Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences

General courses (12 credit hours)

Required of all students enrolled in the program. After finishing the general courses in the first semester, students will select one of three tracks.

• 1103611Research Ethics1 credit

  This course covers multiple topics on different research ethical issues related to research goals and maintain ethical conducts while carrying a research project. Also, topics like plagiarism, conflicts of interest, bias, fraud, falsification of research results, informed consent, attribution of authorship, and process and adequacy of peer review publication processes will be discussed as well. The course will be delivered using multiple learning strategies including, active learning, team-based learning, peer and instructor-assessment, case discussion and presentations in order to motivate critical thinking and scientific judgment.

• 1103613Experimental Design and Data Analysis2 credits

  The course will cover single factor experiments, multiple factors, full factorial and fractional factorial designs and screening designs, the fundamentals of hypothesis testing and relevant biostatistics.

• 1101611Instrumental Analysis3 credits (2+3)

  This course will introduce the MS. students with the basic instrumental techniques including infrared, UV-Vis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 & 2D NMR techniques), mass spectrometry and different chromatographic techniques, used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of organic compounds, the course will also include practical applications through qualitative and quantitative analysis of unknown samples (single and mixture of components) using spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques.

• 1102611Foundation of Pharmaceutical Sciences3 credits

  The purpose of this course is for students to practice application of their knowledge in basic pharmaceutical sciences to a variety of conditions and states of health and disease. In this course, students are trained to use basic pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics principles in optimizing therapeutic outcomes in a variety of disorders. Principles in formulation of biotechnological products and engineering delivery systems for biotechnology products, lipid-based, polymer-based, and physical delivery approaches. Also included in the course are applied pharmacokinetics principles in developing an appropriate therapeutic regimen in renal and cardiovascular disorders. Protein structure, stability, structure prediction methods, protein drug discovery, and protein engineering are also discussed.

• 1102612Pharmaceutical Sciences Journal Club-I2 credits

  This course is designed to enhance the ability of graduate students to critically evaluate peer-reviewed scientific articles. Articles will be selected from current scientific literature in a variety of disciplines in pharmaceutical sciences, including drug delivery, drug development, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutics. Each student will present 2-4 articles per semester. The articles are selected by a supervisor guided student.

• 1103612Research Seminar1 credit

  This course introduces students to the academic research process and exposes students to strategies of problem-solving. It trains students on critical thinking, research, writing, and documentation. During the course, students will be assigned to come up with a research proposal including a key scientific question and they will conduct research into the literature related to their scientific question and they should develop a research design that addresses this question and provide more knowledge to this field. Students will give a presentation about a certain topic followed by a discussion in which all students are evaluated based on participation. Students are given a short essay assignment based on each presentation. The student presentations and short essays count toward the final grade. A research paper also is assigned.

Pharmacology concentration (12 credit hours)

Compulsory courses (9 credit hours) and one elective (3 credit hours).

• 1102613Molecular Pharmacology3 credits

  This course comprises the detailed principles of molecular pharmacology including receptors and cell signaling. As examples, the course focuses on the mechanism of action of anti-microbial agents, anti-neoplastic agents, anti-arrhythmic agents, anti-psychotic agents and anti-diabetic agents. The course discusses the principles of pharmaco-genetics/-genomics and its role in drug development.

• 1102622Pharmacogenomics3 credits

  This course will give students a broad perspective on the critical role played by genetics in drug therapy and the emergence of pharmacogenomics as a new field. It will provide an insight into the growing importance of this field and the prospective role it will play in clinical therapeutics and future drug design. Topics to be studied include common methodologies used in the application of pharmacogenomics, the role pharmacogenomics in altering drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, the role of pharmacogenomics in the pharmacotherapy of various diseases of the cardiovascular, CNS, hematologic, respiratory and immune systems as well as cancer and toxico-genomics.

• 1102621Gene and Stem Cells Therapy3 credits

  This course will focus on gene therapy and stem cells as major approaches to treat inherited human diseases and cancer. It will cover the general principles and basic mechanisms in gene therapy. It will also illustrate the compilations of current clinical trial efforts, methods of gene delivery, immune therapeutics, oncolytic virus therapeutics, antisense therapeutics as well as ethical considerations.

Pharmaceutics concentration (12 credit hours)

Compulsory courses (9 credit hours) and one elective (3 credit hours). The study plan titles 1103623 Selected topics in pharmaceutics (regulatory affairs) and 1103614 Pharmacy management.

• 1103621Advanced Drug Delivery Systems3 credits

  This course will introduce students to a variety of recent topics in the area of controlled drug delivery and relevant biomedical applications. Each topic will provide a comprehensive and critical examination of current and emerging research on the design and development of advanced drug delivery systems and their applications to experimental and clinical therapeutics. Emphasis is given to polymer based systems and assembled Nano-carriers and scaffolds for the delivery of therapeutic drugs, proteins, vaccines and genes.

• 1103622Advanced Pharmaceutics3 credits

  This course covers advanced topics in physical pharmacy and biopharmaceutics including the influence of physico-chemical properties of drugs and biological factors on drug delivery and design of dosage forms. The course will discuss the principles and concepts of drug selection, drug absorption and transport through various systems, drug metabolism, drug delivery design with special emphasis on targeted drug delivery.

• 1103623Regulatory Affairs3 credits

  This course will cover fundamentals and concepts of regulation of pharmaceuticals prevailing in different countries. The course will focus on the regulatory strategies and market authorization approvals from different countries. Regulations for non-clinical studies, clinical trials, submission and review, and good manufacture practice (GMP) will be discussed.

Medicinal Chemistry concentration (12 credit hours)

Compulsory courses (9 credit hours) and one elective (3 credit hours).

• 1101612Advanced Organic Chemistry3 credits
• 1101621Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis3 credits

  This course will focus on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical analysis, covering topics such as the control of the quality of the analytical method, physical and chemical properties of drug molecules, development and validation of analytical methods of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical according to the ICH and FDA, sample preparation and extraction of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. It will also include qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis of drug molecules and related substances in raw material, finished products, and biological matrix using stability indicating methods (HPLC, GC, LC/MS, and GC/MS), enantio-selective separation, in addition to good analytical practice [GAP] and good laboratory practice [GLP].

• 1101622Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry3 credits

  This course surveys the strategies and techniques used to transform biologically active molecules into potential therapeutic agents. Forward and reverse chemical genetics approaches will be discussed. Diversity-oriented synthesis; fragment-based as well as rational- and structure-based drug design will be discussed. Further topics include: sources of molecular leads, qualitative and quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis, improving pharmacokinetics and reducing toxicity based on functional groups/isosteres modifications. A flavor of an introduction to bioorganic chemistry will be included in the course. The course concludes with case histories of successful drug discovery illustrating the application of design principles taught in the class.

Thesis (9 credit hours)

• 1105635Research thesis-I3 credits

  Student will produce and defend a thesis under the supervision of a faculty member in one of the three concentrations offered. This course integrates different skills including hypothesis formulation, research techniques, review of literature, proposal and thesis writing, and oral presentation and discussion. Student (in collaboration with the supervisor) will propose a research point that would be implemented through laboratory work, survey analysis or any other tool. Student will present the results of each stage in a seminar within the department. After completion of the research work, student will prepare a thesis including all his/her work and will defend the research work in front of a discussion committee who will approve/disapprove the research thesis.

• 1105636Research thesis-II6 credits

  Student will produce and defend a thesis under the supervision of a faculty member in one of the three concentrations offered. This course integrates different skills including hypothesis formulation, research techniques, review of literature, proposal and thesis writing, and oral presentation and discussion. Student (in collaboration with the supervisor) will propose a research point that would be implemented through laboratory work, survey analysis or any other tool. Student will present the results of each stage in a seminar within the department. After completion of the research work, student will prepare a thesis including all his/her work and will defend the research work in front of a discussion committee who will approve/disapprove the research thesis.

Study plan: Pharmacology concentration

Full-time Year 1, Fall (12 credit hours): Research ethics (1), Experimental design and data analysis (2), Instrumental analysis (3), Foundation of Pharmaceutical sciences (3), Molecular Pharmacology (3) Year 1, Spring (12 credit hours): Gene and stem cell therapy (3), Neuropharmacology OR Principles of cancer chemotherapy (3), Pharmacogenomics (3), Research thesis (3) Year 2, Fall (9 credit hours): Research seminar (1), Pharmaceutical sciences Journal club (2), Research thesis (6) Part-time Year 1, Fall (6 credit hours): Research ethics (1), Experimental design and data analysis (2), Instrumental analysis (3) Year 1, Spring (6 credit hours): Foundation of Pharmaceutical sciences (3), Molecular Pharmacology (3) Year 2, Fall (6 credit hours): Gene and stem cell therapy (3), Neuropharmacology OR Principles of cancer chemotherapy (3) Year 2, Spring (6 credit hours): Pharmacogenomics (3), Research thesis (3) Year 3, Fall (6 credit hours): Research seminar (1), Pharmaceutical sciences Journal club (2), Research thesis (3) Year 3, Spring (3 credit hours): Research thesis (3)

Study plan: Pharmaceutics concentration

Full-time Year 1, Fall (12 credit hours): Research ethics (1), Experimental design and data analysis (2), Instrumental analysis (3), Foundation of Pharmaceutical sciences (3), Pharmacy management OR Advanced cosmetics and para-pharmaceuticals (3) Year 1, Spring (12 credit hours): Advanced Drug delivery systems (3), Advanced Pharmaceutics (3), Selected topics in Pharmaceutics (3), Research thesis (3) Year 2, Fall (9 credit hours): Research seminar (1), Pharmaceutical sciences Journal club (2), Research thesis (6) Part-time Year 1, Fall (6 credit hours): Research ethics (1), Experimental design and data analysis (2), Instrumental analysis (3) Year 1, Spring (6 credit hours): Foundation of Pharmaceutical sciences (3), Pharmacy management OR Advanced cosmetics and para-pharmaceuticals (3) Year 2, Fall (6 credit hours): Advanced Drug delivery systems (3), Advanced Pharmaceutics (3) Year 2, Spring (6 credit hours): Selected topics in Pharmaceutics (3), Research thesis-I (3) Year 3, Fall (6 credit hours): Research seminar (1), Pharmaceutical sciences Journal club (2), Research thesis-I (3) Year 3, Spring (3 credit hours): Research thesis-II (printed as 6 credit hours against a semester total of 3)

Study plan: Medicinal Chemistry concentration

Full-time Year 1, Fall (12 credit hours): Research ethics (1), Experimental design and data analysis (2), Instrumental analysis (3), Foundation of Pharmaceutical sciences (3), Advanced organic chemistry (3) Year 1, Spring (12 credit hours): Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis (3), Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry (3), Special Topic in Medicinal Chemistry or Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis I (3), Research thesis-I (3) Year 2, Fall (9 credit hours): Research seminar (1), Pharmaceutical sciences Journal club (2), Research thesis-II (6) Part-time Year 1, Fall (6 credit hours): Research ethics (1), Experimental design and data analysis (2), Instrumental analysis (3) Year 1, Spring (6 credit hours): Foundation of Pharmaceutical sciences (3), Advanced Organic Chemistry (3) Year 2, Fall (6 credit hours): Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis (3), Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry (3) Year 2, Spring (6 credit hours): Special Topic in Medicinal Chemistry or Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis I (3), Research thesis-I (3) Year 3, Fall (6 credit hours): Research seminar (1), Pharmaceutical sciences Journal club (2), Research thesis-I (3) Year 3, Spring (3 credit hours): Research thesis-II (3)