Department of Chemistry, Unit Catalogue 2007/08 |
CH30098 Topics in drug discovery |
| Credits: 3 |
| Level: Honours |
| Semester: 1 |
| Assessment: EX100 |
| Requisites: |
| Before taking this unit you must take CH20014 and take CH20097 |
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Aims: The Unit aims to provide a description of the processes of target selection, drug candidate selection and optimisation. It is anticipated that students will be able to relate this to the progress of drug candidates through clinical trials and on to manufacture and market. The Unit aims to provide opportunities for students to develop their knowledge of these areas and to solve associated problems independently and in group situations. It is anticipated that the students will have the learning outomes identified below.
Learning Outcomes: After studying the Unit, students should be able to: * account for the importance of selected key therapeutic areas * recognise leading pharmaceutical drugs and propose methods for their synthesis * describe the processes of lead identification and lead optimisation * describe some modern methods of combinational and high throughput chemistry * compare and contrast discovery chemistry and development chemistry approaches * describe the process of scale-up and process development * demonstrate an appreciation of the issues involved in taking drug candidates through clinical trials and on to market. Skills: Problem solving (T, F, A); Scientific writing (F, A); Independent working (F); Group working (F). Content: Key therapeutic areas (for example, drugs for hypertension, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and disorders of the central nervous system). The relevance of patents and patent breaking to the pharmaceutical industry. The approaches taken in lead identification. Combinational and high throughput chemistry methodologies and data mining. Modern approaches to lead optimisation. Case studies comparing discovery chemistry and development chemistry approaches to the synthesis of drug candidates. Scale-up and manufacture- Process RandD. Natural products and their derivatives as pharmaceutical agents. Overview of clinical trials and marketing issues. |