A. Units Required
A minimum of 24 formal course (see Course Offerings below) and 32 total units is required, including 594A and 594B (Master of Science thesis). Applicants applying to the program are expected to participate in the core curriculum that emphasizes drug discovery, drug delivery, and molecular pharmacology.

B. Research
Research can be initiated at any point in the program. Students selecting the non-research Master's track may elect and are encouraged to carry out research in their program.

C. Thesis/Dissertation
Students may choose between two tracks to complete the Master of Science degree. First, the non-research Master's track requires that the student conduct a detailed, extensive literature review in an area determined by the student in conjunction with a thesis advisor faculty member. Second, the research track requires that the student carry out a research project during the second year of the program.

On either track, students must submit a thesis to complete their degree requirements, either covering the scientific area selected in the non-research track, or describing their research project and results in the research track. The thesis should be 50-100 pages on average.

D. Financial Aid
Students are not allowed to be paid for working in a lab if they are taking research or thesis units. During the summer, faculty advisors can provide a stipend, arranged on an individual basis. School of Pharmacy support is not available for students in the Master's program.

Course Offerings
Graduate students are expected to possess knowledge in various areas of pharmaceutical sciences. Courses are offered to aid students for acquiring knowledge in different subjects. The following are graduate courses offered by the Department's Program (some courses are not offered every year):

Course No.
Course Title

PSCI 599
Pharmacogenomics

PSCI 599
Proteomics

PSCI 651
Advanced Pharmaceutical Chemistry

PSCI 652L
Structure-Activity Relationship & Drug Design

PSCI 653L
Spectrometry in Biomedicine

PSCI 654L
Computing Applications in Pharmaceutical Sciences

PSCI 655
Immunopharmaceutics

PSCI 662
Advanced Pharmacokinetics

PSCI 663
Dosage Form Design & Evaluation

PSCI 664
Drug Discovery and Design

PSCI 665
Drug Transport and Delivery

PSCI 666
Molecular Structural Biology

PSCI 667
Intracellular Drug Delivery and Targeting

PSCI 671
Drug Metabolism (Morphology)

The following are graduate courses offered by the department's Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology:

Course No.
Course Title

MPTX 500
Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology

MPTX 501
Toxicology of Oxidants and Free Radicals

MPTX 601
Methods in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology

MPTX 602
Sciences, Research and Ethics

The following are graduate courses offered for the Health Sciences Campus as "campus-wide" general courses:

Course No.
Course Title

INTD 531
Cell Biology

INTD 561
Biochemistry

INTD 571
Molecular Genetics

PHBI 562
Systems and Integrative Physiology

USC Course Catalogue
For Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSCI) and Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology (MPTX) courses, see School of Pharmacy.
For Interdepartmental (INTD) and Physiology and Biophysics (PHBI) courses, see Keck School of Medicine.

Schedule of Classes
Course availability for the current year.