Drug Innovation

Do you want to know how you can develop new drugs to combat drug-resistant microorganisms?  How to find a way to imprint the immune system to increase tolerance? Reducing the side effects of treatment by finding new ways to deliver drugs directly onto the tumor? Or how you can update and speed up the drug regulatory process?  

From novel insight into a disease to a new therapy

The Drug Innovation Master’s programme focuses on the improvement and management of small molecule drugs or biomolecular drugs. Drug innovation is an interdisciplinary field, which pulls together expertise from the bioinformatics, chemical, biological, physical, and medical sciences. This interdisciplinarity is key to the search for new solutions to currently incurable diseases.  

You become skilled in the development of new vaccines, gene therapeutics, the application of organoids, and medical nutrition. Additionally, you are trained to establish new methods and criteria for evaluating the quality, efficacy, safety, and performance of drugs. The programmes’ translational approach enables you to contribute from ‘lab to bedside’: work on the latest insights of the cause of a disease, be part of the development of a new drug, and investigate the drugs’ long-term safety. 

Research fields

During your research project you will become a member of the research team, and this gives you the opportunity to gain lots of practical experience in doing innovative drug research. You can choose to join research projects on topics like to develop new drugs to combat drug-resistant microorganism, to use gene or protein technologies to create therapies targeted at individual patients, to explore the relationship between gut microbes and brain disease, to find new ways to deliver drugs directly into the tumor in order to reduce the side effects of treatment, or to  update and speed up the drug regulatory process. 

Tracks

Within the Master's you have a lot of freedom to tailor your own programme. You choose one of the following tracks to focus on research in the fields of: 

• Pharmacology research
• Pharmacoepidemiology and clinical pharmacology
• Biomolecular mass spectrometry and proteomics
• Pharmaceutics
• Chemical biology and drug discovery

After the Master you are able to continue in an academic career if you like, but you could also go into the pharmaceutical industry or into an advisory board of hospitals for instance. You have a lot of options and that is something I really like about this Master’s.

Why in Utrecht

• Utrecht University is host to a number of research groups conducting world-leading work in the field of drug innovation. You will be able to follow a programme of study that reflects your own personal interests through a research project, writing assignment, and electives. 
• Freedom to design your own programme, by choosing the track, research project and electives that best fit your interests. You also select one out of 9 thematic profiles which are designed to equip you with skills for your future career in a direction that appeals you most.  
• Students are able to follow their Master’s programme at Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS); selected students get educated by some of the best researchers in these research areas. 
• This Master's is part of the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS). The GSLS brings together the research expertise and facilities of the faculties of Science, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, in cooperation with UMC Utrecht - offering you an interdisciplinary approach.