Undergraduate - UnitMIC3032 - Pathogenesis of bacterial infectious diseases

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Science
Offered	Clayton Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Meredith Hughes

Synopsis

The unit will introduce the student to the methods and approaches used to analyse pathogenic mechanisms of bacterial infections. The emphasis is on genetic approaches to studying pathogenesis, processes in pathogenesis, bacterial exotoxins and endotoxins. The details of these processes for selected bacterial infections will be studied by discussion of the most recent scientific research literature in this area.

Outcomes

On completion of this unit students will be able to:

Describe the processes of bacterial pathogenesis including adhesion, cell invasion, replication and the production of bacterial toxins;

Explain the genetic approaches used to study bacterial pathogenesis;

Describe the innate immune response to bacterial pathogens;

Demonstrate knowledge of the current literature on pathogenic mechanisms for selected bacterial infections;

Perform literature based research using online databases to collect, analyse and interpret research literature relevant to a specific bacterial pathogen and to effectively communicate this by oral presentation and the preparation of a book chapter;

Demonstrate the ability to work co-operatively in a small group writing, planning, editing and assembling a scientific book.

Assessment

Written theory examination (2 hour): 50%
Submission of co-operative collection of essays (each essay up to 4000 words): 50%
There is no practical class associated with this unit.