MIIM30014: Medical Microbiology: Virology

45 min MSE #1 (20%), 45 min MSE #2 (20%), 2hr Final Exam (60%)

Enjoyed this subject way more than Bacteriology, but others may be different. Really well coordinated, and really interesting, but it is still hard and there is a lot of work you need to do if you want to go well.
Subject covers all the medically relevant virus families (18 of them) which you are expected to know plus some important examples within some of these families.
The first part of the course covers the principles of virology, including adhesion, attachment, entry, replication, processing, maturation, assembly, exit. This first part of the course covers in a lot of detail the replication strategies, and control of translation of dsDNA, ssDNA, dsRNA, (+)ssRNA, (-)ssRNA viruses. The lecturers really stress to you to knuckle down and really know this part of the course well, because if you can memorise all 18 families of viruses and their replication strategies the rest of the course is smooth sailing. Interestingly though however, the class performed better on MSE #1 compared to MSE #2. Just do whatever you can to memorise the name, genome size, and structural characteristics of the 18 families of viruses, its not that hard as you are given a good summary table with all the viruses on it. Once you know these names, a lot of the replication strategies are shared between these families, so you don't need to know specifically all 18 replication cycles, just a couple for dsDNA, (+)ssRNA, (-)ssRNA, and one for dsRNA and ssDNA.

MSE #1 has 45 questions and 45 minutes to complete them, personally i needed all the time that was available, however the lecturers said most of us would finish really early with heaps of time. you have about 30 questions of your usual multiple choice style with 5 options, only one correct - they call this Type I style questions. Then you have 15 Type II style questions, where you are given 4 statements; A, B, C, D. Then you are asked to answer on the exam sheet (A) if statements A, B, C are correct, or (B) if A and C are correct, or (C) if B and D are correct, or (D) if only D is correct. This may be a bit confusing, but basically you have to think harder than Type I questions, which is why a lot of students don't like them or perform a little poorer in them. Personally I didn't mind them because they can sometimes really help during a process of elimination, some statement just can't pair up so you are left with only one or two alternatives anyway. We are given practice style questions in a revision tutorial before both MSE's so make sure you attend those.

After MSE #1 the course moves into principles of pathogenesis and innate and adaptive immune evasion by viruses which forms the bulk of the content for MSE #2 along with HIV, Herpes, and Hepatitis specific lectures plus viral vectors and vaccines. Students performed poorer in MSE #2 compared to the first one, and i think its because it was actually harder, you not only have to know principles, but you have to know lots of specific examples, and many specific proteins that have similar names. So i would recommend not to gloss over important proteins that are stressed in lectures, because they came up in the mid sen exam. Knowing the first part of the course well helps with these topics because it is where it is brought together and incorporated. You will come across many specific examples and it would be a good idea at this stage to start remembering those examples and comparing different viruses to each other in terms of their methods of pathogenesis. When lecturers do a lecture on a certain principle of pathogenesis, they will usually use a specific virus as an example, so its not like you will have to know this detail for all 18 families, just one.

After MSE #2 most of the lecturers are delivered by guest speakers, and focus on one specific virus from a certain family. These lecturers are often quite interesting, and they are assessed on the final exam in the multiple choice section and in some short answer questions. If you prepared well for the first 2 mid semester exams, this part of the course is a nice way to finish, however if you haven't been keeping up, you might struggle to really appreciate them. In these lectures you won't need to know every lecture in as much detail as the first part of the course, but in certain lectures you will really need to learn it.

Throughout the course we have 2 flip classes, where the lecture turns into a seminar, where we are provided with articles and reading materials before the class, and are then asked to address some key issues relating to drug treatment of HIV and Hepatitis. there are about 3 or 4 experts in the fields of HIV and Hepatitis at these classes and the class gets to chat to them and asks questions. These 2 classes are absolutely examinable and a specific question will come up in the exam. However you ail be well equipped to deal with the question if you show up to this class and actually participate. Personally I would have preferred a lecturer to just deliver the content in a lecture, but it looks like these classes are here to stay.

I personally felt they marked pretty hard on the final exam, but the actual end of semester exam was really good, every question could be answered. It had some Type I and Type II multiple choice questions to address the last series of lecture, with 4 short answer questions worth 15 marks split up into sub parts. With a third fill in the blanks section, which is pretty hard to prepare for because it is usually pretty hard. The short answer questions are the bulk of the course, so make sure you manage your time to answer those well, maybe get the fill in the blanks and some multiple choice questions worked out in the reading time to gain some extra time, but make sure to read all the short answer questions first thing in your reading time.

It may seem hard or a lot of work, but regardless it is a great subject, and isn't that bad if you commit to your study and get a lot of it done early in the semester, rather than cramming at the end. I loved the lecture content, it was really stimulating, and was usually explained really well.
Off the top of my head some viruses to know would be; HIV, HBV, HCV, HAV, HEV, Poliovirus, SV40 virus, HSV, CMV, VZV, Rhinovirus, Rotavirus, Norovirus, Rabies virus, HPV, EBV, WNV, Influenza, SARS-CoV, Poxvirus, Ebola, Measles, Mumps, Vaccinia, Dengue. There are more, but basically, once you know the 18 families of viruses, and the replication cycles that many of these share, and 5 or 6 viruses in detail that are stressed in the lectures, all you are really doing is remembering names of specific viruses and grouping these into their families.
Don't get thrown off if all this seems hard or complicated, it is an awesome subject, and the satisfaction you will get by keeping up and doing all the work is definitely worth it!! The subject does have principles in it, so you get taught principles of viruses and apply them, at the end of the course things really do make sense and the lecturers really do a good job at helping you understand it. If you are doing the microbiology major this subject is compulsory, however other people in different majors can do it as a selective, in my opinion there may be easier ones to do, but this would be the more interesting one by far!

Yes, with screen capture

Damian Purcell, Jason MacKenzie, Lorena Brown, Some guest lecturers.

No. No sample exam. Some sample exam style questions, minimal (2) sample questions.

4.5 Out of 5

Recommended Flint Principles of Virology textbook. Not essential but would be really helpful, I wish i had it at times, but didn't need it.

3 x 1hr lectures per week

2015, S2

H1 80

Two MSTs (worth 20% each). End-of-semester written exam worth 60%.

(So I wrote a review earlier but it got sent to oblivion lol)

This subject is the hardest one out of all the 3rd year MIIM subjects in my opinion, but it is the greatest one. There is so much detail to know in this subject that your head is going to hurt, at times you are going to feel it exploding. But it's still taught superbly and clearly. Jason and Damian, the two main lecturers in the subject, do a fantastic job - they are like the dream duo of lecturers. You always have an idea of what you should focus on and what is important. I had a love-hate relationship with this subject - mainly because at times it made me feel overwhelmed, but everything about this subject was just so interesting that it motivated me to just push myself through. In this subject, you are taught about a whole load of important viruses in medicine - you learn about how it causes disease, how to treat it, how we diagnose it, and also how we're trying to cure/eradicate them. Awesome stuff.

The earliest part of the course is definitely the hardest - according to Damian, that is where the real meat of the subject is. They're not kidding. MST1 only examined materials from 10 lectures and to be honest, it already felt like I was being examined on half a full subject. However, this block is definitely the most important as you will refer back to the fundamentals and replication cycle quite a lot. Initially, you learn about virus classification, structure, and cultivation. Definitely listen to these at home because I felt quite a bit lost already. Then you hone in on the really complicated stuff - replication. There are so much complicated molecular gymnastics in this block, so many proteins and molecules to remember, that you will struggle to fully memorise everything until after many cycles of reading. You learn about replication for DNA viruses, viruses that use reverse transcription, +ssRNA, -ssRNA, and dsRNA. Additionally, you also learn about virus entry, assembly and exit. In these lectures, examples are scattered throughout the different lectures - you are not going to spend time on poliovirus or adenovirus for like 10-15 mins - instead, what happens is that you learn a little poliovirus in one lecture, and then a little bit more detail in another lecture, and so on. You will be learning examples from all the different virus families. It is difficult to integrate everything because you will find yourself accidentally mixing details from different examples. but because Damian and Jason are the main lecturers for this block, there is nothing inconsistent in their slides. Despite the amount of content, the median for MST1 was quite high, at 35/45 - one person even achieved 100% (and 40% got H1)

After MST1, the subject gets a bit lighter but it's probably more intense than other subjects you might study. In this block you start honing in on more specific infections. You have three rather straightforward lectures on viral pathogenesis at the beginning. Linfa (from DUKE-NUS, aka the batman) presents an absolutely fantastic lecture on Hendranipah virus, SARS and Melaka virus. Then you learn about general innate defences vs viral evasion (again, lots of proteins you need to know. Finally, you get a number of lectures on specific infections from Herpesviridae (EBV, VZV, HSV), Hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E), and HIV. The block then ends with a difficult lecture on viral vectors and a pretty easy vaccine lecture. While this block was said to be more easy, the MST2 test was arguably harder, with the median of the class falling from 35/45 to 31/45.

Post MST2, you get some flip-classes on Hepatits therapy and HIV cures. Instead of having a conventional lecture, you have to read over lecture slides and papers beforehand and come armed with questions. You'll probably get more out of it if you actually attend (I never did). Again, you dwelve into some more specific infections like Dengue, Norovirus, Oncogenic viruses, Rotavirus and Ebola. There is also a random lecture on general epidemiology and a more intensive one on RNA defence mechanisms (which involves a lot of molecular detail yet again). This is probably the lightest block.

There are weekly quizzes put up on the LMS to help you revise the material, so use them for your MST practise. Before each MST, Damian and Jason will also run a revision lecture which is pretty much just another quiz (the standard of these quetions are a little bit easier than the actual tests). Like almost everything in MIIM, all of the MSTs are fully MCQ - 30 questions will be your standard Type I questions, and 15 will be Type II (ie Statements 1,2,3 are right, or 1,2 are right...etc). Make sure you read the questions carefully because you are bound to get tripped up by some small detail now and then. The end-of-semester exam has MCQs on the last block, a fill in the blanks section and then a SAQ section. The SAQ has four questions (worth 15 marks each), and each part to a question is generally 5 marks. You will need to use diagrams and it is probably best if you integrate different parts of the life cycle for each virus into your questions

As you probably know, this is a VERY intensive subject and you are going to feel overwhelmed now and then. I mean, in the very first lecture, you are shown something like this:



...And you have memorise all of that, because it is something you will need to keep referring back to. But ultimately, this is definitely one of the most interesting subjects I've had the privilege to study. The staff are fantastic and incredibly approachable - I don't have anything negative to say about the lecturers (it's MIIM so there is never anything bad lol). Everyone who I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed this subject even though tbh everyone who studies Virology is probably a masochist. Viruses are such incredibly complicated machines - they make bacteria look that much more boring in comparison, and honestly Bacteriology was already pretty good! If you have any interest in infectious diseases, you would be missing out on a lot if you don't study Virology - don't be deterred by the amount of detail you have to know, because I think there is a pretty high proportions of H1s anyway.

TL;DR: Pls do this subject, viruses are awesome.

Yes, with screen capture etc.

D. Purcell (Intro to viruses, DNA + reverse transcription replication cycles, Herpesviridae, Hepatitis, HIV, RNA defences)
J. Mackenzie (Virus life cycles, RNA replication cycles, pathogenesis, Norovirus, Vaccines, Vectors, Viral Defences)
L. Brown (Innate Defences, Oncogenic viruses)
L. Wang (Zoonoses)
J. McVernon (Epidemiology)
C. Simmons (Dengue)
B. S. Coulson (Rotavirus)
Guest lecturers (eg. S. Lewin, I. Gust for HIV flip-class)

No past exam questions given. Damian and Jason go through sample questions during revision lectures.

5 out of 5

Principles of Virology, but lecture notes suffice.

3 x 1 hr lectures per week.

Semester 2, 2015

H1 (87)