About Us

Our department administers a training program that is directed toward preparing students for the pharmacology for the next generation. Advanced research in the translational sciences requires an understanding of the principles and precepts of a broad range of disciplines.

From the behavior of atoms in macromolecules to the effect of molecules on the behavior of organisms, the pharmacologist must be trained to think in terms of several dimensions simultaneously. This need is reflected in the training partnership that we have developed among the Departments of Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering, as well as our industrial training partner Pfizer, in order to provide unique learning opportunities for our students.

Pharmacology has, historically, provided the basis for most medical treatment, and remains the preferred mode of intervention in disease. It also has provided powerful tools for probing the function of biological systems. Much of the progress in pharmacology in the last century has resulted from the development of improved methods for evaluating drug action, whereas the process of drug discovery has remained largely empirical. In the past decade, progress in a number of fields has converged to the point that the traditional trial and error method of drug screening is beginning to be replaced by rational drug engineering based upon sophisticated understanding of the chemistry and structure of drugs and receptors.

Pharmacology has always been a fundamentally interdisciplinary field, positioned at the intersection of physiology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, molecular to behavioral neuroscience, and medicine. Typically, important advances in the pharmacological sciences have followed from research that bridges these fields. The pharmacology of the next century will bring together an even wider range of disciplines, combining traditional aspects of pharmacology with novel approaches drawn from disciplines such as genetic engineering, materials science, systems and computational biology, and nanotechnology.

The NIGMS supported “Biomolecular Pharmacology Program” is administered by the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics through a Program Graduate Education Committee. Students may matriculate via the Departments of Pharmacology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine. Through laboratory rotations entering students gain access to a broad range of techniques and academic perspectives that are united by a central pharmacological goal: to advance science through a better understanding of disease process, its treatment, and eventual cure. Particular experimental methods of faculty include molecular and opto genetics, behavioral pharmacology, high-density in vivo electrophysiology, laser microdissection and microgenomics, viral gene therapy, rat and mouse models, primary cell cultures, computational chemistry, molecular modeling, tissue engineering, and biophysical methods such as NMR, CD, and X-ray crystallography.