The Committee on Immunology - Curriculum

The Committee on Immunology offers a graduate program of study leading to the Ph.D. in Immunology. The Committee is dedicated to the open exchange of ideas among scholars of all fields, a commitment enhanced by an organizational structure that completely integrates the basic biological sciences with the clinical sciences. This multidisciplinary and integrated approach corresponds well with the reality of the new biology, where molecular and structural techniques are applied widely and with great success to clinical problems.

The Biomedical Sciences Cluster

The Committee on Immunology is integrated within a cluster of graduate programs with the Committee on Cancer Biology, the Committee on Microbiology, the Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition and the Department of Pathology Molecular Pathogenesis and Molecular Medicine Program.  The five academic units share a joint Admissions Committee, several common courses, a seminar series and additional common events for students and faculty within the cluster.  The goal of the cluster system is to encourage interdisciplinary interactions among both trainees and faculty, and to allow students flexibility in designing their particular course of study. 

Students have extensive opportunities for interaction with the three other clusters within the Biological Sciences Division: the Molecular Biosciences Cluster; the Darwinian Sciences Cluster; and the Neurobiology Cluster.  These clusters offer courses and sponsor seminars and symposia open to Immunology students.

First Year Student Advisors

Students in the first year of residence will be assigned a faculty advisor who is a member of the curriculum committee. Students should meet with the advisor at least once a quarter during the first year.  These meetings are informal and are meant to help facilitate transition into the graduate program and to make the first year as productive as possible.  Typical issues that might be discussed are decisions about course work, acclimation to the graduate program, progress in courses, choice of lab rotations or any other issue with which the student would like assistance.

Coursework

Each student is required to take nine formal courses for the completion of the degree requirements, including six quarters of Experimental Immunology.  These  nine courses include the four immunology programmatic core courses, three basic science courses and the balance in the form of elective courses.  Courses should be chosen with the advice of the faculty advisor. 

It is expected that by the end of the first year, at least eight of the nine courses should be completed. Thus students should be enrolled in two-three courses per quarter.  For those students who anticipate the course work to occupy the majority of their time, completing the course work in satisfactory manner may require delaying research rotations until the summer of the first year.

To remain in good academic standing, students must maintain a B average in all graded courses, and receive a B or better in the required Immunology courses. After each quarter, the curriculum committee will review the transcripts of the students.  Any C must be balanced by an A at the end of the student's second year.

A Typical First Year Schedule

Laboratory Rotations

Graduate students are required to rotate through at least tw laboratories.  Often students will have rotated through more laboratories before beginning the thesis work.  Students may petition the Committee for a waiver of one rotation.  Lab rotations should be completed by the beginning of the second year.

Preliminary Exams

All first year students are required to take an oral preliminary exam in the late summer of their first year.  The primary purpose of the exam is to test the student's ability to synthesize knowledge and concepts in immunology as well as related areas of basic science.  The exam also serves to identify weaknesses that can be corrected in the students' knowledge or understanding, and in rare instances, to identify students who may not be suited for basic research as a career.  All first year immunology students are sent to the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Advanced Course in Immunology which takes place at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN as preparation for the prelim.

In the process of preparing for the exam students will be given a list of topics, and those that have not been formally covered in course work should be independently studied by the students. It is hoped that students will work with each other and enhance their own and their classmates understanding and conceptual grasp of important issues.

The students are examined by an ad hoc committee which includes members of the curriculum committee. Grading is on a scale of 1 - 4: (1)=high pass, (2)=pass, (3)=conditional pass, (4)=fail

If a student obtains a conditional pass or fails the exam, he/she will be allowed to retake some portion of/or the entire exam within 3 months.

Thesis Research

After successfully completing most of the coursework, each student should convene a thesis committee, which would advise the student throughout the research phase of the program.  The thesis committee should be chosen by consultation with the student's mentor.  The committee should have at least five faculty members, including the mentor.  Of those, at least three should be members of the Committee on Immunology, and it is strongly advised that one of the members also be a member of the curriculum committee.

Within one year of entry into the thesis laboratory full time (typically in the summer or fall preceding the third year in the program), a thesis proposal should be presented to the thesis committee and defended orally.  The written portion should describe the theoretical framework of the project, relevant preliminary data that the student has accumulated.  The experimental plan should outline a sequence of experiments to be performed, the potential outcomes of these experiments and the interpretation and plans based on the outcome of key experiments.

After approval of the thesis proposal, students are required to meet with their thesis committee at least once a year.  Meetings are meant to facilitate and monitor progress in the project and thus can be scheduled more frequently, if faculty input is sought on particular problems or choices in research direction.

Faculty contact:
Dr. Albert Bendelac
(773) 834-8646
abendela@bsd.uchicago.edu