YiQiang (Eric) Cheng, PhD, Graduate Advisor
Research and Education Building 314D
Phone: 817-735-0165
E-mail: YiQiang.Cheng@unthsc.edu
The Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy Graduate Program is an interdisciplinary program that offers both Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. The goal of this program is to provide students with rigorous education and training in biomedical sciences with a specialty in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy. Students receive training through original research, formal classroom education, problem-based learning, seminars, and journal clubs. The program includes faculty members engaged in various aspects of basic and clinical research in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy.
The specific research interests of faculty cover a wide range of topics subjects, including for example, cancer stem cell biology, target identification, natural product discovery, design and synthesis of new drug molecules, mechanistic studies of drug action (pharmacology), drug analysis, drug formulation and drug delivery, drug metabolism, drug resistance, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics, etc. The interdisciplinary research also includes investigation of the link between and among different category of human diseases, such as cancer, aging & and Alzheimer’s disease, HIV and ocular diseases. The research projects employ state-of-the-art chemical, biochemical, molecular, cellular, in vivo and clinical techniques that include fermentation, chromatography, mass spectrometry, NMR, protein crystallography, molecular cloning, gene targeting, FACS analysis, advanced fluorescence spectroscopy, optical imaging and advanced single cell technology, behavioral testing, cellular reprogramming, nanoparticle characterization, and organoid modeling, etc.
Students admitted into the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) will be given two to three semesters to identify a major professor and a home department. Students may choose a faculty mentor from any department according to their research interests and based on mutual selection between students and faculty advisors. In addition, students will be able to utilize the resources and expertise of faculty members with diverse backgrounds from several departments. During the first year, students will acquire sufficient background in biomedical sciences, including biochemistry, molecular cell biology, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, immunology, and/or specialized courses in pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacotherapy. The students will have the opportunity to rotate in faculty laboratories in any department prior to selecting a major professor. Students will take a few specialty courses in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy. They will be able to select additional elective courses from any department based on their needs and interests. Students will also be mandated to participate in seminars, work-in-progress presentations and group discussions of current research topics, and will be trained in a number of techniques required to address existing research problems in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy. Both MS and PhD students will conduct original, publishable research and will be expected to present their results at national scientific conferences.
Completion of the MS degree typically requires two to three years; the PhD degree is generally completed in four to five years. PhD students are admitted to candidacy after successful completion of their preliminary oral qualifying examinations and defense of an NIH-style research grant proposal. Students who successfully complete a graduate degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacotherapy will be well prepared for careers in academic and government research laboratories, as well as in the pharmaceutical/ biotechnology industry.