Ateneo - UPO

The course aims to provide the student with the tools to know and understand the properties, the scope, the methodologies, the path and the problems involved in the design, development, production and use of biotechnological drugs and vaccines, including the new generation approaches.

Handsout distributed in the classroom; scientific literature

To make sure that the student knows the entire research and development process, from conception to approval, of various classes of biotechnological drugs and vaccines.

The traditional classroom lessons will be accompanied by seminars from industry experts and group-work aimed at exercising students' ability to perform targeted bibliographic research, critically extract and analyze relevant information, and present their own project ideas.
If the case of a new COVID19 emergency, the lessons will be carried out
by recording and uploading them on Youtube or on DIR. Periodically and/or upon student request, question time will be organized on Google meet.

The final exam consists in a 20-30 min discussion on selected course topics and will be mainly aimed at evaluating the ability of the students to prove not only their knowledge but also their ability to logically connect concepts, their problem solving ability and their communication skills, together with the use of appropriate terminology.

Main clinical and diagnostic applications of biotechnological drugs. Pharmacodynamic, pharmacokinetic, tolerability profile, adverse events of biotech drugs with examples from different therapeutic areas. Examples of molecular engineering approaches to improve pharmacokinetic and / or pharmacodynamic and/or immunogenicity of relevant biotech drugs. Discussion of selected examples of discovery and development of therapeutic proteins, Mabs, DNA/RNA based drugs and vaccines.

At the end of the course the student will have in-depth knowledge of the research and development path of biotechnological drugs already in use and will be able to apply the knowledge acquired to understand and propose the identification of new targets and the consequent design and study of innovative drugs.