GMS 6033: Immunity in Health & Disease

(note:  formally known as "Mechanisms of Disease")

Catalog description: Biological and biochemical aspects of immunology, focusing on the molecular and cellular basis of human disease.

Pre-requisites: Consent of instructor.

Expanded description and explanation:  This course represents the third course in a 3-course sequence (GMS 6031, GMS 6032 and GMS 6033), dealing with the biological and biochemical aspects of immunology, where the emphasis in this course is on the role of the immune system in health and disease. The first course focuses on effector mechanisms used during an immune response, and the second course focuses on molecular events involved in the develepment of an immune response.

Specific lecture topics will include:  Leukocyte Migration and Cell Adherence, Introduction to Infectious Disease, Innate Immunity to Infection, Adaptive Immunity to Infection, Evasion of the Immune Response by Pathogens, Inherited Immunodeficiency Diseases, Acquired Immunodeficiency & HIV, Allergy & Hypersensitivity, Autoimmunity: Responses to Self Antigens, Autoimmunity Case Studies: Diabetes & SLE, Tolerance and Response to Self & Non-Self, Transplant Rejection: Responses to Alloantigens, Tumor Immunology, Vaccines, and Manipulation of Immune Responses

Evaluation of student performance:  One exam.
Faculty:  Dr. Wayne McCormack will be the Director of this course. He will be assisted in the presentation of material to the students by various Graduate Faculty of the College Medicine.
Assigned Reading: The textbook for this course will be "Immunobiology-The Immune System in Health and Disease", by C.A. Janeway, Jr. et al., 4th edition, Current Biology Ltd & Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999. Additional readings will be assigned from the research literature, such as Nature, Science and The Journal of Immunology.