The concentration in Pharmacology (PCOL) program provides students a gateway to the collaborative opportunities and experiences of the Texas Medical Center's world-class healthcare and scientific community with the academic and laboratory resources of Houston's only Carnegie Institute-designated Tier One public research university.

The college's faculty includes investigators with projects supported by the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, U.S. and international patents, editorial appointments to the boards of major professional journals, and collaborations with scientists at fellow TMC institutions, including M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Students take an active, hands-on role in research activities. Our students have established an impressive track record of being primary or contributing authors of high-impact, peer-reviewed publications, receiving travel awards to present their abstracts at national and international conferences, and after graduation, securing positions in academia, the pharmaceutical industry, public and private research institutions, and government.

Research areas include cardiovascular, pulmonary and renal pharmacology, cellular and molecular pharmacology, and neuropharmacology. Specific health areas include cancer, heart disease, obesity, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, chronic stress, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as different forms of mental disorders including depression, anxiety disorders, addiction and cognitive impairment.

Students have access to advanced laboratory tools and technology, including confocal and other imaging techniques, FRET, NMR, mass spectroscopy, in vivo imaging, behavioral measurement in experimental animals, pulmonary and advanced physiological assays in rats and genetically modified mice. The program occupied new facilities in Fall 2017.