Prospectus

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Infectious disease therapies: bench to bedside

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

Students of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences, and external students enrolled in a biomedical master program, with adequate knowledge of pharmacology and pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics, and statistics.

Description

This lecture series will provide an overview of drug development and therapy optimization strategies for infectious disease therapeutics. Infectious diseases covered include bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens. We will discuss key preclinical infection models, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of anti-infective agents, translational and clinical development strategies, and personalized medicine of anti-infective agents. Both classical antimicrobial therapeutics as well as novel therapeutic modalities will be covered. The lectures will include both basic concepts as well as specific case studies.

Course objectives

  • Recall the fundamental theory of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacology, and corresponding use of mathematical/statistical modeling.

  • Obtain understanding of the mode of action of common anti-infective agents against major pathogens.

  • Obtain understanding of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of anti-infectives.

  • Obtain understanding of how the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic indexes are applied to the clinical setting.

  • Develop understanding of the use of advanced experimental infection models in drug development and their translational potential to the clinic.

  • Obtain understanding of the use of mathematical modelling in anti-infective drug development and therapy optimization.

Timetable

This course is scheduled in semester 2, period 3.
A detailed schedule of the course will be published on the Brightspace course module.

In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.

Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.

Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.

Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.

Mode of instruction

The course will consist of lectures. Active participation in the discussions and self-study skills are required for this course.

Assessment method

Written Exam (100%)

For each individual exam, the grade is expressed either with pass or fail, or by using a decimal integer between 1.0 and 10.0 that should be ≥ 5.5. The final grade is expressed using an integer between 1 and 10 and can be rounded off/up to a half integer, with the exception of the grade 5.5. Final grades between 5.50 and 5.99 will be rounded up to 6.0. The final grade should be 6.0 to successfully complete this course.

The time and manner of the inspection and of the feedback session on the examination are specified in the Brightspace module of the course.

Reading list

Will be announced during the course.

Registration

As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.

In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.

There are two enrolment periods per year:

  • Enrolment for the fall opens in July

  • Enrolment for the spring opens in December

See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.

Note:

  • It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.

  • Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.

  • Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.

Contact

Coordinators: Dr. A. Märtson, Prof. J.G.C. van Hasselt, Dr. R.C. van Wijk
Märtson, A. (Anne-Grete) a.martson@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl
Hasselt, J.G.C. van (Coen) coen.vanhasselt@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl
Wijk, R.C. van (Rob) r.c.van.wijk@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl

Remarks

A minimum of 10 participants is required, with a maximum of 40 students. Placement is based on the registration date.

This information is without prejudice. Alterations can be made for next year.

Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.