Practical block course in Immunology
The practical block course is offered to accompany the Basic Lecture Immunology for students of Biological Science and Life Science in the fourth semester in order to perform some immunological techniques hands on. The course lasts one week in the afternoons usually in the beginning of July. The script to the course is handed out a week before the practical course starts in the Basic Lecture Immunology. On the first day (Monday) an introduction to the background of the experiments is provided including a lecture from a representative of the German biotech company Miltenyi Biotec which has pioneered the magnetic isolation of immune cells. The experiments, performed usually in groups of two students, are (1) the magnetic isolation of monocytes from the human peripheral blood, the counting of the cells and (2) cell surface staining of B- and T-lymphocytes for flow cytometric analysis. (3) The MHC class I dependent activation of T cells is studied with T cell hybridomas in a colorigenic reaction. Finally, (4) proteasomes are isolated by immunoprecipitation and their activity is measured with fluorogenic peptides. The students need to write a protocol on their experiments which is shown to the supervisors at the end of the course. Attendance at all course days is required to receive credits for it.
We thank Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Bergisch Gladbach, for the generous support of this course.