Drug Discovery and Development MSc

University of Leeds

Do you want to have a positive impact on society by discovering new medicines that will improve lives?

Now, more than ever, we need well-trained cross-functional specialists willing to work towards a positive impact on society by finding and developing new medicines to help treat disease. Global and regional health challenges, such as obesity, malaria, tuberculosis or cancer, require the combined effort of dedicated people in multiple areas of science and medicine alongside the commercial sector.

This programme will offer you exposure to a range of fields spanning the pharmaceutical industry, including pharmacology, biochemistry, chemistry, clinical research, and pharmaceutical commercialisation. As a result, upon graduation, you’ll already be equipped with the skills necessary to work for large pharmaceutical companies, small biotech companies, contract research organisations, government regulatory bodies and many more. Our dedicated Employability and Professional Development Team will also support you with skill-building and opportunities to ensure you’re able to secure a graduate role.

The multidisciplinary aspect of the programme means you will be taught by experts from the School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Chemistry, the Faculty of Medicine and Health, the Business School, as well as experts currently working in the pharma sector. This breadth of topics will allow you to tailor your experience to gain exposure to the aspects you are most interested in, offering you the opportunity to focus on topics such as medicinal chemistry, molecular pharmacology and preclinical/clinical drug development.

Course highlights

• There’s a wide range of modules to choose from meaning you can choose a specialisation pathway based on your experience and interests, reflecting the different career areas within the pharmaceutical discovery and development pipeline.
• Undertaking a substantive lab-based project will build on your expertise and confidence, while gaining new research skills that will prepare you for the professional lab environment.
• You will be taught by experts from the multidisciplinary Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, meaning you will learn from medicinal chemists, structural molecular biologists and pharmacologists to gain the skills and knowledge to succeed in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Our close links with the pharma industry and the clinical trials unit in the Faculty of Medicine and Health means you will gain valuable real-world insight into drug discovery and clinical drug development.
• When applying for graduate jobs, you’ll already have valuable experiences to refer to, such as our drug commercialisation project, replicating a real-world industry setting.