1. Student Catalogue
  2. Drug Design and Discovery

Drug Design and Discovery

Description: The virtual-online component of the program will be delivered by experts with international recognized research experience in the field from academia and industry. The program includes lectures focusing on the fundamental principles of drug discovery and case studies from previous drug discovery projects. Throughout the virtual course, professors will be available for informal discussions. Student teams (4-5 students) will cover different case studies related to various breakthroughs in drug discovery, and will be supported by mentors. Students will work and prepare a presentation that will be delivered the plenary. Spring 2023 - 14 sessions, 2 sessions of 3 hours each, for 7 weeks   Week 1 Wednesday, 3rd May, - Molecular Interactions: Classical (Charges, H-Bonds, v.d.Waals, π-int.) - Molecular Interactions: Non-Classical (Weak H-Bonds, Orthogonal Multipolar Interactions, Sigma hole Interactions / Halogen Bonds) - Thermodynamics in drug discovery (in Hit2Lead / LeadOpt) Friday, 5th May - Molecular Complexity / Drug, Discovery Process and Technologies - Strategies, Issues, Costs, Outlook. - Fragment-based Drug Discovery - Hit-to-Lead optimization, Co-optimizing Ligand Properties, Avoiding late Attrition Week 2  Wednesday, 10th May, - Animal models (ethical considerations, experimental design, in vivo analysis of drug effects) - In vitro cell culture models and evaluation of drug effects - Neurodegenerative diseases and drug discovery Friday, 12th May - Immunomodulation and drug impact on cytokine production and on the M1/M2 macrophage phenotype - Evaluation drug-induced responses in cultured cells at specific time points (cell cycle analysis and apoptosis). - Screening of drug-induced reactive oxygen species production in leukocytes subpopulations in whole blood (ex-vivo) Week 3  Wednesday, 17th May - Biophysical assays for high throughput screening - Microcalorimetry ITC, DSC nanoDSF analytical Ultracentrifugation SPR - Biophysical methods to evaluate the antimicrobial activity  Friday, 19th May - NMR screening in drug discovery - Introduction to NMR based metabolomics - Natural product chemistry  Week 4  Wednesday, 24th May -  Pharmacokinetics - ADME properties Friday. 26th May - Facts, and principles in drug discovery and development: the molecular drug space selection and optimization Week 5  Wednesday, 31th May - Introduction to ligand-based methods: Pharmacophore modelling, (3D) QSAR - Multiomics approaches for the identification of putative microbial / viral targets and lead Friday, 2nd June -  Introduction to structure-based method in drug design: Molecular Docking - Computational methods used in antimicrobial drug discovery Week 6 Wednesday, 7th June -  Microbicidal versus antipathogenic strategies in antimicrobial drug discovery  - Contribution of nanotechnology to the development of novel antimicrobials Friday, 9th June Key note Lectures - Introduction to epigenetics and related drug - Selective inhibitors and activators of carbonic anhydrase isoforms Week 7 Wednesday, 14th June - Clinical Trials, Regulatory Affairs, Patent writing and Application - Experts in the field from industry - Ethical issues Friday, 16th June -  Case Study Presentation Explore the various processes of design discovery and development of new drugs, with emphasis on the methodologies of rational design of low molecular weight biologically active molecules.
Application Deadline
Virtual Part starting date 2023-05-03
Virtual Part closing date 2023-06-16
Total student workload 132
Specific field of studies Pharmacy, Pharmacokinetics, Drug Design, Biophysics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, (Bio)informatics and Medicine, Chemistry,
Pre-requisite for selection CV Motivation Letter
Academic pre-requisites for applicants Students will require to have a good comprehension of English to follow the lectures, to be able to communicate, answer the multiple-choice test and present their review work. This course is addressed to students with basic knowledge in biophysics, molecular biology, bioinformatics and biochemistry. 
Physical Part starting date 2023-07-03
Physical Part Description The physical on-site component will consist in one week summer school program in which the students will participate to theoretical and practical working sessions covering the various topics in drug discovery and development: molecular design and lead discovery, computational tools (3D QSAR, Gastroplus ADMET Predictor), machine learning cell based assays for drug safety (cell cycle, MTT/LDH assays), efficiency (minimum inhibitory concentrations, minimum bactericidal concentration, minimum biofilm eradication/inhibition concentration, FIC/FICI) and mechanisms of action, drug formulation, pharmacological activity, isolation of novel antibiotic producing microbial strains. During the 5-days mobility, students will prepare and deliver their project elevator pitch, will prepare and their proposed research project.
Physical Part closing date 2023-07-07
Language level required B1
Field of studies related to the course Medicine and Health Computer Science and IT Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Course location University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Course language English