Aims

To equip students with:
• knowledge and understanding of drug-receptor interactions, enzyme chemistry and the
principles of drug design and action
• understand the basic concepts and uses of computational chemistry
• appreciate the validity of results based on appropriateness of theory levels
• be able to use ChemDraw as an interface to the GAMESS package
• know how to generate theoretical spectroscopic data for an arbitrary compound

Outline Of Syllabus

Principles of Medicinal Chemistry and Enzyme Action
Dr C Cano

* Principles of medicinal chemistry. Pharmacokinetics; Lipinski’s rule of five;
Pharmacodynamics; Drug-receptor interactions
* Enzymes. What are enzymes?; How do they work?; Mechanisms of enzyme catalysis;
Enzyme inhibition and co-enzyme catalysis
* Physicochemical properties of drugs. Ionisation constants; Aqueous solubility;
Fick’s Law of diffusion; The cell membrane and lipophilicity; Partition and
distribution coefficients
* Isosterism and bioisosterism. Functional group modifications
* Case studies – Design of small molecule enzyme inhibitors

Drug Design
Dr I Hardcastle

* Drug discovery and SARs
* Lead optimisation
* Mechanisms of enzyme inhibition
* Case studies in drug discovery
* Introduction to Structure Based Drug Design using CCP4 Molecular Graphics including
a computer workshop with hands on ligand-bound protein crystal structures)

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Students acquire knowledge and understanding through online lectures and materials. Problem solving skills are introduced and practised.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The two pieces of summative coursework and one formative piece will test the student's knowledge and understanding of both the medicinal and the modelling lecture material.

Study Abroad students to take their exam before the semester 1 exam period, in which case the format of the paper may differ from that shown in the MOF. Study Abroad students should contact the school to discuss this.