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Principles of Drug Design

16:663:502 for graduate students / 30:715:452 for pharmacy students

Syllabus and Lecture Schedule (new class time in Spring 2026; Tuesdays and Thursdays: 4:10 – 5:30 PM, PH 288)

Faculty

  • Dr. Longqin Hu (Course coordinator)
    “Drug Discovery, Lead Optimization Approaches, Enzymes, Receptors, Prodrug Design, and Combinatorial Chemistry”
  • Dr. Robert Palmere (Rutgers Office of Advanced Research Computing)
    “Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD)”
  • Dr. Youyi Peng (,
    “Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD)”

Invited Seminar Speakers 

Date Seminar speakers Company Seminar title
Tuesday, January 27, 2026 Dr. Nick Meanwell Formerly, BMS Applications of Bioisosteres in Drug Design
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 Dr. Nick Meanwell Formerly, BMS Applications of Fluorines in Drug Design
Thursday, February 26, 2026 Dr. Lou Lombardo and Dr. Zhicai Shi JNJ Innovative Chemistry Capabilities in Current Drug Discovery Paradigm
Tuesday, March 3, 2026 Dr. Dimitris Agrafiotis Arsenal Capital Application of AI in Drug Discovery
Thursday, March 5, 2026 Dr. Alaric Dyckman BMS Discovery of afimetoran, a small molecule dual antagonist of toll-like receptor 7 and 8 (TLR7/8) for the treatment of lupus
Thursday, March 12, 2026 Dr. Scott Watterson BMS Multiple Shots on Goal: Dual Approaches to the Design of Inhibitors of Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) that Advanced into Clinical Studies
Thursday, April 23, 2026 Dr. Jennifer Hickey Merck Cyclic peptides for trapping IL-1β
Tuesday, April 28, 2026 Dr. Ray Bakhtiar Formerly, Novartis, Merck, Teva, Organon & Co. Monoclonal, antibody drug conjugates & peptide therapeutics
Thursday, April 30, 2026 Dr. Zhoupeng Zhang BMS Metabolic ID and Profiling in Drug Design

 

Times and Location

  • Tuesdays and Thursdays:  4:10 – 5:30 PM, PH 288 (This is the new class time in Spring 2026)

Examinations

  • A term paper or minireview, computational project(s) and one exam

Grading

Term paper on a drug target with 5 drug design principles or a minireview article for potential publication in Med. Chem. Res. 20%
Exam on approaches to drug discovery (analog design), enzymes, receptors, prodrugs, and combinatorial chemistry 40%
Computational project(s) 35%
Class/seminar attendance and participation 5%
Total 100%

 

Minireview articles published by students taking the Drug Design course previously

  1. Ryan L. Bassett†, Giovanni Gallo†, Kim-Phuong N. Le*, Lucio R. Volino Bexagliflozin: a comprehensive review of a recently approved SGLT2 inhibitor for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Med. Chem. Res. 2024, 33(8), 1354-67. Full Text: PDF (Open access)
  2. Twinkle I. Patel‡, Jay N. Joshi§, Alexander J. Valvezan, Matthew J. Moschitto* A review of trilaciclib, a first-in-class cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, for the management of metastatic small-cell lung cancer. Med. Chem. Res. 2024, 33(10), 1757-68. Full Text: PDF (Open access)
  3. Ryan P. Joyce‡, Vivian W. Hu§, Jun Wang* The history, mechanism, and perspectives of nirmatrelvir (PF-07321332): an orally bioavailable main protease inhibitor used in combination with ritonavir to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalizations. Med. Chem. Res. 2022, 31(10), 1637-46. Full Text: PDF|Full-Text View Only Public Link
  4. Jun Wang‡, Daniel Lam§, Jeffrey Yang‡, Longqin Hu* Discovery of mobocertinib, a new irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer harboring EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations. Med. Chem. Res. 2022, 31(10), 1647-62. Full Text: PDF|Full-Text View Only Public Link

(† PharmD Student; ‡ Graduate Student; § MD student, * corresponding author)

Useful Links

Literature Search Links

Drug discovery & development Glossary

Glossary of terms used in medicinal chemistry- IUPAC -Pure Appl. Chem., 70, 1129-1143 (1998)

Glossary of terms used in combinatorial chemistry – J.Comb.Chem. 2000, 2, 562-578