The objective of this project is to provide immunology students with the knowledge, procedures, and equipment to analyze the humoral immune response as it relates to antigenic challenge and subsequent antibody analysis. Students will prepare bacterial whole cell and cell-free extract soluble antigens for subsequent immunization of rabbits. During the course of immune response studies students will gain hands-on experience with practical immunological techniques including: 1)immunoelectrophoresis; 2)immunodiffusion; 3) immunoblotting; and 4)enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assays. These experimental methods will require the students to think critically about both the procedures and the analysis of their data.
