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D4: Drug Design, Development, and Delivery. A New Capstone Course for Chem E's Interested in the Bio-Industries

Mark Prausnitz and Andreas S. Bommarius. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100

While the pharmaceutical industry often focuses on drug discovery and drug sales, there are many more aspects to the process of developing successful pharmaceuticals. Within the industry, aspects such as designing a scalable route for small molecules, desgining a robust process for proteins or vaccines, as well as manufacuring and delivery have long been neglected but have garnered much attention recently. D4: Drug Design, Development, and Delivery is a new interdisciplinary course at Georgia Tech taught annually by the authors and a colleague from Chemistry/Biochemistry. Cross-listed in the Schools of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemistry/Biochemistry and open to graduate students and seniors, the course teaches an introduction to the industry and the drug development process as well as basics of each of the three D's, design, manufacuring, and delivery. The latter part of the course deals with case studies of actual and failed pharmaceutical products, emphasizing one of the three D's. Teams of 3 students from a variety of majors and standings (U/G) prepare a study and present it to the rest of the class, followed by discussion and a statement on broader impacts by the instructors. Examples of the case studies include the testosterone patch, dorzolamide against glaucoma, leuprolide extended release against cancer, and insulin manufacture and delivery.