Medicinal chemistry
Graduate · Chemistry
Syllabus focus
Standard syllabus · STEM / applied
Pricing
Graduate-level rates are set on consultation. See the pricing page for K–12 and undergraduate rates.
Topics typically covered
Standard syllabus
Drug design principles
- Structure-based drug design (SBDD) workflow
- Ligand-based drug design and pharmacophore modeling
- Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD)
- Bioisosteres and scaffold hopping
- Privileged structures and drug-like scaffolds
- Conformational restriction and preorganization
- Prodrug design and targeted delivery strategies
- Salt and polymorph selection for development
- Intellectual property strategy in medicinal chemistry
- Target validation and druggability assessment
ADMET optimization
- Lipophilicity, solubility, and permeability balance
- Caco-2 and PAMPA permeability models
- Blood-brain barrier penetration prediction
- Cytochrome P450 inhibition and induction
- Reactive metabolites and bioactivation toxicity
- hERG channel liability and cardiac safety
- Plasma protein binding and free drug hypothesis
- Metabolic stability assays: microsomal, hepatocyte
- PK/PD modeling for dose selection (introduction)
- Formulation chemistry for oral, IV, and topical delivery
Synthetic medicinal chemistry
- Scale-up considerations for drug candidates
- Process route scouting and patent avoidance
- Asymmetric synthesis for enantiopure drugs
- Late-stage functionalization in drug optimization
- Parallel synthesis and SAR library generation
- High-throughput chemistry and automation
- Green chemistry metrics in pharmaceutical manufacturing
- Impurity profiling and specification setting
- Solid-form screening: salts, cocrystals, amorphous dispersions
- GMP synthesis and regulatory chemistry requirements
Therapeutic areas and case studies
- Oncology: kinase inhibitors, immunotherapies, ADCs
- CNS drugs: blood-brain barrier, receptor selectivity
- Antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance
- Antiviral drug design: protease and polymerase inhibitors
- Cardiovascular and metabolic disease targets
- Anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory drugs
- Rare disease and orphan drug programs
- Biologics vs small molecules: decision frameworks
- Failed drugs and lessons from clinical setbacks
- FDA approval pathways: NDA, ANDA, BLA (overview)
STEM / applied
Research and industry skills
- Molecular docking and scoring in drug design projects
- Medicinal chemistry notebook and electronic lab records
- SAR table management and data visualization
- In vitro assay interpretation and data quality assessment
- Patent searching and freedom-to-operate analysis
- Cross-functional collaboration with biology and DMPK teams
- IND-enabling studies chemistry support
- Manufacturing technology transfer
- Regulatory submission document preparation (CMC sections)
- Interview preparation for medicinal chemistry positions
Applied medicinal chemistry
- Big pharma vs biotech career trajectories
- Contract research organizations (CROs) and CDMOs
- AI/ML in drug discovery: generative chemistry
- Deliberate drug design failures and attrition analysis
- Repurposing and reformulation strategies
- Global health and neglected disease drug development
- Controlled substance chemistry and DEA regulations
- Pharmacovigilance and post-market surveillance chemistry
- Biosimilars and generic drug chemistry
- Entrepreneurship in drug discovery startups
Notes
Graduate-level medicinal chemistry. Topics reflect common medicinal chemistry syllabi at US research universities and pharmacy schools. Prior organic chemistry and introductory medicinal chemistry expected.