Molecules and Structures

Full course description

Increasingly, the effect of chemicals (PFAS, Nitrogen) and their properties on our health and biodiversity is discussed. The chemical sciences can be regarded as molecular sciences, covering all types of industrial chemical production processes, pharmaceutical R&D and the design of advanced biomedical materials. In their day-to-day R&D activities, medicinal-, polymer- and analytical chemists, molecular pharmacologists, toxicologists and biomedical scientists, are focussed on the fate of a large diversity of molecules, rely on a in-depth understanding of their structures and more over are familiar with the translation of molecular structures to molecular activity (enzymes) and (physic-chemical) properties. This course is the basis for the molecular engineering track, as interactions, chemical reactions and analytical technologies are highly dependent on molecular thinking.

The structure of molecules can be regarded as a solid fundament of these sciences. For instance, their accurate description, especially their spatial configuration or conformation, forms an essential basis for the assessment of their chemical reactivity/ reaction kinetics, and the related chemical or biological properties. Reaction kinetics in all types of industrial chemical processes or even biologically relevant metabolic pathways are directly related to the molecular structures. Likewise, post translational modifications of proteins altering their spatial conformation have been correlated to disease onset, while chirality has a major impact in the biological efficacy or even toxicity of medicinal drugs. The three-dimensional structure and the binding kinetics of small drug-like molecules is dependent on the positioning or exchange of hetero atoms, e.g. oxygen for sulphur.

The main objective of this course is to revive and deepen the knowledge on the basic descriptors of a large variety of molecular structures, involving industrial chemicals, lipids, steroids, peptides, synthetic and bio-polymers. Likewise, the extensive tools box and the fundamentals of analytical technologies for the unambiguous assessment of their structure will form the second pillar of this course. Equally important is the translation of molecular structures to their related chemical (log P/D) and biological (cell permeability) properties, an essential aspect in the understanding of molecular interactions and biological processes.