Pharmacologist / Medicinal Chemist / Biotechnician

[KFC]

I want to become a person who use biotechnology to engineer pharmaceuticals. What type of degrees and which school would the best for me?

[CharonY]

It depends on whether you want to do basic or applied research. In industry you rarely develop new compounds but concentrate on modifying existing ones in terms of delivery, pharmacokinetics, etc.

Most of the people I know with R&D jobs in the industry have degrees in pharmacy.

[KFC]

I want to open pharmaceutical, biomaterials, and chemical company?

[CharonY]

Uhm. In that case I think the starting capital will be the biggest problem. And then go and hire people to do it...

[MM6]

You want a business degree, and start-up money. If you're serious about doing business in the biomedical field a technical degree will set you apart.

 

Tufts U has a dual degree program in biomedical sciences and business administration (if I recall). A program like that would be perfect. Or you could do a BS in pharmacy, biomedical sciences, biotechnology, or pharmacology and then top it off with an MBA.

[KFC]

I'm going with Obama on this one, I think when opening a pharmaceutical company it best to actual know how to make pharmaceuticals and not just manage money. Anyway from what I can see on the internet University of California at San Francisco is the best. What do you guys think?

 

P.S. I live in the western United States and I don't what to moving to far.

[maha]

Pharmacology (from Greek φάρμακον, pharmakon, "drug"; and -λογία, -logia) is the study of drug action.[1] More specifically it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and exogenous chemicals that alter normal biochemical function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals. The field encompasses drug composition and properties, interactions, toxicology, therapy, and medical applications and antipathogenic capabilities.

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floating tanks

hgh

[GDG]

I want to become a person who use biotechnology to engineer pharmaceuticals. What type of degrees and which school would the best for me?

 

We in the pharmaceutical industry usually categorize pharmaceuticals into "large molecule" (e.g., proteins, antibodies, enzymes, etc.) and "small molecule" (your typical organic molecule type drug, mw<500). You can use biotechnology to work on both types of project.

 

If you are interested in inventing new protein-type pharmaceuticals, you probably want a degree (PhD preferred) in molecular biology. What you would want is training in how to design (or modify) protein sequences so that the resulting molecule has the activity you are looking for, and then the ability to engineer the gene (plasmid, vector, etc.) so that you get efficient production.

 

If you want to make small molecules, the best degree is Medicinal Chemistry (Synthetic Organic Chemistry a strong second). Applications of biotech to small molecule development are usually more limited -- setting up the assays used to test candidate drugs, etc. However, some companies also invest in exploratory biology, i.e., letting you try to determine cytokine receptors, signalling pathways, etc. that might lead to a therapeutic intervention.

[Psycho]

It depends how you want to go about producing them, you could take the route of Microbiology and Genetics and elucidate and manipulate pathways to use them too your own ends. Or in the case of Biochemistry map protein structures and then create inhibitors that block there action.

[KFC]

It depends how you want to go about producing them, you could take the route of Microbiology and Genetics and elucidate and manipulate pathways to use them too your own ends. Or in the case of Biochemistry map protein structures and then create inhibitors that block there action.

 

 

It sounds like the pharmacological-microbiological route is the one I'd be best at, and enjoy the most. What are the best schools for this particular area of study?