Pharmaceutical sciences

Course overview

• Period 1: Concepts of drug targets (compulsory for broadening variant)

  This course aims to offer insight into general steps in drug discovery, understanding of the molecular basis of target-drug interactions and the role of pharmaco- and toxicodynamics.

• Period 1: Radiopharmacochemistry (compulsory for deepening - and constraint choice for broadening variant)

  This course deals with the combination of organic synthesis (including retro-synthesis) and the special demands for working with radiolabeled isotopes. The molecules made using these techniques and their role as radiotherapeutics and diagnostics will be discussed.

• Period 1 : Biophysical approaches to receptor pharmacology (compulsory for deepening - and constraint choice for broadening variant)

  This course will cover the modern biophysical techniques, including structural biology, live-cell imaging, and single-molecule methods, as applied to receptor pharmacology. You will be taught the principles of biophysical methods and identify their appropriate applications. Interpret data produced by biophysical techniques and extract conclusions.

• Period 2: Concepts of drug discovery (compulsory for broadening variant)

  Gain insight and hands-on experience in key concepts underlying drug
  discovery, the molecular modeling tools that enable drug design, the
  strategies to plan efficient synthesis routes for conceived ligands and the role of radiochemistry.

• Period 2: Chemical biology (compulsory for deepening - and constraint choice for broadening variant)

  What are the modern developments in the area of (modified) peptides or proteins and nucleotides as future therapeutic molecules? Next to the small organic molecules and antibodies, these so-called new modalities offer new tools in drug discovery and development.

• Period 2: Induced pluripotent stem cells in toxicology and drug discovery (compulsory for deepening - and constraint choice for broadening variant)

  Studying the effects of pharmaceuticals in human cell culture systems offers a number of advantages over animal experiments, including the use of human material and the possibility to use mechanistic approaches to understand the mechanism of action or mechanism of toxicity of a compound. In particular the use of iPSC opens exciting new avenues, as they provide unlimited material, are of non-cancerous origin, and can be collected/generated from individual living patients.

• Period 3: Drug discovery simulation (compulsory for deepening and broadening variant)

  In this course you will be exposed to the questions and decisions that need to be made in drug discovery in an industrial setting. In a drug discovery simulation that was originally developed in a pharmaceutical company, you will be working in a team that has to make the right choices based on real experimental data. Critical analysis of the data and well-argued choices need to be made to develop a new drug. Watch this this video for an impression of the simulation.