This Predoctoral Training Program is designed to provide a broad education in the Pharmacological Sciences leading to the Ph.D. degree. The Pharmacological Sciences Training Program (PSTP) is based primarily in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, but also includes faculty from three schools within the University and ten departments including Anesthesiology, Chemistry, Immunology, Medicine, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Neurobiology, Neurology, Otolaryngology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Structural Biology. Graduate students entering this program are typically first recruited into the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (IBGP) where they join a program that includes core didactic education in biomedical sciences, scientific ethics and statistics and research rotations. Continued and growing success with diversity recruitment is a major emphasis of the PSTP in conjunction with and independent of the IBGP. Students then transfer into the specialized Ph.D. program of their choice and become candidates for support in their second year. The training program provides graduate classes in the essential elements of modern pharmacology including neuropharmacology, cancer pharmacology, cardiovascular pharmacology, signal transduction and drug discovery and also the elements of quantitative pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and drug metabolism. Students choose mentors from a well-funded faculty in one of seven research areas: Cancer Pharmacology, DNA repair, Cell and Organ System Pharmacology, Drug Discovery, Neuropharmacology. Signal Transduction and Structural Pharmacology. Following completion of the comprehensive exam and a dissertation proposal, students are engaged full time in research in the third and subsequent years of this program. The PSTP also emphasizes training in critical thinking skills and in the responsible conduct of research and as well provides training in skills (e.g. public presentations, exploration of career alternatives) tht promote professional success. The PSTP thus provides a contemporary and exciting training opportunity for motivated students within a rich research environment and aims to generate Ph.D. graduates with a broad appreciation of the discipline of pharmacology.
Students that participate in this program will receive training in fundamental areas of pharmacology, physiology and drug discovery, as well as participate in state-of-the-art research that examines the mechanisms of action of many drugs that are either currently in use or being developed to treat a variety of human diseases. The knowledge gained by these trainees will have a direct impact on human health as they apply this knowledge as basic researchers, clinicians, educators, business leaders, intellectual property specialists or public policy advocates in the development and implementation of safe and effective drugs.
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