A. Units Required

Ph.D. Degree
A minimum of 60 units is required for the Ph.D. degree. At least 24 units of formal course work are required at the 500 level or above (see Course Offerings below), exclusive of seminar and directed research. The guidance committee may require more than 24 units of course work. A minimum of 12 of these units is to be taken in courses in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The remaining 36 units may be fulfilled with other courses, directed research and dissertation. Each student's program is planned to meet his/her needs and interests.

B. Laboratory Rotation Program
Students are required to participate in a laboratory rotation program during their first year of residence at the School of Pharmacy. The objective of this program is to provide each student with an opportunity to gain experience in ongoing research in several laboratories before selecting a research advisor. Students will rotate through at least 2 laboratories during their first year enrollment in the Graduate program. Students are required to submit a progress report upon completing each rotation.

C. Teaching Semester
All Ph.D. students are required to participate in at least one semester of supervised teaching in the School of Pharmacy. Most students will be supported as Teaching Assistants during their first two years in the Ph.D. program.

D. Graduate Seminar
All first year Ph.D. candidate students will be required to register for the School-wide seminar course, entailing regular attendance at the departmental and other scheduled seminar sessions. Students in their second year or above may be required to present at least one departmental seminar per year.

E. Qualifying Examination Prerequisite
Students will be required to pass and written and oral qualifying exams at the end of their second year in the program. Before permission is granted to sit for the qualifying examination, all students must complete the 24 required units as stated in A1 above, with no grades lower than 'C' and with an overall GPA of 3.0 or better. The qualifying exam is given in two parts. The written exam must be passed before the student may progress to the oral exam. An interval of no more than 60 days is provided between the written and oral qualifying exams.

F. Thesis/Dissertation
Each student must satisfactorily complete a thesis/dissertation under the direct supervision of a major professor. This will be based on an original investigation. Presentation and oral defense of an acceptable dissertation is required for Ph.D. candidates.

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 available for the current year.