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Course description

The school is designed for graduate and post-doctoral chemists with 1-5 years’ experience in the field of drug research and the intended learning outcome is to give an overview of the key topics of drug design, discovery and early development to enable the participants to acquire the essential skills required to work in this field.

The overall learning outcomes are:

• Develop clear understanding of the basic principles of the drug discovery process.
• Acquire understanding of the principles of the key scientific disciplines of drug discovery and pre-clinical development: pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, molecular biology, computational chemistry, pharmaceutical development, toxicology, medicinal chemistry
• Demonstrate ability to apply key concepts in practical settings: medicinal chemistry design, molecular modelling, data analysis
• Demonstrate understanding of key aspects of drug in-licencing and how to balance and evaluate risks
• Develop in depth understanding of the principles of drug design

The course includes the following topics:

• Target Validation
• Computational ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº
• Biological Mechanisms
• Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism#
• Screening of New Compounds
• Patents
• Molecular Biology in Medicinal ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº
• Exploiting a Chemical Lead
• Combinatorial ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº and Molecular Diversity
• Case Histories of Drug Discovery
• Toxicology in Drug Discovery
• Pharmaceutical Considerations in Drug Development
• Structure-guided Drug Design
• Physical Properties and Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships
• Hints and Tips in Medicinal ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº

Prerequisites

The school is designed for graduate and post-doctoral chemists with 1-5 years’ experience in drug research. Final year PhD students from pharmaceutical or organic chemistry contemplating a career in drug discovery are also encouraged to attend.

Additional information

Subject to change, the programme will run from 08:00 on Monday 8 June and will finish at 13:00 on Friday 12 June (7 - 12 June 2026, Loughborough, United Kingdom). An optional welcome reception will take place on Sunday evening.