Structure

Qualifications
Degree	Module Components	Full Time On-Site	Flexible Distance Learning
Master (MSc)	8 taught modules + research project	1 year full time	2-5 years, ideally within 3 years
Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip)	8 taught modules	Sept-April full time	2-3 years, ideally within 2 years
Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert)	4 taught modules	3 months full time	Ideally within 1 year

Click here for Description of Modules

Term 1 (Sept to Dec)

MEDC0075     Bioinformatics and Structural Biology. 
MEDC0076     Target Identification, Pharmacology and High Throughput Screening.
MEDC0077     Cheminformatics and Computer Drug Design.
MEDC0078     Biological molecules as therapeutics - Antibodies, siRNA, and Stem Cells. 

Term 2 (Jan to March)

MEDC0079     Biophysical screening methods, X-ray crystallography, protein NMR and phenotypic screening. 
MEDC0080     Fragment based drug design. 
MEDC0081     Target selection - Cancer, Aging, and new Targets. 
MEDC0082     Intellectual property, Law, Economics, and Marketing.

Term 3 (April to Aug)
MEDC0083     Research project - 

1. Minimum 12 weeks
2. Expert groups in UCL - e.g. Cancer Institute, Royal Free Hospital, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Medicine, etc.
3. External Companies and Institutes - e.g GSK, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cresset, etc.
4. Projects cover every aspect of drug design and discovery from computational modelling to X-ray crystallography and protein NMR, from chemical synthesis to cutting edge biology of cancer or other diseases. See examples under the tab "Projects".

There are eight modules carrying 15 credits. Each module will consist of a written exam  (50%) and coursework (50%).

Assessment will be by unseen written examinations and coursework. 
A research project will be assessed by written dissertation, an oral presentation, and a video project.

Research project - 

• Minimum 12 weeks
• Expert groups in UCL - e.g. Cancer Institute, Royal Free Hospital, MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology, Medicine, etc.
• External Companies and Institutes - e.g GSK, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cresset, etc.
• Projects cover every aspect of drug design and discovery from computational modelling to X-ray crystallography and protein NMR, from chemical synthesis to cutting edge biology of cancer or other diseases. See examples here.

Past Projects

Screening, Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry

Optimization of small molecule drug inhibition of a kinase targets for therapy of Polycystic Kidney Disease

Towards novel antibiotics: small molecule inhibitors of the serine/threonine protein kinases of Gram positive bacterial pathogens

Probing host-HIV interactions using small molecule inhibitors

Medicinal Chemistry

Exploration of a new scaffold as a potential new class of a kinase inhibitor

Modified analogues of an established scaffold with potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions

Computational, Cheminformatics, Bioinformatics, and computer-based literature projects

Drug repositioning using internal technology

Fragment-based design of peptidomimetic drugs

Natural hormones and neurotransmitters as drug leads

Structural and Molecular Biology

Crystal structure determination of protein-ligand complexes

Cloning and NMR study of Drug protein target

PK/ADME, Assay development

Development of PK/ADME assay for a Cancer project