Postgraduate Course: Drug Discovery (MSc Level) (PGBI11088)

Course Outline
School	School of Biological Sciences	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	This course provides a broad overview of the drug discovery and development process, and in particular structure based drug design. Pharmaceutical drugs have traditionally developed from herbal remedies or from the random screening for beneficial effects of natural or synthetic chemicals. We now have a detailed understanding of many diseases at a molecular level. The aim of this course is to explain how we can use the structure and function of proteins involved in a disease to discover new potential drug molecules. The course provides a background on how proteins are selected as potential disease targets and introduces the various biochemical, computational and biophysical techniques used in ligand discovery. The course also has a practical component and computational workshops will provide hands-on experience with modeling and docking programs to identify potential small molecule ligands as potential inhibitors against a number of protein drug targets.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 78 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Group presentation (20%) Group presentation of and submission of PowerPoint handout of 2 pages (12 slides in total) summarising the project and evaluating the target. Written Report (80%) Each student will write an individual report on a potential protein drug target.
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Increased understanding of biological and biochemical systems. An overview of the methods used in structure-based drug design An appreciation of the role molecular structure and biochemical mechanisms play in the design of new drug modules Improved presentation skills Used molecular modelling software to visualise drug-target complexes