Economic and ethical considerations, together with recent scientific trends, have led to a decrease in utilization of intact organs or whole animals in pharmacologic research. Consequently, the number of advanced students who develop expertise in in vivo or organ system pharmacology has declined. The result of this trend is a serious shortage of scientists with these skills and aptitudes, and an underutilization of important models that can lend significant insight into human health and biomedical research. The proposed Education Project takes the form of a Short Course, and is designed to introduce students to the knowledge and skills necessary for studies of biological responses to drugs on the organ system or whole organism level. The Course is comprised of ten instructional days that combine lecture, demonstration, and hands-on laboratory experience in whole-animal and organ systems research techniques relevant to pharmacologic research. This formal instruction is augmented by a one-day scientific symposium, """"""""The Role of In Vivo Methods in Translational Pharmacologic Research"""""""" to illustrate the utility of the model systems discussed. The Course is intended to draw students from graduate programs in pharmacology, physiology, toxicology, and related biomedical disciplines from UNC-system schools, including historically minority institutions, and elsewhere in the region. It is likely that scientists from the pharmaceutical industry will be interested in this training program as well. Investigators at the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy have retained a strong emphasis on integrating mechanistic information into an understanding of drug disposition and action in the intact organ and, most importantly, in the intact organism. Consequently, this team is uniquely-positioned to offer a program with sufficient breadth and depth to provide interested students with a strong foundation in integrative techniques that can be applied to pharmacologic research. This proposed Education Project represents a long-term commitment on the part of the course faculty to offer a training program focused on whole-animal and organ systems techniques of contemporary importance to the pharmacologic sciences. ? ?
| Yan, Grace Zhixia; Generaux, Claudia N; Yoon, Miyoung et al. (2012) A semiphysiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling approach to predict the dose-exposure relationship of an antiparasitic prodrug/active metabolite pair. Drug Metab Dispos 40:6-17 |
| Yan, Grace Zhixia; Brouwer, Kim L R; Pollack, Gary M et al. (2011) Mechanisms underlying differences in systemic exposure of structurally similar active metabolites: comparison of two preclinical hepatic models. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 337:503-12 |
