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Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences

  • Winners holding their awards

    2023 PPS Research Symposium

  • Presenter showing poster to attendee

    2023 PPS Research Symposium

  • Group photo of all presenters and attendees

    2023 PPS Research Symposium

  • Dean Pritchard speaking to a crowd

    2023 PPS Research Symposium

  • Small group photo of faculty

    2023 PPS Research Symposium

PPS Overview

Department Faculty Directory | Department Staff Directory | PPS Graduate Students

Vision

Our vision is to be a nationally and internationally recognized department that excels in pharmacology, pharmaceutics, and medicinal chemistry research and scholarship.

Mission

Our mission is to educate the next generation of biomedical researchers and conduct innovative research in pharmacology, pharmaceutics and medicinal chemistry leading to impactful discoveries that advance pharmaceutical sciences and therapeutic discovery and development for human health.

Values

Innovation, Excellence, Collaboration, Perseverance, Integrity, Inclusiveness, Respect, Compassion

About the Department

The Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy and its faculty have a long tradition of excellence in scholarship, research and teaching.

PPS faculty and staff members are committed to delivering quality education to professional (Pharm.D.), graduate (Ph.D.) students and postdoctoral fellows. The department hosts Thursday Seminars every week with presentations by national and international speakers to enrich the Ph.D. curriculum. Post-seminar, there is a standing invitation for a "student-only" discussion with the speaker.

The PPS faculty is committed to conducting cutting-edge biomedical and pharmaceutical research. Our research investigators have received competitive support from federal, state, industrial, private and local funding agencies. The research findings and discoveries have led to publications in top-quality, peer-reviewed journals, and many patent awards. Please View Select Publications from our faculty, graduate students, and research staff.

Current research emphases in the pharmacology area include cardiovascular and renal pharmacology; cardiac morphogenesis and non-compaction cardiomyopathy; skeletal muscle physiology, satellite stem cells, and muscle regeneration; carcinogenesis, tumorigenesis, and cancer-induced cachexia; muscular dystrophy; mechanisms of action of traditional medicine and natural products; behavioral neuroscience; and neurodegeneration.

Research emphases in the pharmaceutics area include drug formulation and delivery; drug absorption, metabolism, elimination, and toxicity; and pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anti-cancer, anti-AIDS, and antimicrobial drugs.

Medicinal chemistry research includes structure-based design, protein molecular dynamics, peptidomimetic and biomarker discovery, and design, synthesis and screening of novel drugs.

For an overview of our research facilities and infrastructure, please take the PPS Laboratory Tour via YouTube and visit the UHCOP Core Laboratory.

The PPS department also hosts three research institutes/centers: