Curriculum
Pharmacology Courses Heading link
PCOL 530: Pharmacology and Biology of the Vessel Wall*
Course Directors: Kishore Wary, PhD & Richard D Minshall, PhD
This course provides students a comprehensive overview of vascular biology related to physiological and pathological functions and pharmacological approaches to treatment of cardiovascular diseases, focusing on the vascular system as a target for the development of new therapeutic agents. One goal of the course is to investigate, in depth, the unique and important functions of the endothelium, e.g., as an endocrine organ, in regulation to cell adhesion, regulation of transport across the vascular wall, control of cell growth (angiogensis, smooth muscle cell proliferation) and blood cell interactions. In addition, the consequences of dysfunction of the endothelium and pharmacological interventions to treat cardiovascular diseases are studied.
*offered even years only
PCOL 550: Biology and Pharmacology of the Lung
Course Director: Dolly Mehta, PhD & Yulia Komarova, PhD
Ion channels are related not only to action potentials and synaptic potentials in the nervous system. The overall goal of this course is to provide students a comprehensive overview of lung biology and function, the effect of impaired lung functions in inducing several pathologies and current therapeutic regimes. This course will cover topics in lung biology and physiology; e.g. lung structure and development, surfactant, lung volumes, lung cells, oxidant and NO signaling, and lung angiogenesis and will also describe the importance of impaired lung function in inducing lung diseases such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, edema, ARDS, cancer and TB. Lectures will also provide a description of current therapeutics for treating lung diseases which include gene and cell-based therapies.
*Required course for trainees in the Lung Biology and Pathobiology Training Program
(This does not count towards the Pharmacology elective requirement)
PCOL 595: Pharmacology Seminar
Course Director: Andrei Karginov, PhD & Kishore Wary, PhD
Presentation of research and/or current literature by invited lecturers and students.
PCOL 599: PhD Thesis Research
Course Director: Andrei Karignov, PhD & Kishore Wary, PhD
Thesis work under the supervision of a graduate advisor.
GEMS Curriculum
PCOL 501 and 502 Medical Pharmacology I & II Heading link
PCOL 501 and 502 Medical Pharmacology I & II
Course Director: Kishore Wary, PhD
The word ‘Pharmacology’ has its roots in Greek and stands for the study of drugs (pharmacon = poison/drug and logia = the study of). A drug is a substance generally used as a medicine or for diagnosis, or for prevention of a disease or for its physiological and behavioral effects. It can be “man-made”, endogenous (within the body), or naturally occurring.
Pharmacology in a classic sense can be divided into two broad areas- pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Pharmacokinetics is the study of how our body processes drugs, including their absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion; and pharmacodynamics is the study of the effects of the drug on biological systems at molecular and physiological levels, and includes the mechanism of a drug’s action, side effects, and interactions with other drugs or endogenous substances . Therapeutics, is the application of the principles of pharmacology to the treatment of disease and patient care.
The Medical Pharmacology course is taught to second- year medical students, and spans the entire academic year. This team- taught course is lecture-based, with team-based learning sessions. Although course doesn’t or cannot to cover every existing drug, students are introduced to all major classes of drugs, clinical uses, underlying pharmacokinetic principles, mechanism of action, metabolism, and side effects. Students have access to all the necessary teaching material through their black board accounts.