Course Identification

• Introduction to research methodologists in drug discovery
• Guidelines for assays, screening methods
• General concepts for biochemical and cell-based assays.
• Target identification
• Phenotypic vs targeted drug discovery
• Lab exercises for proteases and viability screening
• Emerging strategies in drug discovery

Project proposal:

Participants will experience hands-on training sessions using experimental methods to provide a foundation for applying in-vitro approaches in drug discovery.

The course takes place at the INCPM, drug discovery facility.

The course will focus on high throughput screening methodologist for small molecules and their use as chemical probes or leads to novel drugs.

Students will perform different types of experiments demonstrating assay development and screening methods and will practice interpreting their data.

Lectures will provide background for lab experiments and broader knowledge of research strategies.

Finally, each group of students will choose a target of their interest and will prepare a research proposal as a short presentation for the class, using the tools they acquired during the course.

During the course, students will learn about principles, methods and goals of high throughput screening as it pertains to driving academic research towards applications relevant to the clinic. The scope of the course will be limited to small molecules and their use as chemical probes or leads to novel drugs. Students will perform different types of the experiments demonstrating assay development and screening methods, and will practice interpreting their data. Lectures will provide background for lab experiments and broader knowledge of strategies such as phenotypic screening. Data sharing and multidisciplinary team-work is central to drug discovery, so students will perform a team-based exercise using open-source data from an antiviral discovery campaign. Finally, students will present project proposals for review in a group exercise.