For this assignment, you will record yourself presenting a primary literature paper about an
immunological topic of your choice. There are many goals for this assignment. The first goal of
this assignment is to have you learn about a project that utilizes techniques common to
immunology labs. You will also actively learn how to navigate the waters of presenting a short
seminar on a primary literature article. By recording yourself (and listening to yourself!), you
will gain firsthand knowledge about your presentation strengths and weaknesses. You will learn
what it takes to read, understand, and communicate the background, results, discussion, and
next steps of the literature article to your peers in a 20-minute presentation
SLIDE INSTRUCTIONS/CONTENT:
Use PowerPoint to prepare 17 slides (some flexibility exists here*):
Slide 1: Title slide with the paper reference and both of your names.
Slides 2 and 3: Two slides for introduction—set up the experimental system and summarize any
results that we need to understand to get to the first figure you will present. What is the
overall question? What is the system? What did the authors learn from any experiments that
came before the figures that you will present?
Slide 4: Setup the first figure. What is the question? How will it be addressed? Briefly outline
the methods used.
Slide 5: The first figure (downloaded from the online version of the paper, cropped if
necessary). Tip to enhance clarity of figures: blow up figure to 300% on PDF version and take a
snapshot to paste it into PowerPoint. Include a descriptive title on all figure slides, not just
Figure 1, 2, etc. It may be helpful to include some text to highlight a specific aspect of the data.
Slide 6: Conclusions and implications of the first figure. Conclusions should be directly related to
the data you presented from the first figure. What do we now know? What is the next logical
question? One additional slide is allowed here if there are important results that need to be
discussed before presenting the second figure that you chose.
Slides 7 through 9: the same as slides 4 through 6, but for the second figure.
Slides 10 through 12: the same as slides 4 through 6, but for the third figure.
Slides 13 through 15: the same as slides 4 through 6, but for the fourth figure.
Slides 16 and 17: Two slides to give overall conclusions and implications of this work.
Summarize any additional results that are important. What do we now know? Why is this
important? What remains to be asked in next steps/future experiments?
*This is just a template to help you. If you need more slides, feel free to add, but remember this
is a 20-minute presentation.
