Medicinal chemistry is a comprehensive discipline that discovers and creates new drugs, synthesizes chemical drugs and clarifies their chemical properties, and studies the interaction between drug molecules and biological macromolecules, which plays a pivotal role in the field of pharmacy; the research of medicinal chemistry involves chemistry, biology, chemical biology, biochemistry, structural biology and other related areas. The Department of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy at Nankai University currently has 18 faculties and more than 200 post-doctoral and postgraduate researchers. Their research involves drug design and synthesis, chemical biology, synthetic chemistry, natural product chemistry, computer-aided drug design, etc. The discipline aims to cultivate comprehensive pharmacy talents with solid theoretical foundation, strong practical ability, and broad vision in the field of pharmacy.
Microbial and Biochemical Pharmacy is a secondary discipline under pharmacy. This discipline widely applies the theoretical knowledge of molecular biology, biochemistry, chemical biology, cell biology, structural biology and pharmacology, to explore the underlying mechanism, identify targets, and screen and design innovative drugs for human common diseases such as malignant tumors, cardio cerebrovascular diseases and pulmonary fibrosis. The students will be trained to have broad specialized knowledge, theory, and research methods of microbial and biochemical pharmacy, and then understand current situation and development trend of microbial and biochemical pharmacy.
Pharmacology is a science that studies the interaction between drugs and the body (including pathogens), its rules and mechanisms. Pharmacology Department is a key discipline in the College of Pharmacy of Nankai University. After years of development, the Pharmacology Department has established a professional team of pharmacology talents, committed to the training of pharmacology talents and innovative scientific research. Adhering to the school motto of " Dedication to Public Interests；Acquisition of AII-round Capability；and Aspiration for Progress with Each Day. ", teachers and students pay attention to frontier scientific issues in the field of pharmacology, and have a good foundation in the development of new drugs, basic research on new drug targets, and interdisciplinary research.
The research direction of Pharmacology Department is closely related to all aspects of drug research and development, including drug target discovery, drug screening, molecular mechanism research, disease pathological mechanism exploration, etc. The research direction of Pharmacology Department involves many common human diseases, including virus infection, tumor, diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, etc.
Major studies in the discipline of pharmacology include:
1. Disease mechanisms and new drug targets:
Studies of signal transduction processes in complex biological systems based on chemical small molecule probes that reveal the chemical nature of life processes; Discovery of important disease-related markers, new therapeutic drug target, and lead compounds, which provides a foundation for disease diagnosis and prevention.
2. Drug design, synthesis and screening:
A variety of high-throughput drug screening technologies have been established, and drug target library, compound library and screening platform have been constructed. The theoretical basis of the structure-activity relationship of active molecules was studied, and a reasonable molecular design method was established to develop new drug lead compounds. To establish and optimize the screening method of lead molecules by studying new target proteins and animal disease models. Using the model animals with regenerative biological technology, carry out and establish disease pathology research to study new drug action targets and new mechanisms of drug action.
3. Bioanalysis
Combine chemical methods with biotechnology to develop new biosensor devices and technologies for detecting important markers related to diseases. Using molecular imaging technology to directly visualize physiological and pathological processes at the cellular level, and establish a bridge between molecular biology and clinical medicine.
4. Drug delivery:
A variety of new drug delivery technologies have been established, such as block copolymers, supramolecular compounds, small molecule gels，and polymer hydrogels， to build multifunctional and new intelligent drug delivery systems with environmental response and targeting functions.
The Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis is composed of 9 full-time faculty members and about 50 full-time graduate students or postdoctoral researchers. The research fields include traditional Chinese medicine analysis and new technologies for biochemical analysis.
The traditional Chinese medicine analysis direction interests are the molecular mechanisms of natural products and systems biology & chemical biology research. And major research field focuses on lead compounds screening, active component separation and identification, biological evaluation, mechanism study, quality control methods evaluation, and other natural medicines R&D. New technologies for biochemical analysis direction interests are antibody-based biological analysis for drug R&D, development of diagnostic systems, and fluorescent and raman compounds for diagnosis and therapy.
The Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis offers over 20 courses for undergraduate and graduate students, such as Pharmaceutical Analysis, Modern Analysis Technologies for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Modern Pharmaceutical Analysis and Pharmaceutical Technology, and Biochemical Analysis and Molecular Diagnosis.
The pharmaceutics major takes the construction of innovative theories and technologies of pharmaceutical preparations as the basic point, develops innovative key technologies, and strengthens the transformation of new pharmaceutical preparations, with the goal of forming distinctive characteristics in the field of teaching and scientific research and creating advantageous disciplines. Through continuous accumulation and improvement, a research platform for long-acting sustained and controlled release preparations, new nanodrugs and targeted delivery systems, in vivo evaluation and pharmacokinetics of innovative preparations, etc., have been established, forming researches with obvious interdisciplinary features. In this direction, good progress has been made in improving the druggability of anti-tumor small molecules and biological macromolecular drugs such as peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids, etc. Guided by the needs of the pharmaceutical industry, this major cultivates senior pharmaceutical professionals with basic theoretical knowledge, professional knowledge and skills of pharmaceutical preparations, who can engage in the research and development of pharmaceutical formulations and preparations, process design, production preparation, quality control and management of pharmaceutical preparations in the pharmaceutical fields.
