Rationale:  The sequencing of the human genome, and of animal species used to model human disease and therapeutics, has unexpectedly revealed some critical gaps in current scientific training. While many newly minted scientists are quite comfortable with the most intricate aspects of gene manipulation, few are as adept at analyzing resulting changes in the organism and its response to the environment (i.e. phenotype). Pharmacologists, by training, determine the response of individual cells, tissues and organisms changes in the internal and external environment (including therapeutic agents and other chemicals) and are thus in increasing demand in the ‘post-genomic’ era.  Neuropharmacologists are critically important, given both the market value of current therapeutic drugs for CNS disorders and the rapid pace of knowledge about basic neural mechanisms that has yet to be tapped for therapeutic purposes.  At the same time, scientists have become acutely aware that there is, in fact, not a single human genome but myriad genomes comprised of countless DNA deletions/insertions and single nucleotide polymorphisms that are then subject to epigenetic controls. These genetic and epigenetic variations among individuals provide and change the substrate upon which environmental factors act and modify our response to therapeutics. 

With the recent addition to the Department of five senior faculty members with expertise in neuropharmacology, neuro-oncology and neurogenomics, the Department is launching a unique hybrid pharmacology/neuroscience/genomics graduate curriculum. Graduate students training in neuropharmacology will receive a solid grounding in Biomedical Sciences, and detailed instruction in various aspects of pharmacology and neuroscience, with further option to specialization in cancer biology and/or genomics. 

Current faculty members with primary interests in neuropharmacology are Drs. Rodrigo Andrade, Cristina Artalejo, Michael Bannon, Chaya Brodie (Henry Ford Health Systems), Diane Chugani, Gregory Kapatos, Sandra Rempel (Henry Ford Health Systems), Eugene Schoener, Manuel Tancer, and Arun Wakade. Additional faculty members with neuropharmacology research interests are Drs. Raymond Mattingly, Bonnie Sloane and Akio Yamazaki. It is anticipated that several more faculty members will be recruited in this area in the near future. To learn more about the specific research interests of individual faculty members, go to the Faculty page for Pharmacology.

If you are interested in the possibility of participating in this Pharmacology program or would like more information, please contact Dr. Stan Terlecky (Director of Admissions for Pharmacology) at: srterlecky@med.wayne.edu and indicate your interest in Neuropharmacology.