The work of developing new drugs to treat diseases begins with the medicinal chemist. In this program, you’ll build on your master’s degree in medicinal chemistry with advanced knowledge of the behavior of chemical substances at the molecular level.

During this doctoral program, you’ll have the opportunity to work alongside professional experts in modern laboratories to design, synthesize, and analytically examine drug compounds. You’ll study how chemical substances behave at a molecular level, and how the chemical properties affect drug kinetics, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. And you’ll participate in research directed toward a fuller understanding of pharmacological actions, leading to improved drug design.

Students may elect to complete a minor concentration in drug metabolism, integrating the knowledge of drug metabolism, analysis of pharmaceuticals in biological fluids and incubation mixtures, enzyme kinetics, and animal care and use.