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 Introduction
to the Department of Pharmacology |
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Pharmacology is an area of studying functional
changes in the body arising from the medication,
and is indispensable to fields of clinical
application. Although belonging to the category
of basic medical science, pharmacology can
be regarded as an area of playing a bridge
role between the pure basic medical science
and clinical medicine. Currently, our Department
of Pharmacology is actively conducting researches
on the areas including gastrointestinal system,
central nervous system, pharmacogenomics and
clinical pharmacology. According to the domestic
and international research trends, these research
areas focus on studying the mechanism of drug
action from the molecular and cellular level
to the behaviour level, and establishing theoretical
backgrounds for new applications of the existing
drugs. Various animal experiments and co-work
studies in collaboration with clinical research
teams are also conducted in order to apply
the obtained results to the human body. |
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| Education
and training courses |
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Details of the education and training courses
vary depending on the research areas of each
professor. Basically however, as these courses
are included in the graduate degree program
(4-5 years of combined MS-PhD program), no
matter which professor is selected, the student
will get to take basic graduate courses related
to the majoring area (ex: neuroscience, cell
biology) and to be trained in the full-time
researcher course during the period of degree
program. Also, as a basic medical-science
instructor, the student will be trained to
an educator by widely participating in pharmacology
class for medical students. In particular,
owing to the recent amendment of the relevant
law, similarly to other basic-science departments,
male students can both receive a doctoral
degree and fulfill the military service simultaneously
in 5-6 years, by enrolling in the special
research personnel course. |
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| Prospects
for the future |
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Along with the recent revitalization of
bio-industry, the large investment is being
made in drug development, and the era of the
tailored medicine utilizing individual patient-based
genetic information is expected to come. Accordingly,
pharmacology is considered an area that can
best integrate the basic science with the
clinical science in accordance with this trend.
Particularly agreeable with this perspective,
our department is centralizing research activities
on the areas of recently increased public
attention such as incurable neurodegenerative
disorders, gastrointestinal diseases, pharmacogenomics,
and clinical trials for drug development.
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And not only in prominent university
hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, but in many
biomedical industries and research institutes, a
recent trend is that the need for specialists familiar
with diseases and patient populations relevant to
the above areas is getting increased. Therefore,
it can be said that the future of pharmacology is
very bright. The present main research areas of
the Department of Pharmacology are as follows:
1) Neuropharmacology - This area studies
neuronal cell death and mind-body relationship using
latest molecular biology and behavioral science
methods. Through this, it develops the improvements
of basic medical sciences related to strokes, dementia,
cerebral palsy and mind-body relationship, and provides
the basis for drug development.
2) Gastrointestinal pharmacology
- This area investigates the development mechanism
of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary diseases and
suggests the development of medical treatment methods.
Also, it explores the transport mechanism across
the gastrointestinal cell membrane to examine the
mechanisms of absorption and excretion of drugs
and ions in the body and identify the relationship
to diseases with pharmacogenomics and genome editing
studies.
3) Clinical pharmacology - This
area participates in the drug development process
by conducting clinical trials in human subjects
and develops the basis of software tool for drug
development and tailored-medicines therapy by applying
Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) to computer
based modeling/simulation. |
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