Description and educational objectives

The PhD course in Pharmaceutical Sciences provides a multidisciplinary training with contributions from various fields, mainly in the chemical and biological areas, with a prevalence of the medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, pharmacology, biochemistry and bio-organic chemistry field.
The central theme that brings together the different disciplines and methodologies is pharmaceutical research and development, which requires the training of PhD students capable of producing innovation and introducing new knowledge in the field of design, production and control of medicinal and health products, as well as their interactions with biological substrates.
In this context, the course is divided into five more specific areas in which the research activities of doctoral candidates can be realised, namely:

1. Design and synthesis of biologically active compounds, in the fields of medicinal chemistry;
2. Biopharmaceutics & pharmacokinetics, within the field of pharmaceutics;
3. Experimental pharmacology and toxicology;
4. Biochemistry and molecular biology;
5. Bio-organic chemistry.

The course benefits from a teaching staff made up of numerous experts in the core disciplines, including Professors from the University of California and University of Texas with an excellent scientific profile, three highly professional members from affiliated organisations and companies, as well as numerous international collaborations, including participation in the European consortium ULLA, which facilitates exchanges between doctoral students from different locations of prestigious Pharmacy schools at European level.

The aim of the 'Drug Sciences' course is to train PhD students with the knowledge and experience to enter the world of pharmaceutical R&D with a specific aim at the design, discovery, development, production and control of medicinal and health products, and the understanding of their mechanisms of action at the biomolecular level.
The PhD Course provides direct teaching to PhD students in the subject areas described above as well as in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary areas. Multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity are typical features of the doctoral programme, which approaches the ultimate practical goal (producing innovation in drug discovery and development) from different perspectives and with different approaches.
The research programme leading to the doctoral thesis is overseen by a doctoral supervisor, who not only guides the doctoral student's training, but also encourages him/her to achieve scientific (publications) or technology transfer goals. Doctoral students usually spend a period of secondment at prestigious foreign research institutions. This is facilitated by membership of the ULLA consortium, which provides mobility opportunities to leading academic institutions in the pharmaceutical field such as Uppsala University - Faculty of Pharmacy (Sweden), University College London - School of Pharmacy (United Kingdom), Leiden University - Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (the Netherlands), VU Amsterdam - Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences (the Netherlands), University of Copenhagen – Drug Research Academy (Denmark), Université Paris-Saclay – Faculty of Pharmacy (France), KU Leuven – Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Belgium), University of Helsinki – Faculty of Pharmacy (Finland), Université de Genève – School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.