Pharmaceutical scientists trained at U.S. schools and colleges of pharmacy are working on breakthrough technologies made possible by combinatorial chemistry, in vitro biopharmaceutical techniques, analytical technologies, bio-materials, and gene transfers-gene therapies such as:
Currently Funded Research, Fellows, and Awardees
Click here for a list of our fellows, from 1942 to 2021
AFPE Funds a wide variety of research areas in the pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy. In the past three years, this research has included:
Drug Development and Drug-Drug Interaction
- Antibiotics/Antibiotic Resistance
- Biologic Drug Formulation
- Drug Clearance
- Drug Design
- Drug-Drug Interactions
- Drug Metabolism and Pharmokinetics
- Drug Resistance
- Drug Targeting
- Immunotherapy
- Iron Release in Iron Nanoparticle Drug Products
- Nanomedicine
- Oral Drug Permeability
- OATP-Medicated Drug-Drug Interaction
- Personalized Medicine
- Pharmacogenomics
- Pharmacokinetics
- Endocrine-Related Disorders
- Cholestasis
- Obesity
Infectious Disease
- Drug-Resistant Streptococcus
- Gonorrhea
- Herpesvirus
- HIV/HIV-1
- Influenza
- Malaria
Neurodegenerative and Neurological Disorders
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Oxidative Stress and Neurodegeneration
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Status Epilepticus
Oncology
- Acute Myeloid Leukemia
- Breast Cancer
- Bone Therapy
- Cancer Cachexia
- Cancer Drug Sales
- Cancer Therapy and Drug Resistance
- Cancer Vaccines
- Canine Cancer
- Chemotherapy
- Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
- Glioblastoma
- Liver Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Lymphatic Melanoma Metastases
- Ovarian Cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- Radiation
- Renal Cell Carcinoma
Pain and Addiction
- Alcohol (addiction, related disease)
- Cocaine Addiction
- Opioids (use, prescribing, dependence, addiction)
- Neuropathic Pain
- Neuropharmacology
Patient Care
- Depression screening
- Fall-Prevention
- Medicare and Medicaid
- Microneedle Application
- Nursing home care
- Patient adherence
- Pediatric Critical Care
- Pharmacy Services in Primary Care
- Rural health access
- Rural Mental Health Care
- Transitions of care
- UTI therapy for Hospitalized Patients
- Vaccinating in Community Pharmacies
Reproductive Health
- Contraceptive Counseling
- Vaginome Dynamics During Pregnancy
Other Areas
- Acute Myocardial Infarction
- Adenovirus
- Allergic Disease
- Anemia
- Arthritis
- Autism
- Cannabinoids
- Cystic Fibrosis
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- Immunosuppression in Kidney Transplantation
- Inflammatory Disease
- Hypertension
- Lung infection
- Metabolic Disease
- Natural products and medicinal plants
- Pharmacy Education and Behavior Research
- Pharmacy Student Well Being
- Precision Dosing*
- Pulmonary Disease
- Pro-Inflammatory Mediator Suppressants
- Tuberculosis
* indicates this research is being funded in this fellowship cycle (2021-2022)
Value of the Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Accelerated chemical synthesis and biological screening of millions of compounds to identify as well as optimize structurally novel drug candidates
- Molecular-based assays using cloned enzymes to predict how the body will metabolize a promising drug candidate before large investments are made in development and animal testing
- Using cloned metabolizing enzymes or human tissue to analyze and predict toxicity problems and other associated costs prior to a drug’s clinical investigation
- Implantation or injection of large molecules that are biocompatible over long periods of time to allow delivery of medication at controlled rates over the full course of therapy
- Providing a gene therapy in a stable form, targeted to a specific site, in a safely administered dosage system
Fundamental changes in drug discovery and development brought about by these new technologies are impacting graduate education in the pharmaceutical sciences both in the graduate curriculum and the research environment. The pharmaceutical sciences disciplines at U.S. college of pharmacy graduate schools include:
The study of drug therapy outcomes in patients with emphasis on factors & mechanisms determining therapy outcomes; the study of genetic & non-genetic factors in the variability of drug response; the study of human pharmacology & therapeutics to improve safe, effective & economical use of medications by patients; and the optimization of drug therapy through generation, integration, & translation of scientific knowledge between the bench and the bedside.
The economic analysis of pharmaceuticals, pharmaco-economic protocol development, pharmaceutical outcomes research, disease management protocols and processes, and management of pharmacy systems and organization.
The design and synthesis of chemical/organic compounds with biological activity and potential use in treatment of disease
The analysis, biosynthesis, production, metabolism, and mechanisms of action of pharmaceutically important plants, animals, and microbes
The design, fabrication, and evaluation of advanced drug delivery and advanced drug level management systems
The use of genetic, molecular, cellular, organ system, and whole animal techniques to examine mechanisms and consequences of drug interactions with living systems
The analysis of adverse effects of new biologically active compounds on living systems, such as tissue injury, reproductive failure, immunosuppression, and cancer