Drug Discovery

The course will give you a general comprehension of the elements involved in modern drug discovery from target discovery & validation, via ligand identification and optimization to animal disease models. The course will thus increase your knowledge of the drug discovery process and give you a basis to engage in qualified discussions with colleagues working in drug discovery.

As an initial step in drug discovery, the target involved in a given disease has to be identified and validated, which will subsequently lead to design of ligands acting selectively in a desired fashion at the target. Finally, the lead candidates have to show efficacy in relevant animal disease models before the final candidate can enter pre-clinical studies. In the current course we will focus on the target identification and validation as well as the lead optimization processes. 

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Today, almost all drug discovery programs are directed towards design of either small molecules or biologics acting selectively at specific targets. This course will cover both biologics and small molecules.

You will learn to:

• demonstrate comprehension of target identification and validation methods and processes
• demonstrate insight into lead optimization methods and processes
• apply basic computational methods in the area of bioinformatics
• conduct a valid scientific literature study in the area of drug discovery
• write a scientifically based report on drug discovery aspects using scientific literature.

COURSE CONTENT

The course consists of a mixture of lectures by a range of experts from the pharmaceutical industry and academia. You will thus gain knowledge integrating both theoretical and practical aspects. The course will include a practical workshop and feature a symposium with international speakers, highlighting specific drug discovery cases. Speakers at the symposium include, among others, Dr. David Hackos, Genentech, US and Dr Sebastian Meyer, Numab, Switzerland.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants must meet the following criteria: 
• A relevant bachelor degree or equivalent 
• A minimum of 2 years of relevant job experience 
• Be proficient in English

COURSE DETAILS

Course dates

5 days, 9-13 March 2020

Course fee

• DKK 12,900 EU/EEA citizens
• DKK 14,985 for non-EU/EEA citizens

Application deadline

8 weeks prior to first day of lectures

EXAMINATION

An individual written assignment based on a case story. The assignment must be based on original peer-reviewed scientific articles found by literature search performed by the participants and there is therefore no common syllabus for the course. The participants will be introduced to literature searches during the course and the examination assignment is typically based on 20-40 articles.

Credit

3 ECTS

Examination date

To be announced