Drug Design and Formulation (PHIP7121)

Poster Presentation (Individual Assessment): Pharmaceutical discovery and development poster

• This assessment task is designed to enhance your ability to communicate advanced concepts related to pharmaceutical discovery and development in a format commonly used in scientific, clinical or education conferences and to exchange information between colleagues.
• This assessment task is based on the following premise: You have been asked to present as a part of a series of short presentations (in digital poster format) at an educational workshop as part of the induction of new staff at a pharmaceutical company you work for. The new staff have just completed undergraduate degrees in Pharmaceutical Science and/or Pharmacy. The workshop is designed to inform new staff about some of the new methods your company is using or is considering using in their drug discovery and development programs. You are asked to present a digital poster presentation of no more than 4 minutes (you will be stopped at 4 minutes), the presentation should provide a basic overview of the method/approach that is assigned to you.
• The method/approach will be assigned in week 1.
• Your presentation should focus on how the approach/method can be used in pharmaceutical discovery and development. You will be asked a series of questions for 5 minutes after your presentation. Questions will be mostly general since the presentation is to an audience who are not experts in the topic. The audience may also ask you to explain specific aspects in more detail.
• Students should attend the session in which they are presenting (~ 8-10 talks per session).
• The Oral Presentation will be recorded and retained as per university policy. The recording will be stored in a secure manner and will only be accessed if required for the purposes of moderation of marking; provision of feedback to the student; and/or re-marking following a successful re-mark application.

Every student must submit a PDF document containing their poster, a page of consistent references (Vancouver style) and a copy of their student ID card to the assessor via the Learn.UQ Poster Presentation assessment link prior to the commencement of their poster presentation session.

Internal enrolled students will give their presentation to their assessor and other students in person (room details provided on the course Learn.UQ site). Please arrive early to upload your presentations (from USB type A flash drive) to the lectern computer. In the event that in person presentations cannot occur, the presentations will be given over Zoom.

External enrolled students will give their presentations via Zoom. Zoom link details will be advised on Learn.UQ.

Poster Style:

Your digital poster should be presented as a SINGLE 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio PowerPoint slide for projection or screen sharing. Students should bring their PowerPoint compatible slide on a USB flash drive if presenting in the lecture theatre, or be prepared to present via Zoom (using share screen) if presenting online. The SINGLE slide must contain no movies, transitions or animations (i.e. the slide must be static).

Requirements for the posters are as follows:

• The poster must contain a clear title.
• The bottom left-hand corner of your poster must contain your name.
• The use of tables, diagrams and/or images to explain concepts is strongly encouraged. 
• The use of bullet point text is also strongly encouraged.
• Font size, style, colour, background colour and images should allow for clear reading of the poster when presented. The font sizes used in the example poster on the PHIP7121 UQ Extend site are appropriate and should be used as a guide. 

The marking criteria is available on the assessment page on the course Learn.UQ (Blackboard) site.

Tips:

• An example poster with an example presentation is available on the UQ Extend site. 
• Consult the marking criteria and the example poster provided before designing your poster and preparing your speech.
• Rehearse with your friends and seek feedback for improvement.
• Record yourself practicing your presentation using Zoom, and watch the recording back to experience what your assessor and colleagues will experience.
• If presenting via Zoom, ensure that you are in a location with a reliable internet connection on the presentation day, and that you are familiar with using Zoom, including setting up your microphone, webcam, and sharing your computer screen.

Marking: The marking rubric is available on the PHIP7121 Learn.UQ site under assessments.

Generative AI and Machine Translation (MT): This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Translation (MT) technologies, successful completion of the assessment will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which AI will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.

Formulation Prework and Plan (Group assessment): Prework for “formulate a pharmaceutical” task.

• This assignment should be collaboratively completed by the group. One submission will be made per group.
• Prepare a single Microsoft Word (.docx) document using the questions below as the headings.
• Use a range of academic resources including journal articles, books, pharmacopoeias etc. to support your responses and remember to consistently cite your statements using Vancouver style (with superscript citations) as per the UQ Library’s Referencing Guide (link). This assessment task will be analysed by TurnItIn software for similarity to other documents and assessment submissions. Group members should ensure that the assessment does not copy material directly from other sources and is appropriately referenced.
• Groups and pharmaceutical products to be formulated will be allocated early in semester, and the list will be provided on Learn.UQ.
• All students will be allocated a suspension formulation to produce in the laboratory sessions, which will be used for answering questions 1-5 below. For question 6, each group will answer the questions relating to suspensions as well as the questions associated the additional formulation type that they have been allocated in the syndicate list document.

The outline of your pre-work should be as follows (Q1-6):

1. What is your assigned product and concentration/amount of the active ingredient? (1 line)
2. What is the primary therapeutic indication for your product and how is the product taken/administered? (1-2 sentences, < 60 words)
3. What existing similar products are commercially available? If your drug is not currently used state this and why it may no longer be used (1-2 sentences, < 60 words).
4. What are the possible chemical degradation (not metabolism) pathways of your drug (active ingredient)? What factors affect its stability? (< 200 words)
5. Identify characteristics you want to avoid in your final product (e.g. not pourable, hard to spread, breaks easily). (< 200 words)

***For question 6 please answer the specific questions below relating to SUSPENSIONS as well as the questions associated with your groups additional allocated dosage form***

ALL groups should complete the following questions on SUSPENSIONS (Q6):

6a. When formulating a pharmaceutical suspension, you should first assess what happens when your drug is added to water. What might be required if the drug floats on the top of the water and is not wetted? (<30 words).

6b. Explain what Stoke's Law is and how it relates to pharmaceutical suspensions (<30 words).

6c. How can sedimentation rates be reduced? i.e. describe methods to achieve this (<30 words)

6d. When formulating a suspension, do you want your drug to be soluble? What factors affect solubility? (<30 words)

Additional questions for groups who have been assigned TABLETS (Q6):

6e. Step one in formulating tablets is to find out if your drug particles are free flowing. What measures might be necessary if the drug doesn't flow well or adheres to the punches or die? (<30 words)

6f. List the types of excipients used in tableting. Describe the function of each excipient type (< 10 words for each type).

6g. In one sentence (<30 words), define granulation.

6h. Name two granulation methods. (< 30 words)

Additional questions for groups who have been assigned CREAMS (Q6):

6e. Step one in formulating a pharmaceutical cream is to formulate a base cream without your active ingredient. Define the types of external and internal phases that creams can have? (<30 words)

6f. What is meant by 'cracking' with respect to creams? (<30 words)

6g. What is an emulsifying agent? (<30 words)

6h. Does your active ingredient have a charge? How could this affect your choice of emulsifying agent? (<30 words)

Additional questions for groups who have been assigned GELS (Q6):

6e. Step one in formulating a pharmaceutical gel is to formulate a base gel without your active ingredient. What types of agents are used to produce a pharmaceutical gel? (<30 words)

6f. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a gel product compared to a cream based product? (<30 words)

6g. What is syneresis? (<30 words)

6h. Do you want your active ingredient to be dissolved or suspended as particles in a gel? Why? (<30 words)

The marking rubric is available on the PHIP7121 Learn.UQ site under assessments.

Generative AI and Machine Translation (MT): This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Translation (MT) technologies, successful completion of the assessment will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which AI will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.

Online quiz relating to the content taught in the advanced drug delivery and vaccine development lectures.

The quiz consists of 10 randomised multiple choice questions, with 1 mark per question.

The objective of the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) task is to ensure that students are able to successfully implement GLP.

Internal Students will participate in drug formulation laboratory sessions, which will provide the content for completing this assessment task and the integrating theory task. Select and submit 3 consecutive pages from your drug formulation laboratory notebook to submit for this assessment task. The final formulated product for your group (with all group members names attached) should be submitted at the end of the final drug formulation laboratory class to complete this assessment task. Students will need a lab book for their drug formulation laboratories, from which the GLP assessment will be sourced. This can be a commercially sourced lab book, or a bound (not spiral bound) ruled notebook.

External students will create 3 example laboratory book pages based on the laboratory activities that they observe in the virtual formulation lab sessions (videos for weeks 1-4) on the PHIP7121 UQ Extend site (Module 7 - Virtual Practical). In all cases for this virtual task, the student should act as the "other person" and self-role play another name. Select any parts of the virtual pracs for this assessment, use your imagination. If you do not have the information, you have the right to create 'appropriate' data to enable completion of this task. Additional data and images and a final formulation recipe have been provided on UQ Extend to assist. Screenshots from the virtual practical videos may be incorporated into lab books where visual data is required. A 3 page laboratory notebook template is provided for external students to use at the PHIP7121 Learn.UQ assessment link.

Marking: Laboratory notebook entries will be assessed for their compliance with good laboratory practice and record-keeping. Students should refer to the PHIP7121 UQ Extend site (Module 4, part 2) for more details and a GLP rules guide, and consult the marking rubric that is available on the PHIP7121 Learn.UQ site on the Assessments page.

One of the learning objectives of this course is for you to apply concepts in the science of dosage form design. This assessment task will assess this ability. You are strongly encouraged to examine the marking criteria for this task before starting.

Select ONE of the following dosage form design concepts or dosage form design features that is relevant to your final product and answer the questions below.

1. Foaming 
2. Plastic flow
3. Dilatant flow
4. Pseudo-plastic flow
5. Rheopexy
6. Thixotropy
7. Sedimentation
8. Content uniformity
9. Viscosity
10. Caking 
11. Syneresis 
12. Co-solvents 
13. Wetting 
14. Cracking 
15. Flowability 
16. Compressibility 
17. Hardness 
18. Disintegration
19. Creaming
20. Surface and Interfacial tension

The final product for this assessment is the product that your group was allocated for the drug formulation laboratory sessions (internal students) or the formulation presented in the virtual formulation laboratory sessions (external students).

You may focus on a specific aspect of the above concepts for parts 5 and 6.

Part 1 - Reflection - This section must be between 500-750 words. Use material from UQ Extend, your observations in the formulation development activity and other sources to reflect on "why is research important in the pharmaceutical industry and why can it sometimes be challenging?"

Part 2 – What type of formulation is the topic of this essay?

Part 3 – Which dosage form design concept or feature did you select?

Part 4 – Provide a definition or description (in your own words) of the dosage form design concept or feature you have selected (150 words or less, no more than two figures).

Part 5 – Explain the significance of this dosage form design concept or feature, in theory, with respect to the practical application of the formulated product (300 words or less, no more than two figures and/or/photos). For example, for tablets and the concept of 'friability' - Tablets that have high friability are more likely to break into smaller pieces during transport. This could lead to the patient being unable to use the product (the tablet is broken into many parts making it impossible to use), a smaller dose administered than the stated dose of the tablet (if a section of the tablet has broken off and the patient still uses the product) or altered tablet disintegration ……..

Part 6 – Using observations made during the formulation development (lab sessions) describe how this dosage form design concept influenced your approach and consequently the final product (600 words or less, no more than four figures and/or photos and/or screen shots). For example, for tablets and the concept of 'friability' - Many of the first formulations exhibited high friability as demonstrated by ……… Hence we attempted to reduce friability through the addition of ………………. This agent acts via ……… The reduced friability of our final product was indicated by ………..

Marking: The marking rubric is available on the PHIP7121 Learn.UQ site under assessments. This assessment task will be analysed by TurnItIn software for similarity to other documents and assessment submissions and for signs that generative AI or contract cheating services were utilised. Students should ensure that the assessment does not directly copy or paraphrase written material from other sources and that content is appropriately referenced.

Generative AI and Machine Translation (MT): This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Translation (MT) technologies, successful completion of the assessment will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which AI will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.