Disease, Signaling and Drug Targets
This minor is focused on fundamental scientific research required for discovery of new drug targets and development of new drugs. Students learn how disease and drug-induced alterations in signaling pathways can be used for the discovery of new drug targets and the development of personalized drugs.
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Goal of this minor is to provide insight into general signal transduction pathways and how these pathways are altered in disease or upon modulation with pharmacological agents. Moreover, it is illustrated how fundamental research of these processes can be used for the discovery of new drug targets. Furthermore, this module shows how insights in the changes in molecular pathways of disease constitute the basis for the identification of biomarkers that can be used for monitoring disease progression in patients. This is important for the development of new drugs aiming at modification of disease progression as well as for assessment of the effects of novel drug treatments in clinical trials. Several of these concepts are illustrated during two wet-lab research projects at the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research. These projects focus on Atherosclerosis and the application of induced pluripotent stem cells as innovative models for drug discovery and safety.