Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Bulletin of Yale University
 
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Pharmacology

B-334 Sterling Hall of Medicine, 785.4545
M.S., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Chair
Joseph Schlessinger

Director of Graduate Studies
Elias Lolis (SHM B345, 785.6721; elias.lolis@yale.edu)

Director of Medical Studies
James Howe

Professors
George Aghajanian, Karen Anderson, G. Peter Beardsley, Harold Behrman, B. Stephen Bunney, Evangelo Canellakis (Emeritus), Yung-chi Cheng, Edward Chu, J.G. Collins, Jack Cooper (Emeritus), Priscilla Dannies, Ronald Duman, Barbara Ehrlich, Robert Handschumacher (Emeritus), James Howe, Leonard Kaczmarek, Perry Molinoff (Adjunct), William Prusoff (Emeritus), J. Murdoch Ritchie (Emeritus), Sara Rockwell, Robert Roth, Gary Rudnick, Alan Sartorelli, Joseph Schlessinger, William Sessa, Stephen Waxman

Associate Professors
Anton Bennett, Valentin Gribkoff (Adjunct), Robert Heimer, Elias Lolis, Marina Picciotto, Giuseppe Pizzorno, Todd Verdoorn (Adjunct)

Assistant Professors
Titus Boggon, David Calderwood, Michael DiGiovanna, Ya Ha, Sven-Eric Jordt, Benjamin Turk

Lecturers
Louise-Marie Dembry, Gregory Gardiner, Robert Levine, John Pawelek, Alexander Scriabine

Fields of Study

Major emphases in the department are in the areas of molecular pharmacology, mechanisms of drug action, structural biology, neuropharmacology, and chemotherapy.

Special Admissions Requirements

A bachelor’s degree in biology, chemistry, or another science is required. Undergraduate courses should include biology, organic chemistry, physics, and calculus. GRE scores are required; a GRE Subject Test, preferably in Biology or Chemistry, is recommended.

To enter the Ph.D. program, students apply to an interest-based track within the interdepartmental graduate program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences.

Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

Because the field of pharmacology encompasses many disciplines, the department’s flexible program of study toward the Ph.D. degree permits students to concentrate in areas of their particular interest. The only common courses required of all students are the basic course in pharmacology, seminars in which students present papers, and laboratory rotations that provide students with exposure to a variety of experimental approaches.

The basic requirements for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree include one and one-half to two years of course work (including the basic course in pharmacology, seminars, and laboratory rotations), during which time the Graduate School Honors requirement and an oral qualifying examination must be completed. There is no foreign language requirement. A thesis prospectus must be submitted by the end of the third year. Admission to candidacy is usually achieved by the end of the third year. A doctoral dissertation based upon original research, with an oral examination in defense of the dissertation, is required for the degree. The norm for completion of the Ph.D. program is four to five years.

An important aspect of graduate training in pharmacology is the acquisition of teaching skills through the participation in courses appropriate for the student’s scientific interests. These opportunities can be drawn from a diverse menu of lecture, laboratory, and seminar courses given at the undergraduate, graduate, and medical school levels. Ph.D. students are expected to participate in two terms (or the equivalent) of teaching. Students are not expected to teach during their first year.

Master’s Degrees

M.Phil. See Degree Requirements.
M.S. (en route to the PH.D.). Students are eligible for the M.S. degree upon successful completion of the first three terms of the Ph.D. program. This includes one year of lab rotations and six courses. Two of the courses must be Pharmacology I and II, and a grade of High Pass (or better) is required for each course. Two grades of Honors are required for any of the six courses.

Program materials are available upon request to the Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Pharmacology, Yale University, PO Box 208066, New Haven CT 06520-8066.

Courses

PHAR 502a and b, Seminar in Pharmacology.  To be announced.
A seminar given by a department faculty member on his or her area of interest to teach students how to critically evaluate papers and to improve the ability of the students to give oral presentations.

PHAR 504a, Pharmacology I: Interfering Selectively.  Elias Lolis and staff.  
MW 10.30–12
Lectures covering antibiotics, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy.

PHAR 504b, Pharmacology II: Maintaining and Restoring Homeostasis.  Priscilla Dannies and staff.  
MW 10.30–12
Lectures covering drug-receptor interactions, control of messenger systems and channels, and regulation of physiological systems.

PHAR 506a and b, Methods in Pharmacological Research (Rotations).  William Sessa.
Students work in laboratories of faculty of their choice. The period spent in each laboratory is one term.

PHAR 508b, Neuropharmacology.  James Howe.  
T 2–4
An intensive examination of current understanding of the sites and mechanisms involved in drug action on single nerve cells and on the brain. Emphasis on basic functions and illustrative examples of their disturbance by drugs.

PHAR 518b, Current Topics in Cancer and Viral Therapy.  Yung-chi Cheng, Elias Lolis.  
W 5.15–7.15
This course discusses current and evolving topics in cancer and viral mechanisms of disease and potential treatments. Each session is two hours in length. The lecturers present a general overview of the field as well as some of their research activities. Students are required to discuss papers on the particular topic of the day.

PHAR 521a, Neuroimaging in Neuropsychiatry I: Imaging Methods.  Julie Staley, Kelly Cosgrove.
W 9–10
Neuroimaging methodologies including Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), and gene array imaging (GAI) are rapidly evolving tools used to study the living human brain. Neuroimaging has unprecedented implications for routine clinical diagnosis, for assessment of drug efficacy; for determination of psychotropic drug occupancy; and for the study of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neurologic and psychiatric disorders. This course is designed to provide an overview of the theory and current state of development of the different neuroimaging modalities. A second course, offered in the spring, focuses on applications. Also NSCI 521a.

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