London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The overall module aim is to examine the principles of antimicrobial chemotherapy within areas of drug discovery, selective toxicity, medicinal chemistry and pharmacology and apply these to different classes of antimicrobials such as antibacterial, antiviral and antiprotozoal compounds.

Intended learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, a student should be able to:

• Explain the principles of chemotherapy, selective toxicity and rational drug design.
• Evaluate the activity and toxicity of potential antimicrobial agents in vitro.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of drug activity and its relation to structure.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms of drug action and drug resistance.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of basic pharmacokinetics and drug delivery.
• Critically assess the scientific literature and communicate effectively.

Session Content

The module is expected to cover the following topics:

• Principles of chemotherapy and selective toxicity.
• Drug targets and mechanisms of drug action.
• Drug resistance and mechanisms of drug resistance.
• Methods of drug assays and development.
• Drug uptake and drug delivery.
• Analytical methods for pharmacology.
• Laboratory practicals, including antimicrobial drug resistance.

Mode of delivery

This module is delivered predominantly face-to-face. Where specific teaching methods (lectures, seminars, discussion groups) are noted in this module specification these will be delivered by predominantly face-to-face sessions. There will be a combination of live and interactive activities (synchronous learning) as well as self-directed study (asynchronous learning).

Assessment

The assessment for this module has been designed to measure student learning against the module's intended learning outcomes (ILOs) as listed above. Formative assessment methods may be used to measure students’ progress. The grade for summative assessment(s) only will go towards the overall award GPA. 

The assessment for this module will be online. 

Assessment will be based on the following two assessments. The grades for each will be equally weighted and combined to give an overall GPA. 

(1) A short multiple-choice paper on the session material. 

(2) An oral presentation following a scientific question set in a tutorial.

Credits

• CATS: 15
• ECTS: 7.5

Module specification

For full information regarding this module please see the module specification.