Research » Department of Pharmacodynamics » College of Pharmacy

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Department of Pharmacodynamics

“We discover novel therapeutic approaches through preclinical scientific investigation of how molecules interact with disease processes”

We are a highly collaborative department engaged in preclinical research that encompasses molecular analysis, integrated pharmacology and physiology, behavioral models, and drug development. Our faculty members study organ function and drug action across normal and disease states, with interests in aging, cancer, stress, anxiety, addiction, pain, neuroinflammation, cardiovascular disease, feeding and metabolic dysfunction.

Collaboration is fundamental to our research mission

Our success stems from strong research collaborations within the department, with the other 4 college of pharmacy departments, and across the entire campus of University of Florida. UF is currently ranked #6 nationally among public universities (US News and World Report). The UF College of Pharmacy belongs to a world-class academic health center which includes 5 additional colleges: medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health and health professions, and veterinary medicine. Our collaborations extend beyond the academic health center and include many other UF units, e.g., Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Psychology, Chemistry, Health and Human Performance, and Agriculture and Life Sciences. With this scientific diversity grouped together within easy walking distance on a single campus, our students have convenient, un paralleled access to a breadth and depth of biomedical research expertise and knowledge.

Centers of Excellence and Institutes

The rich research environment at UF is greatly enhanced by offering its faculty opportunities to participate in UF designated research centers of excellence and institutes. These centers and institutes bring faculty together from different departments and colleges and align them based on their shared focus on scientific disciplines and disease categories.

Our department is the home of one research center of excellence: the Center for Integrative Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases. This center supports a diverse group of faculty across UF whose research interests include Type 2 diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, stroke and atherosclerosis.

UF Research Centers of Excellence and Institutes to which our faculty belong

Center for Integrative Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases

Center for Addiction Research and Education

McKnight Brain Institute

Center for Natural Products, Drug Discovery and Development

UF Health Cancer Center

UF Genetics Institute

Center for Pharmacometrics and Systems Pharmacology

Myology Institute

Research approaches and core faculty areas

Faculty Research Techniques and Approaches
Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics
Electrophysiology
Behavioral Pharmacology
In vitro Cell-Based Binding Affinity and Efficacy
In vivo and In vitro Microdialysis
Optogenetics

Genome Editing
Chemogenetics
Chemical biology
Viral-Based Circuit Mapping
In vivo High-Resolution, Real-Time Imaging
Flow Cytometry, Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorting

Faculty core research areas

Stress and Endocrinology

Oxytocin and stress responsiveness, limbic system physiology and mood disorders, neurological regulation of cardiovascular function, and systemic responses to chronic stress

Cardiovascular and Metabolic Signaling

Small molecule positive modulators targeting natriuretic peptide receptors and chemokine receptors as novel therapeutics for hypertension, cardiac fibrosis and diabetic wound healing, and development of microphysiological systems to study muscle degeneration

Peripheral Nervous System

Molecular mechanisms of vagal sensing from peripheral organs to the brain, defining neural subpopulations based on visceral, molecular and genetic patterns, and viral tract tracing to map neural circuitry of peripheral nerve signaling

Addiction and Pain

Drug addiction, reward signaling, novel therapeutics for the treatment of substance use disorders, pain neurobiology and novel pain treatments

Neurodegeneration, Inflammation, Toxicity

Aging, neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, HIV-1 Tat protein and HIV-associated neurologic disease and alcohol neurotoxicity

Cancer Drug Discovery

Novel drug targets and development of new senolytic agents and anti-tumor agents, including proteolysis targeting chimeras, or PROTACs, for aging, age-related diseases and cancer

Departmental Rankings and Funding Metrics

Our department is one of five in the College of Pharmacy. The college’s overall national ranking is #5 (US News & World Report) and its NIH funding ranking is #3 (American Association of the Colleges of Pharmacy). The department ranks in the top 5 (Academic Analytics) among departments of pharmacology or pharmaceutical sciences in both grant funds per faculty and scholarly research index.