University of Pennsylvannia, Philadephia.
Course directors: Christopher A. Hunter, Terri M. Laufer

Fatoumatta Darboe, Master student,
Medical Research Council Laboratories, Banjul, The Gambia.
“I am an MPhil student at the MRC, The Gambia Unit. I won the IUIS scholarship award to attend the AAI introductory course in Immunology at the University of Pennsylvannia. The Immunology course was divided into two parts. The first part of the lecture series included the basics of immunology and history.  The second part was about recent and future trends.I have never attended a course focused solely on Immunology before.Attending this course has made me appreciate the other existing fields of immunology and not just the vaccine response bit, which is the focus of my work. The course is suitable for everyone who is interested in Immunology, be it in industry, research and even biotechnology. What with world renowned scientists flying in to give lectures and answering all those questions that I thought were too complex for me to answer! I’ll say nothing beats that!”

Dr Armen Sanosyan, Resident in Clinical Immunology and Allergology,
Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergology, Heratsi Yerevan State Medical University, Yerevan, Armenia.
“By virtue of IUIS and AAI, I had a chance to participate in the 2012 AAI Introductory Immunology Summer course. As I expected, it was really a high-level course saturated with not only Introductory perspective of the immune system function but going much beyond the scope just to be called Introductory.The course itself consisted of two parts: basic and clinical Immunology. Lecturers were highly prepared and the material was delivered clearly. We had opportunity to interrupt by questions almost all lecturers and our questions mostly were clearly answered.Besides just reviewing functions of the immune system, lecturers gave us knowledge about research development, different techniques involved in the assessment of diverse immune functions and the clinical relevance of recent discoveries in that field.
The program was highly organized. During breaks, we had opportunity to communicate with each other and faculty as well. The audience consisted of different specialists from biologists and MDs to Pharmaceutical researchers and, all objectives were met.I want to emphasize my own satisfaction. As I was involved for the first time in such a program, it was highly informative, full of new research and clinical approaches. I appreciate the efforts of IUIS and AAI to provide me with all necessary means for travel, hotel, registration and well being in such a wonderful seminar.”

Dr. Caroline Amolo Ogwang, Research Medical Officer, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya,was also selected by the IUIS Education Committee but was supported by the IUIS Gender Equality and Career Development Committee (GECD).  You can find her report on the GECD website.

Dr Armene Sanosyan, Dr Michele Hogan, Fatoumata Darboe, Caroline Amolo Ogwang