Medicinal Chemistry

Medicinal Chemistry is concerned with the discovery and development of new pharmaceutical drugs. It is an interdisciplinary field that requires knowledge of fundamental principles of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physiology and Molecular Pharmacology. Students of Medicinal Chemistry need to learn about the chemistry of organic compounds, including their synthesis and biosynthesis, their reactivity, and their interactions with and alteration by living systems.

New organic compounds with the potential for becoming the prescription drugs of the future are called lead compounds. Pharmaceutical companies make and test hundreds or thousands of new compounds in their search for new lead molecules with suitable properties for testing in human clinical trials. The principal role of the medicinal chemist is to make these test compounds for screening in a biological testing program as potential new drugs. For preliminary tests, the medicinal chemist must make many compounds as quickly as possible, and new techniques for fast synthesis are still under active development.

After the discovery of a lead compound, the medicinal chemist will try making adjustments to its structure to improve its activity or safety before the tests in human subjects. That is, many structural analogues of the lead compound must be made, and there must be a rational process for deciding on which analogues are likely to be best. Techniques such as molecular modelling and the study of relationships between the values of molecular properties and the biological activity for a series of compounds (Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships - QSAR) can help the medicinal chemist in making appropriate choices.

Understanding of the biological target of the drug is also very important, so a working knowledge of Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Pharmacokinetics, and Toxicology is extremely important to the Medicinal Chemist.

Programme Structure & Content

First Year
Students study introductory courses in Chemistry, along with study of two other subjects, usually but not necessarily science ones. There is plenty of choice at this level.

Second Year
The four chemistry courses cover all the main areas of Chemistry and take up half the workload. Four more courses are selected from other departments, usually in science.

Third Year
Students spend all their time studying Chemistry, including a course on Communicating Chemistry targeted at transferable skills including computing, IT and presentation skills.

Fourth Year
All students have lectures on a range of specialised topics, receive training in Methods of Research and undertake a personal Research Project.

Teaching & Assessment

In first year, traditional lectures and practical classes are now integrated with the support provided by the University's Virtual Learning Environment, WebCT. At higher levels, tutorials, individual and group project work, and essay and oral presentations, together with a rapidly increasing range of computer-based learning aids, also form part of the programme.