Department of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology

Message from the Chair

The Department of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is a dedicated group of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, students and supporting staff who are fully committed to advancing fundamental knowledge in the biomedical sciences and to providing high quality research, training, teaching, and service to society.

Researchers in our department apply the theory and methods of Pharmacology and associated disciplines to identify the pathophysiological basis of diseases and to discover new therapeutic approaches. Our primary faculty and researchers are recognized leaders in international and national scientific societies, including the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, British Pharmacological Society, Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, The College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Southern Society of Clinical Investigation, Research Society on Alcoholism, International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society, Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society, Society for Neuroscience, Society for Social Neuroscience, American Association for Cancer Research, American Heart Association, American Physiological Society, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biophysical Society, The National Lipid Association, the International Drug Abuse Research Society, Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs, Society of General Physiologists, and Society of Latin-American Biophysicists.

Our research programs have been consistently funded by federal, state and private organizations. Federal funding has been mainly supplied by the National Institutes of Health, including NCI, NHLBI, NIAAA, NIDA, NIDDK, NINDS, NEI, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Private institutions that have continuously supported our programs include the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, Alzheimer's Association, American Heart Association, American Parkinson Disease Association, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

Our faculty are enthusiastic participants in graduate education in both PhD and masters programs. Graduate training and doctorate degrees are primarily provided via the Pharmacology and Molecular Therapeutics track of the University of Tennessee Integrated Program in Biomedical Sciences. Our faculty direct the Masters of Pharmacology program, which is run by the UTHSC Graduate School.

I invite you to explore our website and learn about our nationally and internationally recognized research programs in neurodegeneration, alcohol and drug misuse, cardiovascular and lipid pharmacology, membrane receptor clustering and scaffolding, and drug discovery.

Alex Dopico, MD, PhD
Harriet Van Vleet Chair of Excellence in Pharmacology and Professor