2022 AMI Online Salon
Immunoglobulin Class Switching
Project Detail
- Entrant Name: Kelly Nguyen
- Client: UWorld
- Copyright: UWorld, 2022
- Medium/software used: Cinema 4D, Redshift, Adobe AfterEffects
- Final presentation format: Web-based question bank
- Primary Audience: Medical students
Project Description
Created for an audience of medical students, the primary purpose of this animation is to provide a distilled explanation of immunoglobulin class switching, an irreversible process in the body’s humoral immune response that allows B cells to produce antibodies of different isotypes in response to invading pathogens or foreign substances. The generation of new isotypes occurs through recombination of the antibody’s heavy chain constant region gene, resulting in a change from IgM and IgD expression to IgG, IgE, or IgA. The switched isotype is determined by exposure to specific cytokines secreted by T helper (CD4+) cells — a key concept that medical students are often tested on and that have important pharmacological applications. Though it is a broad overview of the topic, the concepts covered in this animation provide a basis for understanding the pathogenesis of diseases, reactions, and/or health conditions that may arise from defects in certain steps in this process, resulting in impaired production of the switched isotype. Additionally, the recent integration of animation into UWorld’s learning platform offers dynamic visualizations to help medical students summarize complex sequences of events and serves as a supplemental, educational resource referenced in a practice question bank for students preparing to take USMLE Step 1 and COMLEX.
