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Cutting-edge research in drug development and delivery for students with backgrounds in engineering, chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacy and biology.

Our program focuses on many routes of administration, including oral, pulmonary, parenteral, percutaneous, and transmucosal. Additionally, we study platforms that include cell-based therapies, lipid and polymeric nanotechnology, exosomes, antibodies, and viral and non-viral vectors for gene therapy. We conduct multidisciplinary research using knowledge in:

  • chemistry: physical-chemical aspects of drug molecules, polymer sciences, analytical chemistry,
  • engineering: nanotechnology, biophysics, mass transport and thermodynamics of drug molecules
  • biopharmaceutics: pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism.
  • biochemistry: immunology, genetics, drug mechanism of action
  • biology: cell and virus-based platforms, infectious diseases, neurology

From this program, students will understand drug delivery systems for new therapies and vaccines to improve human health. The majority of our Ph.D. students often find jobs in industry before graduation. Those who pursue an academic career usually spend a few more years as postdoctoral fellows at other institutions.

Learn more about our faculty

Watch a webinar on our PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences program

Review Q&A section of webinar on our PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences program 

Apply to our PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences program

Our stiped for August 2024 will be $35,000/yr with potential for annual increases in subsequent years. For the incoming Fall 2024 class there will be two rotations, both within the Fall 2024 semester (7.5 wks in length).

Questions about the graduate program? Ask Joe or Garrett.

Garrett Bethmann

Executive Assistant

Joe Williams

Graduate Program Coordinator / Administrative Assistant 

  • 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

This Molecular Pharmaceutics Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. track focuses on delivering and maintaining the desired amount of a therapeutic agent at the target site for a desired period of time through cutting-edge platforms. The development of therapeutic or vaccine delivery systems that accomplishes this is based on an understanding of their transport properties across biological barriers and subsequent biodistribution as well as the mechanism by which they are metabolized and eliminated. This discipline is crucial for turning a new molecular entity into a safe and effective medication.

Course Title Course Number Credit Hours
Foundations for Cross-Disciplinary Training in the Pharmaceutical Sciences  PHRS 801/ 802  1.25 per semester 
Statistics Variable  3 
PK Module 1: Pharmacokinetic Concepts and Applications  DPET 853  1.75 
Nanomedicine  DPMP 738  3 
Drug Metabolism  DPET 816  1.5 
Advanced Physical Pharmacy  DPMP 862  1.5 
Advanced Pharmaceutics II  DPMP 863  1.5 
Advances in Drug Delivery  DPMP 864  3 
Electives^ Variable  9 
Seminar* DPMP 899  1 
Research** DPMP 991  3/semester
Doctoral Dissertation Research**# DPMP 994 >3/semester

* Students must register for seminar every semester in which they are in residence.
** Students must register for 3 hours of research each semester prior to candidacy. 
^ At least one credit in Data science must be included in electives.
# Students must be registered for at least 3 credit hours in each semester in candidacy including the semester in which the final defense is conducted.

Suggested Statistics Courses

Suggested Electives

  • BIOC 643 Cell Structure, Function, and Growth Control I (2).  Fall.
  • CHEM 430 Introduction to Biological Chemistry (3). Fall and Spring.
  • CHEM 431 Macromolecular Structure and Metabolism (3). Spring.
  • CHEM 432 Metabolic Chemistry and Cellular Regulatory Networks  (3). . Fall.
  • CHEM 466 Advanced Organic Chemistry I (3).  Fall.
  • CHEM 467 Advanced Organic Chemistry II (2).  Spring.
  • CHEM 480 Introduction to Biophysical Chemistry (3). Fall.
  • CHEM 481 Physical Chemistry I (3).  Fall and Spring.
  • PHCO701 Introduction to Molecular Pharmacology (2).  Fall.
  • PHCO702  Principles  of  Pharmacology  and  Physiology  (3). Spring.
  • MCRO614 Immunobiology (3) Fall.
  • NC State BEC 475 Global Regulatory Affairs for Medical Products (online)
  • NC State BEC 462/BEC 562/CHE 462 Fundamentals of Bio-Nanotechnology

Suggested Data Science Course

  • BCB 712 Databases, Metadata, Ontologies, and Digital Libraries for Biological Sciences
  • BCB 715 Mathematical   and   Computational   Approaches   to   Modeling   Signaling   and   Regulatory Pathways
  • BCB 718 Computational Modeling Laboratory
  • BCB 717 Structural Bioinformatics
  • BCB 716 Sequence Analysis
  • BCB 730 Fundamentals of Quantitative Imaging Analysis for Light Microscopy
  • INLS 465 Understanding Information Technology for Managing Digital Collections
  • INLS 523 Introduction to Database Concepts and Applications
  • INLS 541 Information Visualization
  • INLS 560 Programming for Information Science
  • INLS 581 Research Methods Overview
  • INLS 712 Introduction to Text Mining

Other courses can fulfill these electives and statistics requirement upon petition by the student and approval by the director of graduate studies or the student’s Ph.D. advisory committee.

Excluding research and seminar credits but including credits from elective courses, students must take a minimum of 24 credits of course work prior to sitting for the Qualifying Exam. Students who have taken relevant coursework prior to enrollment in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics Graduate Program may use that coursework to satisfy graduate course requirements provided that the courses were taken within 8 years of entry into the graduate program and that passing scores (H, P, or A, B) were received. Courses taken more than 8 years previously may be waived on a case-by-case basis (particularly if the individual has been using the relevant skills frequently) at the discretion of the research advisor and with the approval of the division faculty. All requests for waivers of required courses should be submitted in writing to the division director of graduate studies for review by the division faculty. Note that while a student may waive a particular required course, he or she must still complete a minimum of 24 credits of course work.

Example schedule:

Fall Spring
1st Year PHRS 801: Foundations for Cross-Disciplinary Training in Pharm Sci (1.25 cr) PHRS 802: Foundations for Cross-Disciplinary Training in Pharm Sci (1.25 cr)
DPMP 899:  Seminar (1 cr) DPMP 899:  Seminar (1 cr)
DPMP 991: Research (3 cr – 2 rotations) DPMP 991: Research  (3 cr)
DPMP 864:  Advances in Drug Delivery (3 cr) DPMP 738:  Nanomedicine (3 cr)
DPMP 862:  Advanced Physical Pharmacy (1.5 cr – second half of semester) DPMP 863:   Advanced Pharmaceutics II (1.5 cr – first half of semester)
DPET 853:  Pharmacokinetics (1.75 cr) DPMP 815:  Drug Metabolism (1.5 cr – second half of semester)
BIOS 600:  Biostatistics (3 cr) Electives (total of 9 credits over 3 – 4 semesters)^
Electives (total of 9 credits over 3 – 4 semesters)^
2nd Year DPMP 899:  Seminar (1 cr) DPMP 899:  Seminar (1 cr)
DPMP 991: Research  (3 cr) DPMP 994: Research  (3 cr)
Electives (total of 9 credits over 3 – 4 semesters)^  Qualifying Exam in Spring, Year 2
3rd Year+ DPMP 899:  Seminar (1 cr) DPMP 899:  Seminar (1 cr)
DPMP 994: Research  (3 cr) DPMP 994: Research  (3 cr)

^ At least one credit in Data science must be included in electives.

This DPMP Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences track has an emphasis in pharmacoengineering, an emerging discipline that 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.

Students work at the interface of engineering and pharmaceutical sciences to develop safer and more effective medicine and medical technologies. It provides students not only with a strong knowledge base in both pharmaceutical sciences and engineering, but also a highly interdisciplinary research experience. Students have the flexibility to work with any of more than two dozen outstanding faculty members with expertise in a variety of fields within pharmacy and engineering.

Course Title Course Number Credit Hours
Foundations for Cross-Disciplinary Training in the Pharmaceutical Sciences  PHRS 801/ 802  1.25 per semester 
Statistics Variable 3 
PK Module 1: Pharmacokinetic Concepts and Applications  DPET 853  1.75 
Nanomedicine  DPMP 738  3 
Drug Metabolism  DPMP 815  1.5 
Advanced Physical Pharmacy  DPMP 862  1.5 
Advanced Pharmaceutics II  DPMP 863  1.5 
Advances in Drug Delivery  DPMP 864  3 
Seminar* DPMP 899  1 
Research** DPMP 991  3/semester
Doctoral Dissertation Research**# DPMP 994 >3/semester
Math Elective^ 3
Engineering Elective^ 3
Elective^ 3

** Students must register for seminar every semester in which they are in residence.
*** Students must register for 3 hours of research each semester prior to candidacy. 
^ At least one credit in Data science must be included in electives.

Suggested Statistics Courses

  • BIOS 600 Principles of Statistical Inference
  • BBSP 710 Biostatistics for Laboratory Scientists

Math Electives

  • BMME 775 Image Processing and Analysis
  • MATH 528 Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences
  • MATH 535 Introduction to Probability
  • MATH 547 Linear Algebra for Applications
  • MATH 564 Mathematical Modeling in the Life Sciences 
  • MATH 566 Introduction to Numerical Analysis
  • MATH 577 Linear Algebra
  • MATH 661 Scientific Computation
  • MATH 768 Mathematical Modeling I

Engineering Electives

  • COMP 665 Images, Graphics and Vision
  • BMME 550 Medical Imaging I: Ultrasound, MRI and Optical Magnetic
  • BMME 551 Medical Device Design
  • BMME 515 Introduction to Systems Biology
  • BMME 510 Biomaterials
  • BMME 505 Skeletal Biomechanics

Suggested Data Science Course

  • BCB 712 Databases, Metadata, Ontologies, and Digital Libraries for Biological Sciences
  • BCB 715 Mathematical   and   Computational   Approaches   to   Modeling   Signaling   and   Regulatory Pathways
  • BCB 718 Computational Modeling Laboratory
  • BCB 717 Structural Bioinformatics
  • BCB 716 Sequence Analysis
  • BCB 730 Fundamentals of Quantitative Imaging Analysis for Light Microscopy
  • INLS 465 Understanding Information Technology for Managing Digital Collections
  • INLS 523 Introduction to Database Concepts and Applications
  • INLS 541 Information Visualization
  • INLS 560 Programming for Information Science
  • INLS 581 Research Methods Overview
  • INLS 712 Introduction to Text Mining

Other courses can fulfill these electives and statistics requirement upon petition by the student and approval by the director of graduate studies or the student’s Ph.D. advisory committee.

Excluding research and seminar credits but including credits from elective courses, students must take a minimum of 24 credits of course work prior to sitting for the Qualifying Exam. Students who have taken relevant coursework prior to enrollment in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics Graduate Program may use that coursework to satisfy graduate course requirements provided that the courses were taken within 8 years of entry into the graduate program and that passing scores (H, P, or A, B) were received. Courses taken more than 8 years previously may be waived on a case-by-case basis (particularly if the individual has been using the relevant skills frequently) at the discretion of the research advisor and with the approval of the division faculty. All requests for waivers of required courses should be submitted in writing to the division director of graduate studies for review by the division faculty. Note that while a student may waive a particular required course, he or she must still complete a minimum of 24 credits of course work.

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