Pharmaceutical Sciences at UConn: Innovative, Entrepreneurial, Connected to the World
The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UConn School of Pharmacy has a rich history of excellence in all three facets of its core mission: teaching, research, and service. We do this through world-class teaching and learning, scientific discovery and exchange, and health care improvement. The Department is home to 20 faculty members with expertise in the disciplines of Pharmaceutics, and Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Medicinal Chemistry.
UConn’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers expertise in Pharmaceutics and Medicinal Chemistry, as well as Pharmacology and Toxicology. Our faculty, whose research and discoveries have resulted in patents, contracts, and improved health worldwide, are eager to mentor those who share their passion to contribute to the global scientific community. At UConn, our graduate students enjoy a robust partnership with their faculty mentors.
In addition to specialized research training in areas such as drug discovery, mode of action, drug formulation, and safety, all disciplines have unique core courses providing fundamental concepts critical to each discipline. Our department enjoys significant success in placing our Pharm.D. and Ph.D. graduates both locally and nationally in government, industry, and academia.
The flexibility of our program also allows Pharm.D. candidates to customize their studies to garner additional expertise within pharmaceutical sciences and related research. Designed for students who want to work as a pharmacist for a pharmaceutical company or are planning to pursue a joint Pharm.D./ Ph.D. degree, this course of study allows a wide range of options and offers easy integration with existing science minors and UConn’s pharmacy program.
Pharmaceutics
Pharmaceutics, the science and engineering of drug dosage form design, is a highly multi-disciplinary field requiring expertise in chemistry, engineering, pharmacy, materials science, mathematics, and the biological sciences. The area of research ranges from fundamental studies of the physicochemical properties of drugs and related molecules to dosage forms and delivery systems.
At the cusp of innovation, pharmaceutics sets the stage to make beneficial contributions to patients’ healthcare as well as to the scientific community. Pharmaceutical scientists are currently developing new materials and formulations for improved drug delivery systems, and engineering new systems to improve and expedite the drug development process. Active research is crucial in this graduate program and emphasizes the physical, chemical, and engineering aspects of pharmaceutics. Our graduate students also have the opportunity to participate in the highly acclaimed Kildsig Center for Pharmaceutical Processing Research (cppr.uconn.edu). Pharmaceutics graduate students typically do a summer internship in the pharmaceutical industry and obtain employment in the industry, government, or academia upon graduation.
Contact:
Xiuling Lu - Division Coordinator
Pharmacology & Toxicology
The pharmacology and toxicology disciplines explore the mechanisms underlying the action of drugs, chemicals, and environmental toxicants. The study of both pharmacology and toxicology integrates the principles and skills of biology and chemistry in an effort to understand the molecular, cellular and organismal effects of chemicals on biological systems.
Students in the Pharmacology & Toxicology graduate program receive didactic and research training in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. Our overall research goals are to identify and understand molecular mechanisms of disease pathology and to develop better diagnostic tools and pharmacological therapies. Current areas of research include: drug metabolism, hepatotoxicity, metabolomics, epigenetics, non-coding RNA, inflammation, nuclear receptor signaling, teratology, substance use disorder, behavioral pharmacology, and personalized medicine.
Contact:
Gregory C. Sartor - Division Coordinator
Medicinal Chemistry
Investigators in medicinal chemistry explore the design, synthesis and mechanism of new drugs. Interested students often have backgrounds in chemistry and biology. Key areas of concentration within the department comprise structural biology, including the determination of structures of drug targets using X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), organic synthesis of new drugs and structure-based drug design.
Current research projects span the development of small molecule therapeutics for cancer, infectious disease, and a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Additional ongoing projects are aimed at understanding signaling as it relates to cell proliferation, adhesion, and trafficking, and exploring the interactions between the cannabinoid receptor and its cytosolic regulatory proteins.
Ph.D. graduates are intellectual leaders in drug development, discovery, and research, investigating both medicinal agents found in plants and new synthetic drug possibilities.
Contact:
Olga Vinogradova - Division Coordinator
Teaching and Training
The department has a deep commitment to teaching and training. Our teaching mission is achieved through an active and rigorous graduate program in all three disciplines. The Department also shares the responsibility of teaching the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) curriculum with the Department of Pharmacy Practice. Graduates of the professional pharmacy program are given the skills and knowledge required to provide patient-centered pharmaceutical care.
We also continue our long tradition of training the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists. In addition to highly specialized research training in areas such as drug discovery, mode of action, drug formulation, and safety, all disciplines have unique core courses designed to provide fundamental concepts critical to each discipline. Our department enjoys great success in placing our PhD graduates both locally and nationally in government, industry, and academia.
The Department maintains strong ties to most clinical-oriented programs including those in the department of Pharmacy Practice, UConn Health Center, and UConn science departments such as Molecular and Cellular Biology, Physiology and Neurobiology, Nutritional Sciences, and Chemistry. Many faculty are also affiliated with the Institute for Systems Genomics. Students in the department have a wide range of opportunities to tailor their studies to meet their individual goals.
Faculty
Many of our faculty are supported by such organizations as the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Science Foundation. The Department includes two Endowed Chairs and two Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors. Our faculty are highly regarded for their scholarly contributions, service and engagement in the global scientific community. Our research programs are innovative, multi-faceted, and collaborative always striving to identify and characterize therapies for treatment of human diseases, increasing public health and quality of life.
Join Our World-Renowned Team
Located at our main campus in Storrs, the School of Pharmacy features state-of-the-art labs; easy access to New York, Boston, Hartford, and Providence; and robust interdisciplinary collaboration. Ranked among the top 25 public universities in the nation, UConn is dedicated to human health and scientific research. Our Innovation Partnership Building at UConn Tech Park houses business partners from around the globe who partner with our faculty to conduct innovative, cross-disciplinary research in fields ranging from manufacturing to biomedical engineering to cybersecurity. At our UConn Health campus in nearby Farmington, which is also home to Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, is an integrated academic medical center that is entering an era of unprecedented growth in three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care.
Application Portals:
Pre-professional (please check pre-pharmacy on the application). Transfers will also apply here
Questions? Email pharmacy@uconn.edu