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Semester 2

Chemical Medicine Level 10 (CHEM10052)

Subject

Chemistry

College

SCE

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

4

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Course Summary

This is a 20-credit Senior Honours lecture course on applications of chemistry in medicine, with emphasis on pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The course will engender an appreciation of the importance of structure-activity relationships in modern day drug design and development, cover the design and synthesis of diverse compound libraries, compare rational design vs high throughput screening as routes to drug leads, show how a knowledge of modes and mechanisms of action allows screening and elaboration of leads, engender appreciation of how chemists contribute new molecular entities with applications in diagnostics, drug delivery, biomaterials and tissue engineering.This course is a compulsory requirement for Senior Honours BSc students on the degree in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, but can be taken by Senior Honours BSc students on any Chemistry degree programme.The course comprises of individual component lecture courses and associated tutorials or workshops.

Course Description

The course comprises individual lecture courses on Medicinal Chemistry, Physical Organic Aspects of Medicinal Chemistry, Computational Approaches to Drug Design, Metals in Medicine, and Chemical Biology Approaches to Drug Design. At the end of this course students will be able to:- show an understanding of how the physicochemical properties of drugs relate to their biological properties- appreciate how the field of chemical biology has impacted the discovery of new therapeutics in terms of enhanced understanding of protein-ligand interactions, new approaches to lead discovery and new methods for drug delivery- understand how the use of chemoinformatics, virtual screening and docking can impact upon drug design- explain the importance of metal ion homeostasis and understand the roles of metal ions in anticancer drugs, diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy- describe common routes of administration of drugs and drug delivery systems- describe common metabolic pathways and how they may be exploited in the design of drugs, prodrugs and soft drugs- show understanding of rational approaches towards the design of important drugs and the biological implications of such therapeutic agents including the use of enzymes to inhibit protein processing as a concept for the design of new pharmaceuticals.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 100%, Coursework 0%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Assessment Information

One 3 hour exam

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