Department of Chemistry course timetable

This is a compulsory session which introduces new graduate students to the Department of Chemistry Library and its place within the wider Cambridge University Library system. It provides general information on what is available, where it is, and how to get it. Print and online resources are included.

You must choose one session out of the 9 sessions available.

This compulsory session introduces Research Data Management (RDM) to Chemistry PhD students. It is highly interactive and utilises practical activities throughout.

Key topics covered are:

• Research Data Management (RDM) - what it is and what problems can occur with managing and sharing your data.
• Data backup and file sharing - possible consequences of not backing up your data, strategies for backing up your data and sharing your data safely.
• Data organisation - how to organise your files and folders, what is best practice.
• Data sharing - obstacles to sharing your data, benefits and importance of sharing your data, the funder policy landscape, resources available in the University to help you share your data.
• Data management planning - creating a roadmap for how not to get lost in your data!

Lunch and refreshments are included for this course

Drug discovery is a complex multidisciplinary process with chemistry as the core discipline. A small molecule New Chemical Entity (NCE) (80% of drugs marketed) has had its genesis in the mind of a chemist. A successful drug is not only biologically active (the easy bit), but is also therapeutically effective in the clinic – it has the correct pharmacokinetics, lack of toxicity, is stable and can be synthesised in bulk, selective and can be patented. Increasingly, it must act at a genetically defined sub-population of patients. Medicinal chemists therefore work at the centre of a web of disciplines – biology, pharmacology, molecular biology, toxicology, materials science, intellectual property and medicine. This fascinating interplay of disciplines is the intellectual space within which a chemist has to make the key compound that will become an effective medicine. It happens rarely, despite enormous investment in time, money and effort. What factors make a program successful? I would like to briefly outline the process, but importantly to offer some key with examples of success

Drug discovery is a complex multidisciplinary process with chemistry as the core discipline. A small molecule New Chemical Entity (NCE) (80% of drugs marketed) has had its genesis in the mind of a chemist. A successful drug is not only biologically active (the easy bit), but is also therapeutically effective in the clinic – it has the correct pharmacokinetics, lack of toxicity, is stable and can be synthesised in bulk, selective and can be patented. Increasingly, it must act at a genetically defined sub-population of patients. Medicinal chemists therefore work at the centre of a web of disciplines – biology, pharmacology, molecular biology, toxicology, materials science, intellectual property and medicine. This fascinating interplay of disciplines is the intellectual space within which a chemist has to make the key compound that will become an effective medicine. It happens rarely, despite enormous investment in time, money and effort. What factors make a program successful? I would like to briefly outline the process, but importantly to offer some key with examples of success

This workshop will introduce key concepts in sustainable materials design, including the evolution of materials, current material classes and consumption, life cycle analysis, and eco audits. Following the introduction to theory and several examples of applying eco audits to frequently debated problems, students will take apart modern electronic devices (tools provided). The workshop will close with a critical examination of the devices, material and design choices, as well as end-of-life options.

When you have 1000s of possible compounds you could make from any one start point what do you make first? This lecture will cover some general basic principles on designing more potent molecules, as well as some practical tips on how to run an optimization program and how to focus synthetic efforts. Binding modalities (reversible, covalent) will be briefly covered, as well as some newer non-traditional modalities. This lecture will also serve as an introduction to the medicinal chemistry game

Dr F Goldberg - AstraZeneca

This hands-on course teaches the basics of Latex including syntax, lists, maths equations, basic chemical equations, tables, graphical figures and internal and external referencing. We also learn how to link documents to help manage large projects. The course manual is presented in the style of a thesis and since you also receive the source code you also receive a template for a thesis.

A real drug discovery example will be used. After a brief introduction to the task and the chemical startpoint, we will split into teams and iteratively try to design improved analogues. Molecules will be marked “in real time” during the session to recreate the design-make-test-analysis cycle, then teams can compare their optimized molecules, and we can compare them to what happened in real life.

Dr F Goldberg - AstraZeneca

Predicting and controlling how a chemical molecule will be processed by the body is vital to developing a successful drug. This lecture will discuss the path a molecule takes from initial dose through to elimination, describe the ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion) processes that take place and how these are related to compound structure and physicochemical properties. In addition to standard small molecule PK some other new modalities will be also be introduced to illustrate how methods such as PEGylation and lipoparticle encapsulation can be employed to modulate compound pharmacokinetic properties.

Dr R Ian Storer - AstraZeneca

Drug safety remains the primary cause of compound attrition when developing new medicines and consequently the ability to understand and predict toxicity is regarded as high priority within the pharmaceutical sector. This lecture will describe some common safety liabilities and ongoing work to build a greater understanding of the relationships between chemical structure and toxicity risk that are being harnessed to guide the design of safer compounds

Dr R Ian Storer - AstraZeneca

Following our recent straw poll on how members of the Department would like to meet up and discuss issues relating to gender equality in our Department, this mixed gender meeting invites you to come and contribute to a discussion session over lunch.

The questions and issues to be discussed will be generated through people filling out this Anonymous Survey and all ideas/suggestions produced during the meeting will be taken to the AthenaSWAN Committee for discussion, potential approval and implementation.

Are you a post-doc applying for grants? Do you need to write a Data Management Plan as part of your grant application but don't know how? Are you a post-doc who is just interested in learning about writing data management plans? If so, this session is for you.

During this session you will learn everything you need to know about data management plans:

• What they are
• Why they are suddenly required as part of grant applications
• What to include in data management plans
• Tools to help writing data management plans

Refreshments will be provided (tea, coffee, and biscuits).

As the world population continues to grow, so does the need to increase global food production sustainably with limited resources. Agrochemicals, in the form of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, provide an important tool for farmers to combat the weeds, fungi and insect pests that target their crops and help to ensure reliable yields and quality produce. Resistance, emerging pests, abiotic stress and regulatory pressure all drive an ongoing search for new and more innovative crop protection products. This lecture will outline the process used to discover new agrochemicals, from lead generation through to development. It will show the critical roles that chemistry, biology and human & environmental safety play, illustrated with a number of recent examples.

Dr Steve Smith - Syngenta

Two complementary lectures, between which tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided for all participants, industry experts on process chemistry from GSK and Syngenta will share their experiences and challenges gathered over many years of experience

If you are not sure what the Training Record is for, why it is a good idea to use it (as well as filling it in because you need to submit it alongside your first year report) and why it is now an excel spreadsheet and not a paper log book with a blue cover (as all the previous years were issued with), please come to this session. Deborah will give a brief talk and background to these things and answer questions from attendees for the remainder of the time.

Three drop-in sessions will be held in the direct run up to first year report submission, in order primarily to provide students with the opportunity to come and ask questions about any aspect of the first year report submission process that is not clear to them. However, any student with any query is welcome to turn up and see a combination of at least two of those listed above: we will endeavor to help you with anything you ask us about.

Submission of the PhD thesis can seem to be a daunting experience, from constructing it to submitting and then being examined, with one of those examiners coming from an external institution. In this session, Marie Dixon (Degree Committee Office, School of Physical Sciences), Rachel MacDonald and Deborah Longbottom will talk through all aspects of procedure regarding thesis submission and answer any questions students wish to pose. Students who were recently examined, as well as members of academic staff who carry out PhD vivas will also be there to talk about the reality of the process from all perspectives

In these sessions, Dr. Mukund S. Chorghade will discuss the pivotal role played by Process Chemistry / Route Selection in the progress of a drug from conception to commercialization. The medicinal chemistry routes for synthesis are usually low yielding and are fraught with capricious reactions, cryogenic temperatures, tedious chromatography and problems in scale-up to multi-kilo and multi-ton levels. Considerable research efforts have to be expended in developing novel, cost efficacious and scalable processes and seamlessly transferring these technologies to manufacturing operations. These principles will be exemplified by process development case studies on a variety of pharmaceutical moieties such as anti-epileptic and an anti-asthma drugs

Three drop-in sessions will be held in the direct run up to first year report submission, in order primarily to provide students with the opportunity to come and ask questions about any aspect of the first year report submission process that is not clear to them. However, any student with any query is welcome to turn up and see a combination of at least two of those listed above: we will endeavor to help you with anything you ask us about.

A one day course that explores the considerable research that has been done into leadership and the ways to develop individual leadership skills. The challenges of leadership will be discussed and participants will gain an appreciation of effective leadership behaviour, as well as being given the opportunity to discuss and develop their own approaches to being a leader.

The Course Leader is Roger Sutherland, previously an HR Director for Mars Incorporated, and highly experienced in running courses for senior universities and companies