Course summary

Our PhD/MPhil Pharmacology programme enables you to undertake a research project that will improve understanding of Pharmacology. Our pharmacology research focuses on a range of topics. These include:

• The pharmacology of drug efflux transporters, particularly ABCB1 P-glycoprotein, ABCG2 breast cancer resistance protein and ABCC multidrug resistance-associated transporters;

• Developing complex, physiologically-relevant in vitro cell systems to investigate transport, metabolism and delivery of therapeutic drugs;

• Understanding the pharmacological and molecular mechanisms that regulate expression and function of drug efflux transporters, particularly in the blood-brain barrier;

• The role of blood-brain barrier drug efflux transporters in drug delivery to the central nervous system and the effects of inflammatory and degenerative conditions, e.g. Alzheimer's disease, on efflux transporter function;

• The biological role of lipid networks in health and disease, particularly their roles in inflammation, cellular communications and tissue responses;

• Employing mass spectrometry-based lipidomic technology, in conjunction with functional, metabolic and signalling approaches to characterise lipid profiles in physiological and pathophysiological conditions;

• Investigating the role of lipids in skin homeostasis and in response to inflammation, injury and wound healing;

• Studying role of local hormones in diseases and conditions associated with the female reproductive tract (e.g. dysmenorrhoea, endometriosis and the detection and prevention of preterm labour);

• Molecularly identifying and pharmacologically characterising receptors expressed in the female reproductive system;

• Understanding the physiological and pharmacological characteristics of the placenta. These studies include the development of placental homing peptide-microRNA inhibitor conjugates for targeted enhancement of placental growth signalling.