- Self-paced
- Free Access
- Fee-based Certificate
Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery
- 7 Sequences
- Intermediate Level
Course details
Syllabus
Week 1: Pre-Regulatory Medicine and the Drug Approval Process Early natural products and synthetic molecules used as drugs Safety issues in the first drugs Modern drug discovery and approval process Intellectual property issues with drugs
Week 2: Drug Targets Structure of proteins Enzymes, enzymatic activity, and inhibition Receptors and molecules that modulate their activity Examination 1
Week 3: Pharmacokinetics Drug transport in the blood Clearance Volume of distribution Compartment modeling
Week 4: Metabolism Types of metabolic reactions Genetic and population effects Prodrugs Examination 2
Week 5: Binding, Structure, and Diversity Intermolecular forces Drug-target complementarity Molecular diversity and chemical libraries Combinatorial chemistry
Week 6: Lead Discovery Drug screening Filtering hits to find leads Existing drugs and natural products as leads
Week 7: Lead Optimization Functional group replacements Alkyl group replacements Isosteres and bioisosteres Peptidomimetics Examination 3
Prerequisite
High school level chemistry and biology and some experience with organic chemistry.
Basic math skills (logarithms and exponential functions) are also recommended.
Instructors
Erland Stevens
Faculty, Chemistry
Davidson College
Editor
Platform
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