Drug design is an integral part of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The UCL Division of Medicine and Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research are experts in training the next generation of drug discovery biologists and chemists in the field, particularly in drug discovery projects.
On this full-time MSc, you will develop the essential skills needed in this sought-after field, while exploring robust research methods and the most up-to-date drug design techniques.
The course covers all aspects of drug discovery, including genomics, bioinformatics, structural biology, cheminformatics, molecular modelling and fragment-based drug design, drug target selection, intellectual property and marketing.
Our guest lecturers come from Industry, which gives students the opportunity to ask about current industrial practice and career progression.
As well as lectures and practicals, workshops are run regularly to enrich students’ skills, such as scientific writing, preparing CVs, career paths, how to apply for PhD, and more.
Subject-specific skills – creative thinking, knowledge, analytical, experimental design, and research skill that are related to pharmaceutical industry.
Wider general skills - communication, research reporting, team building and collaboration, oral presentation, organisational and time management.
Graduates from this course progress to PhD and medical studentships at universities and research institutes around the world, including Oxford, UCL, Grenoble, EMBL, and in the USA and China.
According to the Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of graduates in the 2018–2024 cohorts, 86% of Drug Design MSc graduates progressed onto work (61%) or further study (24%), with a majority undertaking highly skilled roles.
Graduates have gone on to work for a range of employers, including:
An upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree in a relevant subject (for example, life sciences, medicine, chemistry) or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, or an appropriate professional qualification, or a minimum of three years’ relevant work experience.