Course Aims
This course is designed to give relevant knowledge and skills to students who are eager to embark on a career in biomedicine linked to industry or academia.
It will provide training in the theory and practical techniques of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Molecular Toxicology with emphasis on:
- Comprehension of the general applications of bioinformatics to the discovery of 21st century pharmaceuticals
- Elucidation of the causes of major diseases via molecular pharmacology together with highlighting the biopharmaceutical medicines that have been or are being discovered to prevent/cure them
- Understanding the biotechnological processes (i.e. living cell-based technologies which are part of modern chemical engineering) that are used to produce proteinaceous medicines (i.e. biopharmaceuticals) in genetically engineered cell factories like bacteria, baker’s yeast, insect, plant and human cells
- How biopharmaceuticals, after production, are formulated and prepared for delivery in humans,
- The basic principles of molecular toxicology, focussing on the application of biotechnology-derived tools, to study drug metabolism
- Insights to the essence of drug regulatory affairs, that is, the rules/regulations that have to be adhered to before a new biopharmaceutical is approved for application in humans
- Familiarity with the concepts that lead to the marketing of innovative products with high intellectual value guided by the rules of ethics and business
