OVERVIEW

The course "Drug Synthesis" is aimed at fifth-year students enrolled in the Single Cycle Master's Degree Program in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (CTF). The aim is to introduce students to the preparation, purification, and characterization of representative examples of drugs. The course offers 5 CFU credits and consists of a theoretical part and a practical laboratory exercise part in the synthesis lab.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course is structured into lectures and laboratory exercises. Its aim is to introduce students to synthesis techniques applied to drug preparation. Students will need to develop the ability to plan and carry out the preparation of some drugs; to apply the main methods of isolation and purification of finished products from reaction mixtures; and to characterize the finished products using common analytical techniques

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The student will need to acquire the ability to plan and carry out the preparation of some drugs by exploiting traditional or innovative synthetic routes (step by step, one-pot, parallel synthesis, etc.); to employ the main methods of isolation and purification of finished products from reaction mixtures; and to characterize the finished products using common analytical techniques. Additionally, the student will need to learn the theoretical notions concerning the synthetic methods applied, as well as the necessary and complementary activities to synthesis (isolation techniques, extraction, purification, drying, etc.).

PREREQUISITES

The students must have knowledge of general and inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry as well as medicinal chemistry

TEACHING METHODS

The teacher will hold the lectures in the classroom with the help of slides that will be made available to students. Exercises will be introduced by a short illustrative lesson that will be held in the classroom and/or in the laboratory.

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

The course consists of theoretical lessons and practical exercises. The 5 CFUs (60 hours of frontal / student learning engagement) will be divided into 20 hours of classroom lessons and 40 hours of laboratory exercise.

Theoretical lessons: Safety standards in the synthesis lab. The synthesis lab notebook. How to synthesize a drug. Reagents and solvents: choice, storage, use, disposal. The anhydrous solvents and Catalysts. Classic synthesis: the glassware and the main equipment used. Parallel synthesis and combinatorial synthesis, theoretical notions and equipment. Microwave-assisted reactions, theoretical notions and equipment. The reactions in the absence of solvent, theoretical considerations. Flow reactions, theoretical notions and equipment. The purification techniques of reaction mixtures (solvent extraction, chromatographic separation, crystallization, distillation). The characterization of a finished compound: the analytical techniques used to determine the structure and the purity.

Exercises: starting from the structure of a known drug, the student will be guided to plan a synthetic strategy based on the knowledge acquired in the courses of organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry. In addition, the student will be able to conduct online research on appropriate databases to verify the existence of known procedures in the literature that can be applied. The designed synthesis will be carried out in the laboratory and the products obtained will be purified and experimentally characterized.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

There are no textbooks covering all the topics in a single volume, and therefore the teacher prefers not to give specific indications. Instead, he will provide the tools needed by the students to find the necessary information when preparing for the exam.

The documents required for experiments will be provided through Aulaweb or in the laboratory. Any bibliographic information related to the synthesis applied will be obtained through the research on appropriate databases (SCIFINDER, Reaxys) and by the school library system.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

First semester of the academic year 2025/2026. The course schedule can be viewed at the address https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti/

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Each exercise involves drafting a report that will be delivered to the teacher at the beginning of the next exercise. At the end, a global vote will be assigned to experimental work. The exam will be oral and will focus on the topics developed in the theoretical lessons and in the practical laboratory exercises.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The assessment will primarily consider the oral exam, and, to a lesser extent, the overall score derived from the practical laboratory exercises.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Please contact the teacher for additional information not included in the course description.