FOCUS
AREAS
Students can undertake fundamental research in either of the program's
focus areas:
Pharmaceutical
sciences, including molecular pharmacology, drug transport and
metabolism, mathematical modeling of complex systems, and gene
delivery
Research focus
areas in the pharmaceutical sciences include the following:
- Molecular/cellular
studies of mechanisms involved in drug absorption, distribution,
metabolism, toxicology and elimination
- Molecular
pharmacologic studies focused on the mechanisms of drug action
- Integrative
systems research in pre-clinical and clinical pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics
- Modeling of complex systems
- Drug delivery
systems; gene therapy
Pharmacogenomics
or toxicogenomics, which is the application of genetics and genomics
to the study of pharmacology or toxicology
Research focus
areas in pharmacogenomics include the following:
- Use of
model organisms to study mechanisms of drug action, resistance,
metabolism or transport
- Analysis
of drug response by functional genomics using DNA expression
arrays
- Development
of computational tools to analyze expression data
- Understanding
the genetic basis for variation in drug response clinically
- Understanding
the genetic basis for variation in response to environmental
agents (toxicogenomics)
Students may
choose from a variety of electives offered by this program and
other programs on campus, including courses in mathematical modeling,
toxicology, drug metabolism, transport, molecular biology, cell
biology, genetics, and bioinformatics.
