Pharmacology Graduate Program

By an allied health world contributing writer
Published: March, 1 2010

The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) lists only 12 undergraduate programs in pharmacology, but lists 191 pharmacology graduate schools. Many of these are schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy or health sciences.

The entire course of a pharmacology educational career involves deep study into complex mathematical and life science subjects. Graduate school is even more in depth. Whereas the pursuit of a bachelor’s degree may require taking elective courses or exploring a variety of liberal arts subjects (not a bad goal in itself), graduate school focuses exclusively on the topics required in the topic being studied.

Pharmacology graduate schools further focus students on topics like cellular biology, biometrics, experimental design, human physiology and pathophysiology. Other classes may include cell signaling, how to mass spectrometry and proteomics. Additional courses in molecular genetics, neuroscience and immunology help graduate a well-rounded pharmacologist. Time in pharmacology graduate school is split between didactics (classroom) study and research training. Most graduate schools conduct their own research, often based on grants received by corporate or government sponsors. While these sponsors may expect research to focus on their own needs, it is up to the professor, the university and the department to determine if the work is relevant to their discipline and appropriate for students to spend time working on.