Courses

Instructor: Kristen Gilliland 

This course will paint a general overview of the drug discovery and development process – from drug inception to market. Students will learn how the success of the program depends upon proper communication and understanding between medicinal chemists, biologists, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic scientists, and pharmacologists.  

Each student will appreciate the immense difficulties, regulations, laboratory efforts, timeline, and cost required in producing a successful pharmaceutical drug. A real-world example involving the development of a GlyT1 Inhibitor for the treatment of the symptoms of schizophrenia will illustrate these unique challenges as seen in each stage of the drug discovery and development process.  

By the end of this course, you will be able to:  

• Realize the lengthy timeline, regulations, and overwhelming cost of drug design and development
• Describe the different stages in drug development and what occurs during these stages  
• Understand how knowledge of medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, DMPK, and biology is essential to a successful drug campaign
• Grasp why so few drugs successfully make it to market  
• Understand why pharmaceutical drugs can be so expensive

Instructor: Colleen Niswender 

This course will describe the fundamental knowledge needed to understand pharmacology in the context of drug discovery. You will learn basics in protein chemistry, ligand binding, pharmacologic assays, and how to interpret pharmacological data.

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

• Understand what a pharmacologic target is and how small molecules interact with their respective targets
• Recognize what kind of effect a small molecule is causing by interacting with its target
• Understand the differences between potency and efficacy, Ki and KD, and Ki and EC50
• Hold a discussion with drug discovery scientists about pharmacology 

Instructor: Valerie Kramlinger 

Course description coming soon. 

Instructor: Aaron Bender 

When a drug target is identified and validated, how does a medicinal chemist prepare a potential clinical development candidate for that target?  Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry will take you on that journey – from hit-to-lead activities to essential synthetic organic transformations to structure activity relationships (SAR). For application purposes, case studies are presented to emphasize both the challenges and successes that exist along the path of every novel pharmaceutical drug campaign.   

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

• Identify common structural features in pharmaceutical drugs and understand how these features help define potency, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of that particular drug in the body
• Communicate and value why certain synthetic organic reactions are utilized so frequently in medicinal chemistry  
• Apply knowledge in pharmacology, DMPK, and medicinal chemistry to a real-world case study
• Appreciate the challenges associated with drug discovery and development – while also learning how to address them

Instructor: Craig Lindsley

In this course, you will be exposed to the thought process behind target identification and validation, hit-to-lead, lead optimization, and candidate selection with an emphasis on how pharmacology, DMPK, and chemistry are integrated in the different processes.  

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

• Understand the different steps involved in structure activity relationship and how scientists in pharmacology, chemistry, and DMPK work together to solve challenges 
• Understand how go and no-go decisions are made based on pharmacological, metabolic, and pharmacokinetic properties 
• Appreciate the complexity of the data generated to inform the different processes 

Instructor: Craig Lindsley 

In this course, you will follow the development of a candidate drug in preparation for the safety study in humans. You will see the candidate through dose-range finding, toxicology, and multiple dose studies in animals, and how the data are used to determine the dose range given to humans in phase 1 clinical trials.  

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

• Understand the importance of doing toxicology studies in animals prior to giving a new drug to humans
• Understand what data are needed to determine a drug’s dose-range for a clinical trial
• Appreciate the work needed to understand the toxicity mechanism to inform chemists on future safer structures