Introduction to Cheminformatics and medicinal chemistry (Udemy.com)
Understand the underlying chemistry of drug development and use free softwares to analyze molecules
Created by: Guilherme Matos Passarini, phD
Last updated July 2023
What you will learn
- Units to describe biological activity
- An overview of drug discovery
- An introduction to cheminformatics
- The SMILES representation of chemical structures
- Small molecule databases
- Physical chemical features that may influence oral bioavailability of drugs
- Softwares to analyze physical chemical features of compounds
- Strategies to change the structure of bioactive compounds
How it compares
Against the other 503 rated Udemy courses in Teaching & Academics on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.2 out of 5higher than 7% of them
- Reviews561#224 of 504 by number of reviews
- Length2.9 hoursshorter than 58% of them
- Last updatedJuly 2023earlier than 50% of them
Course Description
Hi! In this course, I'm going to introduce some concepts and tools of Medicinal Chemistry and Cheminformatics!
Cheminformatics can be understood as an interdisciplinary field. It encompasses the theoretical knowledge of chemistry and the application of informatics. This area is applied in several fields, such as drug development, environmental science, and material science. In this course, we are going to focus on the part of cheminformatics applied to drug discovery. In this introductory course, you'll gain knowledge of chemical databases, drawing of molecular structures, and softwares to analyze physicochemical and structural features of molecules to predict their pharmacokinetic properties, bioactivity, or safety profile.
Medicinal chemistry, on the other hand, is an area where chemistry and pharmacology intersect, and it is directly involved in the process of rational drug development. Its main difference from the traditional drug discovery process is the emphasis on the chemical properties and structure of the chemical compounds investigated to generate possible insights into their biological activities. Medicinal chemistry, therefore, provides the rationale for choosing molecules, deducing their possible pharmacokinetic properties, such as plasma concentration, or biological activity, based on their functional groups, molecular weight, cLogP, etc.
You may like this course if you are interested in...
Understanding how molecules can be represented in a linear format file
Knowing how to use chemical databases
Knowing about physicochemical features that may help to predict oral availability of drug candidates
Using free softwares to analyze the structure of molecules to predict physicochemical features
Using free softwares to analyze the structure of molecules to predict biological activity
Knowing how proteins are relevant to the process of drug discovery
Contributing to the field of biochemistry and protein design by playing Foldit
Instructor Details
- 4.2 Rating
561 Reviews
Guilherme Matos Passarini, phD
English:
Hi, my name is Guilherme, I have a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences, a master's degree in Experimental Biology, and a Ph.D. also in Experimental Biology, both from the Federal University of Rondônia (Brazil). I recently finished a degree in math and I'm also finishing an educationl degree in physics. My main research area is the search for compounds that are active against the parasites of malaria and leishmaniasis. I also have been programming for a while, especially in the programming languages Python and R. My main interests are biology, biotechnology, programming, medicinal chemistry, and artificial intelligence. My main goal here in Udemy is therefore spreading the knowledge related to these areas to people around the world.
Português:
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Reviews
By Utkarsh Maurya on 8/4/2026
The course was very good, and I found it extremely useful. In my opinion, it could be made even better by explaining some of the biology-related terms in more detail, as they may be difficult for learners with no biology background to understand. Additionally, it would be helpful to include a few more practice questions on topics such as SMILES notation, LogP values, and similar concepts. This would reinforce learning and help students better understand these important topics. Overall, the course was excellent, and I really enjoyed it.
By Pierpaolo Pravatto on 10/3/2025
The course is well thought out and provides a general overview of various tools relevant to cheminformatics. Personally, I would have appreciated a bit more detail on specific methodologies (e.g., docking algorithms) and aspects of medicinal chemistry. However, overall it serves as a good general introduction to the terminology and concepts used in the pharmaceutical context.
By Giridhar on 9/13/2024
Many thanks for creating a course on this topic. I had a very good learning experience. However, this course would be even more better and helpful, if: 1) There is an exercise at the end of each lecture, so that one can practice what they have learned and get a good understanding of that concept. For example, in SMILES concept, if you had included how to name substituted benzenes, heterocycles, fused compounds, etc., it would have been helpful. 2) The typos and other subject-related errors are corrected. 3) You could provide some homework/assignments as resources too.
By Samuel Aina on 9/10/2024
Wow!! The course help me as it meet up with my expectations. I registered for this course in other to help in my research in school in the area of medicinal chemistry, extraction, isolation and characterization of a certain phytochemical, and also to optimize this compound for better bioactivity. This course has help. Thank you
By Monima Sarma on 8/13/2024
It was very informative and loved the way you explained every detail. Thank you very much for the course. And some recent research publications pertaining to this would have been helpful. Looking forward for another course from you aiming at "Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery"[Basics to Advanced Learning] :D
By Isaac on 5/19/2024
what can I say; this is really one of the most fantastic courses I have encountered. As someone who is passionate about drug development and eager to learn new approaches, this course is the perfect overview of the resources available to those interested in medicinal chemistry and cheminformatics
By Dr. Taqveem on 12/2/2023
more unsolved exercises can be included for the learner to work out, in terms of finding different characteristics of a few well-known drug molecules.
By Berthold Schlegel on 1/31/2023
This is a great course. Very recommended. Very clear and understandable presentation in proper English (unlike other courses). Please consider that this is an introductionary course and you need to exercise what you have learnbed. Which I will do. As a Professor of Life Science I am a trained Chemist and I defintely will go back to more chemistry in my research efforts. Thank you so much.
By Yunwen Tao on 5/15/2022
This is a generally nice introductory course for those who never heard about "chemoinformatics". A few things can be improved in my personal opinion. I like the beginning (section 1) of this course which introducs a lot of basic and useful concepts. However, when it comes to later sections, many lectures seem to be introducing various online tools/services and the instructor read a lot of text on these websites. A few slides have typos, for example "enxyme" (enzyme), "Biososterism" (Bioisosterism), etc. Correcting these typos could make this course more professional. Concerning the part on "foldit", it is somehow outdated with the advent of alphafold method. One good point is that the instructor is very quick to answer students' questions and provides clear explanations.
By Raul Afonso Pommer Barbosa on 8/4/2021
The teacher has an excellent knowledge of the subject and can easily pass it on to his students. I recommend everyone to take this course! O professor possuí um excelente conhecimento sobre o assunto e consegue passar facilmente aos seus alunos. Recomendo a todos a fazerem este curso!
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 84 / 100








