MPharm research project delivers real life drug discovery experience

Students from the drug discovery team in the lab

Students in the School of Pharmacy now have the opportunity to participate in a real life experience of the drug discovery process thanks to an innovative new project supported by academics from the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Structural Biology and the pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).  Working in teams, 24 students from the MPharm undergraduate programme established virtual drug discovery companies where they designed and synthesised new chemical compounds as potential drugs to treat asthma.  Responsible for devising their own work programmes and balancing budgets, the resulting compounds were tested against an important biological target by scientists at GSK, feeding back valuable data to enable the teams to further refine their potential as future asthma drugs. The success of the project means that it will be extended to students on the MSc in Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

This builds on the successful GSK-sponsored programme in the School of Chemistry (led by Dr Jonathan Fray under the sponsorship of Professor Chris Moody) which generated the starting materials for the School of Pharmacy students to work with.  Special thanks are extended to our colleagues at GSK (Dr Simon Macdonald and James Rowedder) who also arranged an entertaining afternoon of introductory lectures and workshops demonstrating the benefits of team working for successful project delivery.

The project leader, Dr Michael Stocks said "This is an innovative approach to running undergraduate projects; giving students a feel for both drug discovery and project management and it is hoped that this project will evolve in future years to generate first-class data fit for scientific publication".