Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Section Contents
Faculty Research Interests | Course Descriptions

The Colleges of Pharmacy of the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina jointly offer a program leading to the Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The degree is granted by the University of residence. A combined Pharm.D./Ph.D. degree also can be pursued at the Medical University of South Carolina.

A minimum of three years of full-time graduate study is required for the Ph.D. Two years of Ph.D. residency may be transferred from other institutions of approved graduate standing. Management of the program is vested in a Joint Coordinating Committee; members are selected from the graduate faculties of both universities. The student’s advisory Committee is selected from among the graduate faculties at both colleges of pharmacy and from other colleges on both University campuses and chaired by the student’s advisor.

The several areas of concentration are complementary for the two colleges of pharmacy. It is the student’s choice of concentration area that determines his/her primary institution. The various areas of concentration and corresponding primary institutions are:

University of South Carolina

Pharmacy Administration
Medicinal Chemistry
Pharmaceutics
Pharmacology

Medical University of South Carolina

Bioorganic/Medicinal Chemistry
Toxicology

The approved program of study is central to meeting program objectives and precisely delineates all requirements to be fulfilled by the student. Included in the approved program of study are background deficiencies to be met, any foreign language requirement, all required and elective graduate courses, graduate credits to be transferred from other institutions, and approval of any parts of the program to be executed at other institutions. Courses in related departments and colleges on both University campuses and the participating cross-registration campuses are available for development of the approved program.

The program is adaptable to the needs and interests of those with degrees in pharmacy, chemistry, biological sciences, and other areas. Many applicants will be graduates of an accredited College of Pharmacy. To ensure an adequate background for graduate work in pharmaceutical sciences, all applicants must have completed or must complete acceptable courses in:

Calculus
Physiology
Pharmacology
Biochemistry

Any exceptions to these requirements must have appropriate approval.

Graduate credits from other institutions may be accepted with appropriate approval. No more than 20 semester hours of transfer credit may be applied toward the Ph.D. Transferred credits must have been completed within eight years prior to granting the Ph.D. research credit. Courses in which less than a B average has been earned are not transferrable. If the eight-year period for the doctorate is exceeded, no more than 12 hours may be considered, and validation by examination is mandatory. To pusue the Pharm.D./Ph.D. degree, students must be accepted into both the College of Graduate Studies and College of Pharmacy at the Medical University of South Carolina. For information, see www.musc.edu/psci/graduate_post/grad_post.html.

Faculty Research Interests
Faculty research interests can be found on the web at http://www.musc.edu/psci/faculty/faculty.html or by using the myGrants search tool at http://mygrants.itlab.musc.edu/.

Adjunct Appointments with University of South Carolina
Professors B.T. Zhu; Associate Professors S.H. Berger, J.M. Chapman, Jr., G. Petkov and D. Pittman; Assistant Professors L. Fox, C. Fuhrman, L. Hofseth, T. Smith, D. Wang, and M. Wyatt.

Pharmaceutical Sciences Course Descriptions
The number of semester hours is designated by s.h.

BMB-753. Bioorgan Chemistry. A systematic study of the electronic and structural properties of biomolecules and their function as a result of these properties. The material represents a natural extension of the principles of both organic chemistry and biochemistry. Protein chemistry, enzyme mechanisms and cofactor functionality are among the topics covered. Prerequisite: basic organic chemistry. 4 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-710. Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis. Major instrumental and separation techniques used in research and quality control. Emphasis is placed on limits of detection, reliability, reproducibility, and potential interferences as techniques are applied to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of drugs in pharmaceutical products and physiological fluids. Lecture and laboratory. 4 s.h. Spring.

PHMSC-712. Drug Discovery: Design, Implementation, Transport and Metabolism. This elective explores the scientific principles underlying targeted drug design. Medicinal chemistry is integrated with molecular biology in the context of identifying tomorrow'sbest-in-class drugs. The interdependence of pharacodynamic and pharmacokinetic structure-activity relationships will be discussed as a feature of drug discovery. 3 s.h. Spring.

PHMSC-715. Environmental Stress Signaling and Cellular Consequences. This course will provide advanced knowledge on the mechanisms of cell responses to a wide range of environmental stresses including chemical, physical, anoxia/reperfusion and other pathogens. The course focuses on the signal transduction pathways leading to cell injury, carcinogenesis, necrosis, apoptosis, repair, regeneration, adaptation, and cytoprotection. We will cover the events at system, cellular and protection levels; however,emphasis is given to the interactions among intracellular signaling pathways. This course is useful for all biomedical students and, in particular, for students who completed the course "Cellular Defense Against Foriegn Chemicals" and want to continue their understanding of the effects of environmental stress at cellular and molecular levels. 4 s.h. Spring

PHMSC-722. Light Microscopy for the Biomedical Sciences. This one-week hands-on course provides a solid introduction to the concepts and practical applications of light microscopy relevant to modern cell and molecular biology. Students will have opportunities for extensive hands-on experience with state-of-the-art equipment for optical imaging, digital image processing, and fluorescence and confocal/multiphoton microscopy guided by experienced academic and commercial faculty.

PHMSC-725. Natural Products - Pharmaceutical Chemistry II. (Pharmacodynamic Agents.) (Crosslisted with Phar. 704 at USC.) An intensive study of pharmaco-dynamic agents. Emphasis on application of basic concepts, mechanisms of action, structure activity relationships, analog design, and research potentials and on syntheses and assays involved in research. 3 s.h All. 

PHMSC-726. Advanced Medicinal Chemistry. This course covers advanced topics of medicinal chemistry related to the synthesis of complex organic molecules. Emphasis is on the strategy for stereochemical induction, functional group transformations, retrosynthetic analyses and catalytic reactions. The course involves didactic lectures and workshops targeted to synthetic design. 3 s.h. Spring.

PHMSC-730. Antibiotics and Alkaloids. Chemically-oriented, general consideration of antibiotics and alkaloids. Sources, screening, identification, isolation, analysis, proofs of structure, synthesis, and biosynthesis are emphasized. Pharmacological, toxicological, and clinical aspects are summarized. 3 s.h. All.

PHMSC-741. Organ Systems Toxicology. A minimum of three lectures hours will be devoted to each organ system. A brief review of each organ system will be given at the beginning of the topic session. One or two examples of toxic agents for each organ system will be discussed, including proposed mechanisms of action and possible therapeutic interventtions in the case of intoxication. Selected manuscripts from the literature illustrating toxic response to the organ system will be given out at the beginning of each organ system topic. The papers will be discussed in the final hour of the topic session. 3 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-753. Environmental Health and Toxicology. Examples of environmental toxicants, their routes and consequences of exposure, mechanisms of actions, and therapeutic strategies to prevent/minimize their toxicity will be discussed. Instructors are encouraged to draw on examples from their own research. Manuscripts from the basic research literature will be assigned for selected topics and will be discussed via student led oral presentations. 3 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-754. Physical Pharmacy. The course deals with physical-chemical phenomena encountered in the formulation of dosage forms. The impact of such phenomena on product stability and dose form design is addressed. Methods of product stabilization and shelf life determination are also discussed. Prerequisite: one semester of physical chemistry. 4 s.h. All.

PHMSC-755. Heterocyclic Natural Products Chemistry. A general consideration of nomenclature, reactivity, syntheses, proofs of structure, and natural product relationships of heterocyclic chemistry. An adequate background in organic chemistry is assumed. 3 s.h. All.

PHMSC-756. Novel Drug Delivery Systems. This course focuses on the need for innovative approaches to drug delivery, the methods and concepts used to manufacture and design such unique dosage forms, methods of product evaluation and future trends in drug carrier systems. Technological advances in achieving targeted or controlled drug delivery are addressed. Prerequisites: PHMSC-754, PHSCI-431 or equivalents. 4 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-757. Kinetics and Mechanisms in Drug Stability. Both theory and practice of chemical kinetics are applied to stabilizing drugs in pharmaceutical systems. Topics include temperature, solvent and ionic effects, specific and general acid-base catalysis, pH-rate profiles, inter- and intra-molecular catalysis, computer analysis and simulation methods and selected drug stability studies. Taught in alternate years for students in pharmaceutical sciences. 4 s.h. Spring.

PHMSC-758. Physical Organic Chemistry. Entry-level graduate course designed to acquaint students with the physical chemical principles essential for a career in pharmaceutical sciences, especially medicinal chemistry. 2 s.h. Variable.

PHMSC-759. Advanced Organic Chemistry. This course will familiarize students with modern organic chemistry. Introduces students to modern chemistry literature, vocabulary, stereochemistry, reaction mechanisms, synthetic strategy and function group interchange. 3 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-760. Advanced Biopharmaceutics. Directed towards Ph.D. students in the pharmaceutical sciences. Topics include pharmacokinetic assessment of drug absorption, distribution and elimination, bioavailability and experimental methodology with emphasis on graphical and computer methods of data analysis. The course provides an overview of the effects of formulation, patient and molecular structure on kinetics and the application of this biopharmaceutic and pharmacokinetic knowledge to the improvement of drug therapy. Prerequisites: B.S. Pharmacy degree or permission of instructor. 5 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-762. Mitochondrial Biology. Mitochondria are involved in many of the cell's vital processes, which include the production of energy for the cells and apoptosis. Many common diseases are due to underlying mitochondrial dysfunction thus it is imperative that students receive fundamental current knowledge of mitochondrial biology and the state of the art techniques used in the field today. Prerequisites: First year curriculum 2 s.h. Spring.

PHMSC-770. Intermediate Pharmacokinetics. Entry-level graduate course designed to acquaint students with pharmacokinetic theory, mathematical model development, and data analysis techniques. 2 s.h. Fall.

PHMSC-775. Introduction to Physical Pharmacy. The overall objective of this course is to teach the application of selected physical chemistry concepts to pharmaceutical systems as they relate to drug design and development. This will allow the students to develop a model for the pharmaceutical system and evaluate the system for drug design and development. Topics will include ionic equilibrium, colubility and solubilization, distribution and chemical kinetics. 2 s.h. Spring.

PHMSC-780. Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar. A general research and journal club seminar mandatory for all graduate students in pharmaceutical sciences. Guest speakers, faculty, and students participate. 1 s.h. All.

PHMSC-790. Special Problems in Pharmaceutical Sciences. A variable credit course involving appropriate lectures, research-oriented laboratory work, written assignments and reports, and oral presentations. Variable. All.

PHMSC-970. Research. Variable s.h. All.

PHMSC-990. Dissertation. Variable s.h. All.