Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry

• Demostrate familiarity with the drug development process
• Know the types of biological targets (proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids) and the demands for drugs interacting with them
• Understand the importance of screening and the difference between in vitro and in vivo assays, and demonstrate knowledge of biochemical assays and biophysical methods
• Apply the principles for interactions between small molecules and biological macromolecules to predict binding interactions
• Describe different analytical approaches to study and quantify binding interactions
• Suggest structures of inhibitors, agonists and antagonists based on knowledge about natural substrates or ligands
• Involve knowledge about pharmacokinetics in discussions of drug design
• Apply SAR in evaluating leads
• Demonstrate knowledge of the principles behind QSAR
• Predict metabolites from the structure of drugs

The course will give an introduction to the following:
Medicinal chemistry.
Pharmacology.
Pharmacokinetics.
Drug targets.
Drug design.
Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR).
The need for pharmaceutical development.

Relevant drug types will be used to exemplify the subjects.

26411/27002/27020/26211/26222/26220, Organic Chemistry 2 and either Bioengineering or Life Science shall be taken at the latest together with 26426. Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry or Physical Chemistry 2 are also recommended.

Lectures and problem solving.