Drug Discovery and Safety
The programme in a nutshell
The master programme Drug Discovery and Safety is a two-year program worth 120 ECTS. During this time, you will take compulsory courses in your chosen specialization, plus a number of optional courses. Your own laboratory research is an important part of the program, which you perform in one of the participating research groups. Moreover, you write a literature thesis on a subject within Drug Discovery and Safety research and you acquire general academic skills.
Programme components
The master programme Drug Discovery and Safety consists of:
| Programme component | ECs |
| Introduction and advanced courses | 36 |
| Major research project | 42 |
| Academic skills | 6 |
| Literature thesis and colloquium | 12 |
| Elective space | 24 |
| Total | 120 |
You are at liberty to put together your own programme, as long as it reflects the interdisciplinary character of Drug Discovery and Safety. The master coordinator will help you choose the proper courses for your individual programme.
Specializations
Within the master programme you choose one of five specializations:
- Drug Discovery & Target Finding (Molecular Pharmacology)
- Drug Disposition & Safety Assessment (Molecular Toxicology)
- Drug Design & Synthesis
- Computational Medicinal Chemistry & Toxicology
- Biomarkers & Clinical Chemical Analysis
Profiles
Next to a specialization, you are also ought to chose for a profile. There are four profiles: research, social, communication and education. Each specialization and profile combination can be tailor-made to your personal requirements.
You can choose between the following profiles:
- Research: focuses on Drug Discovery and Safety research. With this profile you gain experience for a career in research, both in the university (PhD) as in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Social: focuses on policy-analysis, management and entrepreneurship. This profile enables you to combine your background in Drug Discovery and Safety with applications or management in industry.
- Communication: focuses on science communication theory and research, as well as on practice (partly in Dutch). This profile provides you with special training for a job in science communication.
- Education: provides you training as a teacher in chemistry for Dutch pre-university (VWO) level or vocational education (HBO) level (partly in Dutch).
At the initial planning stage of your master, you can define your own programme in consultation with the master coordinator. Each specialization and profile combination includes a balance between compulsory courses, optional courses and research training.
