Graduate Certificate in Drug Discovery

The Drug Discovery Graduate Program in the School of Pharmacy at Temple University provides current pharmaceutical professionals opportunities to pursue drug discovery research and evolve their credentials and skills.

Drug Discovery

Drug discovery involves the research process that identifies new therapies and brings them to market. The process comprises multiple stages including target identification, hit identification, lead optimization and preclinical testing. Multiple scientific disciplines such as molecular biology, genetics, chemistry and bioinformatics are employed to advance novel therapies capable of improving patient outcomes. 

Drug Discovery Certificate (Graduate) Learning Outcomes 

Upon completion of the program, you will  

• learn the techniques required for pursuing the process for drug discovery;

• develop a systematic understanding of how drugs and medicines are discovered;

• expand your professional network; and 

• become a highly marketable professional. 

Program Format and Curriculum

The Drug Discovery Certificate (Graduate) is fully online with asynchronous and synchronous components. The program is 12-credits and can be completed in a minimum of 1 year. 

The program comprises four courses. See the course requirements.

Through the curriculum, students will 

• have a clear understanding of the early-stage drug discovery process for small molecule therapeutics;
• understand and critically evaluate current literature on early-stage drug discovery programs;
• have hands-on experience and expertise to conduct noncompartmental analysis of pharmacokinetic datasets;
• understand late-stage discovery experiments and lead molecule progression in small molecule therapeutics programs;  

• understand and critically evaluate current literature on late-stage drug discovery programs; and  

• develop technical and report writing skills, including data analysis, interpretation, and hypothesis development.