Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery

Catalog description

This course focuses on the chemical principles involved in small molecule drug discovery, design and development. The organic chemistry of drug design and drug action is studied in detail. Starting from strategies for finding a lead compound through optimizing target interactions and drug efficacy, to ultimately bringing the drug to market, the impact of each step on the drug design process is discussed. Drug design tools and approaches such as combinatorial chemistry, molecular modeling, structure-activity-relationships and other strategies are analyzed in detail along with selected topics in the medicinal chemistry of both classic therapeutic agents and newer therapeutic breakthroughs.