Course overview
Recent advances in medical and microbial molecular biotechnology, have led to great strides in the understanding and treatment of human diseases. Recognising the impact of these advances on human health and economic development, scientists and industry are harnessing these enabling technologies to meet the new challenges in medical microbiology and infectious diseases. This course develops key concepts in molecular bacteriology and virology, identifying key targets for rational vaccine design, use of animal models to determine immune responses to vaccines and assessment of efficacy, development of new generation vaccines, and regulation of vaccine production and quality control.
Course learning outcomes
- Demonstrate an awareness of the global burden of infectious diseases and understand its impact on world health and future implications for under-developed countries.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of the factors that influence vaccine design and development.
- Develop an understanding of how research based discovery has driven vaccine development in current, emerging and,re-emerging infectious diseases.
- Critically analyse and interpret the model systems and data used to test the efficacy of vaccines.
- Develop the skills to critically assess the different types of vaccines available and their suitability for different diseases.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of the development of next generation of vaccines to meet future global needs.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of vaccines as a public health strategy.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of strict quality control and regulation in the vaccine production process, and an awareness of issues associated with the manufacturing of vaccines such as good manufacturing practice.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the nature and variability of bacterial and virus antigens relevant to vaccine development.
- Develop ability to critically analyse, evaluate, and integrate information from scientificdata and literature.