Our Curriculum
Our Curriculum
We offer two different tracks of study within our Drug Delivery program: Molecular Pharmaceutics and Pharmacoengineering.
Molecular Pharmaceutics focuses on education and research in targeted drug delivery that will ensure optimal efficacy of pharmacologically and immunologically active agents. We conduct multidisciplinary research using knowledge in the following areas:
- chemistry (physical-chemical aspects of drug molecules, polymer sciences, analytical chemistry),
- engineering (nanotechnology, biophysics), and
- biopharmaceutics (pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism). Two emerging areas in which we are engaging our students are pharmacoengineering and molecular imaging.
Pharmacoengineering integrates engineering methods with pharmaceutical sciences. Pharmacoengineers apply the latest experimental approaches from life sciences, chemistry, and physics in conjunction with theoretical and quantitative methods from engineering, mathematics, and computer science to solve problems in medicine and drug therapies.
This program is a joint effort between the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics and the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. It prepares students to work at the interface of engineering and pharmaceutical sciences to develop safer and more effective medicine and medical technologies.
Program Requirements (both tracks)
- Minimum of 24 credits of coursework including elective courses, but excluding 1 credit for seminar.
- Participate in weekly seminar each semester. Students in their 3rd year have the opportunity to give a seminar each year. The final defense fulfills this requirement in the last year of study
- Research credit (i.e. lab rotation) or dissertation credit of at least 3 hours per semester
- Doctoral written and oral exam. The Qualifying Exam process (i.e, written and oral exam) is designed to assess the extent of the student’s knowledge acquired from course work in pharmaceutical science and test his or her ability to integrate and apply knowledge to practical problems.
- Dissertation and final defense
Ph.D. Program Accreditation
An internal self-study of the School’s graduate program occurs every eight years, with the last self-study occurring in 2016. This information is used to inform the program review process within the University.
The graduate program in Pharmaceutical Sciences (M.S. and Ph.D.) is reviewed as part of the University’s accreditation process every ten years by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
The Program Review at UNC-Chapel Hill is outlined at The Graduate School.