BMED19005 - Immunology

Showing: 2026 HE Term 1
General Information

Unit Synopsis

The study of Immunology introduces the student to pre-natal and post-natal development of the immune system; maternal acquired immunity; the lymphatic network; immune function in health and disease including autoimmune conditions; humoral and cellular immunity; the major histocompatability complex (MHC) or HLA; T-cell and B-cell function; T-cell epitopes; immune responses to proteins, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and other multi-cellular organisms; polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies; anti-idiotypic antibodies; antibody detection methods; diagnostic uses of antibodies; vaccine design; active and passive immunity; preventive and therapeutic uses of vaccines; expression of recombinant antibodies by transgenic organisms; targeting of chemotherapeutic agents using tumour specific antibodies; immunological modulation of metabolism, growth and fertility; immunologically transgenic animals for organ use in humans; use of gene knockout models to study the MHC and immune response mechanisms. Distance education students will be required to attend residential school for this course.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 3
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite

BMED19003 Clinical Biochemistry

or

BMED19010 Macromolecules & Cell Function

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026


Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Practical and Written Assessment 25%
2. Written Assessment 25%
3. Examination 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2013 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 83.33% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 52.94% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Course evaluation
Feedback:
 Some of the weekly lectures were loaded onto moodle quite late.

Recommendation:
 Staff will endeavour to upload lecture material in a timely manner.

Action Taken:
 In Progress
Source: Course evaluation
Feedback:
 Even though the lab component was interesting and informative, I found that it was targeted towards research rather than clinical laboratory (at least within my workplace we do not use western blots and ELISA).

Recommendation:
 It is appreciated that not all clinical laboratories utilise the western blot and ELISA techniques, however they are important immunological based experiments that are made possible due to our knowledge of antibodies. As such whist these experiments will remain part of the practical component of this course staff will endeavour to highlight how they can be utilised in a clinical context.

Action Taken:
 In Progress
Unit Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. List the major cells and tissues of the immune system and state their function in the immune response.
  2. Explain, using specific examples, the mechanism by which the host is able to discriminate self from non-self and name and describe at least two disorders that arise as a result of dysfunction in self/non-self recognition (autoimmunity).
  3. Define, using appropriate examples, the terms 'innate' and 'specific' immunity and describe, by way of example, how the non-specific and specific arms of the immune system work together to effect an immune response.
  4. With regard to antigen recognition molecules; describe, using specific examples, the increasing complexity of immune responses that arise from simple to more complex organisms.
  5. Define and give examples of the effects of immune 'dysfunction' such as hypersensitivity and immunodeficiency.
  6. Outline the host responses to transplantation and be able to define xenotransplantation and discuss advantages and disadvantages of this process.
  7. Describe, in general terms, the typical mammalian immune system responses to proteins, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and representative multi-cellular organisms.
  8. Demonstrate competence in the use of primary resource material (online and hard copy journal articles) for experimental and research assignment purposes.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Practical and Written Assessment • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • • • • •
3 - Examination • • • • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Communication • • • • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • • • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • • • • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10
1 - Practical and Written Assessment • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • • •
3 - Examination • • •