Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (BSc)

The global pharmaceutical industry requires well-trained scientists who have the education and ambition to drive innovative drug development. The Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology (MCCB) program places the student at the forefront of those efforts by providing a fundamental understanding of the drug-body interaction from the molecular to the physiological level. By engaging this broader approach, that is, not only trying to cure disease (medicinal chemistry) but also placing an emphasis on the underlying associated cellular pathways (chemical biology), further innovative opportunities for treating disease will come forward. In this regard the MCCB program is unique within the German academic landscape and should help bridge the evolving needs of the high growth pharmaceutical industry.

Students who have completed the MCCB program will understand how the life of cells, organisms, and humans is organized at the chemical molecular level. This opens the door to graduate education (most often in biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, or organic chemistry) but also to a wide variety of career choices ranging from the strictly scientific (entry level industrial positions in the chemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or food industries) to education (elementary or high school), to regulatory affairs (analytical food testing laboratories, quality management, etc.) to legal counsel (patent attorney, licensing, etc.) to start-ups. The critical, goal-oriented, skills acquired from your in-depth analysis of chemical-biological problems may also be recognized by headhunters as transferable to non-scientific areas of employment. The mandatory MCCB summer internship, most often within the industrial research sector, is a professional growth experience that is invaluable for aiding students in their career making decision process.