Modern Drug Discovery

How are new drugs developed? This question is central to the Minor Modern Drug Discovery (MDD), which covers the entire trajectory from disease to drug molecule and vice versa. The various research groups involved offer a complementary and interdisciplinary perspective by connecting the diverse subjects in drug development into a coherent Minor. The main goal is to provide insight into novel drugs and their targets within the body. Students learn how to design, synthesize, formulate, administer and test a drug molecule before it may serve as ‘lead’ molecule for a future drug. These may be small molecules but also therapeutic proteins or vaccines may be considered. Moreover, (novel) targets are studied intensely via ‘omics’ approaches and bio-analysis of drugs. The drug development trajectory requires cooperation of various disciplines, which is shown by the fact that three different Bachelor studies from the Faculty of Science are involved in this Minor: MST, LST and BFW.

The following subjects are addressed in the Minor Modern Drug Discovery:

• bio- and cheminformatics
• ‘omics’ approaches
• bio-analysis of drugs and their targets
• formulation of drug molecules
• administration of drugs
• receptor- and enzyme systems
• synthetic approaches
• biological testing

These important parts are studied both in theory as well as in practice during the Minor programme. Based on interdisciplinary examples students learn various ways to identify and/or produce new ‘lead’ molecules that may serve as a basis for the development of new drug therapies.