This detailed course on drug discovery involves case studies from various articles on Drug Annotations, allowing students to explore the process it takes for compounds to be selected and optimized for use in medical treatments. The course involves a critical reading and understanding of five specific drug case studies, each taking around two hours to read, alongside supplemental material such within a 15-hour course framework.
The course targets several important aspects of pharmacology, including lead selection, optimization, and understanding the dynamics of drug activity. It is designed to be completed autonomously on a study schedule of 15 hours total, and utilizes articles from the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
Students are expected to have a foundational understanding of organic molecules and their functional groups. No other formal prerequisites are listed, making the course accessible to students with a basic background in these areas.
This course is ideal for students in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, and chemistry who are interested in the operational specifics of how drugs are developed and brought to the market. It is also relevant for professionals looking to update their knowledge about recent developments in drug discovery.
Skills acquired from this course can be applied in professional pharmacy, research and development departments in pharmaceutical companies, academia, and any fields that intersect medicine and chemistry where drug development is relevant.