Drug Discovery

The course will give you a general comprehension of the elements involved in modern drug discovery from target discovery & validation, via ligand identification and optimization to animal disease models.

The course will thus increase your knowledge of the drug discovery process and give you a basis to engage in qualified discussions with colleagues working in drug discovery.

As an initial step in drug discovery, the target involved in a given disease has to be identified and validated, which will subsequently lead to design of ligands acting selectively in a desired fashion at the target. Finally, the lead candidates have to show efficacy in relevant animal disease models before the final candidate can enter pre-clinical studies. In the current course we will focus on the target identification and validation as well as the lead optimization processes.

Course content

The course consists of a mixture of lectures by a range of experts from the pharmaceutical industry and academia. You will thus gain knowledge integrating both theoretical and practical aspects. The course will include a practical workshop and feature a symposium with international speakers, highlighting specific drug discovery cases.

Speakers at the symposium include, among others, Dr. David Hackos, Genentech, US and Dr Sebastian Meyer, Numab, Switzerland.