Graduate Courses

Coordinator: Dr. Peter McPherson

This is a required course for Ph.D. students. By the end of Year 1, PhD students are required to have successfully completed their first supervisory committee meeting. A required component of the first meeting is to present a written PhD project proposal to committee members that will be orally presented and defended at the first meeting. 

This modular course will introduce the concepts and craft required to create a compelling and effective Research Proposal through 4 sessions throughout Year 1. Session 1 will cover essential features of a Research Proposal, the following 3 sessions will be in a tutorial-style format with students presenting and receiving feedback on their evolving project proposals from student peers and faculty. The final assessment of the Research Proposal will be undertaken by members of the initial Supervisory Committee Meeting.

Grade Scale: CR/NCR
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinator: Dr. Laurie Zawertailo

This course is offered in alternate years.

The goal of this course is to examine the methodological and experimental basis of studying the effects of drugs on behaviour. Throughout the course the relationship of pre-clinical behavioural pharmacology to human behavioural pharmacology is compared. There will be a strong emphasis on how behavioural studies can assist in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and identification of novel therapeutic approaches for various addictions. Part I will introduce basic concepts and general background covering the principles of behavioural pharmacology and theories of addiction will be covered, with a focus on licit drugs. This approach ensures that students somewhat weaker in relevant areas of psychology or pharmacology are able to gain such knowledge early in the course. 

Grade Scale: Letter Grade
Credits: 0.25 FCE

Coordinator: Dr. Laurie Zawertailo

This course is offered in alternate years.

The goal of this course is to explore innovations in the treatment of addictive disorders from a mechanistic and clinical effectiveness perspective.  Throughout the course the relationship of pre-clinical behavioural pharmacology to human behavioural pharmacology is compared. There will be a strong emphasis on how behavioural studies can assist in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and identification of novel therapeutic approaches for various addictions.

Grade Scale: Letter Grade
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinator: Drs. Krista Lanctôt and Walter Swardfager

This online synchronous module is designed to expose students to the state-of-the-art in contemporary clinical research methods  (observational and interventions) relevant to drug discovery in treating and preventing dementia.

Grade Scale: CR/NCR
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinators: Drs. Rachel Tyndale and Meghan Chenoweth

This course will introduce students to basic concepts in human genetics and personalized medicine. Students will be introduced to important pharmacogenomic targets such as drug metabolizing enzymes, transporters, and receptors. Students will be introduced to key resources, methods, and approaches used in the field. Through lectures, journal articles, and case studies, students will learn about the principles of pharmacogenomics and examples of drugs that are impacted by pharmacogenomic variation. Students will be introduced to areas of medicine where pharmacogenomics can be used to optimize patient care. Students will also learn about the barriers and challenges of implementing pharmacogenomics in the clinic.

Grade Scale: Letter Grade
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinator: Dr. Rachel Harding

Students enrolled in this course will learn a comprehensive overview of the principles and practical techniques involved in early-phase drug discovery and target validation. Students will learn about drug target identification and validation; assay development and screening; hit optimisation; lead identification for preclinical studies; and emerging methods in modern drug discovery. Emphasis will be placed on the multi-disciplinary nature of this stage of the drug discovery pipeline, ensuring a breadth of training on key techniques and principles of molecular biology, protein biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, computational chemistry, and pharmacology.

Grade Scale: CR/NCR
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinator: Dr. Bernd Pohlmann-Eden

This course is meant to get a “hands-on experience” of Clinical Pharmacology applied to Epilepsy and First Seizure Presentations, which reflect the most frequent type of brain disorders. The participants will learn:

• the basic pathophysiological concept for treating seizure disorder in all stages (first seizure, new-onset epilepsy, refractory epilepsy);
• the range of medications available with their historical background and putative mechanism;
• the importance of individually tailored treatment;
• various frequent clinical scenarios and their impact on drug choice (pregnancy, elderly, bone health);
• emergency treatment of status epilepticus;
• the most important lessons we got from clinical trials.

Grade Scale: CR/NCR
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinators: Drs. Ali Salahpour and Martin Beaulieu

This course covers basics and classic concepts of dopamine neurotransmission and pharmacology and it focuses on specific modulators of dopamine neurotransmission (packaging, recapture and dopamine receptors).

Grade Scale: Letter Grade
Credits: 0.25 FCE
 

Coordinators: Dr. Rebecca Laposa and Dr. Martin Beaulieu

The course is the first of two modules that will allow students from life sciences graduate programs to acquire foundational knowledge for the development and critical evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) approaches in drug development.  The course will introduce students to fundamental concepts in AI and machine learning and demonstrate their application to drug development. Students will examine foundational papers at the intersection of AI and drug development in depth to understand the conceptual framework of the AI models that underlie the findings. The scope of the course includes structural biology, chemistry of druglike molecules, translational research and clinical pharmacology. With facilitation, students will conduct hands-on active learning assignments using simplified datasets to solidify their understanding of AI approaches. To develop collaborative multidisciplinary skills, life science students will meet with Computer Science students and design drug development research questions that can be answered by AI approaches.

See the Course Syllabus for further information.

Grade Scale: Letter Grade
Credits: 0.25 FCE 
 

Coordinators: Dr. Rebecca Laposa and Dr. Martin Beaulieu

This course is the second of two courses that will allow students from graduate programs in life sciences to acquire foundational knowledge for collaborative development and critical evaluation of AI approaches in drug development. This course will emphasize the practical growth of collaborative multidisciplinary skills. The course will apply foundational principles from PCL3107H to an applied setting. Students will participate in co-designing the research questions, research design and data architecture of authentic projects at the intersection of AI and drug development. Student teams comprised of students from life science Departments and the Department of Computer Science will collaborate to design and articulate the key research design steps required to launch a future collaborative research project. Tutorials will involve co-working sessions facilitated with expert guidance. Students in the life sciences will appreciate the priorities and research approaches of AI data scientists, in order to work together productively and effectively in future projects. Life science students will share their domain-specific scientific expertise and their perspectives about experimental validation with AI data scientists. 

See the course syllabus for further information.

Grade Scale: Letter Grade
Credits: 0.25 FCE