LIFESCI 19 – Wonders of the Immune System (Spring 2025)

Time: Friday 10am-12pm

Instructor: Professor Bill Gelbart

Course Description:

This fiat lux course creates a collaborative learning community engaging students at Victorville Federal Prison (women’s camp) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA students, and students incarcerated at Victorville federal prison, learn together about the immune system. Our body’s immune system is the most complicated and diverse of the body’s “systems”, and is arguably the most important factor in preserving our health. In this class we will start by acquainting ourselves with all the organs, cells, and molecules that make up the immune system. Then we’ll focus on the “adaptive” portion of it – in particular, the B cells and T cells that proliferate in response to each of a broad range of pathogens and cancers. We’ll discuss the current ways in which the immune system can be stimulated and genetically engineered to do a better job of inhibiting (viral and bacterial) infections and autoimmune disease, and of attacking cancerous cells