In Silico Studies for Personalized Medicine

Code:

OPT198

Acronym:

ESMP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Medicine

Instance: 2023/2024 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master in Medicine

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIMED	2	Plano Oficial 2021	5	-	2	19	54

Teaching language

Portuguese and english

Objectives

Personalized medicine is an emerging paradigm in medicine that aims to maximize the benefits of medicines and minimize their adverse effects. For this, the need to develop realistic models will be a fundamental condition to understand the pharmacological responses and limits of heterogeneity. In addition to basic foundations, this UC aims to highlight the best methods for applying personalized drug therapy and provide specific examples about the incorporation of these approaches using specific software.

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
- Understand that the response to pharmacological treatment varies among patients
- Understand the importance of in silico studies in a context of research and clinical decision
- Participate in drug combination studies for personalized therapy
- Incorporate clinical cases to illustrate the benefits of in silico studies in personalized medicine
- Interpret quantitative approximations that maximize precision therapy.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Not applicable.

Program

Introduction
- Theoretical foundations of personalized or precision medicine
- Choice of specific targets, suitability to the patient's need and precise dose to achieve it.

Part I: Basic techniques for personalized therapy
- Pharmacokinetics for clinicians
- Drug behavior in groups of patients
- Development of maximized dosing regimes
- Laboratory tests for individualized therapy
- Evaluation of renal function

Part II: From clinical software to in silico studies
- BestDose clinical software applications
- Individual drug models for patients via Bayesian methods
- Obtaining better samples for monitoring patients
- Oriented approach to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling with physiological basis
- Computational tools and mathematical models in support of personalized medicine
- Modeling studies with oral drugs
- Quantitative systems in the distribution of medications in oncology

Part III: In silico studies and clinical applications in personalized medicine
- In silico studies for monitoring doses and drug combinations
- Clinical studies of individualized pharmacological therapies

Mandatory literature

Jelliffe, R.; Neely, M. ; Individualized drug therapy for patients: basic foundations, relevant software and clinical applications (1st edition). , Academic Press., 2016

Complementary Bibliography

Manca, D. ; Quantitative systems pharmacology: models and model-based systems with applications (1st edition). , Elsevier, 2018

Teaching methods and learning activities

The UC will have a duration of 19 classroom hours, distributed by 12 theoretical and 7 theoretical-practical.
After the theoretical exposition of each topic of the program, practical working groups will be created to develop a critical analysis of a scientific article related to in silico studies for personalized medicine.
The UC will have its evaluation resulting from the realization of an Exam that will cover the theoretical content of the UC program and will consist of:
i) closed, simple and multiple answer questions;
ii) open questions with a short answer, and
iii) numerical exercises (12 points) and oral presentation (per group) of the critical analysis of the published scientific article (8 points).

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	40,00
Exame	60,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	25,00
Frequência das aulas	19,00
Trabalho escrito	10,00
Total:	54,00

Eligibility for exams

To obtain attendance, students must be present in 75% of classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

The UC will have its evaluation resulting from the realization of an Exam that will cover the theoretical content of the UC program and will consist of: i) closed, simple and multiple answer questions; ii) open questions with a short answer, and iii) numerical exercises (12 points) and oral presentation (per group) of the critical analysis of the published scientific article (8 points).