Research
Pioneering Achievement
Collaborations between basic and clinical scientists create an atmosphere that nurtures scientific innovation from biology to medicine. We are both a basic science and clinical department so we are constantly striving to translate our science and inventions into patient care.
Our department consistently ranks number 1 or 2 in the country in total research funding among pharmacology departments. This is a reflection of the scholarship and ambitious nature of our faculty and students. As a pharmacology department, our faculty have developed or played major roles in molecular therapeutics for diabetes and drugs like Gleevac, Celebrex and Viagra, as well as in vitro and in vivo molecular diagnostics.
The Department's discoveries and pioneering achievements include:
- Inventing the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner
- Identifying biological roles of nitric oxide
- Understanding the molecular basis of cancer and diabetes and developing new therapeutics
- Developing nanotechnologies for systems biology of disease
- Molecular imaging for biological research, molecular diagnostics and drug discovery
- In situ click chemistry and tracer chemistry
- Integrated microfluidic chips for accelerating and diversifying synthesis of molecular probes, drugs and the study of the biology of disease