Courses Offered by Immunology
For complete course listings, including syllabi, and other courses available to Immunology Students click here.
All Immunology Courses offered 2022 - 2023
Full-semester Immunology Courses (“Half Courses”):
Immunology 201. Advanced Topics in Immunology
Thorsten Mempel, Shiv Pillai
Half course Tu., Th., 1:30 – 3 pm
This course provides an intensive and in‐depth examination of a selection of fundamental concepts in immunology. It takes advantage of the unique expertise of members of our
Immunology faculty to illustrate how these concepts have been established and continue to be developed based on seminal work in the field including contributions from their own laboratories.
Course Notes: Intended for students who have had prior exposure to immunology on the undergraduate level. In the absence of such exposure, students must obtain the permission of the Course Director.
Prerequisites: A background in genetics and biochemistry is strongly recommended.
Immunology 202. Immune and Inflammatory Diseases
Wendy Garrett
Half course Tu., Th., 1:30 – 3:30 pm
IMMUN 202 builds on IMMUN 201 and explores fundamental principles of immunology in the context of immune and inflammatory diseases. Through a series of lectures and discussion, students will survey a broad range of diseases in which the immune system is essential. Topics will include not only diseases that mobilize classical immunity but also conditions to which we now know the immune systems contributes. Students will use oral (paper discussions) and written exercises (problem sets) to learn how to critically evaluate and synthesize major concepts and tools essential for the study of immunology.
Prerequisite: Immunology 201 or its equivalent.
Immunology 203. Advances in Immunology
Daniel Lingwood, Sarah Fortune, Marcia Goldberg, Aaron Schmidt, Smita Gopinath, Shiv Pillai, Facundo Batista, Ulrich von Andrian, Gaurav Gaiha
Half course Tu., 2:30 – 3:30 pm Th., 3 – 4 pm
Semester long course, intended for graduate students at Harvard and MIT, jointly taught by Harvard and MIT faculty members at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.
Prerequisite: Students should have completed or be concurrently enrolled in a basic immunology course.
Immunology 204. Critical Reading for Immunology
Duane Wesemann
Half course Th., 10am-1pm.
Original research articles from fields including immunology, biochemistry, genetics, and cell and developmental biology will be critically analyzed in an intensive small group format. Grading will be based on class participation and oral presentations.
Required for first-year immunology students; open to second-year students. No auditors allowed.
Immunology 301. Immunology Seminar
Shiv Pillai and Lydia Lynch
Half course (fall and spring terms). Wed., 2 – 3:30 pm.
Gives students exposure to research topics in immunology. Students prepare for the weekly seminar through readings and discussion with seminar speakers. These discussions are facilitated by members of the Committee on Immunology.
Note: Required for, and limited to, first-year Immunology graduate students.
Half-semester Immunology Courses (“Quarter Courses”):
Immunology 301qc. Autoimmunity
Francisco Quintana
Quarter course . M., 4–6.
This course will focus on basic immunological mechanisms of autoimmune diseases, with an emphasis on recent advances in the field. At each session, we will focus on a particular topic and discuss three important publications.
Immunology 305qc. Neuroimmune interactions in health and disease
Isaac Chiu, Jun Huh
Quarter course T., 4–6 pm.
It is increasingly clear that communication between the nervous system and the immune system plays a significant role in homeostasis and disease. This course will investigate current topics in neuro-immunology such as: Gut-brain axis, neuron-glia interactions, brain border tissues, CNS development, pain, itch, neurodegeneration, allergy, autoimmunity, and host defense. Neurons and immune cells crosstalk within the central nervous system and in peripheral tissues, mediating homeostasis, barrier protection, and host defense. Dysregulation in neuroimmune communication underlies both neurological and immunological diseases. Guest lecturers will give seminars on each topic in neuroimmunology, followed by class discussion on papers in the field.
Immunology 306qc. Systems Immunology
Nir Hacohen, Christophe Benoist, Martin Hemberg
Quarter course F., 10 am – 12 pm break 1 – 3 pm
The focus in this course is on the emerging area of systems immunology. We will learn how leading-edge approaches in genetics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, genetic perturbation screens, T/B repertoires, microbiomes, and tissue architecture can be used to understand immune cell types and states, intracellular and intercellular circuits underlying immunity, and mechanisms of immune diseases. Classes will consist of pre-recorded lectures, live sessions to discuss leading-edge studies, followed by a companion workshop for hands-on computational analysis of data related to key topics.
Immunology 307qc. Cancer Immunology
Kai W. Wucherpfennig, Stephanie Dougan Philip Kranzusch and Judith Agudo
Quarter course M., 4–6.
There have been many exciting recent developments in the cancer immunology field, and multiple therapeutic approaches have shown efficacy against diverse types of cancer. This course will emphasize new mechanistic insights, specifically on the following topics: mechanisms of spontaneous protective anti-tumor immunity; key effector cell populations of anti-tumor immunity; innate immune pathways in tumor immunity; inflammation and tumor microenvironment; immunosuppressive mechanisms in tumor immunity; targeting of inhibitory receptors; cancer vaccines.
Immunology 328r. Introduction to Research
Shiv Pillai and faculty members
Three required laboratory rotations in immunology each lasting 10-12 weeks per laboratory. To be arranged by students with investigators affiliated with the immunology program.
Immunology 315qc. Therapeutic Antibody Engineering – From Bench to Bedside
Wayne Marasco
Quarter course T., 10 am – 12 pm
This quarter course will focus on all aspects of therapeutic antibody (Ab) engineering from bench to bedside with an emphasis on translational research. Each class will focus on a different aspect of Ab engineering and will start with short didactic lectures followed by discussion of 2-3 seminal papers that are assigned readings. Students are expected to present assigned papers and lead discussions. Ab discovery will include readings on generation of diverse Ab repertoires, in vitro microbial discovery platforms such as Ab-phagemid and Ab yeast display as well as single B cell cloning strategies. Current state of the art of human Ig locus transgenic mice and gene-editing strategies will be discussed. Engineering strategies will include chimeric, humanized and human Abs, and different formats including single chain Abs (scFvs), domain Abs, BITES and Bi-specific Abs. Human Fc engineering to increase or decrease immune-mediated clearance will be discussed including glycan engineering. Manipulating engineered Ab in vivo clearance through size and FcRn interactions will be discussed. We will also discuss nanobodies, antibody drug conjugates and immunotoxins and chimeric antigen receptors. Finally, the necessary steps to move from bench to bedside will be discussed. Lots to learn, it’s good stuff!
Immunology 319qc. Mechanisms and therapeutics of inflammation and resolution
Timothy Hla, Charles Serhan, Matthew Spite
Quarter course Th., 10 am – 12 pm
Even though physiological inflammation undergoes active resolution processes to return to normal homeostasis, abnormalities in specific mechanistic processes involving immune, vascular and parenchymal cells lead to many diseases ranging from asthma, fibrosis, cancer, autoimmunity to cardiovascular diseases. This course will focus on multicellular interaction
networks, lipid mediators and signaling mechanisms in inflammatory and resolutive pathobiology. Topics such as pathogenetic mechanisms, mediators, Omics strategies, microbiome/ host interactions and cellular heterogeneity will be covered. Discrete mediator networks, namely, eicosanoids, SPMs, S1P, and LPA that are therapeutically tractable and used to treat diseases will be highlighted. In addition, development of novel therapeutics to control inflammatory and resolution pathology will be discussed.
Immunology 320qc. Innate immunity and viral infection of the lung. COVID-19, flu, and lung superinfections
Ivan Zanoni
Quarter course T., 9 – 10 am
The course will focus on the innate immune response elicited in the lung in response to viral infections. Particular focus will be given to RNA viral infections such as coronaviruses and influenza viruses. The role of innate immune cells, interferons, and other immune mediators in resolving and/or aggravating the viral infection will be discussed. Also, how an initial response against the virus facilitates the development of secondary bacterial superinfections will be analyzed. Lectures will be regularly followed by discussion in class of original research articles that shaped our understanding of the inflammatory response driven by lung viral infections.