Dr Chris Rostron graduated in Pharmacy from Manchester University and completed a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at Aston University. He gained Chartered Chemist status in 1975. After a period of post-doctoral research he was appointed as a lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry at Liverpool Polytechnic. He is now an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University. He was a member of the Academic Pharmacy Group Committee of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and chairman for the past 5 years. He is currently chairman of the Academic Pharmacy Forum and deputy chair of the Education Expert Advisory Panel of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He is an external examiner in Medicinal Chemistry at a number of Schools of Pharmacy both in the UK and abroad. In 2008 he was awarded honorary membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for services to Pharmacy education.

• 1: Introduction


• Part 1 Drug targets


• 2: Receptors and signal transduction


• 3: Enzymes as drug targets


• 4: Nucleic acids and protein synthesis as drug targets


• 5: Other drug targets


• Part 2 Origins of drug molecules


• 6: Sources of lead compounds


• 7: Drug synthesis


• 8: Optimisation of lead compounds


• 9: Computer-aided drug design


• 10: Combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening


• 11: Biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals


• Part 3 Biological aspects of drug development


• 12: Drug metabolism


• 13: Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics


• 14: Toxicity testing


• Part 4 Preformulation studies


• 15: Solubility and drug development


• 16: Solid state characteristics


• 17: Drug stability


• Part 5 Clinical research


• 18: Clinical research and its regulation


• 19: Design and management of clinical trials