Research Project Guidelines

BIOE 425/625

Goal : To fully characterize the drug of your

choosing

This should be a comprehensive analysis of the

pharmacology of the drug. The ultimate objective is

to explain how the drug affects physiology and how

physiology affects the drug. This entails describing

and explaining how the drug works, how long it lasts,

how it is made, and why it is important.

The word count of the report should not exceed 15,000

words (approx 20 pages). Pictures, graphics and

illustrations are strongly encouraged. The

bibliography should follow the following guidelines

http://www.icmje.org/ and should include peer-reviewed

journals (some web page references are acceptable ).

Topics that should be covered:

Disease state/purpose of the drug

History of the disease

How the drug was developed

Clinical impact of the drug

Financial information

Pharmacodynamics

Biological activity

Binding affinity

Targeting

Biochemical pathways

Physical-chemical properties

Acid/base

pKa

Solubility

Permeability

Physiology

Organs involved in elimination

Absorption issues

Pharmacokinetics

Minimum effective dose

Toxic dose

Bioavailability

Elimination half-life

Clearance rates

Organs active in clearance

Metabolites (active/inactive)

Drug, food, herbal interactions

Side effects/toxicity

Pharmaceutics

Formulation issues

Routes of delivery

Drug stability

Manufacturing/industrial issues

Synthesis

Design Proposal

Identify a weakness, drawback or potential problem

with your drug. Write a 1 page abstract describing

the problem and how you propose to improve upon the

drug/formulation design . This proposal could address

a wide variety of topics. Suggestions include:

synthesis, bioavailabity, delivery, manufacturing

targeting, side effects drug interactions, price, etc.

Oral presentation

A 10-15 minute presentation with PowerPoint slides to

teach the class about your drug. It should be well

organized, interesting and comprehensive.