Department of Chemistry course timetable
February 2020
| Wed 12 |
Kinase drug discovery remains to be an area of significant and growing interest across academia and in the pharmaceutical industry - there are approximately 30 FDA approved small molecule inhibitors which target kinases, half of which were approved in the last 3 years. This lecture will give an insight into the medicinal chemistry story behind one clinical candidate and 2 marketed drugs. Crystal structures will be used to explain general principles behind designing for kinase inhibition, and some more advanced topics will be covered such as prodrugs, covalent inhibition and consideration of mutation status in drug discovery |
| Thu 13 |
FS1 - Successful Completion of a Research Degree An hour devoted to a discussion of how to plan your time effectively on a day to day basis, how to produce a dissertation/thesis (from first year report to MPhil to PhD) and the essential requirements of an experimental section. FS2 - Dignity@Study The University of Cambridge is committed to protecting the dignity of staff, students, visitors to the University, and all members of the University community in their work and their interactions with others. The University expects all members of the University community to treat each other with respect, courtesy and consideration at all times. All members of the University community have the right to expect professional behaviour from others, and a corresponding responsibility to behave professionally towards others. Nick will explore what this means for graduate students in this Department with an opportunity to ask questions more informally. This is a compulsory session for 1st year postgraduates. |
| Fri 14 |
Chemistry: DD9 Process Chemistry
Finished
Two complementary lecture from industry experts on process chemistry from GSK and Syngenta will share their experiences and challenges gathered over many years of experience. |
| Mon 17 |
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. |
|
Chemistry: Quantum Computing
Finished
Lecture 1 - Fundamentals of Quantum Computing A short summary of all the basic quantum computing knowledge needed to do quantum chemistry on a quantum computer. Lecture 2 - Encoding chemistry systems in quantum computers
Lecture 3 - Quantum algorithms for energy calculations
Lecture 4 - Advanced quantum chemistry quantum computing algorithms
|
|
| Tue 25 |
Chemistry: Quantum Computing
Finished
Lecture 1 - Fundamentals of Quantum Computing A short summary of all the basic quantum computing knowledge needed to do quantum chemistry on a quantum computer. Lecture 2 - Encoding chemistry systems in quantum computers
Lecture 3 - Quantum algorithms for energy calculations
Lecture 4 - Advanced quantum chemistry quantum computing algorithms
|
| Fri 28 |
Chemistry: Green Chemistry
Finished
This course will provide an overview of Sustainable Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Motivation and Legislation It will cover the following in more detail;
|
|
Chemistry: Green Chemistry
Finished
This course will provide an overview of Sustainable Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Motivation and Legislation It will cover the following in more detail;
|
March 2020
| Mon 2 |
Chemistry: IS5 SciFinder and Reaxys
Finished
A ‘highly recommended’ optional course introducing electronic databases SciFinder and Reaxys presented by Professor Jonathan Goodman comprising of presentation followed by hands-on investigation. SciFinder https://www.cas.org/products/scifinder provides access to biochemical, chemical, chemical engineering, medical and other related information in journal and patent literature. Bibliographic, substance and reaction information is available. SciFinder includes references from more than 10,000 scientific journals and patent information from 63 patent issuing authorities. Sources include journals, patents, conference proceedings, dissertations, technical reports and books. It is one of the world’s largest collections of organic and inorganic substance information. It is possible to search by topic, author, company name, chemical structure, substructure, structure similarity and reaction. Personal registration is required for access to SciFinder on- and off-campus, please follow the instructions at: https://www-library.ch.cam.ac.uk/scifinder Reaxys combines the content of CrossFire Beilstein, Gmelin and the Patent Chemistry Database in one search. Validated reaction and substance data are integrated with synthesis planning. Data from all three sources are merged into one substance record. Unlimited access on-campus via the web: https://www.reaxys.com/. Off-campus access via Raven password. (Personal registration is not required for access). Please see the prerequisites. Please bring your own laptop for the practical element of the session. |
|
Chemistry: Quantum Computing
Finished
Lecture 1 - Fundamentals of Quantum Computing A short summary of all the basic quantum computing knowledge needed to do quantum chemistry on a quantum computer. Lecture 2 - Encoding chemistry systems in quantum computers
Lecture 3 - Quantum algorithms for energy calculations
Lecture 4 - Advanced quantum chemistry quantum computing algorithms
|
|
|
Single Cell RNA Sequencing
Finished
The course will outlay bioinformatic analysis of cell populations from single-cell RNA including visualisation, clustering and functional analysis of genes. This will be using the programming language R and packages such as Seurat. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop to follow along. Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
|
|
| Tue 3 |
In this session, 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. We were able to also discover a large number of New Chemical Entities by our new “Process Chemistry Driven Medicinal Chemistry” We will exemplify advances in proprietary in vitro green chemistry-based technology, mimicking in vivo metabolism of several chemical entities used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agrochemicals. Our catalysts enable prediction of metabolism patterns with soft-spot analysis Metabolites are implicated in adverse drug reactions and are the subject of intense scrutiny in drug R&D. Present-day processes involving animal studies are expensive, labor-intensive and chemically inconclusive. Our catalysts (azamacrocycles) are sterically protected and electronically activated, providing speed, stability and scalability. We predict structures of metabolites, prepare them on a large scale by oxidation, and elucidate chemical structures. Comprehensive safety evaluation enables researchers to conduct more complete in vitro metabolism studies, confirm structure and generate quantitative measures of toxicity. |
|
Chemistry plays a very crucial role in tackling 21st century global challenges. From climate change mitigation to discovering therapeutic strategies for human health and driving sustainable energy production and usage - we are faced with many challenges for which chemical sciences has been providing and will continue to provide many plausible solutions. Much of the research involved in developing these initiatives requires a huge drive towards interdisciplinary research networks. As such, this course has been developed with some of our colleagues from across the Chemistry Department who are working on exciting and emerging areas with this multidisciplinary focus. This course will introduce how chemistry can be used as a tool to solve these challenges. First session will include the introduction. Each lecture following this will focus on a different branch, area or concept of chemistry covering the fundamental chemistry and background of how it works, any advances to date and the applications towards tackling these global challenges. The first session is compulsory, plus choose optional sessions you wish to attend when you make your booking.
|
|
|
Chemistry plays a very crucial role in tackling 21st century global challenges. From climate change mitigation to discovering therapeutic strategies for human health and driving sustainable energy production and usage - we are faced with many challenges for which chemical sciences has been providing and will continue to provide many plausible solutions. Much of the research involved in developing these initiatives requires a huge drive towards interdisciplinary research networks. As such, this course has been developed with some of our colleagues from across the Chemistry Department who are working on exciting and emerging areas with this multidisciplinary focus. This course will introduce how chemistry can be used as a tool to solve these challenges. First session will include the introduction. Each lecture following this will focus on a different branch, area or concept of chemistry covering the fundamental chemistry and background of how it works, any advances to date and the applications towards tackling these global challenges. The first session is compulsory, plus choose optional sessions you wish to attend when you make your booking.
|
|
| Wed 4 |
In this session, 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. We were able to also discover a large number of New Chemical Entities by our new “Process Chemistry Driven Medicinal Chemistry” We will exemplify advances in proprietary in vitro green chemistry-based technology, mimicking in vivo metabolism of several chemical entities used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agrochemicals. Our catalysts enable prediction of metabolism patterns with soft-spot analysis Metabolites are implicated in adverse drug reactions and are the subject of intense scrutiny in drug R&D. Present-day processes involving animal studies are expensive, labor-intensive and chemically inconclusive. Our catalysts (azamacrocycles) are sterically protected and electronically activated, providing speed, stability and scalability. We predict structures of metabolites, prepare them on a large scale by oxidation, and elucidate chemical structures. Comprehensive safety evaluation enables researchers to conduct more complete in vitro metabolism studies, confirm structure and generate quantitative measures of toxicity. |
| Fri 6 |
A ‘recommended’ optional course for Chemistry graduates that introduces all the relevant online databases available to you in the university: citation databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, which index all the scientific literature that is published, as well as chemistry and related subject-specific databases. You will be guided on how to search citation databases effectively and the session includes a hands-on element where you can practice - please bring your own laptop. The session will be most suitable for those who are new to searching citation databases or would like a refresher. Please note that this session will not cover searching the databases Reaxys and SciFinder. These are covered by IS5.
|
| Mon 9 |
Single Cell RNA Sequencing
Finished
The course will outlay bioinformatic analysis of cell populations from single-cell RNA including visualisation, clustering and functional analysis of genes. This will be using the programming language R and packages such as Seurat. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop to follow along. Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
|
| Tue 10 |
Chemistry plays a very crucial role in tackling 21st century global challenges. From climate change mitigation to discovering therapeutic strategies for human health and driving sustainable energy production and usage - we are faced with many challenges for which chemical sciences has been providing and will continue to provide many plausible solutions. Much of the research involved in developing these initiatives requires a huge drive towards interdisciplinary research networks. As such, this course has been developed with some of our colleagues from across the Chemistry Department who are working on exciting and emerging areas with this multidisciplinary focus. This course will introduce how chemistry can be used as a tool to solve these challenges. First session will include the introduction. Each lecture following this will focus on a different branch, area or concept of chemistry covering the fundamental chemistry and background of how it works, any advances to date and the applications towards tackling these global challenges. The first session is compulsory, plus choose optional sessions you wish to attend when you make your booking.
|
| Wed 11 |
The first half of this session will cover an overview of Raytracing versus 3D Modelling, an introduction to the free Raytracing programme Povray, running Povray (command line options). Making and manipulating simple shapes, camera tricks (depth of field, angle of view) and using other software to generate Povray input (e.g. Jmol) The second half of the session is an introduction to 3D modelling and animation using the open source programme Blender. This will cover the installation and customisation of the Blender interface for use with chemical models, how to import chemical structures from Jmol and the protein data base (PDB), the basics of 3D modelling, and an introduction to Key-frame animation. No previous experience with either 3D modelling or animation is required. |
| Mon 16 |
This compulsory course will equip you with the skills required to manage the research information you will need to gather throughout your graduate course, as well as the publications you will produce yourself. It will also help you enhance your online research profile and measure the impact of research. |
|
Single Cell RNA Sequencing
Finished
The course will outlay bioinformatic analysis of cell populations from single-cell RNA including visualisation, clustering and functional analysis of genes. This will be using the programming language R and packages such as Seurat. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop to follow along. Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
|
|
| Wed 18 |
A thorough awareness of issues relating to research ethics and research integrity are essential to producing excellent research. This session will provide an introduction to the ethical responsibilities of researchers at the University, publication ethics and research integrity. It will be interactive, using case studies to better understand key ethical issues and challenges in all areas. There are three sessions running, you need attend only one. |
| Fri 20 |
Chemistry: IS4 Research Data Management
CANCELLED
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:
|
| Mon 23 |
The main aim of giving a presentation to the public or a science venue is to present information in a way that the audience will remember at a later time. There are several ways in which we can improve this type of impact with an audience. This interactive lecture explores some of those mechanisms. |
|
Single Cell RNA Sequencing
Finished
The course will outlay bioinformatic analysis of cell populations from single-cell RNA including visualisation, clustering and functional analysis of genes. This will be using the programming language R and packages such as Seurat. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop to follow along. Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
|