(as part of Research Fundamentals)
Bringing a drug from bench to bedside is cross disciplinary. This module enables scholars to put their own research in context and to understand the key parameters in the development of potential novel therapeutics.
Outline
- Identifying drug targets and drug candidates
- Molecular modelling
- Drug design technologies
- Characterising drug candidates
- Bringing a drug to the clinic
Learning Outcomes
- Overview of the principles, strategies and techniques used in drug discovery and development, from target identification to commercialisation
- Understand what are the drug targets (eg. enzymes, receptors) and the sources of drugs (eg. natural products, high throughput screening of chemical libraries, computer-aided drug design)
- Understand how the interaction of a drug with its target can result in a therapeutic effect
- Recall what are the different types of drugs (low molecular weight molecules, macromolecules) their respective characteristics and constraints as therapeutic agents
- Define a “drug-like molecule” and to understand how to analyse a drug’s pharmaceutical properties.
- Appreciate the challenges associated with the development of new drugs, (presented as cases studies focusing on different stages of drug discovery/development) and the current approaches explored to overcome them
- Understand how to prepare and characterise drug products for application via different routes of administration including orally, parenterally, topically or via inhalation
- Understand the key role of advanced drug delivery technologies (eg. nanotechnologies, scaffolds, devices) in the development of specific therapeutics (eg. insoluble drugs, proteins, genes, cells)
- Appreciate the issues associated with the scale-up and manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and products.
- Appreciate the process and prerequisites of translational medicine: bringing a drug from the bench to the clinic
- Appreciate the impact of the commercialisation process and regulatory affairs on drug development.
Course coordinator(s)
Prof Sally-Ann Cryan, Dr Marc Devocelle