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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: Immunology
Status: Anatomy
IntermediateCourse34 hours

Featured reviews

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!

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.

SO

4.0Reviewed Jun 9, 2020

Excellent moderator. I wish the discussion forums were more interactive so that some of the gray areas could be clarified. Overall, great content wonderfully explained

JO

5.0Reviewed Dec 2, 2019

Excelente curso, Alma Moon es una profesora muy didáctica. El curso se aprovecha mejor si uno ya tiene algún acercamiento con la inmunología. Gracias Rice University.

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.

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.

BJ

5.0Reviewed Dec 9, 2020

This course is highly recommended as it opens the innate conceptualization of the fundamentals of Immunology. Excellent delivery from the Rice University management team,

LI

5.0Reviewed Oct 3, 2020

This is a knowledge-packed course and the instructor is very lively and engaging in her teaching. I would definitely finish all the courses in this specialization.

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.

HD

5.0Reviewed Dec 12, 2019

This course is an amazing introduction to immunology. It really helps to understand the basic concepts and helps to alleviate the theories and understand them better.

BR

5.0Reviewed Nov 21, 2020

Thank you very much Professor! I really enjoyed your lessons and passion for teaching. I am glad you are able to share your talent with the world via this medium. Looking forward to the next class!

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.

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