6th BIP Drug Design and Discovery: One health approach (3D1H)

The 6th edition of the Drug Design and Discovery (DDD) programme will specifically highlight the environmental dimension of DDD, with a new focus on natural molecules and the one-health approach. The course will combine experimental chemical, biophysical and biological methods with computational methods applied to chemistry and pharmaco/ toxicokinetics. Academics from CIVIS partner universities will deliver lectures and laboratory practical sessions that will provide students with knowledge and practical skills regarding various scientific approaches applied in each stage of the DDD process. 

The programme will start with a virtual component, which includes lectures on the fundamental principles of drug discovery, as well as case studies from previous projects developed by the educational team involved in the BIP. The content has been prepared by the educational team beforehand. Throughout the virtual course, professors and mentors will be available for informal discussions. The programme will also include keynote lectures from distinguished industry stakeholders. 

The virtual part is organized into 16 three-hour online sessions over eight weeks. After each session, the students will have to complete an online questionnaire to evaluate knowledge acquisition, allowing several attempts to fill knowledge gaps. A one-week physical mobility component will then be offered to provide experimental and in silico hands-on, applied to DDD projects, with works in groups mixing students from different universities and different backgrounds, accompanied by the educational team.

The main topics addressed include:

• Molecular Interactions/Applications in Drug Design
• Evaluation of Drug effects
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Immunomodulation, Animal models
• Screening and Drug evaluation
• Microcalorimetry and nanoDSF
• NMR and screening method
• PBPK models
• Epigenetics
• Synthesis strategies of epigenetic modulators
• Animal models for metabolism disease
• Drug candidates for epilepsy
• FBDD towards PROTAC
• Molecular Drug space selection, optimization
• Bioinformatics and Drug Design
• SBDD : molecular docking
• Machine learning and AI
• Clinical trials
• Antimicrobial drug discovery
• Metabolomics
• One Health concepts/ Natural products
• Ethnopharmacology

The objective of the programme is to provide participating students with a wide and up-to-date overview of the DDD concepts, methods, stakes and challenges and to offer them the opportunity of a first global experience in DDD, involving working in groups in a multi-national and multi-cultural environment, experiencing the need and challenges of multi-disciplinarity, interacting with experts of specific domains. A suitable expected side-effect could also be to favor future scientific collaborations among participants, junior and senior.

Participants will:

• learn and practice in a multicultural environment;
• understand the current challenges and main approaches in the modern drug design and discovery process;
• acquire knowledge and practical skills concerning in silico and wet lab methods used for drug design and development;
• develop specific, transferable skills relevant to a variety of scientific and professional careers in the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

The mornings (09:00 - 12:30) will be dedicated to presentations of the available tools and methods to develop projects, while afternoons (14:00 - 16:30) will be dedicated to project-based group work and round-tables. Wednesday afternoon will be left free for the students to discover the city.  Students will prepare a report which will be shared through oral presentations on the last afternoon.

Synchronous activities will consist in sixteen 3h-afternoon lectures biweekly between April 7 and May 28. The first session will consist in a general presentation of the BIP objectives and practical aspects. During sessions, interactive tools (such as wooclap) will be used to get the students involved. After each session, an online quiz will need to be successfully completed by the students. The sessions will be recorded and made available to students who could not attend synchronously.

The sessions of the virtual component will present the methods which can be used to discover and evaluate new drug candidates. The principles and applications will be developed. One session will be dedicated to the selection of projects for the physical component. The virtual sessions will then prepare the students to work on their project during the physical mobility.

At the end of the virtual period, students will be invited to propose a project idea that they would like to develop during the physical component. Between 4-6 projects will be selected by the teaching team to form the basis of the hands-on work during the mobility week. Students will prepare a report which will be shared through oral presentations on the last afternoon of the physical part of the program.

Evaluation criteria for the virtual part:

• attendance to the course (with a mandatory minimum of 80%)
• presentation and performance in the sessions of manuscripts discussion and practical tasks
• multiple-choice questions (MCQ) test will be performed at the end of the virtual component program online via the CIVIS platform.

Overall, the evaluation of the virtual part of the program will be based on:

1. MCQ test (40 %)*
2. assistance (20%).

* 1. and 2. will represent in total 90% of the virtual mobility evaluation.

Motivation Letter

Level of english (According to CEFR)

CV

The applications will be evaluated based on the CV and motivation.

• prof. Rino Ragno, full professor of medicinal chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine at SUR;
  
• prof. Antonello Mai, full professor of medicinal chemistry at SUR's Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine;
• prof. Sergio Valente, Associate Professor at the Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, SUR;
• prof. Allegra Via, Bioinformatician at SUR;
• dr. Caterina Fraschetti, Researcher in Mass Spectrometry applications for metabolomic studies and characterization of molecular structures in the gas phase, at the Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, SUR;
• prof. Francesco Fiorentino, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at SUR; 
• prof. Emmanuel Mikros, Chemist, Professor in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry at NKUA;
• prof. Evangelos Terpos, MD, PhD is a Professor of Hematology and Director of Stem Cell Transplantation Unit in the Department of Clinical Therapeutics of the NKUA' School of Medicine; 
• prof. María F. Cano-Abad, Pharmacist, Lecturer of Pharmacology, Pharmacology Department, UAM;
• dr. Javier Blanco-Rivero, Physiologist from UAM;
• dr. Maria del Carmen Ovejero Benito, postdoctoral researcher and principal investigator with extensive multidisciplinary experience across neuroscience, pharmacogenetics, and molecular biology (UAM);
• prof. Frank Böckler, Pharmacist, Professor for Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design, UT; 
• dr. Matthias Bauer, Senior Expert II Data Science at NovartisInstitutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR);
• prof. Markus Zimmermann, Postdoctoral Research Associate and Computational Biologist at the Lab for Molecular Design & Pharmaceutical Biophysics, UT;
• prof. Sandrine Alibert-Franco, Pharmaceutical Chemist, Associate Professor in Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Pharmacy of AMU;
• prof. Florence Gattacceca, associate professor in pharmacokinetics at AMU;
• prof. François Devred, Professor in Biophysics, in the Faculty of Pharmacy of AMU;
• prof. Luminita Marutescu, Biologist, Associate Professor in Microbiology and Immunology, UB, holds a PhD in Microbiology;
• prof. Carmen Chifiriuc, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, UB;
• dr. Miruna Stan, Biochemist, Lecturer of Metabolism, Enzymology and Toxicology, UB;
• dr. Gratiela Gradisteanu, Microbiologist from University of UB.
• Dr Elnur Garayev, Pharmacognosy, Aix Marseille University
• Dr Béatrice Baghdikian, Pharmacognosy, Aix Marseille University
• Pr Sok Siya Bun Llopet, Pharmacognosy, Aix marseille University