This is a survey course designed to explore the design, development, and action of drugs. Concepts of biology, biochemistry, pharmacy, physiology, organic chemistry, pharmacology, etc. will be discussed with an emphasis on relating the chemical structure of a drug to its biological function. We will see how drugs are discovered and developed; how they get to their site of action; what happens when they reach the site of action; how the body gets rid of them, and what a medicinal chemist can do to avoid having the body eliminate them before they have produced their desired effect. The approaches discussed are those used in the pharmaceutical industry and elsewhere for the discovery of new drugs.
Prerequisite Courses
Semester Offered
