Mission Statement
The mission of the University of Florida Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics is to advance fundamental knowledge, bridge basic & translational sciences, train the next generation of scientists, & develop new therapies to improve human health.
Research Community
The department is composed of primary faculty, research faculty, postdoctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students, technical support staff, and administrative personnel. In addition, there are a number of jointly appointed faculty representing other departments in the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, the Veterans Medical Center, and the Whitney Marine Laboratory. Joint faculty bring additional research expertise and teaching experience to the department for mutual benefit.
The faculty in the department have diverse, but in many cases, interrelated research interests. This unique mixture facilitates a stimulating environment for discovery and provides students and other trainees with ample opportunity to expand their knowledge base and develop interdisciplinary research skills. A number of the faculty are also involved in the process of drug development. This process includes biological target selection and validation, chemical-lead development and optimization, and disease model testing.
Success in these preclinical basic studies are necessary before human clinical trials are initiated. Not only does this activity allow faculty and students to expand their basic research into application, but it also exposes them to the legal and regulatory aspects of drug development and promotes interactions with pharmaceutical companies. Currently, several drugs co-developed by the faculty are in various stages of development. Departmental proceeds from application research are constantly being used to establish endowed professorships and to help maintain a modern research infrastructure.
Research Facilities
The Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the College of Medicine is located in the Academic Research Building within the Health Science Center. Because the Health Science Center is part of the main University of Florida campus, the department enjoys strong ties with other aspects of the university through its faculty and students. The relationships to chemistry, biological sciences, engineering, agriculture, and social sciences are of particular importance.
The department provides individual and multi-user research laboratories, faculty and administrative offices, small and large conference rooms, and common equipment rooms. The department currently occupies approximately 15,000 sq. ft. of space. Advanced multidisciplinary research requires up-to-date equipment and facilities; our department is well-equipped for these needs. Networked computers with access to scientific databases, spectrometers, scintillation and gamma counters, cell culture, radioisotope and molecular biology facilities, a mass spectrometer, gas and high pressure liquid chromatographs, ultracentrifuges, darkroom facilities, electrophysiology and microinjection set-ups and high speed digital fluorescence imaging are among the many resources available.
A number of research institutes and centers have been constructed to enhance multidisciplinary and interdepartmental research interactions among the faculty and students. These centers and institutes provide core research facilities, seminar programs, and additional training opportunities for the faculty and students. For example, the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR) provides core facilities for biological computing, flow cytometry, protein chemistry, DNA and genome sequencing and electron microscopy to name a few. Most faculty in the department have affiliations with one or more of these centers which include:
- Evelyn F. & William L. McKnight Brain Institute
- Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research
- Genetics Institute
- Powell Gene Therapy Center
- Center for Structural Biology
- Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology
- Center for Spirituality and Health
- UF Health Cancer Center
- The Whitney Laboratory: Center for Marine Biomedical Research and Biotechnology