Immunology: The Immune System and its Failures Specialization

Our immune system relies on an innate and an adaptive arm that communicate and collaborate to provide us with an optimal response against pathogens. This course focuses on our innate immunity which provides us our first, fast and inherited defence against infections.

In this course, you will take a closer look at the mechanisms and cellular components involved in this swift response that occurs within minutes of exposure to a threat. Throughout the course, and guided by our active researchers, you will have opportunities to recognise its key protective mechanisms and to explain their importance for our overall health. You will learn about the mechanisms it uses to inform our adaptive immune system of the presence of a threat, and understand how some environmental factors, such as our own internal microbiome, influences it. Finally, you will have opportunities to reflect on current related issues and controversies in this fascinating field of research.

In this course, you will learn about the role of immune responses of the adaptive (acquired) immune system which provides specialised immunity against pathogens.

Guided by our researchers in the Department of Immunity and Inflammation, we will take a closer look at the lymphocyte subsets and mechanisms involved in this delayed finely tuned response occurring days to weeks after the initial exposure to microbial antigens. We will also focus on the versatile cellular components which can distinguish between self- and nonself antigens and on how age affects the immune responses.

In this course, you will explore the mechanisms and immune responses involved in autoimmune diseases and in hyper-responsive phenomena, such as asthma. You will examine in detail the potential causes and factors behind an overactive immune system and the disorders that might ensue if the response is not adequately controlled. you will also analyse the effects of overactive immune response in transplant rejection.

The constant struggle between pathogens and the human immune system has been posing a significant threat to our health for thousands of years.

Infectious diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide. These are typically caused by bacteria (intra- and extracellular), viruses, fungi, parasites (worms/helminths) and prions. Under normal circumstance, the immune response orchestrates a robust protection against these pathogens using both molecular and cellular mechanisms. This usually leads to direct or indirect inactivation of the infectious agent, so the disease symptoms may not appear. However, numerous pathogens have devised immune evasion strategies, which allow them to play ‘hide and seek’ with our immune system. The avoidance of human natural defences may result in host colonisation by a pathogen and thus an infection. This can manifest as disease when the infectious agent replicates and inflicts damage. In this course, you will learn about the different types of pathogens, their confrontation with human immune system, and the dramatic consequences of their evasive strategies.