Modelling how drugs produce effects

Most drugs work by binding to specific receptors on the surface of cells, which alters the activity of the cell to produce beneficial therapeutic effects. These drug-induced effects can be readily described by relatively simple mathematical relationships.

Undergraduate students completing a Major in Pharmacology need to have an advanced level of understanding of the importance of the properties of both the drug and cell in determining drug-induced effects.

The aim of the current project is for CITS3200 students to use well-established mathematical models of drug action (provided) to develop an interactive application that enables Level 3 pharmacology students:

  1. to visualise how changes in the properties of the drug (such as concentration, affinity and efficacy) and the cell (numbers of receptors, etc.), affects drug-induced effects in cells
  2. to develop competencies in the visual interpretation of drug-induced effects, through the use of a Quiz tool (included in the application).
In this project, CITS students will use mathematical models to develop an educational tool that helps to visually explain the important concept of drug-induced effects. Successful completion of the project will result in the incorporation of the application into the Molecular Pharmacology (PHAR3310) unit for 2019 - and will complement the application explaining the concept of drug binding developed by CITS3200 students in 2017.

Client

Contact Person: A/Prof Peter Henry
Telephone: 6457 3123
Email: [email protected]
Preferred method of contact: email or person-to-person
Location: QEII Medical Centre (M Block)

Client Unavailability

None

IP Exploitation Model

The client wishes to use a Creative Commons CC BY-NC model to deal with IP embodied in the project.