2nd Year Pharmacology

2nd Year Pharmacology (PM202)

Course Coordinator

Dr. Maura Grealy

Email: maura.grealynuigalway.ie

Telephone: 091 493012 (outside); Ext. 3012 (inside)

Semester I: Fundamentals of Pharmacology I (PM203)

Semester II: Fundamentals of Pharmacology II (PM204)

Practical Programme coordinator:

Dr. Maura Grealy

Course Structure

The 2nd Year Pharmacology course is a core subject in the 2nd Year undenominated Science and denominated Biomedical Science degree programme and carries a weighting of 20 ECTS.  There are lecture and practical components to the course, and the course is divided into two sections (PM203 and PM 204) each of which is equivalent to 10 ECTS.

Lectures

The lecture programme will consist of the following:

• Pharmacodynamics (what the drug does to the body) and 
• Pharmacokinetics (what the body does to the drug).
• Receptor targets of drugs
• The process by which drugs are discovered and developed
• The biochemical processes that occur following activation of these receptors.
• The mechanism of action of the major naturally-occurring chemical substances.
• The pharmacological basis for the treatment of diseases of the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems         

Practicals

In Semester I, most of the practical sessions consist of workshops and computer aided learning practicals, which will include the following topics:

• Laboratory calculations, volumes, weights, molarities, etc.
• Standard curve workshop
• Simulations of the guinea pig ileum
• Pharmacokinetic calculations
• Clinical Trials
• Drug Profiles

In Semester II, you will become competent in a variety of laboratory techniques:

• Dilutions and standards
• Assays for drugs
• Making up buffers
• Estimation of pH partition coefficients
• Drug half life in plasma

Practical Schedule

There is a single weekly practical session on a Tuesday afternoon, commencing at 14.00.  For all practicals taking place in the teaching laboratory, it is necessary to bring a laboratory coat and safety glasses.  In addition, it will be necessary to purchase a laboratory manual from Media Services on the main concourse. N.B. There is a separate manual for each Semester.

Blackboard

Blackboard is an online course management system.  We will post notices, sometimes lecture notes, MCQ exams etc on it, so you need to register.

You can self-enrol by going to the website: https://nuigalway.blackboard.com/

To login you need a user name and password.  Initially you can use your student id as both your username and your password, and once you have successfully registered for the course you should change your password.

Examinations

Lectures

At the end of each Semester, there is a 2-hour written examination based on the lecture material.  This will take the form of 6 questions, of which 4 questions must be attempted.  We have provided recent examination papers.  The written papers will comprise 70% of the total marks in each Semester.  The remaining marks will come from the practical programme.

Practicals

At the end of Semester I, there is a 2-hour written examination, whilst at the end of Semester II, this takes the form of a 3-hour "wet" practical assessment.  Each piece of work from both Semesters is marked, and there will also be an MCQ on laboratory calculations on the 29th September.  The marks breakdown will be as follows:

Continuous assessment 20%

Practical Exam              10%

in each Semester

Recommended Textbooks

An indispensable book is Pharmacology by Rang et al., which will prove valuable for the 3rd year of the programme as well.

Hollinger, M.A. (2003): Introduction to Pharmacology, 2nd Edition, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0415280346.

Howland and Mycek, (2006): Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology: 3rd edition. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.  ISBN 07817 41181

Rang, H.P., Dale, Ritter and Gardner (2007): Pharmacology, 6th Edition. Churchill Livingstone.

ISBN 0443 069115

Programme Feedback

At the end of each Semester, students will have an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback in the form of questionnaires, as well as liaising with their class representatives.

Class representatives

There will be two student representatives elected, one from the Undenominated Science stream and one from the Biomedical Science stream, who will represent the class and participate in the Staff-Student meetings, one of which takes place in the middle of each Semester.  These representatives will be elected at the end of September.

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