This proposal requests continuing support for formal graduate study and research training in the pharmacological sciences with particular emphasis on cellular and molecular approaches. The program is organized to coordinate with an established interdisciplinary graduate program in Biomedical Sciences at the University of San Diego, San Diego and is designed to provide specific training through courses and research experiences in the pharmacological sciences. The core faculty include 16 members of the Department of Pharmacology plus 18 other faculty with research interests in cellular and molecular aspects of the discipline. The entire training faculty encompass members of the Departments of Pharmacology, Medicine, Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Chemistry- Biochemistry at UCSD. In addition, several jointly appointed members of the Salk Institute participate (the Center for Biomarine Medicine and the San Diego Super-computer Center). The vast majority of students supported by the training grant come from the Biomedical Sciences Program. It is expected that trainees will gain a background in cellular and molecular biology, physiology and pharmacology in a series of four core course. An elective program emphasizing a unique perspective into pharmacology is designed for the trainees to develop specific expertise in cellular and molecular approaches to drug action and specificity, signal transduction, disposition of pharmacologic agents, the structures of receptors or other targets of drug action and the effects of chemical intervention and physiologic regulation of gene expression. An expanding faculty and new interdisciplinary perspectives have provided substantial changes in training over the last decade and its is expected that this trend will continue. Recent initatiatives have expanded training in computational areas by virtue of recruitments at a senior level, appointments of faculty at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and installation of new course in data base analysis and computation of structure. UCSD has developed a center in biomarine medicine and plans are underway to link this area to the pharmacological sciences.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 355 publications
