Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
https://pharmacy.tamu.edu/pharm-sciences/index.html
Department Head: Dr. Fadi Khasawneh, PhD, BPharm
Pharmaceutical Science is an interdisciplinary field of applied sciences pertaining to the design, synthesis, action, delivery, manufacturing, disposition, and evaluation of drugs. The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences consists of about 25 PhD faculty members with expertise in pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, immunology, biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, as well as the social and behavioral sciences. All faculty members are involved in classroom and/or laboratory instruction in the four-year professional pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum and graduate instruction with research. Pharmaceutical sciences faculty work together with clinical faculty in highly integrated courses as well as participate in other research/scholarship endeavors.
The department has active researchers with funding from the NIH, FDA, DoD, several State and National Foundations, and the pharmaceutical industry. The research spans the areas of cancer, diabetes, opioid/cannabinoids, drug delivery systems and formulations, manufacturing sciences, epigenetics, nanotechnology, 3D printing and emerging technologies among others. Research is performed in the Rangel College of Pharmacy laboratories in Kingsville and College Station, Texas.
Pharmaceutical Sciences
PHSC 310 Medicinal Pharmacy I
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
First half of a two course series; familiarization with medicinal pharmacy; introduction to the structure and function of various important drug targets including receptors, enzymes, and nucleic acids, as well as some miscellaneous drug targets; introduction to basic concepts of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, including how drugs interact with the body and the consequences of those interactions; fundamental principles of finding lead compounds and structural optimization of pharmaceutical/therapeutic agents to improve target engagement; case studies on discovery of therapeutic agents in the real world. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; junior or senior classification; PHSC major; not open to Chemistry or any other majors.
PHSC 311 Medicinal Pharmacy II
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Continuation of PHSC 310; review of drug targets, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamics, as well as a focus on modern pharmaceutical techniques including parallel synthesis, application of computer-aided drug design, and quantitative structure-activity relationship; case studies for some important class of drugs illustrated with antibacterial agents, antiviral agents, anticancer agents, and drugs for central nervous system disorders. Prerequisites: PHSC 310; junior or senior classification; PHSC major; not open to Chemistry or to any other majors.
PHSC 312 Pharmaceutical and Drug Product Analysis
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Exploration of different pharmaceutical quality control methods and techniques used in drug development, pharmaceutical industry, excipient and drug product analysis, and healthcare settings as well as methods used in the quality control of biotechnologically produced drugs. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 322; junior or senior classification; PHSC major; not open to Chemistry or any other majors.
PHSC 313 Drug Design and Discovery
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Overview of drug design from target identification starting from early drug discovery to bringing new small molecule and biological pharmaceutical products to the market; basic principles of how new drugs are discovered, how drugs interact with their biological targets, and application of medicinal chemistry in lead optimization; instruction on current drug discovery practices in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries; analysis of case studies with the entire drug discovery and development process. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 322 Pharmaceutical and Drug Product Analysis Laboratory
Credit 1.
0 Lecture Hours.
3 Lab Hours.
0 Other Hours.
Hands-on experience with different methods and techniques used in various pharmaceutical and drug analysis through structured laboratory experiments, including for excipients and drug products. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 312; junior or senior classification; PHSC major; not open to Chemistry or any other majors.
PHSC 324 Foundations in Toxicology
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
0 Lab Hours.
0 Other Hours.
Basic concepts of toxicology in the contexts of pharmaceutical agents and products; antidotes to commonly encountered toxicity. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 327 Vaccine Therapeutics Delivery
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Overview of pharmaceutical biotechnology and its applications in vaccine science; overview to vaccine development and its usages for the host-bacteria, virus, and parasite interaction in infectious diseases; introduction to different types of biomolecular vaccines and their development with some recent advances in vaccines production technologies. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 328 Pharmaceutical Statistics
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Discussion on basic statistical concepts and analytical methods of descriptive and inferential statistics in the context of pharmaceutical sciences; familiarization with statistical approaches used in pharmaceutical research and development including designing clinical trials, analyzing pharmaceutical data, evaluation of the medical literature and proposals, assessment of research reports, and interpreting results related to pharmaceutical sciences. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 340 Research Techniques
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Basic principles and applications of a wide range of research techniques: immunological, biochemical, pharmacological, etc. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 341 Physical Pharmacy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Study of fundamental elements of physical pharmacy including active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients; includes principles of drug product reaction kinetics and thermodynamics, drug product solid state and surface properties; important properties including rheology, diffusion, and solubility affecting the stability and bioavailability of drug products; study of drug product micromeritics, ionic equilibrium, and colligative properties. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; junior or senior classification; PHSC major; not open to Chemistry or any other majors.
PHSC 357 Herbal Medicine
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Basic information about herbal medicines in regards to the therapeutic properties, efficacy, and safety concerns, ways to meet the strong demand for alternatives to pharmaceuticals for a variety of common illnesses due to desire for more natural products, exploration to the herbal medicine used in a traditional medical practice; discussion on the differences between Chinese and Western herbal medicine; proper use and dosage of herbs to treat ailments; review of interaction of herbs with drugs, foods, and vitamins. Prerequisites: CHEM 228 or CHEM 258; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 358 Pharmacy Management
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Application of sound management principles including operations, information, resource, fiscal, and personnel, and quality metrics to advance patient care and service delivery within and between various practice settings; leadership, management, and marketing strategies within the pharmacy profession and the health care system; time, equipment, funding, and human resources in the traditional and non-traditional pharmacy scenarios. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 359 Pharmacoeconomics
Credit 1.
1 Lecture Hour.
Application of economic principles and theories to evaluate pharmacy products, programs, and services; evaluation of the benefits and costs of pharmaceutical interventions; exploration of how pharmacoeconomic evidence is used in health care decision making and allocating health care resource; discussion on drug pharmacoeconomic evaluations and coverage and reimbursement decisions; exploration of humanistic outcomes and their application to improve the allocation of limited health care resources. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 381 Essential Writing in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Credit 1.
1 Lecture Hour.
Development of writing skills in pharmaceutical sciences; instruction in writing styles and techniques; guided writing assignments. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 410 Principles of Pharmacology
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Principles of drug action, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics; chemical properties, functional groups and structure-activity relationships; pharmacology of adrenergic and cholinergic acting ligands, serotonergic and amino acid neurotransmitters. Prerequisites: PHSC 311; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 426; junior or senior classification; PHSC major.
PHSC 411 Systems Pharmacology
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Pharmacology of common cardiovascular disorders with a major emphasis on dyslipidemia, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, venous thromboembolism, diabetes mellitus, arrhythmias and heart failure. Prerequisites: PHSC 410; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 412 Advanced Pharmacology
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Pharmacology of common central nervous system and infectious disorders, with a major emphasis on anxiety, insomnia, depression, OCD, ADHD, schizophrenia, addiction, as well as bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections. Prerequisites: PHSC 410; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 413 Pharmacogenomics
Credit 1.
1 Lecture Hour.
Principles and concepts of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine including the role of gene/DNA variations in disease expression, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics (drug response); exploration of some of the clinical applications of pharmacogenomics, and pharmacogenomics resources/databases. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 426 Physiological Basis of Drugs for Pharmaceutical Sciences
Credits 4.
4 Lecture Hours.
Core knowledge of human physiology and pathophysiology with certain elements of anatomy for pharmaceutical sciences needed to understand normal function of the body systems, common disease states, and physiological and pathophysiological basis of drugs. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major; not open to any other majors.
PHSC 438 Cosmetology
Credit 1.
1 Lecture Hour.
Morphological and anatomical features of skin, hairs and nails; cosmetics for skin, hairs, nails, and oral cavity; raw materials and formulation components of various cosmetic preparations; processes used for manufacturing of cosmetics; nanotechnology derived cosmetic products; safety evaluation methods and regulatory requirements of cosmetics. Prerequisites: PHSC 426 and PHSC 442; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 443; senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 439 Pediatric Therapeutics
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Drug therapy and medical treatment of hospitalized pediatric patients; clinical pharmacy practice opportunities in pediatric inpatient medicine settings; treatment principles of commonly encountered disorders in acutely ill patients. Prerequisites: PHSC 410, PHSC 426, and PHSC 442; senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 441 Pharmaceutical Calculations
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Application of mathematics and quantitative reasoning to pharmaceutical calculations encountered by pharmacy personnel in professional practice; emphasis on dosage calculations and compounding and dispensing of formulations; discussion on interpretation and filling of prescriptions. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major.
PHSC 442 Pharmaceutics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Principles of pharmaceutical dosage forms; effects of the physicochemical and biological properties of pharmaceutical products on the stability and bioavailability of drugs; various excipients and equipment used in the manufacture of different dosage forms; quality control methods for evaluation of performance of these dosage forms; unique aspects of drug delivery through various routes. Prerequisites: PHSC 341; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 452; junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 443 Industrial Pharmacy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical dosage forms with latest technologies, processes, and regulatory guidance; study of the material properties; selection and study of excipient functions; preformulating, unit operations, and equipment principles; quality control procedures for all dosage forms. Prerequisites: PHSC 442; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 444 Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Elements of biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics including the effects of nature of drug products including drugs, dosage forms, and routes of administration, and physiological factors on drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion; measurement of drug concentrations in biological fluids with respect to dose; determination and interpretation of various pharmacokinetic parameters. Prerequisites: PHSC 442 and PHSC 426; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 445 Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Prospect of recombinant proteins in therapeutics; structure, function, and stability of proteins and peptides drugs; regulatory aspects of biotechnology-derived drugs; preformulation and formulation aspects of protein and peptide delivery; pharmaceutical industrial processing of peptide and protein drugs; delivery of therapeutic peptides and proteins by various routes; delivery methods for recombinant protein subunit vaccines. Prerequisites: BICH 303 and PHSC 311; junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 446 Product Development by Quality-by-Design
Credit 1.
1 Lecture Hour.
Regulatory requirements for formulation and process developed by quality-by-design (QbD) principles; elements of QbD; different types of design of experiments and multivariate analysis; analytical technologies used in pharmaceutical manufacturing; role of excipients in robust formulation and process development; application of QbD in various dosage forms development. Prerequisites: PHSC 442; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 443; junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 447 Drug Development and Regulatory Affairs
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Code of federal regulations 21; United States Pharmacopeia; Food and Drug Administration (FDA); International Conference of Harmonization; regulatory control and requirements of new drug products and generics, biologics and biosimilar, veterinary and animal products, medical devices, tobacco products, and cosmetics; bioequivalence and bioavailability testing; National Drug Code (NDC), Orange Book, Purple Book, and Green Book; FDA guidance documents of drugs, devices, biologics, animals, tobacco products and cosmetics. Prerequisites: PHSC 442; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 443 and PHSC 444; senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 452 Pharmaceutics Laboratory
Credit 1.
3 Lab Hours.
Preparation and quality control of various pharmaceutical dosage forms in small scale. Prerequisites: PHSC 341; concurrent enrollment in PHSC 442; junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 454 Pharmaceutical Care
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Concepts of caring for patients and pharmaceutical care; emphasis on ways of collecting, organizing, and evaluating data related to mechanism of action, common uses, and side effects for the top 300 prescription medications for the purpose of rendering decisions to optimize therapy through the SOAP format and basic clinical skills including pharmaceutical care plans. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major.
PHSC 471 Clinical Communications
Credits 2.
2 Lecture Hours.
Skills for effective health care communications; verbal, nonverbal, and writing training with a patient counseling emphasis; negotiation, persuasion, and presentation strategies to improve therapy adherence and clinical outcomes. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; approval of instructor.
PHSC 481 Seminar
Credit 1.
1 Other Hour.
Discussion of seminar presentations in pharmaceutical sciences; development of scientific writing skills in the field; preparation of short papers in related topics. Prerequisites: Junior or senior classification; PHSC major or approval of instructor.
PHSC 610 Introduction to Biotech Drugs and Vaccine Products
Credits 4.
4 Lecture Hours.
Understanding the comprehensive information and insights of new and conventional pharmaceutical biotechnology, associated products and biomolecular vaccines; introduction to the basic concepts and biochemical basis of biotech drugs with a focus on structure and function of carbohydrates, proteins, hormones and lipids pharmaceutical bioproducts; biochemical basis for cell structure, cellular metabolism, disease, biotech-drug functions and genetic information flow in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells; common metabolic pathways of drugs, enzyme induction and metabolic regulation; introduction to different types of biomolecular vaccines and their development with some recent advances in vaccines development. Prerequisites: Enrollment in pharmaceutical sciences.
PHSC 611 Drug Delivery and Formulations
Credits 4.
4 Lecture Hours.
Introduction to the challenges and concepts for the delivery of drugs through various routes; development of unique formulations specific for that route; consideration of material properties of the drugs and patient and disease conditions; unique anatomy and physiology for a route; drug substances and the variety of physiochemical properties and biopharmaceutical properties with respect to physiological solubility, permeability and disposition. Prerequisites: CHEM 120 or equivalent, MATH 147 or equivalent; BIOL 113 or equivalent; approval of instructor.
PHSC 612 Principles of Drug Actions
Credits 4.
4 Lecture Hours.
Understanding the basic concepts and scientific underpinnings of pharmacology; comprehensive introduction to the fundamental pharmacology; understanding the uses of the major classes of clinically important drugs that are currently in medical practice and the re-purposing of these major classes.
PHSC 613 Laboratory Rotations
Credits 3.
9 Lab Hours.
Development of introductory skills through hands-on training with the instruments used in pharmaceutical research; development of introductory skills through hands-on training on the formulation of hypothesis, designing of experiments, planning on experimental materials required and execution of experiments in selected professors’ laboratories; development of basics skills to formulate hypothesis, research methodology, data generation and analysis and conclusions of the experiments.
PHSC 621 Biostatistics
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Introduction to basic statistical concepts and analytical methods; familiarization with statistical approaches used in pharmaceutical research and development; understanding the principles and development of skills for clinical research design, pre-clinical studies and clinical trials; understanding bio-statistical need for the result interpretation, introduction to evaluation of the medical literature and assessment of research reports and proposals; research terminologies, study design, statistical testing of data, investigator’s responsibilities in the ethical considerations of research; fundamentals of data sets and the evaluation of statistical results by employing examples of the clinical application of statistics; introduction to the methods used to conduct research in significant areas of pharmacy practice.
PHSC 622 Professionalism and Ethics in Research or Equivalent
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Introduction to ethical problems in interdisciplinary scientific research including publications, collaboration, data integrity, research misconduct and reviewing of manuscripts and grants; introduction to the history of scientific fraud by taking examples from recent cases, ethical dilemmas and the consequences of fraud; design mock misconduct trials and writing advocacy letters to change current policy; guidance on the responsibilities of principal investigator to monitor, manage and instruct lab personnel on ensuring data integrity.
PHSC 681 Seminar
Credit 1.
1 Other Hour.
Development of subject mastery by seminar presentations on current studies in pharmaceutical sciences with effective content development and delivery, and by engaging with audience to stimulate the research areas of interest. May be taken for credit up to two hours.
PHSC 685 Directed Studies
Credits 1 to 6.
1 to 6 Other Hours.
Offered to enable students to undertake and complete, with credit, limited investigations not within their thesis research and not covered by any other courses in the curriculum. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Approval of instructor.
PHSC 689 Special Topics in...
Credits 1 to 4.
1 to 4 Other Hours.
Selected topics in an identified area of pharmaceutical sciences. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Approval of instructor.
PHSC 691 Research
Credits 1 to 23.
1 to 23 Other Hours.
Research for thesis or dissertation. May be repeated for credit.
PHSC 721 Research Methods in Pharmaceutical Science
Credits 4.
4 Lecture Hours.
Overview of comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of experimental methods and approaches used in the Pharmaceutical Sciences; introduction to to experimental design and theory by learning about different experimental approaches and designs, the Scientific Method and hypothesis formation, experimental validity and reliability, appropriate experimental control, data collection and basic analysis, and reporting of findings; basic principles and applications of a wide range of research techniques, including those that are immunological, biochemical, pharmacological, chromatography, analytical, etc.; journal club presentations. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.
PHSC 736 Advanced Physical Pharmacy
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Elements of physical chemistry including rheology and interface chemistry, and colligative properties underpinning key pharmaceutical processes; concepts of chemical and ionic equilibria; important concentration expressions in pharmaceutical sciences; significance of surface-active agents, complexation, and protein binding; in depth explanation on reaction kinetics and drug stability. Prerequisites: PHSC 611.
PHSC 745 Advanced Pharmacology I
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Common cardiovascular disorders with a major emphasis on hypertension, ischemic heart disease, arrhythmias, heart failure, venous thromboembolism, dyslipidemia, stroke and peripheral arterial disease. Prerequisites: PHSC 612.
PHSC 746 Advanced Pharmacology II
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Focus on common health problems including infection, obesity, infertility, neurodegenerative, and endocrine disorders; pathogenesis, molecular mechanisms, and pharmacology of current clinically relevant therapeutics. Prerequisites: PHSC 612.
PHSC 752 Nanotechnology for Biomedical Applications
Credits 3.
3 Lecture Hours.
Introduction to recent advances in the field of nanotechnology with a particular emphasis on its biomedical applications; in-depth study of the nanomaterials, their physics and chemistry, nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems, and major challenges associated with the nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems; overview of the nanoparticle-based imaging and diagnostic systems and their applications using several examples of nanomedicine to demonstrate the impact of the nanotechnology on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. Prerequisites: PHSC 611.