BRM1620 Infection and Immunity Coursework Guidance

Learning Outcomes to be addressed by the coursework:

1. Describe key aspects of animal immunology, bacteriology, virology and parasitology, both at the molecular and applied level

2. Evaluate data on the aetiology, pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of infectious and immunological diseases in animals.

3. Explain and discuss means of disease diagnosis and control, with particular reference to current research.

BRM1620 Infection and Immunity Experimental Design

Introduction

A key skill in investigating infections (parasitic/bacterial/viral etc.) is to design and implement experiments to tackle a specific question.  Firstly, investigating the current state of infection is crucial to understanding what control measures are required to be implemented.  There may be no point in employing certain control measures without having a good understanding of the state of play of an infection.  In addition, many infections are poorly understood and many have limited control options that can even be put in place. Therefore, research experiments are routinely designed to investigate both the prevalence of infections and to improve control options through measures such as new diagnostics or new drugs and vaccines.  

This assignment requires you to design two experiments to investigate an infection based on the ‘challenge’ found below.

Challenge

The challenge or scenario that needs addressing is below.  Please use this challenge/scenario to complete your experimental design.

A population of individuals is suspected of harbouring a strain of chemotherapeutic-resistant parasites (helminths, protozoa or ectoparasites).

Assessment; the first experiment (40%): This section tackles how you will initially assess the level of the resistance problem in your chosen infection/population.  We are not looking here to just diagnose the infection.  We would like you to define how much resistance is found in this population. Give practical experimental details of how you will assess this and make sure it is supported with literature/references to provide strength to your experiment.  What approach should you take? Consider the controls that you will need.  Consider the amount of the population that you would sample, as it would be unlikely you can sample the entire population. Of note, you only need to assess one chemotherapeutic for resistance.