Advanced Physical Pharmaceutics

Pre-formulation characterization, determination of physico-chemical properties of drugs, solubility determination and enhancement, stability and compatibility studies of small molecules and protein products, kinetics of drug stability, particle size, preparation and identification of polymorphs, polymers classification and uses in formulation, drug release kinetics

Dosage form design/Pharmaceutical formulations

Physical, chemical and biological properties of drug and their importance in the design & stability of dosage form, excipients and additives selection and their impact on formulation. Biopharmaceutical classification system. Concepts of controlled release drug delivery systems. Transdermal, Ocular, Nasal, Pulmonary, Buccal/sublingual, Gastro-retentive drug delivery systems.

Advanced/Novel Drug Delivery

Targeted drug delivery (Passive and active targeting). Nanoparticle drug delivery systems. Transdermal iontophoresis. Lipid based drug delivery systems (SEDDS/SMEDDS). IVIVC. In vitro/In situ/Ex vivo/In vivo studies for evaluation of novel drug delivery systems. In vitro permeability studies. Protein and Peptide drug delivery systems. Polymeric micelles for the delivery of poorly soluble drugs, lipid-core micelles. Drug delivery to tumors. Polymer-drug conjugates, Biomaterials for drug delivery, Stimuli-sensitive drug delivery, Gene drug delivery.

Biopharmaceutics & Pharmacokinetics

Absorption of therapeutics across biological membranes, distribution of drugs, drug metabolism and elimination pathways
Introduction to PK models. compartmental modeling –one and two compartment. Non-compartmental model. Multi-dose Pharmacokinetics. Dose adjustments in special patients. Non-linear PK. Concepts of clearance and volume of distribution. Physiology based pharmacokinetic models.

Pharmaceutical Technology

Size reduction, Drying, Granulation, Mixing, Compression and consolidation of powders. Filtration. Manufacture of tablets/capsules/liquids/semi-solids and parenteral formulations.

Advanced Medicinal Chemistry

Drug development process, drug-receptor interactions, basic drug design approaches, prodrugs and soft drugs. Development, mode of action, structural features, SAR, synthetic approaches and screening method of following class of drugs; chemotherapeutic agents (microbial, parasitic and cancer), cardiovascular (hypertension, arrythmiasis, vasodilators, diuretics, lipid lowering etc), nervous system, metabolic disorders, Gastrointestinal agents, analgesics & anti-inflammatory agents etc. combinatorial chemistry includes Solid-phase organic synthesis – solid support, linker, method de-convolution method with examples

Advanced Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Stereochemistry in drug action, Stereochemistry of ring systems present in pharmaceuticals, Rearrangement reactions and their applications to drug synthesis, Name reactions and examples in drug synthesis.
Logics in organic synthesis; Retrosynthetic analysis including asymmetric synthesis; Pharmaceutical Process chemistry; Introduction, biological properties and synthetic reactions related to heterocyclic ring systems.

Natural Product Chemistry / Phytochemistry

Various separation and characterization techniques involved in natural drug discovery, Chemistry of natural molecules obtained from terrestrial (plants), animal, microbial and marine sources and their role as leads for phyto-pharmaceuticals, Natural molecules under current research and development and standardization of natural formulations.

Computer Aided Molecular Design and Informatics

Computational tools useful for design, drug-receptor interaction modeling, molecular mechanics, quantum mechanics, free energy perturbations, molecular graphics, conformational searching, pharmacophore modeling, 3D QSAR, structure-based drug design, Ligand based drug design, Fragment based drug design, De-novo design, Ab-Initio method, receptor mapping, molecular docking, bioinformatics introduction, cheminformatics, HTVS, Protein modeling and sequence similarity searches for Homology model building.

Quantum mechanics, molecular mechanics force fields, computational interface in molecular geometry, 2D and 3D geometry optimization, Molecular matching and mapping, structure similarity searches, molecular topology, solvent accessible surface analysis Molecular orbital analysis and molecular property calculations, Monte Carlo simulations, Hartree-Fock methods, pharmacophore and QSAR. Protein structure modeling, Generation and analysis of Ramachandran plot, Analysis of protein/DNA complexes

Informatics as a tool, Computer programming useful for Database design and management, softwares useful for database maintenance, structure searching java based tools, introduction to online chemical database resources, and prediction of ADME, toxicity, and HTVS.

Biomolecules an introduction, molecular biophysics, Fundamentals of HTML, NCBI data model, and various file formats of biological sequence, Database tools for macromolecules, primary, secondary and protein sequence database, sequence alignment methods, predictive methods using protein sequence and DNA, Drug design applications.

Chemistry of Macromolecules

Amino acids, peptide synthesis and sequencing. Medicinally important peptides. Peptides and protein conjugation on the surface of nanocarriers, various conjugation techniques.
Natural and synthetic polymers, Polymerization reaction Free radical, anionic and cationic polymerization copolymers, rubbers their stereochemistry and their use in medicine, micelles and micellization, factors affecting micellization, building blocks of polymeric micelles.

Stereochemistry, reactions and medicinal uses of carbohydrates and steroids.
Synthesis and sequencing of nucleic acid. Antiviral and anticancer nucleoside and drug design, concept of siRNA, siRNA delivery, therapeutic application.

Nomenclature, biosynthesis, biological significance and various synthetic approaches of prostaglandins.

Advanced Pharmacology

Receptor and its classification, Signal transduction, Second Messengers, Principle of toxicology, Cholinergic receptors, Organizational principles of brain, Chemical communications, Hormones and neuromodulators, Treatment of mania, epilepsy and psychic disorders, Selective vulnerability and neuroprotection, ageing and metabolism, Parkinsons & Alzheimer diseases, Plasma lipoprotein metabolism, Atherosclerosis, Dyslipidemia & metabolic diseases, Recent advances in treatment of infectious disease and in particular Nosocomial infections, strategies to combat microbial resistance and drugs in the pipeline, Role of Pharmacogenetics and gene therapy in health, Alcoholism, Cancer therapeutics, Protein expression and screening

Screening Methods and Techniques in Pharmacological screening

Regulations for Laboratory Animals care and Ethical Requirements, Guidelines and regulatory agencies- CPCSEA, OECD, USFDA, ICH, FHSA, WHO, Commonly used laboratory, transgenic and other genetically prone animal models (viz. nude mice, SH rats etc), Techniques of blood collection, anesthesia and euthanasia of experimental animals, Maintenance and breeding of Laboratory animals, Statistical treatment of model problems in evaluation of drugs, General Principles and Safety Pharmacology Procedures, Anti-hypertensives, anti-arrythmics, vasodilators and diuretics, CNS pharmacology – behavioral and muscle co-ordination, CNS stimulants and depressants, anxiolytics, anti-epileptics and Nootropics, Screening for Pharmacological Activity

1. Analgesics, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic agents.
2. Gastrointestinal drugs Anti-ulcer, anti-emetic, anti-diarrhoeal and laxatives.
3. Anti-cancer agents

Molecular Pharmacology

Introduction to Molecular Biology and Molecular Genetics DNA and genome, basic double helix structure, flow of genetic information, molecular basis of transcription and protein synthesis.
Epigenetic deregulation in diseases. Diabetes: Definition, Genetics and Pathogenesis. Oxidative stress in diabetes and its markers, different pathways of oxidative stress in diabetic complications. Cancer definition, Genetics and Pathogenesis. Metabolic disorders, Free radicals in neurological and neurodegenerative diseases: Free radical scavengers in the treatment of brain injury.
Molecular mechanism of drug action: Receptor occupancy and cellular signaling systems such as G-proteins, cyclic nucleotides, calcium and phosphatidyl inositol. Ionic channels and their modulators.
Endogenous bioactive molecules such as cytokines, neuropeptides and their modulators, neurosteroids, nitric oxide, phosphodiestrase enzyme and protein kinase C, arachidonic acid metabolites, COX-2 regulators and their role in inflammation, endothelium derived vascular substances (NO, endothelins) and their modulators. Pharmacology of atrial peptides, reactive oxygen intermediates, antioxidants and their therapeutic implications.
Apoptosis: pharmacological and clinical implications. Concept of gene therapy and recent development in the treatment of various hereditary diseases.

Instrumental Methods of Analysis

UV, IR, NMR, mass spectrometry, spectro-fluorimetry, polarimetry, flame photometry, various chromatographic techniques, HPLC, Gas chromatography, gel electrophoresis, thermography

Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

Quality control, assurance and management, various parameters for achieving quality pharmaceutical products, application of statistics in quality assurance, reliability, cGMP for pharmaceutical manufacturing , pharmaceutical process validation, drug regulatory affairs, clinical research protocols, new drug applications.

Biostatistics

Methods of collection and presentation of statistical data; Calculation and Interpretation of various measures like mean, median, mode, standard deviation, Kurtosis, correlation coefficient, probability distributions; sampling and estimation of parameters; tests of hypothesis; data analysis, ANOVA, analysis of research problems. Topics covered will aim to relate to the health field.

Clinical Research

Stages of drug discovery and development, purpose of clinical study, types of clinical trials, study design, randomization techniques, calculation of sample size, recruitment of subjects, adverse drug reactions and reporting, pharmacovigilance, health outcomes research, ethics in clinical research, data collection and monitoring, data analysis and reporting

Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics

Immunity & Immune response reactions, Practice of clinical pharmacy, Clinical trial design, Pharmaco-economics, OTC prescribing, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Pain - types and drug of choice, Anti-infectives, Parenteral nutrition, Neonates, Paediatrics, Geriatrics Clinical Pharmaco-kinetics, Drug interactions, Adverse Drug Reactions, Laboratory data analysis, Prescription monitoring, Patient-case presentation, Clinical Applications of Radio-Pharmaceuticals.

Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Recombinant DNA technology, hybridoma technology, types of biotechnology products/biologics, chemical synthesis of DNA and proteins, DNA and protein sequencing, protein engineering/mutagenesis, drug delivery aspects of biotechnology products, industrial production of proteins

Molecular Biology

Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, cell structure and composition, organelles and their function, basic dogma, transcription, translation, protein synthesis, folding and trafficking, cell replication and migration, apoptosis, cell signaling pathways, Techniques in molecular biology, cell culture, extraction and separation and identification of proteins, RNA, DNA, electrophoresis

Microbiology

Functional anatomy, identification, life cycle of bacteria, fungi, virus and parasites. Drug discovery targets involving cell wall synthesis, DNA synthesis, protein synthesis, and other important enzymes. Sterilization and disinfection.Antiseptics and preservatives.Microbial mechanism of human pathogenicity, Nonspecific defenses, specific defenses, preventing disease. Sterility testing, pyrogen testing, evaluation of antimicrobial drugs.Production of antibiotics, vaccines, dextran, in drug synthesis etc.