A Pharmacology Primer for Chemists

Overview

This course is designed to help chemists understand basic pharmacological principles and the extension of those principles into therapeutic medicine. By the end, students should be able to use pharmacology to assess structure-activity data on molecules in biological systems and to see relationships between chemical structure and drug affinity and efficacy. In particular, emphasis is given to the techniques available to quantify biological activity in system-independent ways such that estimates of affinity and efficacy transcend tissue type. Structure-activity analyses for primary (desired) activity and secondary (undesired toxic) activity are discussed in terms of assays and methods.

When and Where

This course will meet for 6 online sessions of 1 hour and 15 minutes each.

Back to Top

Key Topics

• Basic Concepts and Language: Agonism and Dose-Response Curves
• Fitting Dose-response data
• Quantifying Agonism, Receptor Mechanisms, and Drug Receptor Theory
• Receptor Antagonism
• Receptor Allosterism and Allosteric Antagoists
• Assay Formats: Quantifying Drug Activity
• Drug Discovery and Lead Optimization
• The role of the medicinal chemist in drug discovery
• Pharmacology targets/polypharmacology/pharmacogenomics
• The pharmacodynamic-pharmacokinetic interface

How You'll Benefit

• Master the language and terminology of pharmacology.
• Learn how chemistry can be used to study a drug's mechanisms of action.

• Understand the chemistry behind the drugs used for therapy.
• Understand the role of pharmacology in medicine.
• Understand pharmacological principles and how the chemical sciences impinge upon pharmacology research.
• Be exposed to the status of contemporary pharmacologic thought and drug therapy, where progress is being made and advances will likely be made.
• Be able to interpret and understand pharmacologic data.

Back to Top

Course Instructor

Terry Kenakin is Principal Research Investigator Molecular Discovery in the Department of Assay Development at GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development in North Carolina. Before beginning his industrial research career, he received his training in chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and did post-doctoral work with the Nobel Laureate Sir James Black at the University College in London.

Back to Top

Who Should Attend?

Chemical scientists with little or no formal training in physiology, pharmacology, or medicinal chemistry. Registrants should have a firm grasp of organic chemistry and the equivalent of an introductory course in physical chemistry and biochemistry.

Back to Top

System Requirements

You need a high-speed connection to the Internet and an up-to-date version of your web browser. For the audio portion of the live session, we will use a telephone conference call for attendees from the US and Canada. You will need a phone near your computer capable of making phone calls to a toll-free number. A hands-free or speaker phone is highly recommended. For more information on system requirements, or to attend a free demo of the technology, please refer to our system setup page.

International attendees may have access to a toll-free, global call-in number or use VOIP, depending on their country. An ACS staff member will contact you to complete these arrangements. Please contact us at shortcourses@acs.org, if you have any questions.

Back to Top

Course Fees

Note: Each participant will need to register individually for this course.

Back to Top