OVERVIEW

Applied Medicinal Chemistry is the discipline dealing with  all the technological, scientific and bureaucratic aspects indispensable in order to develop and launch on the pharmaceutical market a new drug. Therefore in this course all the strategies carried out by pharmaceutical companies to optimize safety and bioavailability of the new active ingredient are exhaustively treated.   

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Providing students all the fundamental principles they need to join a team of researchers of pharmaceutical companies involved in the design and development of a new drug endowed with high therapeutic index.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Providing students all the fundamental principles about drug discovery and development, INN and IUPAC nomenclature of organic drugs, preformulation and biopharmaceutics studies, drugs metabolism, drugs targeting and advances in pharmaceutical polymers.

At the end of the Applied Medicinal Chemistry course, students will be able to:

• describe the pharmaceutical industry organization

• write the correct IUPAC name of an organic active pharmaceutical ingredient

• link the correct International Nonproprietary Name to the therapeutic class of the active pharmaceutical ingredient

• establish the best studies to define the chemical and physical properties of an active pharmaceutical ingredient

• design the best chemical and/or formulation changes for an active pharmaceutical ingredient to optimize its bioavailability

• identify the best strategies to improve the therapeutic index

PREREQUISITES

To completely understand all the topics treated in the course, students need to have already passed the following exams: medicinal and toxicological chemistry I; technique, socioeconomy and pharmaceutical legislation I

TEACHING METHODS

Theoretical lessons may be held online and they are aimed at simplifying the comprehension of the pharmaceutical topics treated. In this context the teacher supports particular closer examination of those topics particularly difficult to understand for students. Before starting a new lesson, to facilitate students to learn several connected chapters, a brief summing up of the previous lesson is carried out. 

Any Student with documented Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), or with any special needs, shall reach out to the Lecturer(s) and to the dedicated SLD Representative in the Department ( Prof. Luca Raiteri, Luca.Raiteri@unige.it ) before class begins, in order to liaise and arrange the specific learning methods and ensure proper achievement of the learning aims and outcomes. VERY IMPORTANT: any request for compensatory tools and adaptations in the exam MUST be done within 10 working days before the date of the exam according to the instructions that can be found at https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa/comunicazioni

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Drug Discovery and development

INN and IUPAC nomenclature of organic drugs

The development of new active ingredients

Preformulation studies

Biopharmaceutics

Drugs metabolism

Drugs targeting

Macromolecules and pharmaceutics

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

A particular book to make reference to Applied Medicinal Chemistry doesn't exist. The 8 chapters of the course are composed by topics put together properly by the teacher and deriving from updated and reliable reviews in the field of applied medicinal chemistry. Each chapter is exaustively explained to students throughout the lessons and for every chapter comprehensive notes are available on Aulaweb.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIANCARLO GROSSI (President)

SARA BALDASSARI

GIORGIA AILUNO (Substitute)

GABRIELE CAVIGLIOLI (Substitute)

ELEONORA RUSSO (Substitute)

CARLA VILLA (Substitute)

GUENDALINA ZUCCARI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Classes usually  start every year around the 20th of September with a weekly engagement of 6 hours splitted among three lessons each lasting two hours.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The Applied Medicinal Chemistry exam may also be taken online and it is divided into two parts: the first one about drugs IUPAC nomenclature and Macromolecules in pharmaceutics is written and carried out during the course; the second one is oral and lasts about 45 minutes for each students. Questions deal with 5 topics chosen by the teacher among the subjects treated during the course.  

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Since Applied Medicinal Chemistry Course deals with topics about the chemistry and bioavailability of most successful drugs, teacher assesses student's ability to both explain clearly all the topics treated in the course and write correctly chemical structures involved in the exam questions.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Throughout the course but also before exams, depending on student's request, the teacher is available to offer additional explanations about subjects discussed during the course and considered more difficult to learn by students.