Abstract:

The aim of “Advanced Medicinal Chemistry” course (last year of Pharmacy Degree, University of Seville, Spain) is to train the students in “retrosynthetic” procedures that “constitute the basis of a general logic of synthetic planning which was developed and demonstrated in practice...” applied to commercially available drug synthesis. The general principles of organic chemistry as well as the main medicinal concepts were learnt previously. The students were then satisfactorily prepared to explore and design basic organic synthesis schemes, a talent that only can be learnt with instruction and practice.

An alternative approach to learn retrosynthetic analysis through problem solving and collaborative learning is presented. Thus, a commercially available drug is used to illustrate the potential of Problem Based Learning (PBL) methodologies.

In that sense, problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional method that challenges students to learn by proposed real-like problems, used to engage students' curiosity and to initiate in learning new issues. PBL model was developed in medical education in the early 1970's and since then, has been refined and widely used in other areas.

Herein, the authors propose an easy way of practicing some fundamentals of retrosynthetic procedure by PBL system, focus on a commercially available drug as the target molecule.

Compiled data were evaluated under the light of case study to show up the relevance of these experiences in the development of new student skills.

References:
[1] Warren, S.; Wyatt, P. Organic Synthesis: The Disconnection Approach. 2nd Edition, 2008, Chichester (UK): John Wiley & Sons,
[2] Nobel Lecture of E. J. Corey, 1990.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1990/corey-lecture.pdf.
[3] Uden, L.; Beaumont, C. (Eds.) Technology and Problem-Based Learning, 2006, London (UK): Information Science Publishing,
[4] Clouston, T.; Westcott, L.; Whitcombe, S.; Riley, J.; Matheson, R. (Eds.) Problem-Based Learning in Health and Social Care, 2010, Chichester, UK, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
[5] Blumenfeld, P.C.; Soloway, E.; Marx, R.W.; Krajcik, J.S.; Guzdial, M.; Palincsar, A. Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the learning, In Fogarty R. (Ed) Problem Based Learning. A Collection of Articles, 1998, California, USA, Corwin Press.

Keywords:

Commercially available drug, PBL, retrosynthesis, learning methodologies.