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PHAR40220

Academic Year 2024/2025

Systems Biology in Drug Dev (PHAR40220)

Subject:
Pharmacology
College:
Science
School:
Biomolecular & Biomed Science
Level:
4 (Masters)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Dr Jens Rauch
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
Module Type:
Fieldwork Module
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

Description:
Despite the progress in genome and proteome-based high-throughput screenings methods in the last decade and in rational drug design, there has not been an increase in the number of approved drugs. For this reason drug development companies have turned their efforts to make a better use of the great amount of data generated by OMICs technologies. In particular, there is a need to use this information to reconstruct complex biological networks in order to get a systems-level understanding of drug action and molecular mechanisms of disease, but also to improve the efficiency of drug design. Systems biology is currently at the core of new strategies applied by pharma industry for the development of new drugs. For this reason, these industries will need a new set of highly skill workers that can understand and use systems biology approaches and work in multidisciplinary teams.


Aims:
This module forms part of the core curriculum of the MSc in Biotherapeutics. It introduces students to the emergent field of systems biology with special emphasis on its use in industry for drug development. The student will learn how systems biology approaches are being utilised to make full use of the progress in OMICs-based high-throughput screening methods developed in the last decade. It covers the basic and applied knowledge of systems biology for drug development, current knowledge of high-throughput technologies, basic and applied knowledge of bioinformatic tools used in modelling and drug discovery, inside examples of systems biology approaches currently applied in industry. The module consists theoretical and practical lectures. The student will have different assessment including oral presentation of an OMICs data analysis presented as a poster and written assays.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students will have a comprehensive overview of the analytical tools, methods and approaches and skills that the pharma industry will need to apply systems biology approaches. In particular students should be able to:

1 Perform statistical analysis of proteomics high-throughput data.

2 Use different bioinformatic tools such as Geneset Enrichment Analysis , String and L100CDS2.

3. Be familiar with the state-of–the-art OMIC technologies used in drug development.

4. Have a comprehensive view of signal transduction networks and the way this network can be targeted to develop new drugs against common diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.

5. Present Omics analysis in written and oral reports.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

16
Tutorial

6
Computer Aided Lab

8
Autonomous Student Learning

80
Total

110

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
active/task-based learning; peer and group work. Tutorials and face to face sessions to provide feedback prior to and post-assessment. 12 x 2 hour lectures/computer modelling sessions

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): Individual written assignment based on high-throughput data analysis Week 8 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

40

 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Attendance and participation in CAL and tutorial sessions. Submission of worksheets Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 9, Week 10 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

10

 No
Group Work Assignment: Group Poster Presentation Week 11 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

25

 No
Group Work Assignment: Written group report Week 14 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

25

 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback will be on acontinuous basis with the aid of tutorials and in class discussion

Name Role
Dr Luis Fernando Iglesias Martinez Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Aleksandar Krstic Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Jens Rauch Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Oleksii Rukhlenko Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
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