Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning Project Case Study 3D: An Enquiry-Based Approach to Drug Discovery and Development

Drug discovery and development is an important topic for students of pharmacology, neuroscience and other allied biomedical subjects. It is, however, a challenging topic to teach because the range and scope of practicals that can be offered in university teaching laboratories are limited to relatively simple experimental and analytical methods. Thus students often find it hard to relate theoretical teaching about the complex techniques and decision making processes used in the pharmaceutical industry to their own experiences in the laboratory. In an attempt to bridge the gap between our theory and practical teaching we have developed a group-based interactive Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) exercise simulating the process of drug discovery and development (called 3D). In the 3D simulation students select a drug target and then pass through a series of eight data analysis, experimental design and decision making steps that allow them to refine an initial library of 65,000 compounds to a few candidate drugs. The exercise culminates in a reflective poster presentation in which the students are required to describe and justify the decisions they made at each step. Forty students, primarily from the honours schools of pharmacology and biomedical sciences, took part in the first trial of the 3D exercise. Apart from minor issues concerning group composition and intra-group communication, feedback solicited by post-exercise questionnaire was very positive with students citing improved knowledge of the drug discovery process and improved data handling skills as benefits.