Immunology and Immunotherapy (Taught)

Designed to develop your academic knowledge of immunology and its relevance to health and disease, the MSc in Immunology will foster the development of your practical and analytical research skills and enhance your employability and career prospects.

This MSc in Immunology & Immunotherapy will lead you through a wide ranging curriculum illustrating the relevance of immunology to the maintenance of health and the development of the latest immunotherapies for diseases such as cancer. It includes courses on basic and advanced immunology and immunotherapy, genes and immunity, biologic therapies, applied statistics, bioinformatics and host-pathogen interactions in infection. The programme will provide you with:

• An understanding of the general principles of immunology

• Experience and understanding of current and future immunotherapies in cancer and autoimmune disease

• An ability to apply knowledge in academic and health contexts

• Opportunities to learn from world renowned researchers

The MSc is ideal for students and scientists who want to improve their career prospects, fill skills gaps and further their hands-on immunology research experience in an era of rapidly increasing immunotherapeutic options.

The programme is taught through a flexible mix of lectures and small group tutorials, practical classes, computer workshops and research tutorials. To enhance presentation skills, students are asked to prepare a topic focused research poster in the workshop components of Profiles of Immunology and Genes and Immunity. There is also an expectation of self-learning, where you will engage with current research literature to enhance your knowledge gained and discussed in taught sessions.

All lecture material is available on MyAberdeen, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment. The programme also involves an extended, hands-on laboratory-based research project, supervised by experienced and research-active academic staff. Much of the teaching on this course is participatory and students are expected to consolidate all taught content by completing related tasks and activities and engaging in independent study in their own time.

Taught courses are assessed by a combination of continuous assessment and examinations. Continuous assessment comprises of written assignments, workshop reports and oral presentations. All students undertake a research project which is submitted for assessment in the form of a short research thesis. Students also present a short oral presentation on their project.