chem engineering vs medicinal chemistry

I am trying to narrow my options down and these are one of my top options. I want to work in the pharmaceutical industry BTW. and i have heard both these courses can lead to career paths in that field..

Which one would be a better choice??
( i do maths, chem and bio a levels )

Reply 1

Cyion

10

Original post by alice12341--

I am trying to narrow my options down and these are one of my top options. I want to work in the pharmaceutical industry BTW. and i have heard both these courses can lead to career paths in that field..

Which one would be a better choice??
( i do maths, chem and bio a levels )

I decided on doing medicinal chemistry because of the research opportunities available. With a medicinal chemitry degree you learn chemistry but with a particular emphasis on drug discovery which is understanding how disease is spread on a chemical level, the mechinisms of how drugs are synthesised and how to analyse them using an array of spectroscopy devices. While chemical engineering focuses on how we can make equipment (and how it works) to mass produce the drug on large scales in a cost efficient way and also looking at how we can mass produce drugs from raw materials cheaply.

I ended up deciding medicinal chemistry as it still uses all the problem solving skills used to find new drugs and if i want to go into a more chemical engineering route I can go into process chemistry and quality type jobs. While i think its harder to go from chemical engineering to medicinal chemistry because you will have to learn all the processes that go into drug targeting and analysis.

Reply 2

alice12341--

OP

11

Original post by Cyion

I decided on doing medicinal chemistry because of the research opportunities available. With a medicinal chemitry degree you learn chemistry but with a particular emphasis on drug discovery which is understanding how disease is spread on a chemical level, the mechinisms of how drugs are synthesised and how to analyse them using an array of spectroscopy devices. While chemical engineering focuses on how we can make equipment (and how it works) to mass produce the drug on large scales in a cost efficient way and also looking at how we can mass produce drugs from raw materials cheaply.

I ended up deciding medicinal chemistry as it still uses all the problem solving skills used to find new drugs and if i want to go into a more chemical engineering route I can go into process chemistry and quality type jobs. While i think its harder to go from chemical engineering to medicinal chemistry because you will have to learn all the processes that go into drug targeting and analysis.

Thank you soo much !! this helped a lot :smile:

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by alice12341--

I am trying to narrow my options down and these are one of my top options. I want to work in the pharmaceutical industry BTW. and i have heard both these courses can lead to career paths in that field..

Which one would be a better choice??
( i do maths, chem and bio a levels )

Very different degrees. Chemical engineering is mostly maths and physics with just a little bit of chemistry. It's all about the process, not the chemistry. Chemistry is fairly self-evident what it is and involves I think.

Do you want to continue with chemistry in a substantive way? If so then chemistry is really the only relevant consideration. If you're somewhat ambivalent to chemistry but enjoy maths and want to do physics work then chemical engineering may be more of a consideration.

Reply 4

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

15

Original post by alice12341--

I am trying to narrow my options down and these are one of my top options. I want to work in the pharmaceutical industry BTW. and i have heard both these courses can lead to career paths in that field..

Which one would be a better choice??
( i do maths, chem and bio a levels )

Hi there!

I think as some other people have mentioned, it's a good idea to look into the modules you might be likely to come across on the different courses and think about which you are more likely to enjoy. I thought I would also mention Natural Sciences as a possible degree. I have just graduated from Lancaster University with a Natural Sciences BSc so thought I could give my experience with the degree as it sounds like it could be something that could work well for you! Natural Sciences degrees tend to vary by university, so it's definitely worth having a look around to see what course is right for you. At Lancaster, the degree is very flexible, you can choose 3 pathways out of a possible 21. The subjects range from biology, chemical engineering, biochemistry, microbiology and biomedicine, mathematics, and more, so there are many different possible combinations! The complete list of different pathways is in the brochure which can be found here - https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/natural-sciences/ .

This would potentially give you time to try both variations of the degree before either narrowing to just one or continuing with a blend of both since chemical engineering and medicinal chemistry are quite different courses. Some people find it harder to study different subjects in different fields because you have to switch between different ways of working but I actually enjoyed the variety in types of work - for example worksheets in maths, reading in geography, and labs in engineering. I also slowly found the crossover in my subjects, renewable energies and climate change, which was a really smooth process through natural sciences.

Best of luck with all of your applications, if you have any further questions, feel free to let me know!

- Bethan (Lancaster University Student Ambassador)

chem engineering vs medicinal chemistry

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