Medicinal and Biological Chemistry MSci

This module aims to teach and put into practice methods of accessing, assessing and critically appraising the chemical literature. It will provide experience in experimental design and methodology and the recording, analysis and reporting of physical data (both in written and verbal form).

This module aims to provide a framework for understanding the action of heterogeneous catalysts in terms of adsorption/desorption processes and for understanding catalyst promotion in terms of chemical and structural phenomenon and also describes a wide variety of homogeneous catalytic processes based on organo-transition metal chemistry.

To provide a fundamental understanding of molecular structure and of the requirements for reactivity.

To introduce modern electronic structure theory and demonstrate how it can be applied to determine properties such as molecular structure, spectroscopy and reactivity.

What influence does a chemist have in the modern drug discovery process? And how can chemists use their knowledge to aid the development of new therapeutics? In this module you will apply knowledge of how chemical structures influence drug potency, pharmacokinetics, and their safety. You will gain insight onto the developmental process of designing a drug and their action once they have reached their desired target.

You’ll study: 

• Drug Targets and How They Bind 
• Measuring Drug Activity 
• Lead Compounds and Strategies for Improving Drug Potency and Selectivity 
• Pharmacokinetics (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Elimination) 
• Drug Design in a Safe Manner  
• Desired Drug Properties

Use of frontier molecular orbital analysis to explain and predict stereochemical and regiochemical outcomes of pericyclic reactions (Woodward-Hoffmann rules etc).

Examples will be drawn from Diels-Alder reactions, cycloadditions [4+2] and [2+2], [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements (eg Claisen and Cope), [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements (eg Wittig and Mislow-Evans).

Generation and use of reactive intermediates in synthesis (ie radicals, carbenes, nitrenes).

This course aims to teach the relationship between structure and properties of solids, structure of Solids and characterisation.

It aims to teach a general introduction to Interfaces and Surfaces.

Students should gain a good appreciation of the applications for a range of enzymological, chemical and molecular biological techniques to probe cellular processes and catalysis at the forefront in chemical biology research.

This module represents a culmination of principles and techniques from a biophysical, molecular, biochemical and genetic perspective.

This module introduces students to the issues surrounding the use of complementary and alternative medicines. It covers topics including:

• mechanisms of herb-drug interactions
• traditional Chinese, Indian and African medicines
• nutritional supplements
• the placebo effect.

The module covers the molecular biology of:

(a) natural CRISPR immunity systems and how these are applied for genome editing,

(b) host-pathogen interactions, for example cell envelope structure and how bacterial toxins cause disease, and,

(c) the role of bacteria in the human gut microbiome.

This module aims to facilitate

(i) awareness of the types, frequency and range of individual genetic variation in proteins linked with disease prevalence and drug action
(ii) evaluation of pharmacogenetic evidence using pre-clinical case studies in cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, and cancer
(iii) in depth understanding of the major class of GPCRs in man, and their wider roles as drug targets, through a focus on polymorphisms in these receptors and related proteins
(iv) evidence based understanding of the scientific challenges, risks and benefits of targeting such polymorphic variants therapeutically to deliver future medical advances.

This module will develop an understanding of protein structure, stability, design and methods of structural analysis. In addition you will understand the protein folding problem and experimental approaches to the analysis of protein folding kinetics and the application of site-directed mutagenesis.

You will also be expected to develop a number of spectroscopic experimental techniques to probe protein structures.

There will be two hours of lectures a week.

A general introduction to lasers, including laser radiation and its properties will be given.

A number of current laser spectroscopic methods will be reviewed, which allow the determination of vibrational frequencies and structures.

Examples will cover ground and excited state neutral molecules, radicals and complexes, as well as cations of these.

An introduction to modern diffraction methods will be given, involving neutrons, electrons and X-rays.

Applications will cover solids (crystalline and amorphous), liquids and gases.

Throughout, there will be extensive examples from the research literature.

This module covers inorganic mechanisms and the overarching fundamental principles of greener and sustainable chemistry as applied to processes, inorganic reaction mechanisms, and discussion on the theme of greener and sustainable chemistry