This medicinal chemistry case study is designed to introduce students to the development of antimalarial 4-aminoquinolines and the early stages of drug discovery and development. It focuses on antimalarial 4-aminoquinolines (4-AQs) and involves an introduction to malaria, its causes, societal impact and the need for new drugs. It then presents an overview of 4-AQs, their mode of action, structure activity relationships (SARs) and pharmacokinetics.

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The context of this resource requires that the students adopt the role of a medicinal chemist working for the GHO (Global Health Organisation) in the Tropical Diseases Research Centre. Learners are asked to prepare a research proposal of not more than 2000 words to seek funding for a SAR study which aims to find new and much needed antimalarial 4-AQs.

Students work in groups of 3-5 and the overall task is achieved in a stepwise manner over a series of seven Workshops. The learners manage their project using a wiki, present their findings and recommendations to their peers and tutors and compile a professional report. 

The resource differs from a traditional lecture course by employing Context/Problem-Based Learning as a teaching methodology, which aims to increase student engagement by using real world contexts. Learners work collaboratively and are presented with problem scenarios that are ill-defined and have a number of satisfactory solutions. This approach allows for the development of valuable transferable skills such as communication, team working and problem solving.

This resource and its components are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.