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Rice University

Fundamentals of Immunology: Innate Immunity and B-Cell Function

Course 1 of a four course specialization called Fundamentals of Immunology: Innate Immunity and B-cell Function. Each course in the specialization presents material that builds on the previous course's material. 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.

Status: Public Health
Status: Immunology
IntermediateCourse34 hours

Featured reviews

SS

5.0Reviewed Mar 30, 2020

Professor Novotny is one of the best teachers I have seen, she has such a good sense of humor and she makes learning fun and easy....and I love the owl T-Shirts she wears! 8-)

MM

5.0Reviewed Jun 8, 2020

The way of teaching and the way of conducting tests are excellent. I was not much interested in immunology until I start this course but now I started loving the subject.

ZF

5.0Reviewed Mar 26, 2020

I'm a Biology student, It's an amazing professor, excellent explanation with clarity the question, Highly recommend, If you have interest do join now, I'm going to the second course.

KP

4.0Reviewed Aug 24, 2020

thoroughly enjoyed it. the instructor is amazing and saved my life as my teachers weren't able to teach this subject in a manner i could understand will now go on to complete the other two

DA

5.0Reviewed Mar 13, 2021

I love this instructor! she explains things so well with touch of personality that, for me, made the information more fun to compartmentalize and absorb for the long term.

FS

5.0Reviewed Nov 13, 2020

great course. fantastic lecturer.. however, it would possibly have been more interesting if the correct answers were not shown after making a mistake in the first attempt

OZ

5.0Reviewed Feb 17, 2020

The course presents with excellent step-by-step detailed explanation of immunity from the systems biology perspective: starting on organism level and going down to the cell and mollecular levels.

JA

5.0Reviewed Jan 28, 2021

I just love it, PhD. Alma Moon is just one of the best teachers I have seen, very clear explanations and analytical exams. Really really good course. Thank you so much for that.

AT

5.0Reviewed Nov 29, 2021

Excellent course! It helped me reinforce previous knowledge of immunology with clear examples and a focus on function rather than terminology. Looking forward to the other courses.

LN

5.0Reviewed Aug 26, 2023

Very structured and organized course. The videos and handouts are good for a beginner in immunology. The quizzes and final are adequately challenging. Highly recommended.

AL

5.0Reviewed Aug 5, 2019

So far the lecturer has been very entertaining and interesting in her explanation of various concepts of immunology. I am excited to finish this course, which will be relevant to my future studies.

RW

5.0Reviewed Feb 1, 2021

Extremely helpful course for understanding the basis of what immunology is! I absolutely recommend it! and kudos to the instructor, she was very easy to understand and was able to keep me engaged!

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