Immunology 520322 Spring 2010

Sebastian Springer, Instructor of Record (email, lab home page, my own research)

The location of the course is Seminar 1 in Research II. It takes place at 15:45 - 17:00, Thursdays and Fridays. There are no classes on March 25 and March 26. The class on May 14 consists of a quiz only.

Structure of the course

The course has 25 classes. There will be 15 taught lecture classes and 9 presentation classes.

The Lecture Classes are presentations by Prof. Springer about immunological basics. Use the classes to answer the comprehension questions which will come up in the quizzes and the final exam. It is expected that you prepare for the classes by reading the assignments; there is a grade component for attendance and oral participation.

The Presentation Classes consist of one paper presentation by a student (or a team of students). Papers are selected by the instructor (see the table below). Presenting students meet with the instructor one week before the presentation date with a finished presentation and specific questions. This meeting is part of the grade (see below). The presentation lasts 45 minutes, plus 15 minutes discussion.

Schedule of Classes:

Class #	Date	Type of class	Topic or Paper	Reading Assignment to be read before class
1	Feb 04	Lecture	Introduction to the course	No prior reading.
2	Feb 05	Lecture	Overview and fundamental function of the immune system: Pathogenicity - cells and organs of the immune system - innate and adaptive immune system - the course of an immune response	Janeway chapter 1 (provided in the Materials)
3	Feb 11	Lecture	The Innate Immune System	Janeway chapter 2 (provided in the Materials)
4	Feb 12	Paper presentation Prof. Springer	Flo, Aderem, et al.: Lipocalin 2 mediates an innate immune response to bacterial infection by sequestrating iron. Nature 432 (2004), p. 917-921. Editorial: Nature 432, p. 811-813 Additional reading: Goetz, Strong, et al., Molecular Cell 10 (2002), p. 1033-1043.	The paper
5	Feb 18	Lecture	Antigen recognition by antibodies and T cell receptors	Janeway chapter 3
6	Feb 19	Quiz 1 and Lecture	Immunological Methods	Janeway appendix 1
7	Feb 25	Lecture	Antigen presentation through MHC class I molecules	Janeway chapters 3 and 5, and see Materials
8	Feb 26	Paper presentation Preparation Meeting: Feb.18, after class	Neijssen, Neefjes, et al.: Cross-presentation by intercellular peptide transfer through gap junctions. Nature 434 (2005), p. 83-88. Editorial: Heath and Carbone, Nature 434 (2005), p. 27.	The paper
9	Mar 04	Lecture	Antigen presentation through MHC class II and CD1 molecules	Janeway chapters 3 and 5, and see Materials
10	Mar 05	Paper presentation Preparation Meeting: Feb. 25, after class	Mattner, Bendelac, et al.: Exogenous and endogenous glycolipid antigens activate NKT cells during microbial infections. Nature 434 (2005), p. 525-529. Additional Reading: Zhou, Bendelac, et al., Science 306 (2004), p.1786-9	The paper
11	Mar 11	Lecture	The early life history of lymphocytes, and the development of their receptors	Janeway chapters 4 and 7
12	Mar 12	Paper presentation Preparation Meeting: March 4, after class	Anderson, Mathis, et al.: Projection of an immunological self shadow within the thymus by the aire protein. Science 298 (2002), p. 1395-1401. Editorial: Science 298 (2002), p. 1348.	The paper
13	Mar 18	Quiz 2 and Lecture	The course of an immune response, and the formation of immunological memory Disease: Plague	Janeway chapters 8 and 10
14	Mar 19	Paper presentation Preparation Meeting: March 11, after class	Chang, Reiner, et al.: Asymmetric T Lymphocyte Division in the Initiation of Adaptive Immune Responses. Science 315 (2007), p. 1687.	The paper
15	Apr 08	Lecture	Subversion of the immune response by bacteria and viruses	Review articles in the Materials
16	Apr 09	Lecture	Tolerance, transplantation, and autoimmunity - Disease: SLE	Janeway chapter 14
17	Apr 15	Paper presentation Preparation Meeting: April 8, after class	Groh, Spies, et al.: Stimulation of T cell autoreactivity by anomalous expression of NKG2D and its MIC ligands in rheumatoid arthritis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci 100 (2003), 9452-9457.	The paper
18	Apr 16	Quiz 3 and Lecture	Immunoprivileged sites, and immunology of the brain – Disease: Multiple Sclerosis	Reviews (see Materials)
19	Apr 22	Presentation Preparation Meeting: April 15, after class	Heppner, Aguzzi, et al.: Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis repressed by microglial paralysis. Nature Medicine 2 (2005), p. 146.	The paper
20	Apr 23	Lecture	Parasites, antiparasitic immune response, and allergy; the mucosal immune system – Disease: allergy	Janeway chapter 13; and see materials
21	Apr 29	Lecture	Diseases: AIDS and Cancer	Janeway chapters 12 (AIDS) and 15 (Tumors), specific sections only; and see Materials
22	Apr 30	Presentation Preparation Meeting: April 22, after class	Koebel, Schreiber, et al.: Adaptive immunity maintains occult cancer in an equilibrium state. Nature 450 (2007), p. 903.	The paper
23	May 6	Lecture	Vaccine design	Janeway chapter 15 sections 15.19-15.40, and reviews in the Materials
24	May 7	Presentation Preparation Meeting: April 29, after class	Barouch, Letvin, et al.: Eventual AIDS vaccine failure in a rhesus monkey by viral escape from cytotoxic T lymphocytes.  Nature 415 (2002), p. 335-339 Background: Barouch et al., Science 290 (2000), p. 486-492 Review: Barouch, J.Path. 208 (2006), p. 283	The paper
25	May 14	Quiz 4 only	–	–

Presentations

• This page has advice on preparing the paper presentations.

Materials

• The book for the course is Janeway's Immunobiology, 7th edition. (The 5th and 6th editions will work, too.) See below.
• A reader with the papers and additional material will be available from Pulse Copy.
• Follow this link to find to find reading assignments, comprehension questions, papers, and material for further exploration.

Quizzes and Final Exam

• Some help for preparing the quizzes and the final exam is here.

Books and other sources of information:

• Janeway's Immunobiology by Murphy, Travers, Walport (Garland Science). The 7th edition is the current one; the 6th and 5th are also acceptable. You should own, or have easy access to, a copy of this book. The 5th edition is available for free on the NCBI Bookshelf, but it is somewhat difficult to read (you can use it though to look up concepts). Several people might be able to share one copy of the book.
• The book How the immune system works by Sompayrac (Blackwell, 2nd edition) is only for a very brief introduction. It is not worth purchasing but available in the IRC.
• The molecular basics of immunology (which are getting a rather short treatment in the Janeway) are explained very well in the two immunology chapters of Molecular Biology of the Cell.
• The Springer group has a Wiki with lots of information about the immune system (see http://springerwiki.jacobs-university.de, especially http://springerwiki.jacobs-university.de/MHCwiki/Wikka/wikka.php?wakka=LiteratureOverview), the password for which will be given out in the course.
• How to get additional scientific information

Grading and absence policies

• The four quizzes will together count 20% of the final grade of the course. Medical excuses and grad school interviews (proven) lead to pass grade or oral retake.
• Participation in the lecture and presentation classes (averaged over the semester) will count 20%. Unexcused absence will impact the grade.
• The paper presentation will count 40%. Of this, scientific preparation makes 20%, and presentation in front of the class (including the quality of the slides) another 20%.
• The final exam will count 20%. Questions of the final exam will mostly be taken from the comprehension questions of the lecture classes.