Undergraduate - UnitPSC2012 - Molecular pharmacology

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Offered	Parkville Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr John Haynes

Notes

Prior to 2013 unit was PSC2062 Pharmacology

Synopsis

The aim of this unit is to introduce second year Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science students to the essential elements of molecular pharmacology. Specifically this unit will introduce students to the pharmacological principles of drug action. It includes descriptions of agonist and antagonist activities, analysis of agonist-effect relationships and the intracellular processes by which endogenous and exogenously applied compounds elicit effects. Students will receive a series of lectures covering in-depth aspects of receptor pharmacology (signalling bias, bitopic inverse agonism, allosteric modulators, internalization).

These lectures will also cover in detail the pharmacology of the peripheral nervous systems and calcium-dependent transmitter systems and effectors. At its completion, students will have been provided the opportunity to understand and apply the basic tenets of pharmacology to their Pharmaceutical Sciences degree. This unit will equip students for third year Pharmaceutical Biology.

Outcomes

At the end of this unit students will be able to:

Identify how pharmacologically active chemicals can affect living systems through interactions with receptors;
Show how receptor activity can itself be modulated / modified / terminated by ligand binding;
Describe how modulation of receptor function enables the autonomic nervous system to regulate specific bodily functions;
Suggest possible cellular outcomes following multiple signalling inputs.