General information This course is designed for clinical medicine students and offers an opportunity to learn about the basics of the mammalian immune system. These include molecular, cellular, and physiological aspects of innate immunity and antibody-based and cell-mediated adaptive immunity. The immune response, in its various forms, is important in our dealing with infectious disease, in hypersensitivity, autoimmune diseases, and transplantation, in medical diagnosis, and in sophisticated medical procedures. It has consequences as a major factor both as an element for good health and as a causative factor in disease. Immunology is a specialized area of biology that integrates knowledge and methods from a wide variety of other specialties within biology. As an opportunity for intellectual development, the course requires understanding technical language and complex concepts, integration of information and concepts from biochemistry, molecular biology, histology, physiology, developmental biology, evolutionary theory and microbiology. The field of immunology is very exciting: new information about the immune system arises rapidly (with many new papers published each week in major scientific journals). Therefore, it is not enough to “know” each new bit of information; we must also see how experimental strategies are applied to the questions that arise as people study this system. Learning Objectives It may be useful to put the intentions of this course into a set of learning objectives that apply to any of the topics that we will consider. These statements summarize what we will attempt to do with the information we encounter; they also guide the structure of the homework assignments, quizzes, and major examinations in the course. By participating in this course you have the opportunity to become able to: State accurate definitions of terms and use the terms correctly Describe the molecules, cellular structures, and cells important in the system Recite, write out, or diagram explanations of the conceptual models used to explain the data Describe experimental strategies, their logic, and how they are applied to particular situations Connect the conceptual models into integrated explanations of how things work Analyze sets of information related to the conceptual models of experiments The activities of the course Listening: Attend all lectures as you are responsible for the material presented in class lectures. We may assign specific text pages that will not be directly covered in class. You are responsible for the information in those assignments. In addition, we will refer to many figures which are not shown in the textbook during lectures. Reading: Before each class you are required to preview the chapter as planed in the schedule. The textbook of Medical Immunology, originally written by Tristram G. Parslow, Daniel P. Stites, Abba I. Terr, John B. Imboden, adapted by Tan Jinquan, Yao Kun. It is published by science publishing house of China in 2006. We provide a website to accompany the course lectures at http://eol.yzu.edu.cn/eol/tea_main.htm. This site provides our powerpoints, lecture notes, additional readings, handouts, animations, self-tests, and links to other webs and platforms of discussion and communication. Writing: After each class you need to answer the questions displayed on the handouts, you are required to turn in the sheet with answers before the next the class. Discussion: We have two forms of discussion, one is live in the classroom, which focuses on homework assignments to analyze or summarize certain topics. Another is performed on the internet (http://eol.yzu.edu.cn/eol/tea_main.htm); you are encouraged to give topics which you encounter in the immune system. You may give suggestions about our lectures, websites, discussions, and etc. Performing experiments: Our laboratory course is to provide a selective approach to your learning of certain immunologic techniques and assays. For best performance of the laboratory exercises and best understanding of the course material, it is important to approach the laboratory exercises in a thoughtful, organized way. This includes reading each exercise and writing a half-page of laboratory preparation information for each lab exercise on what you will be doing during class before you come to the laboratory. Your lab prep info must contain a description of the experimental approach to be used in the exercise together with a description of how the data will be reported. After a given experiment, you should generate one laboratory report based on the Exercise. Grades Your grade in Medical Immunology will be determined by your performance on examinations, quizzes, homework, class attendance and discussion. The following weightings will be used in determining your grade: Class attendance and discussion (10%) Homework assessment (10%) Quizzes (20%) Quiz 1 (5%) Quiz 2 (5%) Quiz 3 (5%) Quiz 4 (5%) Final examination (60%) Your instructors will determine your scores on your examinations, quizzes, homework, class attendance and discussion. All reasonable efforts will be made to assure equality of grading among sections Course policies Each of you is expected for class attendance, accomplishment of homework, quizzes, and lab report, taking part in examination. If you skip those requirements, the points will be lost. Ordinarily, make-ups will not be allowed for missed examinations, quizzes, lab report or homework. If there is a situation that warrants an exception to this rule, it must be a serious situation such as an accident or illness. Not being ready for the examination or presentation because of poor time management is not such a serious situation. The Yangzhou University is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of University in this respect. Any behavior which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts is in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.