Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery

This medicinal chemistry course explores how chemists modify a molecule’s structure to design a safe and effective drug. This course opens with a brief history of drug discovery and introduces the modern drug approval process.Then, we will transition to learning about receptors and enzymes, the body’s molecules most often targeted by drugs.We will also discuss the topics of pharmacokinetics (drug adsorption, elimination, and half-life) and metabolism. The course closes with units on how potential drug molecules are identified and subsequently optimized into safe and effective drugs.

• How to measure the activity of enzymes and receptors
• Methods for modeling a drug’s half-life
• How to predict and alter the metabolism of a molecule
• Techniques for discovering molecules with desired biological activity
• Approaches for optimizing a molecule into a safe and effective drug

• High school level chemistry and biology and some experience with organic chemistry.Basic math skills (logarithms and exponential functions) are also recommended.