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Medicinal and Biological Chemistry is an interdisciplinary science. This major focuses on synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical chemistry underlying the design, synthesis, and development of drugs.

Career Opportunities: Professional chemists are in demand in industry, education, business, research organizations and the public sector. Students graduating from this major will be ideal for a variety of careers, such as drug analysts, research chemists, technical writers, sales representatives, biochemistry technical officers, and forensic scientists. Employers include large and small pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, hospital laboratories, government laboratories, and the chemical industry. The broad base on which the major is structured does not limit employment to pharmaceutical or biotechnology options and also allows students to compete for positions requiring a knowledge of chemistry, such as in the petrochemical industry, wine industry, polymer industry, and paint industry, etc. Graduates are also able to move on to graduate programs in the field, medical school, or other professional schools.

Salary: Starting salaries generally range between $30,000 to $ 50,000 depending on career path and qualification of the applicants.

MBC Professional Division Curriculum

P1 Year Fall Semester MBC 3310 Medicinal Chemistry I 2 MBC 3330 Applied Drug Design 1 PHCL 3700 Pharmacology I 3 Major Elective (Recommend MBC 3880)1 2 MBC 3550 Physiological Chemistry I or CHEM 3510 Biochemistry I 3 Major Elective (Recommend CHEM 3710)1 3 Major Elective (Recommend CHEM 3310)1       2-3   Spring Semester MBC 3320 Medicinal Chemistry II 3 PHCL 3720 Pharmacology II 3 MBC 3560 Physiological Chemistry II or CHEM 3520 Biochemistry II 3 Major Elective (Recommend CHEM 3360)1 2-3 Major Elective (Recommend MBC 3880 or CHEM 3720)1     2-3 UT Core Requirement (Diversity Studies)* 3 P2 Year Fall Semester MBC 4710 Targeted Drug Design or MBC 4720 Advances in Drug Design 3 Major Elective (Recommend MBC 4880, or 4850, or 4870 )1     3 Major Elective1 3 Major Elective1 3 Major Elective1 3 Major Elective1 3   Spring Semester MBC 4780 Practicum in Med. & Biol. Chem.2 6-12 1 Electives to be chosen with faculty adviser from the Major Elective List 2 Practicum can, as an alternative, be taken in the summer before the P2 Year, allowing the student to graduate a semester earlier. The practicum sites require students to have an average GPA of 3.0 in all chemistry courses (CHEM and MBC). * Suggested sequence, if UT Core Requirements have not been completed.

MBC Electives
A total of 25 hours of course work must be selected from the list of elective courses below. Other electives require approval of the MBC adviser.

BIOL  3010 Molecular Genetics 3 BIOL 3020 Molecular Genetics - Lab 2 BIOL 3030 Cell Biology 3 BIOL 3040 Cell Biology Lab 2 BIOL 4010 Molecular Biology 3 BIOL 4030 Microbiology 3 BIOL 4050 Immunology 3 BIOL 4110 Human Genetics 3 BIOL 4330 Parasitology 3 CHEM  3310 Analytical Chemistry 2 CHEM 3360 Analytical Chemistry Lab 2 CHEM 3560 Biochemistry Lab 1 CHEM 3610 Inorganic Chemistry 3 CHEM 3710 Physical Chemistry for the Biosciences I 3 CHEM 3720 Physical Chemistry for the Biosciences II  3 CHEM 3730 Physical Chemistry I 3 CHEM 3740 Physical Chemistry II 3 CHEM 3860 Advanced Laboratory I 3 CHEM 3870 Advanced Laboratory II 3 CHEM 4300 Instrumental Analysis 2 CHEM 4620 Inorganic Chemistry II 3 CHEM 4880 Advanced Laboratory III 2 CHEM 4980 Advanced Organic Chemistry 2 MATH 2600 Introduction to Statistics 3

MBC 3800 Microbiology & Immunology 3 MBC 3880 Medicinal & Biological Chem Lab 1-4 MBC 4300  Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy 2 MBC 4470 Advanced Immunotherapeutics 2 MBC 4710 Targeted Drug Design 3 MBC 4720 Advances in Drug Design 3 MBC 4770 Molecular Modeling in Drug Design 3 MBC 4800 Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships 2 MBC 4850 Adv Immunology & Tissue Culture Lab 1-10 MBC 4870 Biomedicinal Chem Lab 1-10 MBC 4880 Medicinal Biotech Lab 1-10 MBC 4900 Hnrs Seminar in Medic/Bio Chem 1-3 MBC 4910 Problems in Bio-medicinal Chem 1-3 MBC 4950 Research in Medicinal Chemistry 6-8 MBC 4950 Research in Medicinal Chemistry - Honors 6-8 MBC 4960 Hnrs Thesis in Medicinal Chem 2-5 MBC 4980 Special Topics in Drug Design 1-4 PHCL  4140 Interpretation of Pharmaceutical Data 3 PHCL 4150 Biopharmaceutics/Pharmacokinetics 4 PHCL 4700 Pharmacology III: CNS/Cardiovasc 3 PHCL 4720 Pharmacology IV: Chemotherapeutic Agents  3 PHCL 4730 Toxicology I 3 PHCL 4750 Toxicology II 3 PHCL 4760 Toxicokinetics 3 PHCL 4770 Toxicological Risk Assessment 3 PHCL 4800 Human-Xenobiotic Interactions 3 PHCL 4850  Drug Disposition 2