Course & Unit Catalogues

Academic Year

• Article (CWES 20%)
• Presentation (CWOI 10%)
• Virtual drug development exercise (CWRI 20%)
• 3hr open book exam (EXOB 50%)

Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)

• Distinguish the different phases of drug development and discuss the strategic, scientific and operational issues to be considered prior to launching a drug discovery programme
• Compare the different techniques (molecular, cellular, in vivo and clinical) used in the identification and validation of a drug target
• Compare different methodologies and techniques used to develop small-molecule drugs and therapeutic peptides
• Critically discuss the drug discovery approaches used in a range of therapeutic areas and organisations, including examples of drug discovery in these areas
• Justify the importance of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in drug development and successful drug therapy
• Describe the process by which drugs are assessed for market by regulatory bodies
• Describe different biological models used in preclinical drug development and the techniques associated with the identification and optimisation of therapeutic proteins
• Search, evaluate and use the published scientific literature to inform and justify their understanding of drug discovery practices
• Present scientific information in a variety of formats
• Develop and work inclusively in a multidisciplinary team
• Critically interpret chemical and biological drug discovery data and design new hit-to-lead compounds to answer a scientific question.

• Historical overview of the approaches to drug discovery (natural products, synthetic chemistry, recombinant protein, recombinant antibodies, nonpharmacological therapeutics)
• Strategic, scientific and operational issues to be considered prior to launching a drug discovery programme
• Target identification and validation (transcriptomics and disease models)
• Oligonucleotides and oligonucleotide therapeutics
• Biophysical and structural techniques (eg NMR, X-ray crystallography))
• Small molecule identification (eg High-throughput screening and fragment-based drug discovery)
• Peptides and peptidomimetics
• Soft drugs
• Evidence base for existing therapeutics
• Pre-clinical models (eg biochemical, cellular, tissue, in vivo)
• Overview of a range of therapeutic areas and examples of drug discovery in these areas
• Pre-clinical drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (DMPK)
• Pre-clinical safety and toxicology
• Regulatory affairs
• Biopharmaceuticals (including antibody-based therapeutics)
• Evidence base for novel therapeutic targets
• Virtual drug discovery exercise.

SL50204 is Optional (DEU) on the following courses:

• RSSL-AFM30 : Integrated PhD Biotechnology (Healthcare Technologies)
• TSSL-AFM30 : MSc Biotechnology (Healthcare Technologies)
• TSSL-AWM30 : MSc Biotechnology (Healthcare Technologies)

Notes:

• This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2023/24 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2024/25 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2023/24.
• Courses and units are subject to change in accordance with normal University procedures.
• Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.
• Find out more about these and other important University terms and conditions here.