Immunology & Infectious Disease (C5501)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

During this module you will develop a comprehensive knowledge of host-pathogen interactions. You will gain knowledge of medical microbiology, learning the characteristics, biology and pathogenesis of medically important infectious microbes – including virulence, identification, diagnosis and epidemiology.

You will cover the mechanisms of how the human immune system counters infection. This will include:

• how the immune system is organised
• the various mechanisms of the innate and adaptive immune responses, including inflammation
• how the immune system detects infection
• the generation of antibody and T cell diversity
• T cell and B cell defences to infection.

You will integrate this knowledge with practical lab and employability skills, including research, problem solving and scientific communication.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 32 hours of contact time and about 118 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Biochemistry (with an industrial placement year) BSc
• Biochemistry BSc
• Biochemistry MSci
• Biology BSc
• Biology MSci
• Biomedical Science BSc
• Biomedical Science MSci
• Genetics BSc
• Genetics MSci
• Neuroscience BSc
• Neuroscience MSci
• Neuroscience with Psychology BSc