Undergraduate Course Descriptions

 

The Fall 2025 Pharmacy Undergraduate Course Schedule is now available! 

Descriptions of all College of Pharmacy undergraduate courses can be found below. 

This seminar will offer students who may be unfamiliar with the breadth and reach of pharmaceutical sciences as a discipline a timely and entertaining overview of this field. Topics will include an introduction to drug discovery and development, drug pricing and advertising, drug dosage forms and delivery vehicles, the science of drug efficacy and toxicity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, a review of common drug classes (mechanism of action, indication, side effects), and the most problematic human diseases for which we have no cures (and why!). The series will conclude with hilarious stories about impromptu drug re-purposing when crazy side effects emerged. Taught using plain language and current cultural references, this course proves that you don't have to be a scientist to understand science.

Drugs shape society. Drugs can prevent and cure mortal diseases and have dramatically increased human lifespan, thereby forever changing the fabric of society and civilization. Drugs have evolved alongside human inquiry and have informed many areas medicine, science, art, justice, and policy. The consequences of drug use or pharmacotherapy, intended and unintended, may alleviate pain and ward off death, while at the same time contribute to pain and death. Such are the complexities of small molecules ingested often in vanishingly small amounts. While the effects may appear magical, they are rooted in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

This course uses examples of drugs that shaped humanity to examine the underlying biologic mechanisms and pharmacologic principles that underlie the drug’s desired and undesired physiologic/psychologic effects. We will attempt to put these drugs in the historical context in which they emerged, how societal modernization provided the foundation for organized, reasoned drug development and the establishment of the pharmaceutical industry. As the course draws to a close, we will examine the likely pharmacologic agents and approaches that will impact society in the near future. No prerequisites, but a basic background in molecular biology is recommended. 

Students will expand their knowledge of pharmaceutics, pharmacology, and toxicology and apply this information to an array of substances that they encounter or deliberately use daily. Students will also learn the regulatory aspects of cosmetic creation, advertising, and sale; the chemistry behind ingredient selection for each category of product; and the efficacy that can to be expected due to the pharmacological and toxicological characteristics of these formulations. At the end of the course, students will be better-informed consumers, better equipped to select and purchase beauty and self-care products that deliver meaningful results, avoiding products of limited efficacy or which may be unsafe.

In this three-credit course required for the BSPS program, students will learn to read and interpret basic and clinical science papers and to write scientific manuscripts and research proposals. Emphasis will be placed on conveying the significance of research, outlining aims, and discussing results for scientific papers and grant proposals. Students will learn the traditional sections of a scientific paper, how methods are used and presented, how results are communicated, and what a discussion does and does not contains. Best practices for figures and tables (data presentation) will be described and students will be shown how to craft an abstract from a work of literature. Next, students will learn what a research proposal contains (modeled after the R01) and how they are constructed. Students will also learn about peer-review and participate in drug information retrieval.

Almost 60 billion dollars (2016) are spent annually on pharmaceutical research and development in the United States and almost 425 billion dollars (2015) are spent annually in drug purchasing. Drugs are key economic and therapeutic factors in the healthcare arena; yet, among patients and consumers the pharmaceutical industry lacks public trust and the process of drug approval is often shrouded in mystery. In this course we’ll address the decisions drug manufacturers consider, including time, cost, risk and value in bringing as new drug product to market. We will explore how a new drug product is developed from concept to bedside.

In this course, students will learn how mainstream medicine is designed to keep us alive but not healthy. We will cover the main determinants of premature death and actual interventions that prevent or reverse these conditions, contrasting these approaches to the currently used and very poor therapies that simply keep people ill longer. We will address myths of ageing and the differences between centenarians and the rest of the population. Finally, we will cover diet, exercise, and drugs that can be deployed now to increase our lifespan as well as our healthspan.

This course covers the toxicology of plants, fish, insects and reptiles, foods, drugs of abuse, and other common poisonous substances in addition to information about carcinogens, teratogens, and risk assessment.  Students will learn about snake, spider, and scorpion venoms; marine toxins produced by exotic underwater creatures; and common food poisonings. We will cover non-food plant toxicities, drugs of abuse, approaches to risk assessment, compounds that cause cancer and birth defects, and more.

This course will allow students to explore the most controversial and timely topics in healthcare that are based in medicine and healthcare. We will cover specific drugs for lethal injection, euthanasia, pregnancy termination as well as human physical and cognitive enhancement. We will also focus on inconsistencies in drug applications such as social medication, disease mongering, and compassionate use of drugs for the terminally ill. In each session, we will cover the laws or policies involved, where they have been and where they are heading. Drug pricing, advertising, and black-market purchases will be described and we will end the session with unlawfully obtained patient data and transgender healthcare concerns. Topics are diverse and challenging, allowing students to see behind the curtain of medicine to visualize many of the struggles our providers face daily. Students will broaden their understanding of pharmacology (drug name, purpose, mechanism of action, and potential toxicity), current events, ethics, persuasive argument, and philosophical approaches to decisions about medicine and healthcare.

ADME, an acronym for absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion is often the determining factor in whether drugs and chemicals generate the desired effect, no effect, or a harmful effect. PCOL 350 provides students with an overview of how drugs get into the tissues of the body and back out again, what happens along the way, and how things go wrong leading to specific and non-specific toxicities. Students will gain a broad understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity from oxidative damage to genotoxicity, assays and methods for assessing toxicity, and the details of ADME and physiology that lead to damage in specific organs.

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with a basis of understanding of pharmaceutical dosage forms. An overview of traditional and novel dosage forms will be presented along with a discussion on scientific and regulatory requirements necessary to get a drug product approved. The course will emphasize the relationship between Physical Pharmacy (chemistry and physical science) and the pharmaceutical dosage form. Critical thinking and problem solving will be applied to the above principals.

A biomarker is a defined characteristic that is measured as an indicator of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes, or responses to an exposure or intervention, including therapeutic interventions. These indicators may be molecular, histologic, radiographic, or physiologic characteristics. Biomarkers can be used in a variety of settings including basic, translational, and clinical research and in clinical practice settings. This course will provide an introduction to the exploration, validation, and application of biomarkers during the drug development process and in predicting and monitoring drug efficacy and safety during patient care. Key concepts in bioanalytical technologies used in biomarker measurements will also be introduced. The pathways for regulatory biomarker interpretation and acceptance will also be discussed.

  • PharmSci Major "Sub-Core" Course Option 
  • Prerequisite: CHEM 241A, and PSIO 202 or PSIO 380

Pharmacy is a time-honored profession, dating back to the dawn of civilization. This course will explore pharmacy's rich history, and will further students' understanding of the role that pharmacists, apothecaries, and medicinal healers have played over the centuries.

 

During this course, students will be exposed to different professional paths and opportunities that are available with a Doctorate of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree. Students will have the opportunity to learn from various professionals working in a multitude of different settings, including ambulatory care, community pharmacy, industry, public health, and more. Students will interact with these professionals during structured question and answer sessions. This colloquium will allow students to learn about relevant and current topics in pharmacology, pharmaceutical sciences, and pharmacy practice.

Pharmaceutical Sciences is a dynamic field that is critical to the discovery of new therapies and improvements in healthcare. But what do pharmaceutical scientists actually do? In this course, students will be exposed to a variety of professional pathways within the pharmaceutical sciences, including drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, toxicology, pharmacoeconomics, regulatory affairs, pharmaceutical sales, and more. Students will learn about the specific tasks associated with jobs in those fields and the type of course work needed in order to prepare for different types of work. Knowledge gained in this course may help students identify research areas in which they may pursue laboratory experience during their undergraduate program.  

This co-convened team-taught course is offered by the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and other invited speakers. This course will cover essential laboratory techniques that are used in the fields of medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutics. The objective of this course is to provide students with practical knowledge and hands-on experience with some of the most common experimental methods used in the field of Drug Discovery and Development, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmaceutics. Laboratory techniques covered in this course include biochemical and molecular biological methods or procedures that are used to study living cells, analytical methods or procedures that are used in pharmacology, toxicology, and pharmaceutics, and preclinical in vitro and in vivo experimental models of drug metabolism and disposition in drug discovery and development  

(Formerlly numbered PCOL 360)  Pharmacology is the study of how drugs change human physiology to prevent disease and to reduce/remove the impact of diseases. This course will present the basic principles of pharmacology, as well as instruction in the diverse mechanisms-of-action, and pharmacological effects (both desired and undesired!) of the major classes of drugs currently used to treat and prevent human diseases. This will be a lecture-based course with discussion facilitated through the use of Poll Everywhere.  

PCOL 410 will deliver content in the application of the foundation sciences to drug design. At an appropriate level of content targeting, students will draw on prior math, physics, and chemistry courses in the study of how drugs are conceptualized, designed, and developed. Content will build from basic concepts (structural factors associated with drug activity, drug solubility, pharmacophores) to a consideration of relevant biological drug targets, as well as basic content in structural biology analytical approaches. 

  • Required Pharmaceutical Sciences major course
  • Prerequisites: CHEM 241B and CHEM 243B. BIOC 384 or 385 recommended.

 

Natural Products (NPs) are compounds derived from natural sources, e.g. plants, animals and micro-organisms, which have biological activities. Natural products have been used as healing agents since thousands of years and still today continue to be an excellent and abundant source of therapeutics for many decades.  This course will focus on the historical evolution of NP investigation methods, the medical applications of natural products, and drug discovery based on natural products. Detailed information is given for biologically important natural products and drugs of natural origin, including sources, principal components, structural component analysis, drug use, mechanism of action, and the role of natural products in modern medicine system.

The human brain is a complex organ that can be impacted by a spectrum of neurological conditions and diseases at all stages of life. The economic and social burden of neurological disorders is vast, so there is impetus to better understand brain disorders and to find new pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. To this end, this course will allow students to explore brain disorders and their current treatments. These include neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease; as well as neuropsychiatric conditions, such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), sleep-wake disorders, and seizure disorders. Current neuropharmacology will be the overall focus.   *Course is scheduled as PCOL 396-001: Special Topics in Pharmacy for the fall 2024 semester.

  • Pharmaceutical Sciences major elective option
  • Prerequisites: PSIO 201 or 380

This course will instruct students about pharmacological agents used to prevent and maintain pregnancy, assist with human birth, increase libido and function, and help with gender transformation or transition. We will explore how clinical trials are designed to assess how drugs interact with human sexual function and how we create criteria for safety, efficacy, and risk. Finally, we will cover the underlying mechanisms by which commonly prescribed drugs interfere with human sexual function and desire, and we will explore chemsex, which can have lethal consequences.

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of cardiovascular pharmacology, focusing on the mechanisms of action, therapeutic uses, adverse effects, and interactions of drugs commonly used in the management of cardiovascular diseases. Students will learn about the underlying pathophysiology of cardiovascular disorders and explore the pharmacological interventions targeting various aspects of cardiovascular function. This includes antihypertensives, cholesterol-lowering drugs, anti-ischemic therapy, and drugs to treat heart failure Additional material will cover dysrhythmias and arrhythmias and anticoagulants and their reversal agents. Renal dynamics as well as the renin-aldosterone-angiotensin system will be reviewed as well as common concepts in hemodynamics, afterload and preload, and the contribution of the CNS to heart function. Students will leave with a greater understanding of cardiovascular physiology supplemented with fundamental pharmacological concepts that allow them significant advantages when exploring healthcare careers. 

  • Pharmaceutical Sciences major elective option 
  • Prerequisites: CHEM 152 and MCB 181R

This course will introduce students to a timely issue of intense focus, both at the level of funding agencies, as well as at the level of academic-pharma/biotech partnerships in drug commercialization. In both of these environments serious concerns have been raised regarding the level of rigor and reproducibility in academic science. This course will expose students to the spectrum of rigor and reproducibility, and engage students in discussions that aim to link the particular rigor applied to an experiment with the demands that exist for the data; for example, contrasting the demands of a pilot experiment to initially test an idea vs. the measurement of the response to a new drug that will be used as data to seek investment from a pharmaceutical company. Students will be challenged to develop plans for assays that include clearly described validation schemes.

 

In one semester, learn everything about the most important drug laws that allow us to have safe and efficacious drugs without a prescription. We will cover OTC, BTC, and Rx drugs; dosage forms and bioequivalence; analgesics, gastrointestinal drugs; antiallergy products, drugs for the lips and skin and mucous membranes; cough and cold remedies, hair drugs, smoking cessation compounds, and sleep medications. For each category, students will learn mechanisms of action, uses, and potential side effects.

This course will provide students with an introduction into the world of forensic science and an overview of important topics in forensic toxicology. Students will learn about the types of forensic toxicology, including human performance topics and postmortem toxicology, basic sample preparation and analytical methodologies frequently encountered in forensic toxicology, and an overview of the major types of drugs and toxicants encountered in these types of analyses and investigations. Note: this course contains sensitive topics and information (crimes, drug use, suicides, homicides, etc) and at times may include (deidentified) case reports and photographs..

  • PharmSci Major Elective Option 
  • Prerequisites: CHEM 241A and PSIO 202 or 380.

The treatment of infectious disease puts us at the crossroads of many avenues of understanding: history and principles of scientific knowledge, biology, chemistry, physiology, genetics, evolution, epidemiology, and more. Within this framework, we will learn about the drugs and therapies used to treat and prevent infection, how and why they work, and how microbes combat their effectiveness. We will learn how these drugs are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted by both humans and microbes. Additionally, we will discuss how and why one treatment is chosen over another, side effects, contraindications, and other concerns with the use of these drugs. The overall goal of the course is to provide the student with a broad understanding of the context, mechanisms, and pharmacologic principles in which the drugs used to treat infectious disease operate

The use of chemotherapeutic agents and modern biologics to target and kill cancer cells is a major part of the strategy to treat cancer. The overall goal of the course is to provide the student with a broad understanding of the context, mechanisms, and pharmacologic principles of the use of anticancer drugs. The course provides an understanding of cancer from the systems, cellular, and molecular levels with a focus on the action of modern and historical anticancer drugs. Within this framework we will learn how and why anticancer therapeutics work and how cancers resist them. Additional topics will include the pharmacological details that affect efficacy, choice of treatment, side effects, and contraindications as well as the advances resulting from the genomics revolution that led to molecular targeting and immunotherapy. Prerequisites: MCB 181R and CHEM 241A Approved for use in the PharmSci minor, elective credit for other students.

One of the most exciting areas of the pharmaceutical sciences is “Precision Medicine”. Faced with 8-10 different anti-hypertension drugs, intuition and generic recommendations currently guide the choice of which drug to start with. Often this leads to frustrating and dangerous rounds of waiting to see if the drug works safely, and if not, trying the next drug in line. PCOL 473 will introduce the student to the field of pharmacogenomics, which involves a priori measuring the subtle differences in the biological blueprint and its expression in different individuals, and from that drawing conclusions about the likelihood of that individual having a beneficial drug effect, no effect, or a toxic effect. The course will discuss this in the context of new drug development, where avoiding such points of individual response variability may be the most efficient strategy.

This course will integrate and consolidate the basic concepts of chemistry and pharmacology that underlie drug discovery, design, and development. For selected drug classes, the course will lead students into a deeper understanding of pharmacodynamics beyond pharmacophore and target. Students will learn hands-on computational approaches that emphasize the 3-dimensional nature of drugs and their interaction with proteins to both explore and predict these interactions. In a team science setting, students will design small molecules to engage a protein target and conceptualize the synthesis and testing of these molecules along the drug discovery pipeline, including the consideration of screening approaches and ADMET hurdles. The course will use in-class work and team-based assignments, concluding in team presentations of drug discovery project pitches. Replaces previous PHCL 460 in the major curriculum