CMP Course Curriculum

All courses and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice.

Subsequent courses given by the Pharmacology Training Area are required for all students in the Training Program. All trainees participate in weekly Department of Pharmacology Research Discussions and host luncheons with seminar speakers. Two yearly retreats provide trainees with opportunities to interact with faculty and present their research progress.

CMP COURSE CURRICULUM PDF

Required Courses

PHAR 236: Pharmacokinetics

Instructor: Shu-Juan Chen

The Pharmacokinetics (PK) short course will introduce the basic concepts of how drugs are processed in the body and their applications in clinical practice and toxicology. The course will also cover current topics related to genetic and environmental factors.

TBD

PHAR 231: Fundamentals of Rigor and Reproducibility

Instructors: Rich Daneman and Alexandra Newton

TBD

PHAR 234: Careers in Biology and Science (ODD YEARS)

Instructors: Alexandra Newton and Bruce Hamilton

This course will expose students to a wide range of career paths for Biomedical Scientists with PhDs. Each session will feature an invited panel from a career path that past BMS graduates have followed. Panelists include BMS alumni and academic or industry leaders who have unique perspectives on career development in their area. The panels are designed to promote discussion and students are encouraged to come with questions relevant to each panel.

TBD

PHAR 255: Molecular Basis of Drug Action and Disease Therapy

Instructors: Bill Joiner and Roger Sunahara

This course covers the principles of therapeutic action for the treatment of human diseases. We introduce basic system physiology as a primer to frame how various human pathologies arise and provide a detailed description of how therapeutics are used to treat them. The course is divided up into 4 theme-based blocks of lectures and a take-home exam assigned at the end of each block. Blocks include lectures on basic drug action, the cardiovascular system, inflammation, and the nervous system.

Tuesdays and Thursdays

10:00 – 11:50 AM

INTERDISCIPLINARY Training

PHAR 275: Seminars in Pharmacology

Instructors: Andrew Mendiola, Padmini Rangamani, Jing Yang

This course covers three major branches of pharmacology: neurobiology, host microbe interactions, and cancer biology. The course is structured as a combination of a weekly paper discussion and a seminar to provide students an opportunity to advance their skills in critical thinking, evaluation of research literature, and scientific communication through discussion of recently published papers and presented seminars. Another important component of this course is career development; students will interact with seminar speakers during their on-campus visits including through small group lunch discussions.

Topics change yearly. Weekly attendance at Departments seminars is required in years during which a student is supported by the training grant, and encouraged in subsequent years

Tuesdays, 12:00 – 1:00 PM

Thursdays, 1:00 – 3:00 PM

PHAR 295: Molecular Pharmacology Research Discussions

Instructor: Bill Joiner

The Molecular Pharmacology Research Discussion is a weekly presentation, which allows graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, faculty members, and other interested individuals to present topical research for discussion.

Weekly attendance is required in years during which a student is supported by the training grant, and encouraged in subsequent years, although credit is given only once

Fridays

9:00 – 10:00 AM

Quantitative and Analytical ELECTIVES

Select at least one of the following:

PHAR 227: Fluorescence and Imaging Techniques

Instructors: Jin Zhang and Palmer Taylor

This course will introduce fluorescence and imaging techniques to students doing research in the biological and chemical sciences, with a goal of providing both the theoretical basis and real examples of applying these techniques to facilitate biochemical research. The topics covered by this course include basic principles of fluorescence, steady-state fluorescence instrumentation and microscopy, Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), Time-resolved spectroscopy, Fluorescence polarization, Fluorescence tags, and both small molecule-based and genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors, as well as advanced imaging techniques and quantitative image analysis. As a unique component to this course, imaging experts from other institutions are invited to serve as guest lecturers. The guest lecturer gives a 1-hour lecture and has a 1-hour discussion session with the students enrolled in this course for additional interactions.

TBD

PHAR 231: Intro to Python

Instructor: Joh Schöneberg

Dr. Schöneberg will teach computational image processing with a focus on biological microscopy data. The course will start with the foundations of image processing (what an image represents for the computer, how images can be manipulated and segmented using Python), will go over more advanced image processing applications such as particle tracking and organelle network tracking in 3D and 4D data, and will end with supervised machine learning methods and deep learning methods such as random forests and U-Nets. Students will bring their own microscopy datasets to class and are encouraged to work on them throughout class.

TBD

PHAR/SPPS 268: SystemsWide Mass Spectrometry: Proteomics and Metabolomics

Instructors: Nuno Bandeira, Pieter Dorrestein

The goal of this course is for students to gain a basic understanding of biological principles of proteomics for protein biochemistry and structural evaluation by mass spectrometry. Students will gain knowledge of how to incorporate proteomic approaches into biological research.

TBD

Suggested ELECTIVES

PHAR 222: Fundamentals of Cancer Biology

Instructors: Jing Yang, Steven Dowdy, Frank Furnari

This course outlines a current understanding of genetic mechanisms that underlie carcinogenesis and their impact on cell proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis, metastasis, and survival. The topics of tumor histopathology, the tumor stem cell phenotype, and cancer drug design are also addressed.

Mondays and Wednesdays

10:00 – 12:00 PM

SPPS 263A: Principles of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Development

Instructors: Anthony O'Donoghue, Ruben Abagyan, Larissa Podust

The goal of the 2-quarter series in 'Principles of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Development' (PPSDD) graduate courses is to provide students with an in depth understanding of the drug discovery (Part A) and drug development (Part B) processes. As part of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at UC San Diego, the PSDD Training Area is taught by Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS) faculty in association with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), the Protein Data Bank (PDB), the Center for Drug Discovery Innovation (cDDI), the UC San Diego Drug Development Pipeline, the Center for Compound Resources, the Center for Computer-Aided Drug Design and the Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases. The PSDD courses are open to graduate students in related disciplines of Chemistry/Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Neurosciences, Bioinformatics, Biological Sciences, Marine Chemical Biology, and related, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of drug discovery and development. The Principles of PSDD part 'A' course covers target discovery, lead discovery and early preclinical drug development. The Principles of PSDD part 'B' course covers lead optimization, late stage preclinical development, clinical trials and commercialization. In addition, Part B teaches regulatory affairs and intellectual property associated with drug development. Although both quarters are recommended for graduate students, part A (3 Units) and part B (3 Units) can each be taken alone. The PSDD training area will provide translational sciences training that bridges basic sciences and clinical research for the purpose of addressing the world’s challenges in unmet therapeutic needs.

TBD

SPPS 263B: Principles of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Development

Instructors: Conor Caffrey, Vivian Hook

This course will provide students with a concrete understanding of the challenges and successes associated with moving optimized drug candidates to IND and clinical trials. Optimization of drug leads involves drug design and evaluation for efficacy with appropriate properties in pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, safety and toxicology, drug formulation for routes of administration, FDA drug regulations, and intellectual property for IND application and approval of a projected therapeutic agent.

TBD