SU503: Pharmacology A (5 ECTS)

STADS: 29004101

Level
Bachelor course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the spring semester.

Teacher responsible
Email: usteckelings@health.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Students taking the course are expected to have basic knowledge of anatomy, protein and nucleotide biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, human physiology.

Course introduction
The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge about the main fields in pharmacology, which are classical pharmacokinetics (drug administration, absorption, distribution and excretion), molecular and cellular pharmacology (effects of drugs at the cellular level including drug-receptor interactions and intracellular signaling), organ pharmacology (effects of drugs on certain organs and their use for treatment of common diseases), methods used in pharmacological research and the process of drug discovery and development. This is important in regard to understand how drugs act on the body and the body acts on the drugs.

The course builds on the knowledge acquired in the courses SU501 Anatomy and SU502 Medical Physiology, and gives an academic basis for studying pharmacology in relationship to modern technology and health and apply this in future biomedical research (internships).

In relation to the competence profile of the degree it is the explicit focus of the course to:

Give the competence to:

• identify own learning needs and structure own learning in different learning environments
• participate professionally in collaboration both within biomedicine but also cross-disciplinary based on group oriented projects.

Give skills to:

• use a number of laboratory techniques
• combine the basic scientific skills with applied medical skills focusing on the human organism
• acquire new knowledge in an efficient and independent manner and to consciously  apply that knowledge

Give knowledge and understanding of

• theories and experimental methods in the central fields of molecular biology and biomedicine
• the mode of action of medicine on the human organs
• the scientific terminology used within the fields of molecular biology and biomedicine
• safety aspects of laboratory work
• how scientific knowledge is obtained in an interaction between theory and experiment

 

Expected learning outcome
The learning objective of the course is that the student demonstrates the ability to:

• Explain basic concepts of the interaction between drugs and receptors and the consequences for intracellular signal mechanisms.
• Explain principles of pharmacokinetics and make simple calculations by first order kinetics.
• Explain basic concepts of drug administration, absorption, distribution and elimination.
• Explain the mechanism of action of drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system
• Explain the mechanisms of action of common drugs acting on smooth muscle cells in e.g. the cardio-vascular system, intestines and bronchi 
• Explain the mechanism of action of common drugs acting on blood glucose regulation, inflammation and the immune response
• Explain the principles of antimicrobial drugs and the mechanism of action of main groups of antibiotics
• Explain the mechanism of action of main groups of anticancer drugs
• Name and explain common or typical side effects of drugs
• Explain the process of drug design and development

Subject overview


Literature

• Rang & Dale: Pharmacology, 8th edition.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:


Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.
Intro phase: 29 hours
Skills training phase: 14 hours, hereof:
 - Tutorials: 8 hours
 - Laboratory exercises: 6 hours

Educational activities
Educational form


Language
This course is taught in Danish or English, depending on the lecturer.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.