Class Schedules – Spring 2023
Class schedules for the current semester are listed below.
Please email phcostudentservices@unc.edu to register for all PHCO courses.
Please note that for all classes: The instructor, in consultation with UNC officials, will monitor classroom conditions and make appropriate instructional adjustments to support achieving course learning outcomes.
PHCO 702 – Principles of Pharmacology and Physiology*
(3 cr. hr)
M/W/F @ 9:05 – 9:50 am (Full semester course) starting January 9
Location: Mary Ellen Jones (MEJ) 3116 and MEJ 3106
Course Director: Dr. Terry Kenakin
This graduate level course introduces students to the major areas of pharmacological and physiological principles of drug action and serves for a basis for advanced courses.
Registration is by permission of the instructor. This is a graduate-level course.
PHCO 728 – Neuropharmacology of Alcohol and Substance Use*
(3 cr. hr)
Tuesdays @ 9:20 – 11:15 am (January 10 – May 2)
Location: Bondurant 3074 (except 1/10 and 1/17 in Bondurant 4074)
Course Instructor: Dr. Joyce Besheer
A lecture/discussion course on the biological bases of alcohol and substance use and misuse.
This course will survey key concepts and recent literature related to the neuropharmacology of alcohol and other drugs of abuse. The first half of the semester will address a variety of topics such as alcohol actions on signaling pathways, mechanisms of reinforcement/relapse, dependence/withdrawal, fetal drug exposure, and pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder. Each class will involve a presentation by a faculty member/researcher followed by discussion of a research article. The second half of the semester will be student presentations on other drugs of abuse selected by the students participating in the class. Extensive student participation in weekly class discussions will be expected. This course is intended to provide students with a broad understanding of the neuropharmacology of drugs of abuse and to help with the development of critical thinking skills in evaluation of the scientific literature.
PHCO 730 – Seminar in Recent Advances in Pharmacology*
(1 cr. hr)
Thursday @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm (January 12 – March 30)
Location: TBA (GMB 4007 or GMB 4095 **Please check back)
Course Instructors: Dr. Lee Graves and Dr. Nick Brown
This graduate level course has been designed to help cultivate a variety of essential skills required to become successful in your scientific career. It is in part a journal club and a writing class. It is designed to provide preparation for the doctoral oral exam. This preparation includes learning to evaluate research designs and pharmacology literature.
Students meet as a group with faculty members to develop skills in critical reading and to summarize and discuss selected aspects of current pharmacological literature.
Open to Pharmacology students only.
PHCO 733 – Drug Discovery and Development*
( cr hr)
T/Th @ 8:30 am (start date TBA)
Location: TBA
Course Instructor: Dr. Terry Kenakin
Drug Discovery and Development, now done in both industrial and academic settings, is critical to patient healthcare. Pharmacology is an essential element in Drug Discovery process and this elective will familiarize registrants with the various elements involved in the research of finding new drugs. The course spans the complete range of activities from bioinformatic choice of drug targets, validation of drug targets, demonstration of target engagement, screening for new molecules, lead optimization, biologist/chemist interface structure activity study, and clinical testing of drug candidates. All of these endeavors are common to discovery irrespective of the pathology being prosecuted and examples will be presented from CNS, cardiovascular, inflammation, cancer disease areas. In addition, biologics will be discussed as well as conventional small molecule drugs. In general, registrants should emerge from this course with an idea of what drug discovery involves and whether or not they might be interested in this type of research.
Course Content
Discovery in an Industrial Setting and Academia / Project Initiation / ‘Drugging’ Targets / Confirming Target Engagement / Target Manipulation for Therapies / Lead Optimization / candidate characterization / The World of Biologics / Development of Drug Candidates: Pharmacokinetics / Development of Drug Candidates: Early Safety / Clinical Testing of Candidates
GNET/PHCO 749 – Practical RNA-SEQ*
(2 cr hr)
M/W/F 1:20 – 2:50 pm ( March 20 – April 28)
Location: MEJ 3116
Course Instructors: Drs. Mauro Calabrese, Hemant Kelkar, Jesse Raab
This graduate level module is designed to familiarize students with everything needed to run an RNA-Seq experiment, including the concepts behind experimental design, how to prepare samples, running them on a NextSeq 500, and analyzing data. There will be minimal emphasis on theory and heavy focus on practical aspects.
There are no formal prerequisites required for this course and no prior experience with UNIX or the command line interface is expected.
In addition, Dr. Nate Nicely offers the following course on Macromolecular Crystallography at the Pharmacology Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Core through the Biochemistry & Biophysics Department.
BIOC 667 – Macromolecular Crystallographic Methods
(2 cr hr)
Tues/Thur 12:30 – 1:45 pm (March 23 – April 25)
Location: Medical Research Bldg B Conference room (rm 121)
Course Instructor: Dr. Nate Nicely
Provide participants hands-on experience with current methods in macromolecular crystallography. Students will handle protein samples, grow and mount macromolecular crystals, acquire and evaluate diffraction data, and determine crystal structures using modern software packages. The course will necessarily move quickly through several important subject areas in the pursuit of the end goal, crystal structures. We will apply theory to practice at every opportunity but will not delve heavily into physics, mathematics, chemistry, or any other subject. The emphasis will be on benchwork and computer work. Participants will be exposed to most aspects of macromolecular crystallography and will become empowered to pursue the methodology for their own research aims. This course is intended for graduate students.
*Email phcostudentservices@unc.edu to register for all PHCO courses. Meeting times may change to accommodate schedules.