The Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences (PBS) is an interdisciplinary department with research emphasis in the basic science areas of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, bioanalytical chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics and drug delivery. The Department has approximately
- 20 tenure-track faculty members,
- 13 adjunct faculty members,
- 40 graduate students,
- 40 postdoctoral associates.
Faculty members are involved in active research programs. Along with other researchers in the department, administrative, technical and secretarial support personnel are important components of the department. Collegiate Offices with direct interactions and involvement with the department include the Dean's Office, the Business Office, Technical Support, Alumni and Public Relations, Development Office, and the Millikan Education Research Center.
Course Offerings 
The Department's teaching commitment at the professional and graduate levels includes courses that span the entire breadth of areas in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences including courses in the following:
| Medicinal chemistry |
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Pharmacokinetics |
| Toxicology |
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Drug design and molecular modeling |
| Pharmaceutics and drug delivery |
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Biochemical basis of disease |
| Pharmacology |
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Drug therapy of infectious diseases and chemotherapy of cancer |
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Signal transduction and drug targets |
There is also a range of special topics courses and a seminar program that includes graduate seminars and those given by invited external speakers.
Research Areas
Research activities in the department include the general areas of:
| Molecular design |
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Synthesis and discovery of novel antiviral and anticancer agents |
| Signal transduction and cancer |
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Biological mechanisms of action of therapeutic agents |
| Neuroprotective agents |
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Pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism |
| Toxicology |
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Applications of analytical chemistry to biological problems |
| Pharmacology of nutraceuticals |
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Computational chemistry and genomics |
| Nanotechnology and drug delivery |
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Biological and disease drug targets |
| Biologically-active natural products |
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Faculty members in the department are also involved in some intercollegiate research collaborations.
Mission
An important research mission of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the College of Pharmacy is outstanding interdisciplinary research.
Equipment
The Department has excellent research facilities and equipment. Selected examples include:
Varian multinuclear 500 MHz and 400 MHz high-field NMR spectrometers
X-ray diffractometer - a Bruker Kappa CCD system mounted on a Nonius FR591 X-ray Generator and Accessories
LCT Premier Orthogonal Acceleration TOF Mass Spectrometer
Micromass Quattro II-Z and Micromass Quattro-LC Atmospheric Pressure Ionization Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometers
Micromass LCT Atmospheric Pressure TOF Mass Spectrometer
Agilent Technologies Model 6890/5973 Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometer
Beckman Model P/ACE 5000 Capillary Electrophoresis System
Beckman 6500 and LS3801 Liquid Scintillation Counters
16-Station Tablet Presses
Accusizer 780 and Nicomp 380 Particle Sizers
Differential Scanning Calorimeter
Vankel Dissolution Apparatus
Fisher Scientific 60 Sonic Dismembrator and Alpha Imager
Numerous other items of equipment exist in the department in various laboratories such as:
| UV-Visible Spectrometers |
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IR Spectrometers |
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DNA Synthesizers |
| HPLCs |
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Gas Chromatographs |
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Molecular Modeling Equipment |
| Incubators |
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Microcentrifuges |
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Refrigerated Preparative Centrifuges |
| PCs |
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Microscopes |
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French Presses |
Equipment in Shared Laboratories
- Specialized Facilities Laboratory
- Flow Cytometer--Guava EasyCyte Mini with FSC and SSC capability as well as 480, 555 and 610 nm excitation and 510, 575 and 620 emissions
- Liquid Scintillation Counters--Beckman LS3801 liquid scintillation counter with Epson RX80 printer and Beckman LS6800 liquid scintillation counter
- TLC Apparatus and Accessories--CAMAG LS Nanomat TLC apparatus with autospotter, CAMAG UV LAMP viewer, CAMAG Horizontal TLC developing chamber and CAMAG Smart Sensor
- Referigerator and Freezer--Isotemp Plus Fisher 20ºC refrigerator and Revco Upright -80ºC freezer
- Cell Culture and Fume Hoods--Bioquest biological culture hood, biological biosafety cabinet and fume hood
- Brandel Inc., Cell Harvester
- Dark Room Facility
- SRX-101A automatic film developer
- Vista Vision fluorescence microscope for slide with 40X, 25X, 10X and 4X objectives linked to a CCD and Dell 9150 computer with color monitor
- Scion Co. Fotodyne Imager with print recorder and linked to the above computer
- Electron Spectroscopy Laboratory
- Olis DSM 1000 CD Spectrophotometer and Accessories
- Olis DM 45 Fluorescence Spectrofluorimeter and Accessories
- Cary 100 UV-Visible Spectrophotometer and Accessories
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