PHR1222 · How medicines work 4: Medicinal chemistry

Overview

This unit builds upon PHR1021 How medicines work 1 to provide an overview of the chemistry behind how drugs interact with their target once they have been absorbed into the bloodstream (studied in detail in PHR1122 How medicines work 3 and the processes that occur in the body to remove the drug (studied in detail in PHR1022 How medicines work 2). To address these key areas, you will study the fundamentals of medicinal chemistry, with an emphasis on structure-activity relationships, drug-target interactions, the mechanism of action of medicines and the design of safe and effective therapeutic agents.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook lists an examination for this unit.

In-semester assessments 60%; Final assessment 40% This unit contains one or more competency hurdle assessment tasks that you must successfully complete to be able to pass the unit. You have one attempt, plus an additional assessment capped at 50% of the available marks for the task, to demonstrate your competency in the competency hurdle assessment task. If you fail to meet the hurdle requirement, you will receive a fail grade for the unit regardless of the total marks you achieve.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Explain and predict properties of drugs based on structural shape, ionisation states, functional group behaviour and physicochemical characteristics
2. Outline medicinal chemistry approaches that are used to improve drug disposition and action
3. Describe the chemistry of drug-receptor and drug-enzyme interactions including structure-activity relationships
4. Explain the methods used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of drugs and biomarkers
5. Effectively communicate (orally and written) aspects of Medicinal Chemistry to peers, lay people and other healthcare professionals

Workload

• Seventy hours of independent study • Twenty four hours of discovery or pre-learning activities (2 hours per week) • Twenty four hours applied sessions (2 hours per week) • Twenty four hours of workshops (2 hours per week) • Two hours of assessments

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.