Clinical Pharmacology Fellowship Program

The objective of our Fellowship Training Program is to provide an integrated nurturing environment for the trainee who will grow as an independent investigator. He/she will move comfortably between the basic lab bench and clinical arena. This intellectual and technical flexibility allows trainees completing our program to bring new insights into basic research, to develop productive basic research programs, and to test the clinical significance of hypotheses developed in the basic science laboratory.

The Fellowship Training Program is organized and monitored by the Training Program Advisory Committee (TPAC). The TPAC consists of Robert A. Branch, MD (Center Director), Edwin K. Jackson, PhD (Associate Center Director), Steven Tofovic, MD, PhD, (Fellowship Director), and faculty mentors. Two types of mentors are represented in the training program: basic science mentors and clinical science mentors. All of the basic science mentors have dynamic basic science research programs that provide a stimulating and rigorous basic science research training environment with research questions and problems. In addition to their basic science research activities, the basic science preceptors also either directly conduct clinical research projects or collaborate with physicians who provide a clinical outlet for their research programs. Each of the basic science preceptors, therefore, encourages trainees to explore the relationship between their lab activities and clinical medicine. Although most of the basic science mentors are also well qualified to serve as clinical science mentors, the training faculty is augmented by a distinguished group of clinical scientists who broaden the scope of clinical research activities available to trainees.

The trainee and the assigned mentors meet regularly to evaluate the trainee's progress and to provide necessary guidance and help. This session is also used as an opportunity to explore the trainee's future career path. Finally, our trainees, having been exposed to the concepts of clinical pharmacology, are able to apply pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles to problems regarding drug therapy.

For more information and a detailed description of course requirements for this program, please contact Dr. Stevan Tofovic, MD, PhD or Mary Marcelle.