The Pharmacological Sciences Ph.D. program provides a unique opportunity for students interested in any scientific discipline represented by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty to have a year of broad, interdisciplinary training followed by focused doctoral research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences research group of their choice. Students in the program choose one of three tracks in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacology, or Medicinal Chemistry at the start of their first year. At the end of their first year of interdisciplinary training, they transition into a research group to begin their more focused doctoral research under the guidance of a Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty member. The Ph.D. program prepares students for careers in academic research institutions, in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, in federal and state agencies, and in private research institutions by providing a research-intensive approach to the study of pharmaceutical sciences.
Faculty research programs in the Pharmacological Sciences Ph.D. program include molecular and cellular pharmacology, epigenetic modifications, neuropharmacology, psychopharmacology, cardiovascular pharmacology, the pharmacology of aging, structure-based drug design, screening-based drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, structural biology, natural product biosynthesis, synthase engineering, cancer detection, prevention and therapy, gene regulation and intercellular signaling, computational biology and bioinformatics, and nanomedicine for targeted drug and gene delivery testing.