Drug Discovery and Vaccines: The Process and Parasiticides

Catalog description

This course is intended to introduce students to foundational principles in the discovery of drugs and vaccines for parasite control, including historic examples. The complexity and resource intensiveness of drug discovery and vaccines will be explored. Drug discovery topics will include basic principles of turning chemistry into a drug, identifying a target, and the complexity of developing a lead molecule into a product. Parasite vaccine topics will include the different categories, general formulation and testing and a critique of some current vaccines. Students will develop a sense of what is required for drug and vaccine development, including pitfalls and challenges.