Viral antigen characterization using Western Immunoblot

Emerging Infectious Diseases

• Pathogenesis of bacterial diseases

• Parasitology

• Immune response to bacterial and parasite infections

• Characterization and identification of bacteria

• Research approaches in the area of infectious diseases

• Raising antibodies

Vaccines

• Current research in vaccine development

• Newly developed vaccines

• Vaccination regimes

• Isolation and separation of T & B cells

• Measuring the adaptive immune response

Immunological Approach to Oncology

• Combination therapy, photo-immunotherapy, immunotherapy

• BrDU antibody staining

• Immune response in cancer

• Mini project A: FACS analysis of cell surface markers

• Mini project B: Characterization of cell markers by immunoprecipatation

Disorders of the Immune System

• Autoimmune diseases

• Hypersensitivity reactions

• Immunotherapy

Critical Review of Current Topics

• Literature searching and review

• Analysis of published research papers

Applied Molecular Microbiology

• Antimicrobial therapy

• Plasmid and chromosomal analysis

• Polymerase chain reaction