The Department of Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Graduate Program

The Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry graduate program at the University of Utah emphasizes education and training at the interface of physical/synthetic organic chemistry, applied mathematics, and modern cell and molecular biology. Graduate students learn to apply fundamental concepts in these areas to many specialized areas of research in modern drug delivery:

• Gene medicine: novel therapeutic gene delivery and targeting methods
• Improving biomaterials performance in medical applications, including implantable devices and diagnostics
• Design and characterization of novel drug delivery systems using new biomaterials (polymers, peptides, nanosystems) and new drug forms (e.g., transgenes, proteins, peptides) to build and control system design, drug release and stability
• Innovative drug delivery systems that combine new targeting, imaging, and triggered release features to improve therapy
• Cell-based therapies for metabolic disease
• Basic research in the kinetics and mechanisms of drug metabolism in the body
• Studies of drug transport mechanisms into and through biological membranes (e.g., skin, GI tract, mouth/nose, lung or cell membranes and cell organelles) and synthetic polymer delivery devices
• Basic studies of the physical and chemical properties of drugs and bioactive molecules and the influence of chemical structure on those properties