Associate Professor and Department Chair of Neuroscience, Elizabeth Leininger, published a new research article with co-authors Aparna Shah (a neuroscientist at Virginia Tech) and Sumali Pandey (an immunologist at Minnesota State University Moorhead) in Frontiers in Education. Their paper “Integrating neuroscience and immunology core concepts to develop a neuroimmunology curriculum,” outlines a backward-design curriculum designed to teach the core concepts of neuroimmunology.
This article emphasizes the importance of teaching interdisciplinary thinking. Neuroimmunology achieves this through its integration of both neuroscience and immunology, providing a way to examine complex interactions between the nervous and immune systems. Even though research and professional training programs in neuroimmunology are growing, undergraduate curricula in the field remain limited. Leininger and her co-authors present a concepts-focused approach for developing an undergraduate neuroimmunology course or module and outline a proposed semester-long curriculum for upper-level undergraduates.
This interdisciplinary neuroimmunology curriculum is a valuable resource for educators looking to incorporate current neuroimmunology concepts into new or existing courses. Training undergraduate students in neuroimmunology will encourage them to learn real-world problem-solving skills and prepare them for careers in this growing field.
Presley Pickeral ‘26 is the Neuroscience Program Student Ambassador.
