last updated: Jun 09 2007
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The University of Texas at Austin
Executive Vice President and Provost

2004 Entries and Abstracts: Teaching With Technology

Patrick Davis
Division of Medicinal Chemistry, PHR 143M/P: Intro to Medicinal Chemistry
http://www.utexas.edu/pharmacy/courses/phr452d/Main_Page.html
Flash-Based Tutorials in Drug Metabolism

Student comprehension of drug metabolism is fundamental to understanding multiple factors responsible for drug disposition (ADME), metabolically-based drug-drug interactions, and pharmacogenetic differences in drug disposition. From an introductory standpoint, this requires an integration of (a) organic functional group recognition, (b) knowledge of phase-1 and phase-2 modifications targeting those functional groups (c) the specific enzymes involved, and (d) fundamental reaction mechanisms common to these bioconversions. With mastery of these basic concepts, a target ability is for students to be able to examine any drug molecule and make logical predictions of the full composite of potential phase-1 and phase-2 metabolites for that drug, resulting in a hypothetical “metabolic tree” (See Figure 1).