The establishment of graduate department is to coordinate with the development of medical center of NCKU, to provide training in bacteriology, virology, parasitology, and immunology, and to strengthen the medical education in microbiology, immunology and parasitology. Thus, the objective of graduate studies is the training of professional technology in microbiology, immunology, and parasitology.
Other graduate programs within the medical school offers additional courses including Cell Biology (1st+2nd semester, 2 credit hours/semester), Applied Molecular Biology (3 credit hours), Tumor Biology (3 credit hours), Laboratory Animal Science (2 credit hours), Protein Chemistry and Enzymology (3 credit hours), Neuroscience (2 credit hours), Endocrinology (2 credit hours), Endothelial Cell Biology (2 credit hours), Cell Signaling and Transduction (3 credit hours), Neurocytology (2 credit hours), Cellular Growth and Division (2 credit hours), Special Topic on Bio-active Substances (2 credit hours). All graduate students are encouraged to pick these classes as electives.
GRADUATE COURSES FOR MASTER STUDENTS
24 credits are required for the completion of the Masters program (14 credits from required courses and do not include thesis composition credits).
There are four categories of laboratories in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology: molecular biology, bacteriology, virology, and immunology. Each professor offers two lectures and experiments that are related to his/her research expertise. Students are required to attend all the lectures and participate in at least two different labs in order to fulfill the course requirement. The rotation process is also included as part of this course.
The basic concepts of immunology are taught in this course with focuses on interactions and regulation of cellular responses and cytokine interactions in the immune system. The course includes lectures and group discussions, and communication is emphasized. Written reports on assigned topics are required.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Molecular Biology
Shu-Ying Wang
1st year, 1st semester
3
The course outlines the basic concepts of molecular biology for the study of life science on the molecular level. The theory, methods, and examples of modern technology in genetic engineering are introduced in this course.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Medical Microbiology
Shun-hua Chen
1st year, 2nd semester
3
This course (excluding the immunology section) is the same as Medical Microbiology that offered to undergraduate medical students. The objective is to introduce graduate students to microbes of medical importance. This course can be substituted by undergraduate medical microbiology that is six credits or more, and with a final grade of 70% or higher.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Advanced Virology
Shun-hua Chen
1st year, 2nd semester
3
The replication and proliferation of DNA and RNA are classified based on the molecular biology, and the representative viruses are introduced. At the end of the semester, students are required to report upon the latest research on the chosen viruses of clinical importance.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Advanced Bacteriology
I-Hsiu Huang
1st year, 2nd semester
3
This is an advanced course focusing on the latest progresses in the fields of bacterial genetics and physiology. The format of this course combines lectures, panel discussions and student presentations of research papers. Emerging bacterial diseases will be discussed.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Scientific Reading and Writing in English
S.Y. Wang
2nd year, 1st semester
2
The goal of this course is to improve the ability of the students to read and write scientific papers in English. The course contains lectures, discussions on assigned papers, and group discussion on the manuscripts written by every participating student.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Seminar
Guey-Chuen Perng Jenn-Wei Chen
every semester
6
Seminar(1):1 Credits
Seminar(2):1 Credits
Seminar(3):2 Credits
Seminar(4):2 Credits
The purpose of this course is to train students the skills of oral presentation about how to deliver seminar in an efficient way. For each talk, a professor will be assigned to comment the students performance. At the end of the semester, students are requested to turn in report upon the updated research with clinical relevance.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Advanced Immunology
C.P. Chang
2nd year, 1st semester
3
This course is offered in the format of journal discussion on important research topics in immunology.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Scientific Method in Animal Experimentation
C.K. Yu
1st & 2nd year, 2nd semester
2
This is an introduction to research methodology on animal experiments. The course design is based on the practical applications, not just pure statistics. The course content includes experimental design, collection and analysis of literature, oral presentation skills, data analysis (including applications of software), graphical production, scientific thesis writing, and animal experiment techniques.
The fundamental basis for understanding biological science researches includes the following: critical evaluation, multi-directional approach to problem solving, philosophical implication of biological researches, and the role of biological science in our society. This course will be divided into four parts: lecture, guided discussion, meetings, and in-class assignments. Different point of views on biological knowledges and the development of biotechnology will be presented. There will be no writing exams, and students are given the opportunity to evaluate their own efforts. Active participation in class will be awarded with 10 points, 5 points for occasional thoughtful comments, 15 points goes to assignments (outstanding: 10-15; mediocre: 5), and 5 points deducted for failing to attend a single class.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Infectious Diseases
Y.S. Lin
2nd year, 1st semester
3
The Infectious Diseases is a 3-creadit course that is offered in the Fall Semester by the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University. The course is topic-oriented and emphasizes on the group discussion and interaction. We have selected several important topics based on the area of specialty of the faculty and the important and emerging infectious diseases worldwide as well in Taiwan. It includes enterovirus, dengue virus, hepatitis virus, Epstein-Barr virus, influenza virus, Clostridium difficile, Helicobacterium pylori, Escherichia coli, Vibrio vulnificus, group A streptococcus, and drug resistance. The aim of this course is to give students in-depth knowledge and current research on the emerging infectious diseases.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Gene therapy
A.L. Shiau
1st year, 2nd semester
2
This is a two-credit course for master’s students. Several lecturers who have expertise in gene therapy participate in the course. The objective of the course is to provide an integrated approach to the basic and clinical science of gene therapy. The topics given in the course include (1) gene therapy - an overview, (2) viral vectors for gene therapy, (3) non-viral vectors for gene therapy, (4) antibody application, (5) DNA vaccine, (6) immunotherapy, (7) suicide gene therapy and oncolytic virotherapy, (8) oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, cell cycle & gene therapy, (9) stem cell-based therapy, (10) gene therapy for autoimmune diseases, and (11) gene therapy for genetic diseases. Finally, students are assigned to present gene therapy papers.
At the end of the course, students should be able to conceive, plan, design, and carry out gene transfer experiments. Grades will be based on learning attitude (20%), including attendance and participation in discussion, in-class paper presentation (40%), and a final report (40%).
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Tumor immunology
B.C. Yang P. Ling
1st year, 2nd semester
2
This course will be focused on the interaction between tumorigenesis and the immune system. Main topics include: immune surveillance, immune evasion, regulation of immune system in tumor suppression, and current immunotherapy and cancer vaccine development.
The focus of this course is on the systematic survey of basic and applied parasitology. Topics include basic principle of parasitology, recent advances, and future directions.
COURSES
TEACHER
SEMESTER
CREDITS
Bioinformatic analysis
J.W. Shin
1st & 2nd year, 1st semester
2
One of the main purposes of this course is to teach students how to extract meaningful and useful data from the vast amount of information generated recently. In addition, students will learn how to derive new knowledge from these information.
The field of system biology focuses on the complex interaction within biological systems using data derived from high throughput equipments (DNA array, Mass Spec, etc). Models about the behavior of a particular system can be generated and refined through experimental data. The eventual goal is to apply this technology in the field of parasitology.
