Unit 1: Introduction to Immunology

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• Section 1.1: Ways of Thinking about Immunology
  • Distinguishing Self from Non-Self
  • Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses
  • Active and Passive Immune Responses
  • Humoral and Cell-Mediated Responses of the Adaptive Immune System
  • Components of the Humoral Innate Immune Response
  • The Cell-Mediated Innate Immune Response
  • Communication between Cells of the Immune System
  • Positive and Negative Feedback Mechanisms
  • Coordinating the Immune Response in Both Time and Space
  • Basic Immunology Research Underlies Medical Treatments

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• Section 1.2: Factors That Influence an Immune System
  • Healthy Habits Promote a Healthy Immune System
  • Gut Check – Human Microbiomes and the Immune System
  • 10 Ways Age Impacts the Human Immune System
  • Demographic Factors That Influence Human Immune System Responses

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• Section 1.3: Challenges Faced by the Immune System
  • The “Big 3 Challenges” Every Immune System Needs to Get Right
  • Universal Immunity – Tailor-Made Immune Responses to Diverse Threats
  • Immune Tolerance – The Wisdom to Know the Difference
  • Appropriateness of Immune Responses – Not Too Much, Not Too Little

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• Section 1.4: A Brief History of Immunology
  • How Human Understanding of Infectious Disease Evolved
  • Infectious Diseases and Their Impact on Historical Events
  • Timeline of Understanding Immunity as a Protection Against Infectious Diseases
  • Debate: Pro-Humoral Immunity vs. Pro-Cell-Mediated Immunity
  • Diphtheria Antitoxin and the Iditarod Race
  • Clonal Selection Theory: One Theory to Rule Them All

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• Section 1.5: Hematopoiesis (Where Do Blood Cells Come From?)
  • Plastic Cells? How Different Are They?
  • HSCs (Hematopoietic Stem Cells) Are Multipotent
  • Hematopoiesis during Fetal Development
  • Finding HSCs in a Crowd of Bone Marrow Cells
  • The Initial Stages of Hematopoiesis
  • Immune Cells Derived from the Various Progenitor Types
  • Key Players in Regulating the Process of Hematopoiesis

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• Section 1.6: Immune System Cells, Tissues, and Organs
  • Granulocytes: Rapid Responders That, For Better or Worse, Go on the Fight
  • What about Mast Cells?
  • Phagocytes = Phagein (To Eat or Devour) + Kutos (Hollow Vessel)
  • Monocytes and the Relationship of These Cells with Macrophages and Dendritic Cells
  • B Cells and T Cells: The Most Abundant Lymphocyte Populations
  • How Are Innate Lymphoid Cells Different Than B Cells and T Cells?
  • Oh, Look…More Lymphocytes

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• Section: 1.7 Communication in the Immune System
  • Sending a Message Near and Far
  • Cell Surface vs. Soluble Extracellular Communication Molecules
  • An Alphanumeric Soup of Immune System Cytokine and Cytokine Receptor Families
  • Chemokines: Cytokines…but Different
  • Cellular Signal Transduction Pathways: Receptor to Response
  • Regulating Signal Transduction: TNF Begets TNF…Until It Doesn’t

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