COURSE DETAIL

DavidsonX: 001x - Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery
DavidsonX: 001x - Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery

Medicinal Chemistry: The Molecular Basis of Drug Discovery

This course explores how to bring a drug from concept to market, and how a drug's chemical structure relates to its biological function.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This course explores how to bring a drug from concept to market, and how a drug's chemical structure relates to its biological function. The course opens with an introduction to the drug approval process. This introduction combines the social, economic, and ethical aspects of drug discovery. Topics include how diseases are selected for treatment, the role of animal testing, and the costs of various discovery phases. The course then focuses on the scientific side of drug discovery. Topics include how drugs interact with biological molecules, drug absorption and elimination, and the discovery of weakly active molecules and their optimization into viable drugs.

WAYS TO TAKE THIS EDX COURSE:

Simply Audit this Course

Can't commit to all of the lectures, assignments, and tests? Audit this course and have complete access to all of the course material, tests, and the online discussion forum. You decide what and how much you want to do.
or

Try for a Certificate

Looking to test your mettle? Participate in all of the course's activities and abide by the edX Honor Code. If your work is satisfactory, you'll receive a personalized certificate to showcase your achievement.

COURSE STAFF

Erland Stevens
Erland Stevens
Erland Stevens earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1997 under Will Pearson in the area of nitrogen heterocycles. He then pursued postdoctoral studies at The Scripps Research Institute with K. Barry Sharpless. In 1998 Stevens joined the chemistry faculty at Davidson College. He regularly teaches medicinal chemistry to junior and senior undergraduates. In 2006 and 2007 Stevens taught in the continuing education program at the Research Triangle Park site of GlaxoSmithKline. He recently completed a textbook, Medicinal Chemistry: The Modern Drug Discovery Process, published by Pearson Education. Stevens' lab studies the synthesis and activity of antiviral nucleoside analogues.

PREREQUISITES:

Solid background in high school chemistry and biology, as well as minimal experience in organic chemistry.