Our class is part of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Experience (ASURE) at Indiana University Bloomington. This program, which is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, includes a two-semester lab experience where students design and conduct their own authentic research projects. All of the projects described in this eBook were designed and carried out by small groups of students in their first through second year of college as part of their course work in the ASURE Immune Response and Behavior Lab. The ASURE class of 2019-2020 certainly faced some unique challenges. In the spring of 2020, we were abruptly sent home to continue our coursework remotely. This interruption reduced the students’ time to collect data in the lab, but gave them the opportunity to learn R and other data analysis skills. In the fall of 2020, all of the students were able to return to campus and continue work on their projects, though there were several interruptions as students were forced to isolate and/or quarantine. Nevertheless, the students were very dedicated and persisted in their work, which is evident in their final projects.

Anatomy and Physiology is a dynamic textbook for the two-semester human anatomy and physiology course for life science and allied health majors. The book is organized by body system and covers standard scope and sequence requirements. Its lucid text, strategically constructed art, career features, and links to external learning tools address the critical teaching and learning challenges in the course. The web-based version of Anatomy and Physiology also features links to surgical videos, histology, and interactive diagrams.

These activities were written by students in the ASURE Immune Response and Behavior Lab at Indiana University Bloomington. Each “chapter” shows an activity designed to introduce kids to a biology-related topic, which can be taught and led by their parents all with common household items. We hope that they’re helpful and fun for you to complete with your kids!

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"HIV infection remains unacceptably common among women in sub-Saharan Africa. One possible contributing factor is the composition of the vaginal microbiota, as African, Caribbean and other Black (ACB) women have an increased rate of bacterial vaginosis (BV), which is associated with increased HIV risk. Targeting the vaginal microbiota and treating BV could help prevent HIV among women. In the absence of BV, the vaginal microbiota is predominated by one of several _Lactobacillus_ species that provide different levels of BV and HIV protection. _L. crispatus_ is associated with exclusion of BV-associated bacteria and reduced HIV risk while _L. iners_, the most common species among ACB women, seems less protective. The reduced protection provided by _L. iners_ is supported by genomic differences, such as the absence of a gene encoding an HIV-trapping D-lactate isomer and the presence of genes encoding pro-inflammatory cytotoxins..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This 16-minute video lesson looks at the role of phagocytes in innate or nonspecific immunity. It also discusses neutrophils, macrophages, and dendritic cells. MHC II. [Biology playlist: Lesson 51 of 71].

During Fall 2021, all MIT students and the general public are welcome to join Professors Richard Young and Facundo Batista as they discuss the science of the COVID-19 pandemic. The livestream of the lectures is available to the public, but only registered students are able to ask questions during the Q&A.
Lectures will be given by leading experts on the fundamentals of coronavirus and host cell biology, immunology, epidemiology, clinical disease, and vaccine and therapeutic development. Guest faculty include Amy Barczak, Dan Barouch, Arup Chakraborty, Victoria Clark, Shane Crotty, Anthony Fauci, Britt Glaunsinger, Salim Karim, Shiv Pillai, Rochelle Walensky, Bruce Walker, Laura Walker, and Andrew Ward.

During Fall 2020, all MIT students and the general public were welcomed to join Professors Richard Young and Facundo Batista as they discussed the science of the pandemic during this new class. The livestream of the lectures was available to the public, but only registered students were able to ask questions during the Q&A. 
Special guest speakers included: Drs. Anthony Fauci, David Baltimore, James Bradner, Victoria Clark, Kizzmekia Corbett, Britt Glaunsinger, Akiko Iwasaki, Eric Lander, Michael Mina, Michel Nussenzweig, Shiv Pillai, Arlene Sharpe, Skip Virgin, and Bruce Walker.
NOTE: This class ran from September 1, 2020 through December 8, 2020.

This course covers cells and tissues of the immune system, lymphocyte development, the structure and function of antigen receptors, the cell biology of antigen processing and presentation, including molecular structure and assembly of MHC molecules, the biology of cytokines, leukocyte-endothelial interactions, and the pathogenesis of immunologically mediated diseases. The course is structured as a series of lectures and tutorials in which clinical cases are discussed with faculty tutors.
Lecturers
Frederick W. Alt, Marcus Altfeld, Paul Anderson, Jon C. Aster, Hugh Auchincloss, Steven P. Balk, Samuel M. Behar, Richard S. Blumberg, Francisco Bonilla, Bobby Cherayil, Benjamin Davis, David Hafler, Nir Harcohen, Bruce Horwitz, David M. Lee, Andrew Lichtman, Diane Mathis, Richard Mitchell, Hidde Ploegh, Emmett Schmidt, Arlene Sharpe, Megan Sykes, Shannon Turley, Dale T. Umetsu, Ulrich von Andrian, Bruce Walker, Kai Wucherpfennig, Ramnik Xavier, Sarah Henrickson

A mini series of choose your own adventure cases for students to explore blood bank workflow and decision making. Topics covered:Hemolytic Disease of the NewbornABO DiscrepancyCrossmatchingAuto Antibodies

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Cytotoxic T lymphocytes such as T and NK cells are critically involved in the immune response to cancer development. Their cell-surface receptors coordinate to precisely regulate their function, and dysregulation of these molecules has been linked to immune escape. A recent study identified molecules targeting one of these receptors: T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT). TIGIT is a novel immune checkpoint molecule involved in T and NK cell anergy. Binding with its ligand, PVR, can induce immune tolerance, allowing cancer cells to escape immune surveillance. To facilitate the design of inhibitors targeting TIGIT/PVR binding, researchers examined the binding interaction in silico. Their results suggested that the loops of PVR undergo a major rearrangement upon binding to TIGIT. The potential residues critical for the TIGIT/PVR interaction were discovered, and simulation analysis identified four PVR mutants with enhanced affinity to TIGIT..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"For the first time, scientists have figured out how to grow and extend the life of primary airway epithelial cells from newborns and young children. These cells line our nasal passages and lungs, protecting us from pathogens, and controlling our immune responses to allergens. Differences in these cells may help explain why certain infants develop wheezing and asthma later in life, but studying them has been challenging because they are difficult to obtain in babies and usually die in culture after dividing a few times. Now, researchers at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and George Washington University have devised a way to reprogram pediatric airway epithelial cells so that they survive, creating a new model to study respiratory disorders that take hold early in life. The team collected airway epithelial cells from 23 donors, including newborns, infants and young children..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are non-differentiated endothelial cells present in blood circulation. Their role in neo-vascularization and repairing damaged endothelial sites make them ideal for cell therapy and bio-artificial organ creation. Unfortunately, EPCs from patients with vascular disorders are often impaired, and transplanting allogeneic EPCs is complicated by T-cell-mediated immune rejection. Now, a new study has uncovered an important signaling pathway involved in protecting EPCs from T-cell activation and response. By co-culturing primary human EPCs and T cells, researchers discovered an immune checkpoint signaling pathway involved in blocking T cells’ response to EPCs. They found that EPCs suppress T-cell proliferation and direct them away from pro-inflammatory and activated phenotypes. Blocking TNFα/TNFR2 signaling prevented EPCs from having this immunomodulatory effect..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

The course covers basic concepts of biomedical engineering and their connection with the spectrum of human activity. It serves as an introduction to the fundamental science and engineering on which biomedical engineering is based. Case studies of drugs and medical products illustrate the product development-product testing cycle, patent protection, and FDA approval. It is designed for science and non-science majors.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Growing scientific evidence suggests that gut fungi play a prominent role in the development of disease. To understand how the body mounts an immune response to certain fungi during disease, researchers developed a flow cytometry method called Fungi-Flow, which measures immune responses according to levels of IgG antibodies. The team measured the immune responses of various individuals to 17 commensal and environmental fungi.vIgG responses to different fungi varied strongly between healthy individuals, and Fungi-Flow proved sensitive enough to differentiate immune responses between the sporulated and budding forms of fungi. Experiments probing the composition of fungal communities revealed the presence of two distinct clusters, or ecosystems. Differences between the ecosystems were mainly driven by highly abundant fungi of the genus Saccharomyces but also by less abundant fungi such as Cyberlindnera..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Cancer occurs when the body’s cells corrupt normal growth pathways. One such pathway is the Hedgehog/Glioma-associated oncogene (HH/GLI) pathway. While the pathway is critical for normal development and health in mammals, uncontrolled activation of the pathway can contribute to cancer development. HH/GLI signaling has been implicated in a wide variety of cancers, making it an attractive target for cancer therapies, but side effects and drug resistance have limited the use of HH/GLI pathway inhibitors, and improved treatment strategies are needed. A new review examines HH/GLI signaling in the context of immunosuppression and immune evasion. Critically, HH/GLI signaling can impair the immune response against a tumor. Here, the pathway drives the formation of regulatory T cells and immune checkpoints, which effectively inhibit the anti-tumoral immune response. But at the same time, the HH/GLI pathway interacts with pro-inflammatory signals to promote the division and survival of cancer cells..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Within its first several months, the COVID-19 pandemic had already affected more than 33 million people and claimed more than 1 million lives. While vaccines are helping slow the spread of the disease. transmission rates in some areas remain high. And the rise of new viral mutations means continued vigilance is required. Unfortunately, current genome sequencing methods are lacking, with none managing to combine high precision, a simple workflow, and low cost in one tool. The recently developed Coronavirus Genomic Surveillance (CorvGenSurv) platform is designed to close that gap. CorvGenSurv amplifies viral RNA samples and sequences them in three segments via long-read, high-throughput sequencing. This design reduces sequencing data waste, thus preventing dropouts in genome coverage, and the long-read approach makes the sequencing workflow simpler than short-read sequencing..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Influenza infection can be tough to fight on its own, but secondary bacterial infections can make influenza even more serious, especially among elderly and immunocompromised individuals. These bacteria have the potential to become antibiotic resistant, making treatment even more complicated. Unfortunately, the expression of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) by microbes in the respiratory tract is not well understood. A recent study sought to characterize ARG expression in microbes during influenza infection. Researchers evaluated nasal swab samples and blood samples from 37 influenza-infected patients. Sequencing revealed that ARG expression was particularly common in S. aureus and S. pneumoniae species in the airway, and host transcriptome profiling identified several host key regulators involved in the influenza response, suggesting that the respiratory tract may be an important reservoir of ARGs in humans..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Mucosal sites such as the gastrointestinal tract are home to dense communities of commensal bacteria. At these barrier sites, plasma cells secrete a specialized type of antibody – immunoglobulin isotype A (IgA). A new method called IgA-Seq is often used to identify which bacterial taxa are bound to IgA, improving our understanding of host-microbe interactions. Unfortunately, IgA-Seq data often suffers from high variability between experiments and unresolved biases in equations used for analysis. In a new article, researchers describe the design strategy for an optimized IgA-Seq protocol. Using standardized positive and negative controls, they defined the optimal reagents and FACS parameters for IgA-Seq . Analysis with simulated IgA-Seq data showed that existing scoring methods are influenced by pre-sort relative abundance. These effects could be addressed using a novel scoring approach based on posterior probabilities..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.