Practical experiments in undergraduate chemistry labs frequently focus on reinforcing a specific synthetic route or apparatus that has been introduced during a seminar class. Whilst important, these experiments lack context and do not address the wider set of skills a chemist will require to thrive in a scientific career outside academia.<br/><br/>Haverford College has reinvented their ‘Superlab’ undergraduate chemistry course to incorporate partnerships with Optibrium, provider of drug discovery software StarDrop™, and Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi). The new course provides third year students with hands-on experience in an active Leishmaniasis drug discovery project run through the Open Synthesis Network at DNDi.<br/><br/>We will discuss how this collaborative approach provides students with a practical understanding of the challenges faced in a drug discovery project. Students are taught by, and collaborate with, professionals who are experts in the drug discovery field and they have access to the state-of-the-art software with which to develop their ideas. Synthetic skills are honed through synthesis of potential drug candidates, for which students develop their own routes. The resulting compounds are tested by DNDi, adding to the available structure-activity data as the project progresses and enabling the students to contribute to the discovery of potential new therapeutics for a critical disease affecting the developing world. Students also experience working within a drug discovery team and develop the teamwork and collaboration skills required to thrive in their future career.

Innovative teaching collaboration provides students with practical drug discovery experience

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.