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Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery and Development

By Prof. Rajnish Kumar   |   IIT (BHU) Varanasi
Learners enrolled: 272
ABOUT THE COURSE:

This 12-week course, Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery and Development, is designed to equipparticipants with the knowledge and skills to leverage AI in the realm of drug discovery anddevelopment which itself is a daunting, expensive, time-consuming, and resource intensive task. Theprogram starts with foundational concepts, including the drug discovery pipeline and core AI/MLtechniques, progressing to cutting-edge topics like predictive modeling, generative AI-based drugdesign, and drug repurposing. Alongside theoretical lectures, participants will gain practical experiencewith widely used AI tools and software through hands-on tutorials. The course culminates in a miniproject, offering hands-on experience and enabling participants to apply AI-driven methodologies toreal-world challenges in drug discovery.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Pharmacy professional, computational biologists,computational chemists, Biotechnologists

PREREQUISITES: The participants should have basic knowledge of biology, chemistry, and pharmacology. The keen interest in the domain of drug discovery and a basic introduction to Python programming language is desirable.

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: Pharmaceutical industry such as TCS Life Science, Dr.Reddy's Laboratories, Reliance Life Science, Suven Life Sciences Ltd
Summary
Course Status : Upcoming
Course Type : Elective
Language for course content : English
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Chemical Engineering
Credit Points : 3
Level : Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date : 21 Jul 2025
End Date : 10 Oct 2025
Enrollment Ends : 28 Jul 2025
Exam Registration Ends : 15 Aug 2025
Exam Date : 01 Nov 2025 IST
NCrF Level   : 4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.


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Course layout

Week 1:  Basics of drug discovery pipeline
1. Drug discovery and development
2. Overview of drug discovery workflows
3. Drug design strategies
4. Conventional methods for drug discovery
5. Riddles in drug discovery

Week 2: Introduction to AI in drug discovery and development
1. History and evolution of AI in drug discovery
2. Overview of AI technologies
3. Key applications of AI across the pipeline
4. Available AI tools and platforms
5. Advantages of AI integration in drug discovery

Week 3: Fundamentals of AI and ML techniques
1. Introduction to machine learning concepts
2. Overview of neural networks
3. Feature engineering and data preprocessing
4. Evaluation metrics for AI models
5. Introduction to Python libraries for AI in drugdiscovery

Week 4: AI in target identification, prediction and validation
1. Introduction to biological targets
2. Basics of target identification and validation
3.Omics data integration for target discovery
4. Binding site and protein structure prediction with AI
5. Hands-on tutorial

Week 5: AI in high throughput virtual screening and leadidentification
1. Introduction and approaches to virtual screening
2. AI tools for virtual screening
3. AI Assisted Molecular Docking
4. Workflow of high-throughput virtual screening
5. Hands-on tutorial

Week 6: AI in lead optimization and drug-target interaction
1. Basics of lead optimization
2. AI for drug-target interaction studies
3. QSAR modelling
 4. Molecular dynamics simulations
5. Hands-on tutorial

Week 7: ADMET predictive modelling in drug discovery
1. Introduction to ADMET Properties
2. Importance in lead optimization
3. Conventional methods for ADMET prediction
4. Open available resources for ADMET prediction
5. Hands-on tutorial

Week 8: AI in clinical phase
1. Overview of clinical trials
2. Patient recruitment, stratification, and retention
3. Clinical trial protocol design and optimization
4. Predicting outcomes of clinical trials with AI
5. Data collection and monitoring for regulatorysubmissions

Week 9: De Novo Drug Design using Generative AI
1. Introduction to Generative AI in Drug Design
2. Deep Generative Models for drug design (GAN,GNN, RNN, VAE etc.)
3. Benchmarking Generative Models for Drug Design
4. Molecule Optimization with Generative AI
5. Hands-on tutorial

Week 10: Advanced concepts: Precision medicine, Networkpharmacology and Drug repurposing
1. AI in genomics for personalized treatments
2. AI in real-time monitoring and feedback
3. Overview and data sources for AI in drugrepurposing
4. Integrating multi-target drug discovery
5. Network pharmacology with AI

Week 11: Case studies, challenges, future directions, andresources
1. Public AI resources for drug discovery
2. Examples of notable successful case studies
3. Challenges in modern drug discovery realm
4. Regulatory considerations for AI implementation indrug development
5. Future outlook: Explainable artificial intelligence(XAI) and other emerging technologies in drugdiscovery

Week 12: Mini project
(Implementing an advanced workflow combining datacollection, target prediction, virtual screening, lead optimization, and ADMET prediction)

Books and references

  1. Ramsundar, B., Eastman, P., Walters, P., & Pande,V. (2019). Deep learning for the life sciences:applying deep learning to genomics, microscopy,drug discovery, and more. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". 
  2. Brown, N. (Ed.). (2020). Artificial intelligence in drugdiscovery. Royal Society of Chemistry.

Instructor bio

Prof. Rajnish Kumar

IIT (BHU) Varanasi
Dr. Rajnish Kumar completed his Ph.D. from the University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences,Panjab University, India (2014), followed by postdoctoral research at the prestigious KarolinskaInstitutet, Sweden. Currently, he is serving as an Associate Professor at the Department ofPharmaceutical Engineering & Technology, IIT (BHU), India. His research group is focused onleveraging AI/ML techniques for predictive modelling and drug discovery against neurodegenerativedisorders. He has published over a hundred research and review articles across the fields of medicinalchemistry, computer-aided drug design, and macromolecular crystallography in international journals of high prestige.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: November 01, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras .It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team


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