Imperial College London (ICL)

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module PHAR 7 on antimicrobials: we will consider drugs that are used in the treatment of microbial infection, exploiting key differences in biochemistry that permit treatments with varying degrees of selectivity for their target vs man. Importantly, this is an area where pharmacologists, toxicologists, and medicinal chemists face the challenges related to treatment efficacy i.e. the drugs don’t work...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module. PHAR 6, hypertension: treatments that are currently prescribed for hypertension, focusing on their pharmacodynamics to understand how these different drugs lower blood pressure and considering some of their side effects and important factors to consider when choosing treatment. - Explain the cardiovascular control of blood pressure and describe how it is measured - Classify the various stag...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Pharmacology module PHAR 5, on opioids: - Structure activity relationships: Predict how the chemical structure of opioids can determine lipid solubility and affinity/efficacy of these drugs. - Absorption: Review how route of administration may influence the bioavailability of drugs. - Metabolism: Explain how the metabolism of opioids can change the structure of opioid drugs and greatly influence their abi...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module learning outcomes: - Define key terms relating to cancer (words to describe cancer and cancer-related processes) - Explain the differences between a normal cell and a cancer cell - Outline the risk factors for cancer, and identify which are most relevant to common cancers - Describe the different steps that are required for a metastatic cancer to arise - Name the 6 hallmarks of c...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module A crucial characteristic of every living cell is its ability to communicate with neighbouring cells. This interchange of information between a cell and its environment is what is known as cellular signalling. Specifically, a cell must be able to give precise responses to the environmental signals that it is continually receiving. Cell signalling pathways regulate all the key processes in...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module For a cancer to be initiated, certain changes must take place within the genes of a cell. These genes usually control the process of cells growing and reproducing only as required, in an orderly and controlled way (cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival). Studies of tumour viruses revealed that specific genes (called oncogenes) are capable of inducing oncogenic cell changes, ...

Module notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module Cancer cells can break away from their site or organ of origin to invade surrounding tissue and spread (metastasise) to distant body parts. At those new sites, cancer cells can form new tumours (metastases). These metastatic tumours are estimated to be responsible for around 90% of cancer deaths, an estimate that hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years. These notes describe the key ...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module learning outcomes: - Define cancer therapeutic resistance - Explain some of the different mechanisms of drug resistance - Describe how cancer stem cells and epigenetic changes can give rise to drug resistance - Describe cancer biomarkers and the different ways biomarkers are used in cancer - Outline current strategies to discover biomarkers - Define personalised medicine and p...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Bioscience BSc, 2nd year, Cancer Biology (CBIO) module. The main pillars of cancer therapy are surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy. How a cancer patient is treated will depend on many factors including tumour type, location, grade and stage of the disease as well as the general health of the patient. A single treatment modality can be used alone to treat a patient or different treatments types may be...

Lecture notes from Imperial College London, Medical Biosciences BSc, 2nd year, Cancer Biology Module (CBIO). module learning outcomes: - describe the steroid hormone signalling pathway - list cancers regulated by hormones - outline architecture of nuclear receptors - describe strategies used to target oestrogen and androgen signalling, list different types of hormonal therapies - describe breast cancer pathology and the role of oestrogen receptors - describe roles of androgens in develo...