Lectoraat Drug Discovery

Do you want to contribute to the early stages of drug discovery? Do you want to help find new targets for diseases and create possible new drugs to cure these diseases? And do you want to do all of this together with other students and companies in the inspiring environment of Pivot Park, Oss?

The main focus of this minor is the research part. Pharma industry has a close relationship with life science related educations like chemistry and biology/biochemistry. Furthermore, the HAN had a lectoraat Drug Discovery under which supervision this minor will be developed.  The minor will be given at Pivot Park (Oss) and is developed by the HAN, AVANS and pharma-related companies.

Multidisciplinary
Drug Discovery is a multidisciplinary effort and therefore we strive to make this minor also as much multidisciplinary as possible. Chemist and biologist are introduced together to the different aspects of Drug Discovery and will work together to solve challenges and make plans of actions for projects. In this minor you will work as much as possible on a real-life problems of pharma companies. In this way, you will learn to work in multidisciplinary team and you will get all the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to work together.

 Structure
This minor is made up of two parts:

1. In the first weeks you are introduced into the 5 phases  of the Drug Discovery process. This will be done in close contacts to the companies involved in these phases.
2. In the second part,  you will work in a multidisciplinary team (chemistry and biology) in a lab on projects handed over mainly by pharma companies.

Learning goals:
In this minor you will learn to look beyond the boundaries of your own study program and to cooperate with other disciplines. You will  learn about the various aspects of Drug Discovery, such as target identification/validation, assay development, High Throughput Screening, Hit and Lead Optimalisation and pre-clinical activities.

 Through the modules you gain basic knowledge of other disciplines and learn how you can contribute to drug discovery from your own field of study. For chemist and biologist this will be advanced knowledge about techniques on target identification and validation, assay development, high throughput screening, compound library design principles, drug-like physical chemistry properties for compounds, automated synthesis, metabolic stability, toxicity and more. 

You apply the acquired knowledge in a multidisciplinary project in which you learn to perform research within the drug discovery area.. You will practise this knowledge in concrete projects.

The minor starts February 2022.
Want to know more? Send an e-mail to pedro.hermkens@han.nl

• C. elegans
• Medicijnen
• Neuroscience
• Welvaartsziektes
• Ouderdomsziektes