BS6216 - Research and Development of Modern Biopharmaceutics

Summary of co​urse content

This course is the specialization electives for the Biotechnology track.

In this specialization-track biotech R&D overview course, we aim to cover the general topics related to modern biotech, the general categories of biopharmaceutics, the strategies used in identifying biomolecules with desirable therapeutic effects and how industry optimize and evaluate the hits. During this course, through format like Quiz, presentations and final exam assay questions, students are expected to apply learnt biological knowledge into evaluating hypothetical and real-life pharmaceutical development projects and provide technical feasibility analysis.

1/3 of the course is conducted in Technology-Enhanced Learning format, which involves multimedia presentations, on-site Quiz with immediate feedback, etc. Together with one of our course instructors, Dr. Ignacio Asial (industry instructor), who is the co-founder of local biotech, BS6216 would have extensive coverage of current industrial trends and technologies.

Rationale for introducing this course

Biopharmaceutics are on the rise. Novel techniques including engineered antibodies, RNAi, immune-cellular therapy, CRISPR-cas technologies, etc., are destined to overtake the market share that small molecule drugs once dominated. It is time for us to recap how different is the biopharmaceutics R&D as compared to previous chemical drugs.

Aims and objectives

  • Understand how modern-day pharmaceutics R & D is conducted and evaluated.
  • Understand the different sub-categories of biopharmaceutics and their unique problems and advantages.
  • Understand the current forefront landscape of biopharmaceutics R & D
  • Build up the ability of independent analysis of biopharmaceutics research project.

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    Syllabus

  • Biopharmaceutics in a nutshell. Target identification, fund raising and exit strategies
  • Overall development strategies for modern day R&D, antibodies, hormones, peptides, and proteins
  • Overall modern-day R&D, oligonucleotides, sugars, lipids, biological secondary metabolites and cellular therapy
  • Antibody and proteins 1 (mono-specific therapies)
  • Antibody and proteins 2 (ADC)
  • Antibody and proteins 3 (multi-specifics)
  • RNAi
  • mRNA drugs/vaccine, modifications, and delivery
  • CRISPR-cas
  • Biological adjuvants
  • Protac, and other chemical-biological hybrid approaches
  • Hormones, cytokines and their antagonists
  • Summary of current R&D landscape

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    Assessment

    Final Examination            
    		Individual50%
    Participation (8-10 In-Class Quiz)
    		Individual30%
    Group Presentation (2 projects)Group20%
    Total 100%

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    Hours of Contact/ Academic Units: 39 hours / 3 AU

    Instructor and Co-instructor (if any):

    • Assoc Prof Wu Bin (Course Coordinator)
    • Assoc Prof Luo Dahai
    • Dr Ignacio Asial

    Class size: 20-50