At CUSP, we encourage incoming students to have an initial understanding of what a course entails as they pursue a degree after their bachelor’s. The choice to pursue education to the highest degree is an important one, and we want to help potential students make the best choice. As a chance to get a look at what a course is like for a student from the perspective of the professor; this is PHS 602: Drug Delivery and Development with Dr. Innokentiy “Inno” Maslennikov, which also is taught by course coordinators Dr. Aftab Ahmed and Dr. Saeidreza “Sam” Harirforoosh.

Dr. Inno says that “the two major goals of the course are to help students to create a link between basic sciences (biochemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry) and actual drug discovery and development process and to help them understand why we aim to develop a particular drug and why we are taking a specific approach in the development process. In class, we discuss multiple examples of drug development as a research-driven process – you make a hypothesis and use your knowledge of basic sciences and all available and approved tools to test it.”

As soon as students can make the connection between the basic sciences (the “why” we do things the way we do) and pharmaceutical sciences (the “how”), the logic of this connection and understanding will stay with them. Then, the students will look at new problems through the prism of this knowledge, which will grow and develop further with them while they learn more about pharmaceutical sciences.

For example, Dr. Inno’s research expertise is in Structural Biology, which is the major tool to explain interactions between a drug and its target. It provides the necessary information for rational drug design and optimization to make drugs more specific to their targets and reduce side effects. It also allows researchers to make improvements much faster – in months or years instead of decades.  

In order to ensure excellent understanding, beginning in the Fall of 2024, CUSP will be extending the course and adding five classes on industrial drug development, pharmaceutical regulations, and intellectual property. We’ve invited experts who have extended experience in these areas and spent years in the pharmaceutical industry. This is a great opportunity for our students to look at the drug development process from a different point of view – as a part of product development with a specific healthcare market application.

In regard to what extra help is available to students in this class, Dr. Inno had the following to say: “I am available as often as necessary – students are different and have different backgrounds. Some may ask a few questions in the class and never come to see me in the office, others may ask for clarifications after every class. I always prefer to spend more time explaining something in class or during office hours, than explaining why their answer on the exam question was incorrect. My only requirement – students should not be afraid to ask questions.”

PHS 602 is one of the core classes all students who are earning their Master of Sciences in Pharmaceutical Sciences (M.S.P.S.) at Chapman complete. The others include PHS 601 – Responsible Conduct of Research, PHS 620 – Biostatistics, PHS 627 and 628 –  Instrumental Analysis I and II, as well as their associated labs. After that, there are 26 different electives available for M.S.P.S. students, ranging from Immunology and Microbiology (PHS 742) to Quality System for Drug Development and Manufacturing (PHS 651).

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This article was written by Silas Fernandes.