Assessment

The course assessment consists of an end of course report worth 50% of the mark and in-course Professional Development work worth 50% of the mark.

(1) Target Validation Report (50%)

You work in the Target Validation department of a pharmaceutical company. The CEO of your company has heard that GlaxoSmithKline is setting up a project to target the glycolytic pathway in cancer. Not wanting to be left behind, he has asked you to look into the pathway to identify any enzymes that would be suitable as the basis of an inhibitor discovery programme.

He has just finished reading the papers below, and so the differences between the desirability of a target and the druggability of a target are fresh in his mind. He has asked you to make sure you analyse both areas carefully when compiling your report, before drawing your conclusions. Select one target from the glycolytic pathway to concentrate on (do not choose PFKFB3).

The Challenge of Drugging Undruggable Targets in Cancer

Metabolic targets for cancer therapy, Nature Drug Discovery

Your 2-part report should include:

1. Target Desirability analysis (Word '.doc' document with figures and references)
   • History/background of target
   • Involvement in disease
   • Evidence of efficacy if target activity is modified
2. Target Druggability analysis (Powerpoint '.ppt' file and Pymol '.pse' session)

The Word document should contain no more than 1500 words excluding references and figure legends.

(2) Professional Development (50%)

Self-Assess and provide evidence for the following three items  in Graduate Attributes [10%]
Remember to include evidence.

"Decision Making" [Personal & Intellectual Independence]
"Finding 'Stuff' on the Internet and Judging its Quality"  [Research & Enquiry]
"Identifying Personal Strategies or Targets" [Personal & Intellectual Independence]
 
(3) Action Plan based on Feedback [20%]
Looking at your feedback from the last course you took, identify a weakness or point for improvement and make an action plan based upon it and attach it to your WebFolio
 

(4) Reflection in the WebFolio supported by timely blog entries [20%]
Also reread your Webfolio from the previous course.  Have your ideas move on since then? What are your reflections on your experiences in this course. Note that these reflections should link to the blog for this course so it is important to use this regularly to record what you have been doing, when and what you thought at the time.

Deadlines

The deadline for the Assessed Report is Monday 14th May 16:00 (BST) 2018

The deadline for the PebblePad Graduate Attributes, Webfolio and Blogs is Thursday 17th May 16:00 (BST) 2018

Note that, as always, work can be submitted before a deadline and you should not expect to be working right up to the deadline.

Penalties

For each working day over the deadline, 5 marks will be deducted from the total percentage. After 5 days, zero marks will be returned.

Extensions

In the event that some event prevents you from working on the course you are entitled to apply for an deadline extension of up to 7 days. These can only be requested before the deadline. Advice and information on how to submit an deadline extension request can be found here https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SBSUndergraduateIntranet/BTO+Student+Support

Special Circumstances

If you have a circumstance that stops you submitting if may be possible to have the deadline extended by up to 7 days. Please consult with your personal tutor if you feel you have a case for this. If you are ill or suffer a life event such that you can't submit on time, you must contact the Programme Director to arrange a Special Circumstances form to be lodged. This must be notified near the time of submission (Circumstances noted after the results are released will not be considered). Circumstances need documentary evidence to back them up. In case of illness this would normally be a doctor's letter written on headed note-paper with a contact address.

All cases of Special Circumstances will be considered at the exam board. Note that there are no "resit" examinations at Master's level.