Departments

The UCSF School of Pharmacy's 3 academic departments move forward on different but related paths.

• All 3 departments are international leaders in their own areas of expertise, conduct research, and serve the public in various ways.
• All 3 departments are responsible for delivering the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum.
• The department of clinical pharmacy is responsible for the advanced education of PharmD graduates through its postdoctoral residency training program.
• The 2 basic science departments -- the departments of pharmaceutical chemistry and the department of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences -- prepare PhD graduate students and postdoctoral scholars as leaders in science. The department of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences also trains medical students and clinical scientists.

Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

The department of pharmaceutical chemistry explores molecules and uses its expertise to answer biological questions.

While these questions could be disease related -- ranging from asthma to AIDS -- they often relate to very fundamental questions about biology. The department uses chemistry and highly sophisticated physical techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, computational drug design, and robotic synthetic chemistry, in its work.

Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences

A joint department of the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, the department of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences aims to speed the innovation of medicines and medical devices to sophisticated, effective, targeted "intelligent" therapeutics.

Faculty members are focusing on 5 areas of research to reveal more quickly the biological reasons that support health and give rise to disease, and to develop new and effective ways of diagnosing and treating disease with medicines and medical devices. The areas are: drug development sciences, pharmacogenomics, therapeutic bioengineering, computational and systems biology, and cellular and molecular engineering.

Department of Clinical Pharmacy

The department of clinical pharmacy promotes the rational use of drugs that are safe and effective.

Service and research activities are broad. The department faculty can be found providing direct pharmaceutical care to patients; studying effective ways to control the overuse or misuse of drugs; exploring the effectiveness of electronic prescribing or dispensing devices; evaluating the clinical, social, and clinical outcomes of drug therapy; analyzing the physiological disposition of drugs; and advising legislators on the cost of drug benefits for the elderly.

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