PHAR40230

Over the last three decades biotherapeutics have become an integral and valued part of modern medicine. These decades have seen an explosion in the development of blockbuster drugs developed to treat a widening range of complex diseases and have witnessed the rapid maturation of the science of development of engineered proteins. Biotherapeutics have significant advantages over small molecule therapies since they have been shown to be even more effective due to their ability to target specific molecules within the human body. However, unlike most conventional small molecules like aspirin and antibiotics, the development, manufacturing and storage of biotherapeutics is more complex and require sophisticated production and control processes. In contrast with small molecule therapeutics, biotherapeutics depend upon the host cells of living organisms to effectively produce the active pharmaceutical ingredient.
Aims:
The principle focus of this module will be to teach students how biotherapeutic candidates are discovered for a particular disease target and how these candisdates are studied to identify a lead candidiate for development as a drug. Using a full suite of screening and discovery technologies with powerful characterisation methods students will over two trimesters become speacialised in these processes.