Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery (edX)

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Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery (edX)
Course Auditing
Categories
Effort
Certification
Languages
High school level chemistry and biology and some experience with organic chemistry. Basic math skills (logarithms and exponential functions) are also recommended.
Misc

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Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery (edX)
Gain a better understanding of the drug discovery process to learn how safe, effective drugs are developed and optimized. This medicinal chemistry course explores how chemists modify a molecule’s structure to design a safe and effective drug.

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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.


What you'll learn:

- 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


Syllabus


Week 1: Pre-Regulatory Medicine and the Drug Approval Process Early natural products and synthetic molecules used as drugs Safety issues in the first drugs Modern drug discovery and approval process Intellectual property issues with drugs

Week 2: Drug Targets Structure of proteins Enzymes, enzymatic activity, and inhibition Receptors and molecules that modulate their activity Examination 1

Week 3: Pharmacokinetics Drug transport in the blood Clearance Volume of distribution Compartment modeling

Week 4: Metabolism Types of metabolic reactions Genetic and population effects Prodrugs Examination 2

Week 5: Binding, Structure, and Diversity Intermolecular forces Drug-target complementarity Molecular diversity and chemical libraries Combinatorial chemistry

Week 6: Lead Discovery Drug screening Filtering hits to find leads Existing drugs and natural products as leads

Week 7: Lead Optimization Functional group replacements Alkyl group replacements Isosteres and bioisosteres Peptidomimetics Examination 3



MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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

MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.