Welcome to the Homepage for the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at The University of Texas Medical Branch. This site contains essential information on the faculty and research within the department, as well as on the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Among the basic biomedical sciences, the disciplines of pharmacology and toxicology occupy a unique position through their focus on the beneficial and harmful effects of drugs and other chemicals. Pharmacologists seek not only to understand fundamental biological processes, but also to find ways to alter them. The interaction between chemicals and biological systems is the unifying theme in the department. In pursuing this theme, our faculty is capitalizing on recent advances in molecular and cellular biology, genomics, structural biology, and chemistry.

The Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology currently consists of sixteen primary faculty members with varied and scientifically diverse research interests in neuropharmacology, molecular toxicology, cancer pharmacology, and chemical biology. Departmental faculty serve as Director of the NIEHS Center in Environmental Toxicology, the Center for Addiction Research, and the Chemical Biology Program. Competitive funding has quadrupled since 1998 and now exceeds $6,000,000 in annual total costs. Through institutional support to UTMB from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Welch Foundation, the department is currently recruiting faculty in chemical biology.

Our training programs include medical, graduate, and postdoctoral education. Former students and postdoctoral fellows hold a variety of responsible positions in academia, research institutes, government laboratories, and industry. Current employment opportunities are especially bright for trainees from our program. The pharmaceutical industry, in particular, is in great need of well-trained pharmacologists and toxicologists with the expertise to integrate information from molecular/cellular and whole animal studies. In addition, with the unprecedented opportunities for new drug discovery and development resulting from the Human Genome Project, pharmacologists and toxicologists should remain in great demand because they can help to translate discoveries from genomics and structural biology into therapeutic compounds. Detailed information about the research interests of individual faculty members and about graduate courses can be found in the Website.

James R. Halpert, Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Mary Gibbs Jones Distinguished Chair in Environmental Toxicology
Interim Director, Sealy Center for Environmental Health & Medicine
Director, NIEHS Center
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
301 University Blvd.
Galveston, TX 77555-1031

CONTACT INFORMATION
Mary Schlobohm
Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology
The University of Texas Medical Branch
301 University Blvd.
Galveston, TX 77555-1031
PHONE: 409.772.9678
FAX: 409.772.9642