Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers undergraduate and graduate students unparalleled training for future careers in pharmacy, medicine, and biomedical research. Our innovative, rigorous curriculum integrates concepts from biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, pharmacology and physiology. Alumni purse exciting professional opportunities that improve our societies health and well-being.
Pharmaceutical Scientists are rapidly changing the field of drug discovery and development. Graduates of our program are well qualified to seek employment in the public and private sectors, or pursue graduate degrees such as Ph.D., M.D., or Pharm.D.
Pharmaceutical Sciences News
Director & Founding Dean Jan Hirsch: Addressing Racial Injustices
Addressing Racial Injustices Dear Anteater Community, On June 2nd, during the height of national anti-black racism protests and unrest, I sent a message out to our students, faculty and
UCI Pharmaceutical Sciences Professors Awarded COVID-19 Research Awards
Professors Return to Labs to work on COVID-19 specific Research Four UCI Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty, Professors Andrej Luptak, John Chaput and Young Jik Kwon have
Andrej Luptak Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences is pleased to announce that Andrej Luptak, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. Established in 1925,
Sign up for our newsletter!
Recieve updates on our planned school, faculty research and outstanding students.
What are the Pharmaceutical Sciences?
Drug Discovery & Design
Pharmacists are trusted medication experts who are responsible for ensuring that the specific complex, combination of prescribed and over-the-counter drugs, along with any supplements and complementary medications, are safe and effective for a particular individual.
Drug Delivery
Drug Delivery is concerned with the design of dosage forms — such as tablets, injections or patches — that will deliver the drug to the site of action in a patient. The purpose is to ensure that the drug arrives in the right concentration and at the right time. Specialty fields within Drug Delivery include pharmaceutics, biomaterials, and pharmacokinetics.
Drug Action
Drug Delivery is concerned with the design of dosage forms — such as tablets, injections or patches — that will deliver the drug to the site of action in a patient. The purpose is to ensure that the drug arrives in the right concentration and at the right time. Specialty fields within Drug Delivery include pharmaceutics, biomaterials, and pharmacokinetics.
Clinical Sciences
Clinical Sciences are concerned with the use of drugs in the treatment of diseases. Particular properties of new drugs — such as efficacy, adverse effects, drug-to-drug interaction, bioavailability — are determined in clinical trials in humans.
Cost Effectiveness of Medicine
Cost Effectiveness of Medicines (Pharmacoeconomics) examines the economic savings from the use of one drug rather than others, with regard to costs for the drug itself and patient management (e.g., compliance, quality of life, physician visits, potential hospitalization).
Drug Analysis
Drug Analysis involves separating, identifying, and quantifying the components of a sample. Analytical chemistry is an important component of all areas of the pharmaceutical sciences.
Regulatory Affairs
Regulatory Affairs promotes communication, understanding, and cooperation between scientists from industry and academia and the regulatory authorities worldwide who govern approval and distribution, by means of developing regulatory guidelines.
More and more, these categories are beginning to overlap. For example, a scientific engineer working in Drug Delivery needs to understand how toxicology affects Drug Action, and a chemist working in Drug Discovery and Design must know about the pharmacokinetics of Drug Delivery. For this reason, pharmaceutical scientists are required to have a broad base of knowledge in a variety of sciences.
Career Opportunities
Over the years, pharmaceutical scientists have been instrumental in discovering and developing innovative drugs that save thousands of people’s lives and improve the quality of life for many others. Pharmaceutical scientists can pursue a variety of jobs. They are employed by pharmaceutical companies, they work as pharmacists, doctors, and as researchers and professors at universities, as regulatory scientists for agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and as researchers at national laboratories such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Learn More about the history of Drug Discovery
Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty
| Name | Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 | Amal Alachkar | Professor of Teaching (LSOE) | aalachka@uci.edu |
 | Claudia Benavente | Assistant Professor | Claudia.benavente@uci.edu |
 | Richard Chamberlin | Chair, Professor Emeritus | Richard.chamberlin@uci.edu |
 | John Chaput | Professor | jchaput@uci.edu |
 | Olivier Civelli | Professor | ocivelli@uci.edu |
 | Frederick Ehlert | Professor Emeritus | fjehlert@uci.edu |
 | Kelvin Gee | Professor | kwgee@uci.edu |
 | Celia Goulding | Professor | celia.goulding@uci.edu |
 | Stephen Hanessian | Professor | shanessi@uci.edu |
 | Jan Hirsch | Director, Founding Dean | jdhirsch@uci.edu |
 | Naoto Hoshi | Associate Professor | nhoshi@uci.edu |
 | Mahtab Jafari | Professor | mjafari@uci.edu |
 | Young Jik Kwon | Professor | kwonyj@uci.edu |
 | Frances Leslie | Professor | fmleslie@uci.edu |
 | Andrej Luptak | Professor | aluptak@uci.edu |
 | David Mobley | Professor Vice Chair | dmobley@uci.edu |
 | Brian Paegel | Professor | bpaegel@uci.edu |
 | Larry Plon | Assistant Adjunct Professor | lplon@uci.edu |
 | Thomas Poulos | Professor | poulos@uci.edu |
 | Sam Schriner | Professor of Teaching (LPSOE) Vice Chair | schriner@uci.edu |
 | Robert Spitale | Associate Professor | rspitale@uci.edu |
 | Qun-Yong Zhou | Professor | qzhou@uci.edu |
 | Weian Zhao | Associate Professor | weianz@uci.edu |
