Assistant Professor of Biology Elena Tonc is the co-author of an article recently published in the journal Frontiers of Education. It is part of a series on “Immunology Education: In the Classroom and Beyond.”
In “A multi-pronged approach to addressing curricular challenges in undergraduate immunology education,” Tonc and co-author Devavani Chatterjea (Carleton College) examine barriers to understanding the immune system that students may encounter in immunology courses typically offered in graduate programs or as foundational science courses in conventional medical education.
They suggest a way to help lower those barriers with a series of undergraduate level immunology courses that includes first-year seminars, a majors’ survey course with a skills-based lab, advanced topical seminars, and an inquiry-based immunological research methods course. They say “students can take one, several, or all of these courses during their undergraduate studies to build and bolster their understanding of immune systems and address the crucial need for increased scientific and immune literacy.”
Tonc and Chatterjea note that few prerequisites are needed with their approach and that their method “provides a template for other educators to expand access to immunology for undergraduate students at all stages of their college career.” With the goal of enhancing immune literacy across all levels of a liberal arts and biology curriculum, they also share their pedagogical practices in the article.
Posted September 5, 2025
