The PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences offered by the College of Pharmacy is designed to address the growing job market and workforce in the pharmaceutical sciences by building on the strengths of the College of Pharmacy to provide a multidisciplinary integration of basic research, patient-oriented research, and population research in pharmaceutical sciences. This program provides a path for individuals in the workforce with a master’s level degree in pharmaceutical sciences and related fields to enhance their marketable skills, career advancement, and become innovators in the discovery and development of drug products and therapeutics and health.
The specific research interests of faculty cover a wide range of topic subjects, including for example, cancer stem cell biology, target identification, natural product discovery, design and synthesis of new drug molecules, mechanistic studies of drug action (pharmacology), drug analysis, drug formulation and drug delivery, drug metabolism, drug resistance, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics, etc. The interdisciplinary research also includes investigation of the link between and among different category of human diseases, such as cancer, aging and Alzheimer’s disease, HIV and ocular diseases. The research projects employ state-of-the-art chemical, biochemical, molecular, cellular, in vivo and clinical techniques that include computer-aided drug design, total synthesis, fermentation, chromatography, mass spectrometry, NMR, molecular cloning, gene targeting, FACS analysis, advanced fluorescence spectroscopy, optical imaging and advanced single cell technology, behavioral testing, cellular reprogramming, nanoparticle characterization, and organoid modeling, etc.
Students who successfully complete a graduate degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy will be well prepared for careers in academic and government research laboratories, as well as in the pharmaceutical/ biotechnology industry.