Reflections #3

As we near the end of the school year, I cannot believe how fast time passes by. It seems like it was just yesterday when we started learning about Immunology. Before I took this class I knew nothing about the immune system except that it protects our body from sicknesses and that it involves white blood cells. Now I feel like an expert (although I’m not). We learned and covered many topics over the course of the semester such the innate immune system, the adaptive immune system, the characteristics and functions of different types of white blood cells, antigen processing and presentation, the organs of the immune system, the different classes and functions of different antibodies, the structure of B and T cells, MHC, and cytokines. Although it may seem a lot of material, there is so much more to learn.

The knowledge that I gained from this semester will form the foundation that I will need as I continue my education into the Medical Laboratory Science program. I saw in my course outline that some of the courses are based off Immunology such as Immunohematology, Clinical Immunology and Molecular Diagnostics, and Clinical Bacteriology. The labs this semester was beneficial, especially the ELISA test lab, ABO blood typing, and counting the different white blood cells because I had a small glimpse of what medical laboratory scientists work with. If I found the labs this semester fun, I cannot wait what my clinical year in medical laboratory science has in store.