Entry requirements

120 credits in medicine, biomedicine, biology, pharmacy or biomedical laboratory science

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

 On completing the course, the students shall be able to:

• provide examples of diseases that can be treated with immune therapy, gene therapy and cell therapy,
• explain some of the roles the immune system plays in cancer, in immune-mediated diseases such as allergy and autoimmunity and in transplantation,
• give examples and explain different technologies used in immune therapy, gene therapy and cell therapy.

 Competence and skills

 On completing the course, the students shall demonstrate the ability to:

• summarize and evaluate scientific articles within the subjects of immune therapy, gene therapy and cell therapy,
• present in written form an independently chosen topic within the field of immunotherapy, gene therapy and cell therapy.

 Judgement and approach

On completing the course, the students shall demonstrate the ability to:

• identify knowledge gaps and need for further research within a topic in the field of immune therapy, gene therapy or cell therapy,
• critically review and argue about ethical and social aspects of using immune, gene or cell therapy.

Content

The course gives an overview of new and established treatments based on immune, gene and cell therapy. The course will discuss, with real examples, new opportunities as well as difficulties with these therapies. Examples of areas that will be presented are allergy, transplantation of endocrine cells, immunotherapy  of cancer and stem cell transplantation.

Instruction

The course is a mandatory seminar series with lectures  held by scientists and/or medical doctors in the field.

Assessment

1.  Active participation at all seminars (3 credits).

Approved absence (such as illness) should be compensated for with an extra written assignment in form of answering questions that are connected to the missed lecture(s).

2. Independent work in the form of a written essay (review article) within the subject immune, gene and cell therapy (4.5 credits) based on scientific articles connected to the course content.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Other directives

For a detailed description of the learning outcomes, content, instruction and assessment, please consult the study guide and the learning platform.