Interaction between drugs (= medicinal agents) and macromolecules in the body is the basis of pharmacology. Binding to proteins, enzymes and receptors initiates a chain of events, which leads to absorption, metabolism, distribution, elimination and pharmacological actions of administered drugs. In order to understand the behavior of drugs in the human body, a thorough understanding of the quantitative aspects of the underlying molecular interactions is required.

In this module the interaction between small organic molecules and proteins, enzymes and receptors will be measured in detail using biochemical techniques. Protein binding, and metabolism (enzyme kinetics) will be measured in vitro. Graphical analyses, simulations and basic statistics will be used to characterize the interactions studied. Some custom-made simulations will be designed to extrapolate the results and to predict pharmacological behavior in vivo. The spreadsheet-program Excel is used extensively.

Attendance
Due to the short duration and intensive nature of the lab course, 100% attendance is required.