Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD)

The Pharmaceutical Sciences program is a research intensive graduate program with faculty from UTHSC and affiliate faculty from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital^®. The program offers the PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences with concentration in one of the following areas: bioanalysis, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, and pharmacometrics.

Bioanalysis – Faculty research includes the development and application of state-of-the-art analytical technologies to detect and quantify molecular entities of biological and pharmaceutical interest, such as drugs and biomarkers.

Medicinal Chemistry – Faculty research activities are targeted at finding specific and selectively acting drug molecules. The efforts include design, synthesis, characterization, and bioassays of molecules for prophylactic and therapeutic use in disorders of the endocrine, cardiovascular, and central and peripheral nervous systems, as well as in cancer and infectious diseases. Computer-aided molecular design, combined with traditional and asymmetric organic synthesis, and mass and NMR spectroscopic techniques are used in the drug discovery process. The synthetic efforts are guided by results of in vitro bioassays such as cell culture, enzyme inhibition, receptor binding, and in vivo animal models. Also, combinatorial chemistry is used to generate large numbers of variables in a format allowing for rapid optimization of lead structures. Campus facilities consist of molecular modeling laboratories; a mass spectrometry center; high field NMR spectrometry; and several well-equipped organic synthesis laboratories.

Pharmaceutics – Faculty research includes studies designed to examine the physicochemical factors that influence drug stability, aseptic methods for the manufacture of parenteral dosage forms, the stability of peptides and proteins during formulation into drug delivery systems, and the discovery and validation of novel delivery systems for controlled release of drugs.

Pharmacometrics – Faculty research includes the quantitative assessment of drug disposition (pharmacokinetics) and effects (pharmacodynamics) using mathematical models based on biology, physiology, pharmacology and disease.

Requirements: Health profession degree or a bachelor degree, with a grade-point average of at least 3.0 from an accredited college or university; official transcripts; letter of intent describing the applicant’s specific area of interest (200-word minimum); a combined score (verbal and quantitative) of at least 300 on the revised Graduate Record Examination and minimum score of 3.5 on the analytical writing section; a score of at least 213/79 on the computer-based / internet-based TOEFL or evidence of proficiency in English for students whose native language is not English; and three letters of recommendation.

Deadline: March 15

Chair: Bernd Meibolm, PhD, FCP, FAAPS | 901.448.6027

Program Director: Dr. Hassan Alamoazen | 901.448.2239 | halmoaze@uthsc.edu