| Unit name | Frontiers in Infectious Diseases |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PANM30001 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Matthews |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
Two units from level 6/H in teaching block 1 and one level 6/H unit from teaching block 2 and a Research Skills unit. |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine |
| Faculty | Faculty of Life Sciences |
Why is this unit important?
The recent pandemic has highlighted the importance of transmissible disease and our efforts to control or mitigate them. This unit will explore the state of the art in our understandings of how hosts and pathogens interact, the techniques used to gain this information and state of the art approaches to vaccines and anti-microbial treatments.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Frontiers in Infectious Diseases (Level 6/H) will build on the study of infectious disease in first year units: Fundamentals of Medical Microbiology and/or Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (Level 4/C), and on the Infection and Immunity (Level 5/I) unit in the second year. This optional unit will be taken with three other optional units at Level 6/H and a research skills unit.
An overview of content
The unit aims to impart an understanding of key steps in pathogen life cycles (host tissue/cell invasion, intracellular trafficking, replication and survival, persistence and dissemination) and how these are dealt with in molecular terms by the host cell defence mechanisms. This will extend to using this information to devise novel intervention strategies at the level of both prophylactic vaccination and therapeutic antimicrobial drug development. The emphasis will be on comparison: for example, the molecular mechanisms used to read “host cues” at each step of the pathogen life cycle, and the exploitation/manipulation of host structures and containment mechanisms. A significant element will be the understanding of current research methods used to study the interaction of viral and bacterial pathogens with mammalian hosts using high-throughput, systems-based holistic approaches. This will include the principles of proteomics, transcriptomics and bioinformatics.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
Students will be able to read primary research papers in the area critically, as stand-alone pieces and a part of a wider review of related literature.
They will also have the opportunity to acquire an extra depth of understanding by having explored the online revision/learning aids and done extensive reading of their own using references pointed to in lectures as starting points.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding of:
Lectures, data interpretation and data handling sessions Independent study; students are expected to study the recommended literature
Task which helps you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative)
Consistent with an integrated sequence of assessments across the programme, there will have been an opportunity to submit an essay for formative purposes and feedback will be discussed in a small group teaching session during Teaching Block 1. This will have provided students with the opportunity to become familiar with the Marking descriptors of the assessment criteria used at Level 6/H.
Task which counts towards your unit mark (summative)
Students will have an examination for this TB2 unit in summer assessment period, the exam will include two essays, one to be chosen from each section containing three questions.
When an assessment does not go to plan.
If you are unable to take an end of unit exam due to self-certification or exceptional circumstances the faculty examination board may give you the opportunity to take this in the reassessment period. The examination will be in the same format as the initial examination.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. PANM30001).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
