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Departments and Programs
>>Pharmaceutical Sciences
Introduction
The Department of Pharmaceutical
Sciences (PhSci) is part of the
College of Pharmacy
at the
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
(UAMS). The
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences is composed of faculty with teaching
and research expertise in the basic pharmaceutical science disciplines of
Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutics.
Medicinal Chemistry is the
study of the chemical properties of medicinal agents, both synthetic and
natural, as they relate to the stability, incompatibility, and chemical
modes of action of these agents. It incorporates the biochemical principles
associated with diseases, and nutrition, as well as an understanding of the
methods for qualitative and quantitative determination of drugs in dosage
forms and biological specimens. This provides the pharmacy student with
knowledge of biosynthesis, isolation, and evaluation of drugs originating
from both plants and animals. Included in this discipline is a study of
microbiological principles related to pharmaceutical products.
Pharmacology incorporates the principles of anatomy, physiology,
biochemistry and molecular biology into a study of the mechanism of action,
therapeutic indication, dosage, and toxicology of all drugs.
Pharmaceutics is that area of expertise concerned with the development of
dosage systems that deliver medications in proper amounts to their sites of
action in the body. It is concerned not only with the physical and chemical
factors influencing drug delivery systems, but also the many pharmacokinetic
and biopharmaceutical factors involved such as drug release, absorption,
distribution and elimination. These disciplines are designed to provide the
pharmacy student with a basic pharmaceutical science foundation for other
courses in the pharmacy curriculum, as well as preparing the student for
programs of advanced study.
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