By clicking on any of the sub-categories you will find a list of the faculty who have an active research project in that particular field, and can access more detailed information on those projects by clicking on the name of the individual faculty member.
phd program Scientific Tracks
Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars have the opportunity to study alongside world-class faculty and staff in a number of new and emerging areas of science. Investigators conduct front-line research in areas of pharmaceutics that range from identifying fundamental mechanisms of disease to designing and developing new drugs, to understanding the impact of policies on health care.
Funding for research projects in laboratories at the College of Pharmacy has more than doubled over the past five years and has generated discoveries and innovations that have brought international recognition.
The Tracks
Medicinal, Bioorganic & Computational Chemistry
The Medicinal, Bioorganic & Computational Chemistry track is focused on new protein and nucleic acid based therapies and natural product drug discovery platforms. This track is ideal for students with interests in synthetic and biosynthetic approaches for drug discovery, development of novel computational tools for drug design, and the evolution of biologics for specific therapies or drug delivery.
Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Engineering (Pharmaceutics)
The Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Engineering track focuses on drug formulation, development and delivery.
Areas of emphasis include:
- the application of physical, physical organic, and analytical chemistry to solve pharmaceutical problems,
- the design, development, and optimization of dosage forms for small and large molecules, and
- fundamental research into materials science and nanotechnology to advance drug delivery systems design.
Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics (CET)
The Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics program focuses on translational research – research that aims to improve health outcomes in all populations by translating discoveries made on the laboratory bench into practical therapies that can be applied at the patient bedside.
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (PET)
The Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics track focuses on the discovery of therapeutics for diseases and disorders that deeply impact our communities:
- neurological disorders like Epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease
- cardiovascular disease
- cancers including gastrointestinal cancers and brain cancers, and
Topics related to infectious disease prevention including antibiotic and antiviral resistance.
Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy (POP)
The Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy program prepares students for careers in the pharmaceutical industry, governmental positions related to pharmaceuticals, and academic positions focused on research related to pharmaceutical outcomes and policy. Students study economics, epidemiology, policy, and econometrics to understand the relationship between pharmacotherapy and health outcomes, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology, informatics, and pharmaceutical policy.
We wish to remember and honor those who inhabited this Commonwealth before the arrival of the Europeans. Briefly occupying these lands were the Osage, Wyndott tribe, and Miami peoples. The Adena and Hopewell peoples, who are recognized by the naming of the time period in which they resided here, were here more permanently. Some of their mounds remain in the Lexington area, including at UK’s Adena Park.
In more recent years, the Cherokee occupied southeast Kentucky, the Yuchi southwest Kentucky, the Chickasaw extreme western Kentucky and the Shawnee central Kentucky including what is now the city of Lexington. The Shawnee left when colonization pushed through the Appalachian Mountains. Lower Shawnee Town ceremonial grounds are still visible in Greenup County.
We honor the first inhabitants who were here, respect their culture, and acknowledge the presence of their descendants who are here today in all walks of life including fellow pharmacists and healthcare professionals.