Drug Design and Discovery

Learn more about the interactions between pharmacologically interesting targets and small molecules and its plurality of manifestations in the drug discovery and development value chain, using a broad diversity of experimental and computational methods

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CIVIS focus area
Health
Open to
  • Master's
  • PhD candidates/ students
Field of studies
  • Computer Science and IT
  • Medicine and Health
  • Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Type
  • Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP)
Course dates
30 April - 26 July 2024

Academics from CIVIS partner universities: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Aix-Marseille Université, University of Bucharest, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Sapienza Università di Roma and University of Tübingen (further supported by colleagues from industry) will jointly deliver lectures and laboratory/computational practical sessions that will prepare students with knowledge regarding various scientific approaches applied in each stage of the drug design and development process. 

"Drug Design and Discovery: Hot Topics, Tools, Technologies, and Translation @ Tübingen 2024 (D3HT5)" is a multidisciplinary program, focused on the understanding of the interactions between pharmacologically interesting targets and small molecules and its plurality of manifestations in the drug discovery and development value chain, using a broad diversity of experimental and computational methods or approaches, including analytical, biological, biochemical, biophysical, cellular, chemical, informatics-based, structural, or theoretical. 

Main topics addressed

  • Molecular interactions, versatility of halogen bonding, principles and applications of chalcogen bonding, thermodynamics in drug discovery, drug discovery process and technologies, fragment-based drug discovery, hit to lead optimization, the molecular drug space selection and optimization
  • Biophysical assays for high throughput screening or characterization of interactions: Microcalorimetry ITC & DSC, nanoDSF, Analytical Ultra-Centrifugation, Surface Plasmon Resonance, NMR, Xray Crystallography
  • Mass spectrometry and bioanalytics, NMR-based metabolomics, applied bioanalytics
  • Pharmaceutical biotechnology: Nanobody technology platform
  • Natural products: RiPP engineering technology, genome mining
  • Cellular and animal models for preclinical screening and toxicity studies
  • Neurodegenerative diseases, methods to measure calcium, potassium ion signaling in cell metabolism, immunomodulation
  • Microbicidal versus antipathogenic strategies, methods for the in vitro assessment of antimicrobial activity
  • Principles and applications in anti-cancer drug discovery, PROTACs, epigenetics, covalent inhibitors
  • Academic drug discovery / industrial drug discovery
  • Virtual screening, molecular docking, pharmacophore modelling, QSAR, machine learning & AI, free energy methods
  • Pharmacokinetics, physiologically-based PK-models
  • Direct powder extrusion 3D-printing, embedding of nanoparticles in solid (orodispersible) matrices
  • Clinical trials, regulatory affairs
  • Intellectual property and pharmaceutical patents

Learning outcomes

During the course the participants will:

  • Learn and practice in a multi-cultural environment
  • Understand the current challenges and the main approaches used in the modern day drug design and discovery process
  • Acquire knowledge and practical skills concerning the in silico and experimental methods used for drug design, discovery and development
  • Immerse themselves in modern, cutting-edge technologies
  • Get interested and develop understanding for hot topics in industrial and academic drug discovery
  • Receive mentoring, tuition and feedback on their presentation skills with respect to the academic standards including spontaneous stand-up formats
  • Develop specific and transferable skills relevant to a wide variety of scientific and professional careers in biomedical and pharmaceutical industries
Dates: 30 April - 26 July 2024 Language: English
Location: Tübingen, Germany ECTS: 6*
Format: Blended Workload: 180
Contact: frank.boeckler@uni-tuebingen.de  

*Recognition of ECTS depends on your home university. 

Physical mobility

The physical mobility part will be running from 22 to 26 July 2024 in Tübingen.

The physical component of the program will consist of an one- week summer school in which students will participate in lectures, seminaries, hands-on-courses and practical tutorials covering the following topics:

  • New strategies to develop drugs for neurodegenerative diseases / Methods to measure calcium- Tools for drug discovery- Prof. Maria F. Cano Abad, Facultad de Medicina, Universitad Autónoma Madrid
  • Microbicidal versus antipathogenic strategies in antimicrobial drug discovery- Prof. Dr. Carmen Chifiriuc, University of Bucharest
  • Introduction to physiologically-based modelling- Prof. Florence Gattacceca, Faculty of Pharmacy, Aix-Marseille Université
  • Methods for the In vitro Assessment of Antimicrobial Activity- Prof. Dr. Luminita Marutescu, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest
  • NMR-based Metabolomics- Prof. Emmanuel Mikros, Faculty of Pharmacy, National Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • Practical Aspects in Building (3D-) QSAR Models and their Validation-  Prof. Rino Ragno, Faculty of Pharmacy, La Sapienza University Rome
  • The Versatility of Halogen Bonding/Methods in CompChem -Choose wisely and apply with care!- Prof. Frank M. Böckler, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
  • Applied Bioanalytics- Prof. Michael Lämmerhofer, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
  • Direct Powder Extrusion 3D-printing: Challenges and Opportunities- Prof. Dominique Lunter, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
  • Principles and Applications of Chalcogen Bonding / Introduction Hands-on-Course: CompChem/ VS/ ML-  Dr. Markus O. Zimmermann, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
  • Gastroplus ADMET Predictor to Screen Gastro-intestinal Absorption and Metabolism Properties- Prof. Florence Gattacceca, Faculty of Pharmacy, Aix-Marseille Université
  • 3D QSAR Practical Course- Prof. Rino Ragno, Faculty of Pharmacy, La Sapienza University Rome
  • Hands-on-Course: Computational Chemistry / Virtual Screening / Machine Learning-  Dr. Markus O. Zimmermann, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
  • Hands-on-Molecular-Biophysics ( Differential Scanning Fluorimetry / Isothermal Titriation Calorimetry / Fluorescence Polarization / Crystallography )- Prof. Frank M. Böckler, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
  • Patent Writing and Application Seminary- Dr. M. Bergauer, AMGEN, Los Angeles, USA

The planned social programme includes also some evening events, as well as a whole day event on Saturday, 27th July 2024.

Virtual part

The virtual part will be running from 30 April to 21 June 2024.

The virtual program will consist of online lectures and seminaries organized throughout the spring/summer semester 2024 twice per week for eight weeks.

The lectures will be held in a synchronous fashion via Zoom, Cisco/Webex, Teams or similar tools. Based on the complex nature of in term learning and participation duties of students across multiple courses of studies, years and universities in different countries, the lectures will be recorded and provided additionally as a video in a timely manner within the CIVIS moodle course. Thus, students missing (parts of) the lecture can, watch the video at any time. In order to ensure that the participation of all students is checked and documented, multiple choice-based quizzes will be implemented in Moodle for each lecture, which need to be passed with at least 50% of the full points possible within a few weeks after the lecture.  

Requirements

This course is open to Master's and PhD students at CIVIS member universities enrolled in the following fields of study: Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Medicine, Medical Sciences, Biology, Bioinformatics, or any other fields related. 

Applicants should have a strong background in pharmaceutical, natural and/or biomedical sciences.
 

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Click here to learn more about the eligibility criteria.

 

Students from CIVIS’ strategic partner universities in Africa cannot apply for participation in this course.

Application process

Interested students should apply by filling in the online application form by 7 November 2023. 

Students will be selected based on the following criteria:

  • CV
  • Motivation letter
  • Aptitude
  • Seniority / Experience
  • Relevance for future plans

Moreover, students should submit a very short motivation letter, highlighting their scientific background, their aptitude for the course and their particular interest in the course with respect to their future professional / scientific development plans.

M.Sc. Students should submit a short confirmation of their study coordinator(s) that the 6 ECTS (or a fraction of it) can be credited to their course of studies. M.Sc. or Ph.D. students, who are not intending to make use of the 6 ECTS, should submit a short statement confirming this.

Apply here

Assessment

In order to ensure regular and timely participation of all students in the virtual program, multiple choice-based quizzes will be implemented in Moodle for each lecture, which need to be passed with at least 50% of the full points possible within a few weeks after the lecture.

Student presentations during the physical part will differentiate between M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. While M.Sc. students will present an assigned drug discovery perspective, review, application note, or drug annotation, Ph.D. students will present about their own research project, giving an understandable introduction into the topic and main methods applied, as well as current results.

The lecturers will create the atmosphere of a conference presentation with chairs, time monitoring, handling of questions, etc. Goal is to provide experience to the students in giving professional presentations and adapting to academic rules of presentations, while the level of experience of the students will be taken into account. In addition, the lecturers will experiment with an “elevator pitch” format for new research proposals using techniques and topics discussed in the course. 

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe. Click here to learn more about CIVIS BIPs.

GDPR Consent

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  • Prof. Frank M. Böckler, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Tübingen
  • Prof. Maria F. Cano Abad, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  • Prof. Carmen Chifiriuc, University of Bucharest
  • Prof. Florence Gattacceca, Faculty of Pharmacy, Aix-Marseille Université
  • Prof. Antonello Mai, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Prof. Luminita Marutescu, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest
  • Prof. Emmanuel Mikros, Faculty of Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • Prof. Rino Ragno, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Dr. Markus O. Zimmermann, Dept. of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Tübingen

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