An education with a future
Javohirhon Turaev, with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources from the University of Copenhagen, has chosen Drug Development as his area of specialisation.
In my native country, Uzbekistan, drug discovery and drug development – including clinical trials – are more or less absent from our drug industry, which is primarily concerned with copy medicine production, sales and marketing. In contrast, here in Medicon Valley the opportunities in the drug-related area are almost infinite – and if you want to work in research and the development of new drugs, this is where it is happening.
Unique academic profile
While I have chosen Drug Development as my area of programme specialisation, I am also interested in drug discovery – which is one of the reasons I decided to take a pharmacology course from that line. The master’s programme in Pharmaceutical Sciences is very flexible, which really appeals to me. I don’t think any two graduates will end up having had exactly the same academic profile, because you can tailor one that is unique. Teachers are open and sympathetic to the idea of new and different courses of study.
"The master’s programme in Pharmaceutical Sciences is very flexible, which really appeals to me. I don’t think any two graduates will end up having had exactly the same academic profile, because you can tailor one that is unique. Teachers are open and sympathetic to the idea of new and different courses of study.
I applied to other faculties that were ready to offer me a full scholarship, but I decided to study at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences instead. It’s my future. I am passionate about the drug area, and with a degree from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, I am certain that I will be employable – in Denmark as well as abroad.
Crazy about physical chemistry
I am crazy about physical chemistry and my favourite subject is drug synthesis, something I would really like to explore in my thesis project, but drug delivery is exciting too. What happens to a drug after ingestion? How do we get the drug substance released at the exact place in the body where we want it to work? How is the substance absorbed in the organism – and how long is it effective? We work in the areas of chemistry, physiology and pharmacology to find a formulation – a composition – that will keep the drug substance on the right track in the organism.
In many ways chemistry is my academic starting point, but I have become more of a biologist underway. Because the molecules I work with are intended to influence human brain receptors, there is always focus on the link between chemistry and biology.
Future in a lively drug industry
I hope I’ll be able to write my thesis in cooperation with Lundbeck A/S – because I’m interested in the small molecules that pave the way for drugs to treat diseases of the central nervous system such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and depression. I have always been interested in plants, which is interesting in this connection, because it is often in the plant world we find inspiration for the micro molecules that work in the brain.
In the long term I dream about starting my own company, and because the industry still sends up shoots here in the Copenhagen area, I believe that it will some day be possible. A lively drug industry also provides good opportunities for student jobs. I work for Novozymes in a department that develops and produces industrial enzymes for laundry detergent. I also spend a few hours a week working for CMC Biologics A/S, an international company that makes antibodies among other things.