Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

Kurt Varner, PhD
Head of the Department and David R. Bethune-Lederle
Laboratories Professor

The Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics provides instruction in Medical Pharmacology for second year students. The course combines lectures with clinical correlation conferences, problem based learning and demonstrations, all leading to a broad general understanding of the effects of drugs. This training is designed to prepare the medical student for their clinical rotations in the following years.

The diverse areas of research in the Pharmacology Department include molecular therapeutics, cell signaling, renal and cardiovascular pharmacology, neuropharmacology, behavioral pharmacology, alcohol and drugs of abuse, cancer biology, toxicology, and drug metabolism.