Browse Hierarchy BMD358: Drug Design

Students will be given a perspective on the history of drug discovery to the present challenges in drug design. The medicinal chemistry content will provide students with an understanding of the complex biological and chemical problems that are involved in the design and synthesis of novel therapeutic agents. They will be given an in-depth analysis of the principles of identifying new compounds with the potential to be drugs, and their development for therapeutic use. Students will also be given an understanding of preclinical testing of drugs including the use of animal models for safety testing, intra and inter-species variations, detecting carcinogenicity in experimental systems and man, strategies of new initiatives in pharmaceutical development and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals. Introductory lectures will be followed by lectures in specialized areas of the subject given by experts in their field. In addition to formal lectures and interactive seminars, the course will provide tutorials with opportunities to critically-evaluate research papers. We will offer workshop sessions to reinforce the lectures.