6th Infectious Diseases in Africa symposium: Biomarkers and Correlates of Immune Control in HIV, TB and Malaria
20-25 October 2015.
Photo from the course: Immuno-South Africa Photo
The Imunology Primer and IDA symposium has the following aims:
- To provide young African investigators with the most recent data on the immune responses against HIV, TB, and Malaria and which markers correlate with protection from infection and the possible mechanisms at play.
- To allow young investigators the opportunity to discuss their own research projects with experts in the field.
- To foster collaborations and enable an African network of scientists, where region-specific problems can be addressed in future.
This will be the 6th IDA Symposium and will be held in Cape Town. This year’s symposium is also partly sponsored by the International Union of Immunology Societies (IUIS) and will also feature an immunology workshop on the preceding three days (20-22 Oct), serving as an immunology primer. The focus of this workshop will be to prepare students for the symposium theme: Biomarkers and correlates of immune control in HIV, TB and Malaria. We have selected 30 young investigators from different African countries to attend the IUIS immunology workshop, followed by the IDA Symposium. As in prior years, we will also invite students to present their work (as a poster preentation) and use this as the basis for organizing student working groups tasked with developing collaborative research projects in the grant writing exercise (with the help and input from the Faculty). A selected number of students (due to space limitations) will then spend a second week at a flow cytometry workshop, with hands on experience concerning acquisition and data analysis.
A new feature this year, will be the introduction of pre-course material where students will become familiar with aspects of the immune system through on-line interactive material through IMMUNOPAEDIA (www.immunopaedia.org.za).
The material presented are found in 11 different sections and should be used as a learning tool to refresh your knowledge and prepare you to participate optimally in the course itself. Please study the material, which has been specifically prepared for this course, and test yourself with the Multiple Choice Questions provided by the teachers in some of the sections.
The material in each section has been edited and compiled by IMMUNOPAEDIA (based at the University of Cape Town) and generously contributed by Professor Joseph A. Bellanti from his textbook, “IMMUNOLOGY IV: CLINICAL APPLICATIONS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE” under an agreement between I Care Press Inc, Immunopaedia (University of Cape Town) and the IUIS. The resource materials available for download have been supplied by each lecturer participating in the course.
For those interested in purchasing the printed version of “Bellanti JA (Ed). Immunology IV: Clinical Applications in Health and Disease. I Care Press, Bethesda, MD, 2012”, go to: www.immunologycenter.org or www.amazon.com.
For further information and feedback, please contact Dr Nyari Chigorimbo-Tsikiwa (nyari.chigorimbo@hiv-research.org.za).
