Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry: A Five-Day Course for High School Students

The Pre-College Summer Program at the University of Connecticut is designed to introduce upper-level high school students (rising juniors and seniors) to college life by allowing them to live on campus for a week while taking a college-level course. Within the context of this program, we developed a class designed to introduce high school students to the multidisciplinary process of drug discovery and development. While the targeted audience is made up of students that are interested in the science aspects of drug development (chemistry, pharmacology, etc.), the course also attracts students interested in the clinical side of drug discovery including pharmacy and medicine. The goals of this manuscript are to outline the rationale behind our course and detail the individual lecture and lab components that the students experience during their week on our campus.