Academic Offerings: Postgraduate
PhD Programs

Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology
School of Medicine

The course aims at integrating graduate students into the processes of discovering and characterizing the mechanism actions of drugs, using drugs as tools to study body systems functioning in health and disease, and studying disease models to find new drug targets to be exploited in clinical therapeutics. Evaluation of drugs in the clinical setting (including clinical trials of new drugs, pharmacoepidemiology, and pharmacovigilance) is also a major area of research. Main fields of interest are: neuropharmacology, neuropsychopharmacology, immunopharmacology, cardiovascular pharmacology, chemotherapy, both basic and clinical.

The course lasts a minimum of three years, finally leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Pharmacology.

During the first year, students choose a faculty mentor who will guide their research project. Students then begin full-time research activities, working directly with the mentor and his/her research team to complete an original research project.

Students are trained to become independent researchers and will gain expertise in the specialty area in which they are working. The research project culminates with the writing of the Ph.D. dissertation and an oral defense of the project. Publication of the research in peer-reviewed scientific journals is expected of all students.

During the course, a 6-12 month resident training period at foreign academic and/or non-academic institutions is a preferential requisite to obtain the Ph.D. degree, and is supported through the participation of the faculty members within an international collaborative network.

The University grants a stipend to some candidates, which is assigned on a competitive basis according to the academic merit. Further support to students may also eventually come from public or private institutions on the basis of ad hoc agreements with the University.

Director: Professor Franca Marino