Pharmacology

Major study in Pharmacology.

Pharmacology is the study of the interactions between drugs and living systems, and pharmacologists develop new drugs, determine how drugs act, and utilise drugs to discover the inner workings of cells. The discipline of pharmacology stands at the intersection of many areas of biomedical science and so a major in pharmacology will provide the springboard for a career in biomedical research. The discipline-specific skills of pharmacology are invaluable to the expanding biotechnology industry, giving graduates access to exciting careers. Graduates will gain an in depth understanding of drug actions and a broad appreciation of the scientific process of knowledge acquisition and problem solving.

By the end of this major a student should have:

• knowledge of the actions of important drugs used clinically and in research;
• an understanding of how the actions of new drugs are characterised and how drugs can be used to investigate questions of biological processes and signaling;
• an understanding of the process of drug discovery and development;
• used modern molecular approaches to solving pharmacological problems, and obtained an appreciation of their application to specific biological problems;
• applied laboratory techniques and analytical approaches in different areas of pharmacology including the analysis and interpretation of data derived from experiments;
• gained experience in the written and oral presentation of scientific data and developed an appreciation of the scientific literature.

Pharmacology major

Completion of 50 points of study at third year level.

Core subject:

The topic of the Research Project must be related to pharmacology.