Immunology: Biological And Biomedical Sciences in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Immunology: Biological And Biomedical Sciences in Trinity College Dublin

Students who wish to study Immunology apply to the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (TR060) and may select Immunology as their specialist area for the third and fourth years at the end of the second year.

What is Immunology?

Immunology is the study of the immune system. The immune system has evolved to protect our bodies against infection and cancer and involves the co-ordinated activities of specialised cells, molecules and genes to orchestrate an immune response.

Immunology is one of the most rapidly growing research areas in biology and has been shown to have a fundamental role in almost all disease states. Understanding how the immune system works has led to the development of new therapeutics, e.g. antibodies, for the specific treatment of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, we can now harness the immune system such that it can help to fight against infection and cancer. Many pharmaceutical companies have substantial immunology programmes.

Immunology: The course for you?

If you want to understand how the immune system works, how its failures lead to disease and how we can use our knowledge to design new therapies for infection, cancer and a range of other diseases, this is the course for you. Trinity is not only the leading centre for immunology in Ireland but it is recognised around the world for its high level of research excellence. Graduating with an Immunology degree puts students in an excellent and competitive position for their future career. Immunology is a dynamic and rapidly expanding subject and this degree provides excellent training from world class researchers and lecturers to enable students to successfully pursue a career in immunology.

Immunology at Trinity

Trinity is currently the only university that offers an undergraduate degree in Immunology in Ireland. Third and fourth year students will be based in the new state of the art Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) on Pearse Street. Our students have the opportunity to study abroad for third year and there are also some internship opportunities, in Ireland and abroad.

Graduate skills and career opportunities

Graduates follow a range of different career pathways. Many of our students are recruited into PhD positions either here or abroad in order to pursue a research based career in the university, medical (hospital based research), or industrial sectors. Some of these are specifically within the area of immunology but other students diversify and use their immunology to branch into other areas. Some graduates go straight into lab based positions as immunologists and these can be in academic, hospital or industrial laboratories, e.g. Pfizer. Other students decide to use their scientific background for non-lab based careers, e.g. science communication and journalism, or science outreach. Some graduates have gone into research support positions, while others have gone on to get a business qualification or law qualification to enable them to be competitive in a business/commercial setting.