Molecular and Chemical Pharmacology Training Grant

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The present application for support of the Chemical and Molecular Pharmacology Training Program represents a new venture undertaken by the Stanford Department of Molecular Pharmacology in response to the extraordinarily rapid advances in molecular and structural biology over the past ten years. While the Department has had a very successful graduate program over the past decades--several of its graduates can now be found in leading positions in academic institutions and in industry--the recent explosive growth of knowledge in biological sciences has made it clear that a new set of concepts and skills will be needed for a successful career in Pharmacology in the future. The sequencing of whole genomes and the initial characterization of myriad proteins and signal transduction pathways is defining the pharmacology of the future: the study of intricate and delicately-balanced cell regulatory networks, and of how drugs can and do impinge upon them. To fully bring this future to fruition will require the application of rigorous quantitative methods and concepts--those of physics, chemistry, systems analysis and informatics. It will therefore also require the attracting of a different type of student to the field, a student with interests and abilities in quantitative science. If the discipline of Pharmacology is to meet this challenge, it must develop graduate training programs that anticipate and convey the knowledge required to advance the field from its present stage. Building on its strong tradition of innovation the Stanford Department of Molecular Pharmacology is therefore implementing a two-track graduate program. The first track emphasizes molecular biology, cell biology, and medical pharmacology, in recognition of the fact that established molecular biological methods still hold a great deal of promise for discovery and analysis of life's processes. The second track places greater emphasis on rigorous quantitative methods of analysis, in recognition of the fact that this is the type of analysis required to solve the next generation of problems and fulfill the mission of Pharmacology as the science concerned with mechanisms of drug action.