General provisions

The course is part of Master's Programme in Biopharmaceuticals. The course can be taken as a stand-alone course or elective within a program. The course is elective within the Master of Science Program in Pharmacy and the Master's Programme in Drug Discovery and Development.

Entry requirements

150 credits in biomedicine, pharmaceutical science, chemistry, drug development, natural science and/or technology. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• Identify, explain and motivate the use of mass spectrometry as a tool for development of biological drugs in preclinical and clinical phase.
• Identify, explain and motivate the choice of analytical separation techniques coupled to mass spectrometry as function of sample type.
• Design strategies for identification of target proteins and lead compounds for drug development with proteomic methods.
• Use basic sample preparation and analysis techniques for proteomic studies.
• Apply bioinformatics methods for analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from proteomic studies and account for background, methods and results in a scientific report written with technical language in Swedish or English.

Content

The course covers analytical methods for proteomic measurements during the drug development process. Identification of target protein for drug design and evaluation of lead compounds with proteomic methods. Training of experimental skills include one week of experimental laboratory work with sample preparation, measurements with mass spectrometry and data analysis.

Instruction

Instruction is provided through lectures, experimental exercises, seminars, oral and written presentations, and self-education with course curriculum literature. Proficiency is achieved through writing of a personal experimental protocol, one week of experimental work with a proteomic study using mass spectrometry including data analysis, summarized in a written report and oral presentation.

Compulsory requirements: experimental exercises, seminars, written scientific report including oral presentation of results. This course is given in English if so required.

Assessment

Written examination at the end of the course. Written and oral presentation of experimental exercises. To pass the course, the student must pass the written examination (3 credits), and pass the compulsory requirements (3 credits for experimental exercises and 1.5 credits for seminars). Completion of compulsory parts of the course may be done at the earliest at the next course and then only if there is a vacancy.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.