DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

Transcription

1 DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY Seminar The purpose of this course is to train students the skills of oral presentation about how to deliver seminar in an efficient way. For each talk, a professor will be assigned to comment the student s performance. At the end of the semester, students are requested to turn in report upon the updated research with clinical relevance. Experimental Microbiology and Immunology There are common technologies used in molecular biology, bacteriology, virology and immunology, and reliable experimental data are essential for researches in these areas. To allow students to become familiar with a variety of technologies, each professor offers one technological project with lecture that is related to his/her research expertise. Students are required to participate in at least five different laboratories and successfully carry out the experiments. Graduate Immunology The basic concepts of immunology are taught in this course with focuses on interactions and regulation of cellular responses and cytokine interactions in the immune system. The course includes lectures and group discussions, and communication is emphasized. Written reports on assigned topics are required. Molecular Biology The course outlines the basic concepts of molecular biology for the study of life science on the molecular level. The theory, methods, and examples of modern technology in genetic engineering are introduced in this course. Scientific reading and writing in English The goal of this course is to improve the ability of the students to read and write scientific papers in English. The course contains lectures, discussions on assigned papers, and group discussion on the manuscripts written by every participating student. Advanced Bacteriology This is an advanced course focusing on the latest progresses in the fields of bacterial genomics, genetics and physiology. The topics cover bacterial structure, bacterial cell functions, pathogenesis of bacterial pathogens, microbial diversity, etc. The format of this course combines lectures, panel discussions and student presentations of research papers. 7-59

2 Advanced Immunology This course is offered in the format of journal discussion on important research topics in immunology. Advanced Virology The replication and proliferation of DNA and RNA are classified based on the molecular biology, and the representative viruses are introduced. At the end of the semester, students are required to report upon the latest research on the chosen viruses of clinical importance. Medical Microbiology This course overlaps with Medical Microbiology, except for the immunology section, offered to medical students. The objective is to introduce graduate students to the morphology, physiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of a variety of pathogenic microbes and viruses. This course can be substituted by undergraduate medical microbiology that is six credits or more, and with a final grade of 70 or higher. Scientific Method in Animal Experimentation This is an introduction to research methodology on animal experiments. The course design is based on the practical applications, not just pure statistics. The course content includes experimental design, collection and analysis of literature, oral presentation skills, data analysis (including applications of software), graphical production, scientific thesis writing, and animal experiment techniques. Tumor immunology This course will be focused on the interaction between tumorigenesis and the immune system. Main topics include: immune surveillance, immune evasion, regulation of immune system in tumor suppression, and current immunotherapy and cancer vaccine development. Introduction to Translational Medicine Scientific advancement is a collaborative effort of multidiscipline from different but related professionals working together. In order to speed laboratory findings into bedside practice, the concept of Translational Medicine has emerged, changing the landscape of bench to bedside approach significantly. The gaining prominence of Translational Medicine in biomedical research has prompted to suggest that an introduction course on Translational Medicine is imperative. The introductory course will provide students with an in depth understanding of the 7-60

3 rationale and impact of Translational Medicine and appreciation of its increasingly important role to medical research, the drug development industry and regulatory sectors. Furthermore, the course will lay a foundation for students interested in a career that impacts human health through biomedical science. Gene Therapy This is a two-credit course for master s students. Several lecturers who have expertise in gene therapy participate in the course. The objective of the course is to provide an integrated approach to the basic and clinical science of gene therapy. The topics given in the course include (1) gene therapy - an overview, (2) viral vectors for gene therapy, (3) non-viral vectors for gene therapy, (4) antibody application, (5) DNA vaccine, (6) immunotherapy, (7) suicide gene therapy and oncolytic virotherapy, (8) oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, cell cycle & gene therapy, (9) stem cell-based therapy, (10) gene therapy for autoimmune diseases, and (11) gene therapy for genetic diseases. Finally, students are assigned to present gene therapy papers. At the end of the course, students should be able to conceive, plan, design, and carry out gene transfer experiments. Grades will be based on learning attitude (10%), including attendance and participation in discussion, in-class paper presentation (40%), and a final exam (50%). Career Development in Biomedical Sciences This course is offered to both first and second year Master degree seeking students. The term-long course will be divided into roughly two sections. With the first section focusing on developing English communication skills and exploring different career paths after graduation. The second section focuses on inviting experts from the biotech industry to share their own experiences in career development as well as their expertise. Students will have the chance to listen, speak, and write in English during the course. At the end of the term all students will be required to present a career development plan. Grading will be based on attendance and oral presentation. Infectious Diseases The Infectious Diseases is a 3-creadit course that is offered in the Fall Semester by the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University. The course is topic-oriented and emphasizes on the group discussion and interaction. We have selected several important topics based on the area of specialty of the faculty and the important and emerging infectious diseases worldwide as well in Taiwan. It includes enterovirus, dengue virus, hepatitis virus, Epstein-Barr virus, influenza 7-61

4 virus, Clostridium difficile, Helicobacterium pylori, Escherichia coli, Vibrio vulnificus, group A streptococcus, and drug resistance. The aim of this course is to give students in-depth knowledge and current research on the emerging infectious diseases. Molecular Parasitology Science and technology, and discovery of molecular biological mechanisms of many parasites rendering and higher organisms different uniqueness of the graduate group in terms of parasitology, molecular parasitology course of this study is the basis for the door, not only to help review the known mammalian (host) molecular biology, more emphasis on parasites found in different mechanisms, such as RNA trans-splicing, mitochondrial RNA editing, polycistronic primary transcript how to become mono-cistronic mrna into the ribosome, mrna synthesis is why many parasites amanitin resistance, micro-rna study in parasites, VSG gene mutation to evade host antibodies to kill, trypanothione and glutathione both how different and so on. Comparison between the host and the parasite use different mechanisms to recognize both the similarities and differences between them are familiar with, in addition to heritage with expertise continuity of responsibility, but also can help students in disciplines bioinformatics and genomics research, providing different evolutionary hierarchy of reference point, but look forward to the expansion effect, to find a better drug action points from the similarities and differences, and help treat the disease. Parasitology The focus of this course is on the systematic survey of basic and applied parasitology. Topics include basic principle of parasitology, recent advances, and future directions. Special topics on molecular biology information resources What is Bioinformatics? Interpreted broadly, that is, on the Internet can be associated with a variety of life science information retrieval, and then analyzed with the whole mile, and can make the prediction and inference of knowledge. How diverse information in cluttered and easy to grab the biological information we are interested in, this class is one of our purposes. Since the rise of molecular biology, people to explore the relationship between the angle of the molecular biological information and biological molecules, so scientists have constructed more than a database of many biologically relevant molecules, such as gene database, and other protein databases. Due to advances in computer technology, making the amount of biological information database surge; while computing power, hard disk capacity is also a huge step forward. Many research topics (eg: the establishment and 7-62

5 integration of databases than the sequence of the analysis, gene sequences of sequencing the genome map construction, analysis and prediction of protein structure and function, the establishment and drug design molecular model, evolutionary tree building, etc.), has attracted many scientists into the ranks of the study, and therefore the amount of data the database more and more, how to quickly obtain useful information? How to use the information? Integrate information to create new knowledge, will be another focus of this course. Allergology Allergology is the study of allergy and hypersensitivity. Allergies are among the most common chronic conditions worldwide. Allergy symptoms of allergies range from making miserable conditions in life to putting human at risk for life-threatening reactions. There are more and more allergic disorder in the modern societies, and the disorder is based on the disorder of our immune system, such as hypersensitivity reaction, inflammation and systemic anaphylactic reaction. Because study of Allergy (Allergology) is complex that mixed with clinical immunology, environmental allergens and stimulants, therefore it is needed to have unique study modules for graduate students to learn and apply for this knowledge in their daily research life and clinical relevant studies. Approach to Biological Knowledge Biology is more or less akin to a series of drifting knowledge. A wandering hangs between measurable and immeasurable data, between sophisticated interpretation and naïve intuition. How people recognizing the biological facts and hereby reconstructing a net of perceptions for lives on the earth are within the scope of this course. Concepts, logic, idealism, and paradigms are reevaluated under the social/cultural context. Discussion, debate and reasoning based on individual experiences are emphasized. The students will learn the ways of scientific thinking, the deficiencies in empirical laws and the traps of cognitive abilities. 7-63