A Pharmaceutical Sciences graduate program is a stimulating environment for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, staff research scientists and faculty. Students and staff, and faculty pursue a wide range of pharmaceutical research, such as the underlying biology of disease, mechanisms of drug action, drug design, and drug product design and evaluation.

The main feature of any graduate program is the graduate students! Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of the largest graduate programs available, with a system that believes this critical mass of students and faculty provides a stimulating environment for the pharmaceutical science graduate student.

Research Focus Groups

Pharmaceutical Sciences is, by nature, a multi-disciplinary environment. Components include the following seven informal Research Focus Groups: Drug Design, Macromolecular Structure and Function, Cell-Based Gene/Drug Discovery, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Neuroscience, Drug Delivery/Metabolism/Pharmacokinetics, and Industrial Pharmaceutics Research.

Drug Delivery and Pharmaceutics

Several faculties will have drug delivery and pharmaceutics as their research focus. These faculties and their students are pharmaceutical scientists concerned with delivering a drug to specific sites of action in the body, so that the drug can exert its optimal therapeutic effect. Both the physical-chemical properties of the drug itself, as well as the design of its delivery device (tablet, inhaler, implant) impact whether a drug gets absorbed into the body, and whether the drug can successfully be engineered towards its site of action.

Since there are numerous means by which drugs are administered, and several target organs for drug delivery, research includes the overcoming of several physiologic barriers toward drug delivery. Faculty may investigate the means to increase oral drug absorption across the gastrointestinal tract, increase drug delivery to the lung from aerosols and nebulisers, increase drug delivery to the brain (treating disorders such as epilepsy), increase systemic drug delivery via the nose from nasal spray devices, and even selectively target cancer drugs to tumour tissue while sparing normal tissue.

One component of enhanced drug delivery is the identification of better drug properties that allow the drug to penetrate each of these barriers while maintaining stability in the body. Experiments to examine the bio-distribution of drugs range from in vitro cell culture methods, to human pharmacokinetic studies, to computer-based predictions.

In addition to enhancing drug delivery via more favourable drug substance properties, delivery can be enhanced via the engineering of better drug technologies. 'Dosage form' technology increases the bioavailability of drugs, sustains drug levels in the body, and targets specific organs. These systems can range from relatively simple tablets and capsules to complex, implantable metering devices, made from novel polymers. Research includes the formulation of oral solid dosage forms, excipient (non-drug materials) characterisation and qualification, inhalation delivery systems, materials science, and the biopharmaceutics of orally administered drug products. Principles from the physico-chemical, biological, and engineering sciences are emphasised and applied towards optimal delivery of drugs within the body.

A graduate 'family' of faculty and top students work to bring new ideas and vision to the pharmaceutical arena as they help produce solutions for tomorrow's needs. They are justifiably proud of this effort, and welcome the opportunity to continue through the discovery of new students who will share this same endeavour. We sincerely hope that our challenges today will become yours tomorrow.

 

Author:
James Polli, PhD
Associate Professor & Director
Academic Affairs Graduate Program
School of Pharmacy
University of Maryland
Baltimore