Ateneo - UPO

The course is intended to provide the student the fundamental principles of pharmacology, including:
- discovery, development, and approval process of new drugs;
- principles of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics;
- benefit-risk profile of drugs;
- drug response variability.
A focus will be then put on the rational bases for the development of target therapies.
Lastly, examples of biotechnological drugs which have revolutionized the pharmacological landscape will be provided.

Goodman and Gilman's Pharmaceutical Basis of the Therapeutics - latest edition
Rang & Dale: Pharmacology – latest edition.

The course is intended to provide knowledge and competences relating to pharmacology, with a focus on drugs developed with biotech methodologies.

Basic knowledge of biochemistry, anatomy, physiology and pathology which is necessary to understand the rationale behind the development of drugs, their specific mechanisms of action as well as their benefit-risk profiles.

Formal lectures with powerpoint presentations. Learning material will be uploaded on the DIR page of the course.

Student meetings with the lecturer of the Course are subject to prior appointment agreed via e-mail.

Some lectures will be held by Prof. Ambra Grolla while other by Prof. Sarah Cargnin

Students with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or special educational needs can consult the University's webpage at https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities and request support from the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti.

Multiple-choice written exam. For the assessment of the student learning achievements, a score ranging from 18 (minimum) to 30 with laude (maximum) will be used. More precisely, with a score ranging from 18 to 23 the student will show a sufficient but limited knowledge; from 24 to 26 the student will show a satisfactory knowledge; from 27 to 28 the student will demonstrate to have achieved a good knowledge and sufficient ability to allocate the information learned in the scientific landscape. From 29 to 30 the student will demonstrate that he/she has acquired a very good knowledge and a good ability to allocate the information learned in the scientific landscape. Lastly, students achieving 30 cum laude will demonstrate to have an excellent knowledge.

The course is intended to provide the student the fundamental principles of pharmacology, including:
- discovery, development and approval process of new drugs;
- clinical trials and collection of evidence concerning benefits and risks of drugs;
- general principles of drug action (pharmacodynamics);
- pharmacokinetics (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion);
- pharmacogenetic biomarkers for personalized medicine;
- general principles of pharmacovigilance and ecopharmacovigilance;
- systematic reviews and meta-analysis as tools in pharmacology;
- description of the pharmacological profile of biotechnological drugs that have revolutionized the pharmacological treatment in different pathological conditions, including oncological ones, neurological disorders, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

Knowledge: at the end of the course the student will know the fundamental principles of pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics as well as those that govern interindividual variability in drug response. Moreover, he/she will know the most relevant examples of biotech drugs now available on the market.
Competences: the student will have sufficient intellectual instruments to understand and evaluate the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of any drug.