Rutgers: Department of Pharmaceutics

The faculty members of the Department of Pharmaceutics focus on the development of drugs and their delivery to and disposition in the body.

Pharmaceutics is concerned with the strategies by which biologically active compounds are presented to the body so as to elicit an optimal response. Included are the design, preparation and testing of drug-delivery systems. There are two major areas of emphasis found in the current research in the Department of Pharmaceutics at Rutgers: Biopharmaceutics (drug formulation, physical/industrial pharmacy, mechanisms and modeling of drug transport, molecular and cellular pharmaceutics) and Pharmacokinetics. In course work, emphasis is placed on the fundamentals underlying these subject areas.

Biopharmaceutics is the study of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) of drugs, toxins, and their metabolites. Pharmacokinetics is the study of the time dependencies of ADME once a drug or toxin is introduced into the body. This includes the rate and extent of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion, as well as the relationship between the concentration of drug at various sites in the body and the level of pharmacological or toxicological effect. Mathematical models are used to aid interpretation of experimental data and to explore basic biological mechanisms for drug disposition.

The Department of Pharmaceutics at Rutgers University offers graduate students the opportunity to pursue a program of study that is directed toward meeting the individual career objectives in the area of Pharmaceutical Expertise. Students are provided with one of the most dynamic programs in the area of drug discovery and development. Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy has the distinction of being located in central New Jersey, which has the nation's highest concentration of pharmaceutical research and industry. Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy is also one of the oldest School’s of Pharmacy in the country, with over 100 years of dedication and service to the education of pharmaceutical scientists. The faculty in the Pharmaceutics Department are active members of the Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Both Masters of Science and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees are offered in a highly specialized course tract under the Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Science.