Our mission is to provide quality preclinical and clinical education in pharmacology and therapeutics for medical students, to educate and train graduate and postdoctoral biomedical scientists, to carry out basic research of recognized excellence, and to participate in governance and leadership in the College of Medicine at The University of Arizona and in appropriate national scientific and professional societies.

Home

The Department of Pharmacology at The University of Arizona is comprised of faculty, fellows, students, and technical staff working together to understand how chemicals influence human disease. Some chemicals and drugs are used to treat human diseases while others are known to cause human diseases.

Our mission is to provide quality preclinical and clinical education in pharmacology and therapeutics for medical students, to educate and train graduate and postdoctoral biomedical scientists, to carry out basic research of recognized excellence, and to participate in governance and leadership in the UA College of Medicine, The University of Arizona and in appropriate national scientific and professional societies.

Pharmacology is the science concerned with all aspects of the action of drugs and other chemicals on living systems. Its primary aim is the discovery of chemical mechanisms by which cellular and molecular functions are regulated for the purpose of understanding how existing drugs act and to develop new drugs for treatment and diagnosis of human diseases. The discipline of pharmacology explores biology through the actions of drugs and chemical substances. Drugs and chemicals produce their effects only through modifications of underlying biological systems; their actions are useful in regulating not only normal functions of cells and organisms but also the abnormal processes which occur in disease.

The broad scope of interests of pharmacology ranges from the study of intermolecular reactions of chemical constituents of cells with drugs to the effects of drugs and established therapeutic agents on mammalian physiological organ systems. Professional pharmacologists tend toward careers in basic research and teaching in academia, in conducting innovative research in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry or for government laboratories and in ensuring the safety of drugs and chemicals through work at government agencies. Regardless of where one is employed, it is critical to have knowledge in genomics, proteomics, cell and molecular biology, integrated systems and chemistry.

Todd W. Vanderah, PhD 
Regents Professor and Department Head  of Pharmacology

Upcoming Events

No events are scheduled for this time period.

Honors, Awards and Accolades

Dr. Roberta Brinton

Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD, director of the University of Arizona Center for Innovation in Brain Science (CIBS) will be honored as the Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year by the Arizona Bioindustry Association (AZBio) at the 2022 AZBio Awards event Sept. 28 at the Phoenix Convention Center.


Finding Better Paths to Treat Pain and Prevent Addiction

Todd Vanderah, PhD, completed his doctorate at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, did his postdoctoral work in Colorado, then returned to a faculty position at the College of Medicine – Tucson, where he is head of the Department of Pharmacology.


Uncovering a Connection Between Cannabinoids and Migraine

Tally Largent-Milnes, PhD, is studying the role of the endogenous cannabinoid system in migraine, a neurological disorder that affects women at a higher rate than men.


News

Jan 22 2024 - 9:15am

Jesse Altemus - Medical Pharmacology Graduate Program


Researchers at the Center for Innovation in Brain Science received a $1.4 million Translational Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias grant.


The Drug Enforcement Agency received a recommendation to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III drug, a move that would be a boon to research and patient care.