Skills you'll gain

Specialization - 4 course series

This is the first leg of a four-part journey through the defenses your body uses to keep you healthy. In this part, we hope to give you the vocabulary and concepts you need to interact with the medical community and provide them with a context that makes them memorable. Fundamentals of Immunology: Innate Immunity and B-cell Function introduces students to the basic functions of the adaptive and innate immune systems. The early lectures survey cells, tissues, and organs using metaphors, cartoons, and models to improve understanding and retention. After describing the form, function, origin, and varieties of antibodies, subsequent lectures provide details on the mechanism of the generation of variation. The course provides animations of gene rearrangement and class switching and descriptions of affinity maturation correlated with detailed physical models of antibody structure. The final lecture reviews these concepts in an anatomical context. Testing employs multiple choice questions testing facts, concepts, and application of principles. Questions may refer to diagrams, drawings, and photographs used in the lecture and reproduced in the outline. What You’ll Learn: The difference between adaptive and innate immune systems, the characteristics of various pathogens that they protect you from, and the overall strategies employed in this protection. The detailed structure of antibodies and related immunoglobulin receptors, the characteristics and function of the different antibody classes, and the mechanism for producing both the recognition regions and stem regions.  Finally, how these structures are coded for in the DNA and expressed in the B cells.

This is the second half of the journey through the defenses your body uses to keep you healthy. In the first part we learned about innate immunity and B cell function. The second part covers T cell function and coordination of the immune response. Fundamentals of Immunology: Complement, MHC I and II, T Cells, and Cytokines builds on the first course to describe the functions of Complement, MHC presentation to T cells, T cell development and signaling. The early lectures survey cells, tissues and organs using metaphors, cartoons and models to improve understanding and retention. This course includes the structure of both MHC proteins and T cell receptors and the sources of variation. The course provides animations of gene rearrangement, developmental processes and signal cascades. Testing employs multiple choice questions testing facts, concepts, and application of principles. Questions may refer to diagrams, drawing and photographs used in lecture and reproduced in the outline. What You’ll Learn: How complement uses adaptive and innate triggers to target pathogens. The detailed structure and coding of MHC proteins and both alpha-beta and gamma delta receptors and how these proteins interact to initiate an adaptive immune response. The basics of signaling, and the varieties of external receipt and internal activation pathways. We bine the process of putting together how signals and crosstalk control the activity of the immune system.

This is the third leg of the journey through the defenses your body uses to keep you healthy. We learned about innate immunity and B cell function in the first course. In the second course, we studied T cell function and coordination of the immune response. Fundamentals of Immunology: Inflammation, Tolerance, and Autoimmunity introduces students to the basic functions of the adaptive and innate immune systems. The early lectures survey cells, tissues, and organs using metaphors, cartoons, and models to improve understanding and retention. After describing the form, function, origin, and varieties of antibodies, subsequent lectures provide details on the mechanism of the generation of variation. The course provides animations of gene rearrangement and class switching and descriptions of affinity maturation correlated with detailed physical models of antibody structure. The final lecture reviews these concepts in an anatomical context. Testing employs multiple choice questions testing facts, concepts, and application of principles. Questions may refer to diagrams, drawings, and photographs used in the lecture and reproduced in the outline. What You’ll Learn: A survey of immune cells and how they attack pathogens, emphasizing the mechanism of inducing apoptosis and details of Antibody Directed Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity. The inflammatory response and mechanisms of generating tolerance are presented sequentially to emphasize the decision-making in controlling attacks. A survey of autoimmune disease, its characteristics, cause, and treatment. Survey of hypersensitivity reactions, including allergy, anaphylaxis, anemias, granulomas, and various skin responses. This is accompanied by identification, prevention, and treatment. The final discussion of preventing transplant rejection is preceded by a detailed unit on antibody technology and the testing methods for incompatibility.

Course four, Fundamentals of Immunology: Dueling with Pathogens and Cancer, covers the constant battle between your immune system and threats to your health. The first two lectures discuss viral and cellular pathogens, focusing on specific tactics they use to deflect immune attacks. Next, a cheerier lecture describes other immune-based therapies, beginning with engineered antibodies to treat specific diseases. This lecture continues with vaccine development (viral-engineered, killed, RNA-component vaccines, and more) and adjuvant function and ends with vaccination strategies, including herd immunity and resisting the anti-vaccination movement. The last two lectures cover immune deficiencies and how cancer evades the immune system, concluding with advances in using immune therapies (antibodies and CAR T cells) to cure cancer.

Fundamentals of Immunology: Complement, MHC I and II, T Cells, and Cytokines

Fundamentals of Immunology: Inflammation, Tolerance, Autoimmunity

Fundamentals of Immunology: Dueling with Pathogens and Cancer