ESP Biography



JOHN SZETO, Grad student and researcher




Major: Pharmacology/Bioengineering

College/Employer: Northeastern/Harvard

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of John Szeto

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Dually enrolled grad student studying inflammatory signaling pathways related to a variety of diseases including Alzheimer's, allergies and more



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

L10329: Intro to Drug Design for Human Diseases in Spark 2016 (Mar. 12 - 13, 2016)
Ever wonder how drugs were designed to combat human diseases? How can a drug fight cancer? Why aren't there cures to some diseases? Why do side effects occur, and how can drug design help avoid them? In the future, how could nanotechnology, biotic and microbiome therapy, and stem cells play into the equation of treating disease? We will take a look at the process of drug design and development, highlighting some of the current models for disease, and how they have helped shape drug design, as well as what may come in the future of drug design. In order to do this, many basics will be covered, including structures of cells, receptor theory, signal transduction, metabolic pathways, gene expression, bio-molecules, and drug-like molecules. Disease models will be investigated including cancer and other chronic diseases. The idea is to spark interest in the many different aspects of this field, while placing an emphasis on the biological properties and fundamentals. You will gather a better understanding of drug design basics and maybe one day you could apply those principles to help design a revolutionary drug that has little to no side effects and cures a human disease!


S8409: Intro to Drug Design for Human Diseases in Spark 2014 (Mar. 15 - 16, 2014)
Ever wonder how drugs were designed to combat human diseases? How can a drug fight cancer? Why aren't there cures to some diseases? Why do side effects occur, and how can drug design help avoid them? In the future, how could nanotechnology, biotic and microbiome therapy, and stem cells play into the equation of treating disease? We will take a look at the process of drug design and development, highlighting some of the current models for disease, and how they have helped shape drug design, as well as what may come in the future of drug design. In order to do this, many basics will be covered, including structures of cells, receptor theory, signal transduction, metabolic pathways, gene expression, bio-molecules, and drug-like molecules. Disease models will be investigated including cancer and other chronic diseases. The idea is to spark interest in the many different aspects of this field, while placing an emphasis on the biological properties and fundamentals. You will gather a better understanding of drug design basics and maybe one day you could apply those principles to help design a revolutionary drug that has little to no side effects and cures a human disease!