Thomas M. Smith

Thomas Smith is an Associate Director in the department of Academic Partnering and External Innovation at Novartis Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, USA. He is responsible for facilitating early strategic partnerships between the Novartis biomedical research organization and external academic institutions. Prior to this, he worked with project teams from the multiple disease areas at Novartis on new therapeutic modalities, drug prototypes, and enabling early-stage drug discovery efforts against disease-relevant targets of interest. He completed a MA and PhD in the department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, NY, USA, whilst his post-doctoral studies were at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, OH, USA.

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Introduction to Drug Hunting (Coursera)

May 19th 2025
Introduction to Drug Hunting (Coursera)
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This course introduces and summarizes the different steps of preclinical drug discovery, wrapping up with a brief description of the subsequent clinical trials and the importance of competitive intelligence in project strategy.  It provides a high-level overview for those interested in a more general understanding of the topic and [...]
May 19th 2025
Course Auditing
45.00 EUR/month

Pre-formulation (Coursera)

May 19th 2025
Pre-formulation (Coursera)
Course Auditing
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In this course we will focus on how active compounds are developed into a formulation suitable for dosing in animal studies and early human clinical trials.  Factors such as the route of administration, enhancing the solubility of the drug substance, the crystalline form of the drug substance, drug substance [...]
May 19th 2025
Course Auditing
45.00 EUR/month

Preclinical Safety (Coursera)

May 19th 2025
Preclinical Safety (Coursera)
Course Auditing
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Patient safety is of paramount importance for any drug discovery program.  This course looks at some of the lessons learned which have influenced how promising molecules are currently evaluated for safety risks.  In vitro and in vivo toxicology and safety studies are discussed, why they are performed, and how [...]
May 19th 2025
Course Auditing
45.00 EUR/month

Pharmacokinetics (Coursera)

May 19th 2025
Pharmacokinetics (Coursera)
Course Auditing
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This course begins with a review of routes of administration, ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, & excretion), and the use of in vivo drug concentration-time data to determine key pharmacokinetic parameters, like volume of distribution, half-life and clearance.  The course then emphasizes in vitro assays that allow rapid prediction of [...]
May 19th 2025
Course Auditing
45.00 EUR/month

Targets, Assays & Screening (Coursera)

May 19th 2025
Targets, Assays & Screening (Coursera)
Course Auditing
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Effort
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This course focuses on the early stages of drug discovery and the identification of promising compounds with which to begin the hunt for a novel drug.  Different types of assays and methods are reviewed that are used to screen libraries of molecules in the preliminary search for compounds with [...]
May 19th 2025
Course Auditing
45.00 EUR/month

Lead Selection & Optimization (Coursera)

May 19th 2025
Lead Selection & Optimization (Coursera)
Course Auditing
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This course covers the stages of drug discovery in which promising compounds (leads) are identified, their optimal and suboptimal characteristics determined, and the suboptimal characteristics optimized to create a candidate suitable for the clinic.  The course is built around a case study on the discovery of an antimalarial therapy.  [...]
May 19th 2025
Course Auditing
45.00 EUR/month