CHEM 458: Medicinal Chemistry

This upper-level professional course presents the principles of medicinal chemistry. It is an introduction to drug development, organized along the following main lines: drug discovery process, drug structure and ADME properties, lead discovery and optimization, structure-activity relationship, computer-aided drug design, combinatorial chemistry, drugs from natural sources, pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, drug and analog synthesis and overview of major drug targets, such as biological membranes, receptors, enzymes, nucleic acids among others. Intellectual property protection, preclinical and clinical trials and approval process are also discussed.