Index
- Medicinal Chemistry
- Biochemical Pharmacology
- Pharmaceutics
- Clinical Pharmaceutical Scientist Program
- Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy Research
- Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology
Medicinal Chemistry
The medicinal chemistry track is a complex scientific discipline whose focus is to develop molecules that can impact human health by discovering, designing, synthesizing and characterizing safe and effective agents for disease therapy and diagnosis. The research involves a multidisciplinary approach encompassing chemistry and biology, and includes organic synthesis, protein and nucleic acid chemistry, natural product chemistry, computational chemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, structural biology, pharmacology and proteomics.
- You will learn to design, synthesize and characterize new medicinal agents and enhance the biological activity of existing pharmaceutical agents.
- You will learn to use computational, biophysical, structural biology and cell-based screening technologies to identify natural and synthetic compounds for pharmacological activity and to conduct structure-based drug design.
- You will isolate, characterize, and synthesize compounds based on natural products, as well as target identification for biologically active natural products.
Competency Grid and Curricular Map
Primary contact:
Xiang-Qin (Sean) Xie, PhD, MBA
Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences
529 Salk Hall
Phone: 412-383-5276
xix15@pitt.edu
Biochemical Pharmacology
The biochemical pharmacology track focuses on the biochemical mechanisms responsible for drug and other xenobiotic metabolism, and gene actions on living systems, both healthy and compromised.
You will have the opportunity to study with faculty in multiple areas including behavioral, cardiovascular and endocrine pharmacology, neuropharmacology, immunopharmacology, chemotherapy, toxicology, and metabolic diseases.
Your research opportunities include studying the biochemical mechanism of drugs and genes in cell cultures and/or healthy and compromised animal models.
You will have the opportunity to create and/or use genetically engineered animals that include transgenic and knockout mice, as well as to integrate disease models into the animal models in order to study the gene function in diseases.
You will develop a broad knowledge of the regulation of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters and the implications of this regulation in drug metabolism.
Competency Grid and Curricular Map
Primary Contact:
Paul Johnston, PhD
Professor
7402 Salk Hall
Phone: 412-383-6605
Email: paj18@pitt.edu
Pharmaceutics
The pharmaceutics track is concentrated on the study of the design of pharmaceutical dosage forms and their interaction with the human body. Topics included are physical pharmacy, bioanalysis, drug delivery and targeting, drug metabolism, drug transport. pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
You will develop a thorough understanding of how to apply principles of physical pharmacy to dosage form design and optimization of drug product performance.
You will develop the fundamentals required for design of both traditional and complex state-of-the-art drug delivery systems and skills essential for the advancement of targeted drug therapies using small molecules, proteins, peptides and other biomolecules, probiotics, and tissue engineered platforms.
You will gain knowledge of the human body and the interaction of medications with the human body including metabolism, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Competency Grid and Curricular Map
Primary Contacts:
Song Li, MD, PhD
Professor
313 Salk Pavilion
Phone: 412-383-7976
Email: sol4@pitt.edu
Clinical Pharmaceutical Scientist Program
The Clinical Pharmaceutical Scientist is a specialty track in which students with expertise in pharmacotherapeutics investigate both the clinical and mechanistic elements of drug therapy issues.
You will learn experimental design, experimental methods, data analysis, and data interpretation of human-based research projects.
You will study how research discoveries are translated into practices that promote health and prevent disease.
You will learn the process required to implement new therapies as standards of care through human-based research projects.
Competency Grid and Curricular Map
Primary Contact:
Philip Empey, PharmD, PhD
Associate Professor
205 Salk Pavilion
Phone: 412-648-7219
Fax: 412-624-1850
Email: pempey@pitt.edu
Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy Research
The POPR track will train students to investigate the impact and outcomes of pharmaceutical products, pharmacy services, and pharmaceutical policies across health care systems. The core mission of POPR is the advancement of knowledge about the safety and effectiveness of medicines, and pharmacy’s role in improving population health. POPR students most often focus on patient-centered outcomes such as access, safety, quality of care, costs, and patient-reported health. Graduates will be trained to work in a broad range of settings, including: academia; pharmaceutical industry; government organizations such as FDA, AHRQ, NIH; contract research organizations; and health care systems.
You will learn epidemiological study designs, data management, data analysis, and data interpretation. You will develop strong quantitative methodological skills in pharmaceutical outcomes and health services research. You will apply social/behavioral theory to the study of patient, provider, and organizational behaviors as it relates to pharmaceuticals and pharmacy practice. You will learn how pharmaceutical outcomes research is used to inform clinical practice and guide health policy decisions.
Competency Grid and Curricular Map
Primary contact:
Sandy Kane-Gill, PharmD, MS, FCCM, FCCP
Professor
303 Baum, 4B-4
Phone: 412-624-5150
Email: kane-gill@pitt.edu
Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology
The Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology program focuses on applying Pharmacometrics and system pharmacology techniques to facilitate the development of novel drug candidates that are less likely to fail during clinical trials and to provide a better understanding of drug mechanisms of action and therapeutic effects at the systems pharmacology level.
- You will develop a broad knowledge of pharmacometrics and systems pharmacology to develop drug candidates that are less likely to fail during clinical trials.
- You will develop strong computational modeling and simulation expertise from drug target fishing, to drug lead identification, to drug profile optimization.
- You will develop strong computational expertise on pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) modeling and simulation.
- You will develop skills on multiscale modeling of biological processes at the molecular, gene, organ and organism levels.
- Your will have opportunities to study with faculty from a variety of background including computer-aided drug design, computational and systems biology/pharmacology, population PK/PD modeling, computational chemical genomics, computational biophysics, etc.
- Candidates with programming experience, basic/intermediate knowledge in statistics and/or hands-on modeling experience are highly desired.
Competency Grid and Curricular Map
Primary Contact:
Xiang-Qun (Sean) Xie, PhD, EMBA
206 Salk Pavilion
Phone: 412-383-5276
Email: xix15@pitt.edu