Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Cancer Biology
Training Physicians to Translate Basic & Clinical Research to Patient Care
The Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Cancer Biology encompasses the study of drugs in humans. By definition, they are broad-based, and include basic research of molecular mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal physiology to define novel therapeutic targets; translational research to adapt observations from the laboratory to patients; and clinical research to examine the behavior of novel therapeutics in humans. As such, clinical pharmacology and clinical research are research-based, in contrast to clinically based disciplines.
Thomas Jefferson University has established a training program in clinical pharmacology and clinical research that integrates formal didactic training in basic and clinical pharmacology and research methodologies with hands-on experience in laboratory research and human clinical trials. The overall goals of the program are to integrate training in the general methodologies, concepts, and approaches of basic and clinical pharmacology and in hypothesis-driven basic and clinical research to produce investigators who can establish competitive basic, translational, and/or clinical research programs and bridge the gap between the laboratory and the patient.
This program directly addresses the need to train physicians and those in related disciplines to work at the interface of basic and clinical research to maximize the translation of the products of basic research into novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to patient care. This program is committed to the rigorous training of motivated physicians who have completed their clinical training, and recently graduated PhD's or PharmD's committed to a research career in pharmacology with a clinical orientation. The program provides a closely supervised, intensive research experience emphasizing the application of state-of-the-art methodologies, approaches and strategies, supplemented by course work, seminars, journal clubs, clinical consultation service and hands-on experience in human clinical investigation. This program is one component of the overall postgraduate training program in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics that prepares clinician, PhD, and PharmD fellows for careers as basic and clinical investigators.
