Drug Discovery in Neuroscience

Disorders of the nervous system are some of the most common and devastating conditions. Our biological understanding of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases has been slow, and the development of drugs has been lagging behind other therapeutic areas. This mini course will provide students with an overview of the principles of drug discovery and the specific issues associated with developing medicines for diseases of the nervous system with a particular focus on recent translational advances. The course will be lecture-based. Several of the lectures will be given by industry experts and leaders. Topics will include an overview of drug discovery and emergent human cellular models of disease, medicinal chemistry approaches, antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics, gene therapies, therapeutic antibodies, cell therapies, and running a drug discovery organization.