PhD and MS Program Introduction

Program Objectives and Outcomes

The doctoral and master’s degree programs in Pharmaceutics train research scholars in the fundamental aspects of drug absorption, disposition, and drug delivery to optimize drug efficacy and minimize drug toxicity. Drug disposition, or pharmacokinetics, pertains to facets of drug absorption, distribution, delivery, and elimination. Areas of emphasis include:

• Drug absorption and excretion: drug transport, the way drug molecules travel into the body, sites of drug action and excretory fluids
• Drug metabolism: enzyme-catalyzed molecular transformations that often impart different disposition and pharmacological properties compared to the parent molecule
• Drug delivery: processes for enhancing the absorption of a drug and targeting it to the site of action and away from the site of toxicity

You will demonstrate an understanding of drug and endobiotic reactions, including drug and endobiotic metabolism, drug and endobiotic transport, drug and endobiotic disposition as well as drug and endobiotic absorption.

You will probe the effects of alteration of physiological and biochemical processes which may occur due to drug interactions, targeted drug delivery, pregnancy, age, diseases, and genetic variations on drug disposition and pharmacological response. You will be able to elucidate the relationship between the kinetics of drug and metabolites in various body compartments or tissues and the manifestation of therapeutic and toxic effects. You will study drug-drug interactions (DDI) and toxicokinetics as well as other facets in the bench-to-bedside medicine research.

You will be trained in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacometrics through basic biochemical, cellular and molecular techniques, quantitative analytical methods, and in the elaboration of mathematical models (e.g., PBPK modeling and simulation) and simulations to describe the pharmacokinetics of drugs and their actions.

Sound interesting? For more information, please click on any of the links located at the top right of this page and visit research profiles of individual faculty members.

Find out more about the PhD in Pharmaceutics:
https://sop.washington.edu/department-of-pharmaceutics/graduate-education-training-programs/phd-program/didactic-training/

Find out more about MS in Pharmaceutics:
https://sop.washington.edu/department-of-pharmaceutics/graduate-education-training-programs/msc-program/