Our Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics programme will equip you with a strong foundation in biomedical science and molecular and clinical pharmacology. You’ll come to understand the drug development cycle from initial idea to the patient’s bedside.
You’ll be encouraged to discover your own interests and specialisms through elective modules as you progress through your degree, and you’ll gain hands-on experience of using scientific instruments during practical sessions in our modern labs.
We use a mixture of teaching styles: lectures, tutorials, classroom activities and laboratory work. A typical week will contain a mix of lectures, practical laboratories or workshops. Outside of classes, you’ll need to spend 20 to 25 hours per week preparing, writing up and reading.
To give you an idea of the topics you'll cover, one of our core second-year modules is Clinical Pharmacology and Assessment of Drug Safety. The module will introduce you to the mechanisms of action and clinical use of commonly used drugs in the context of the progression of the diseases they treat. You'll also look at drugs of abuse and drugs as performance enhancers in sport.
Introductory lectures will be followed by lectures in specialised areas of the subject, given by experts in their field. In addition to formal lectures and interactive seminars, you'll attend tutorials with opportunities to critically evaluate research papers.
In your final year, you’ll study Translational Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics. The module covers innovative therapeutics in areas including vaccines, oncology, cardiovascular, metabolic diseases, pain and neuroscience, inflammation and immunology, as well as rare disorders. You’ll gain an insight into challenges that the pharmaceutical industry faces, and become familiar with the processes involved in translating scientific discoveries into novel therapeutics.
Lectures will cover topics including drug shortages, targeted or personalised drugs, use of biomarkers, clinical trial design, drug safety, and risk/benefit assessments. You'll also learn about the issues that arise in the use of high-throughput screening technologies, the evaluation of efficacy in animals and man, and clinical trials.