Research areas
Research in the School is often interdisciplinary, but for convenience is divided into the following three categories:
Drug design and actionDrug design and action covers medicinal chemistry, including new methods of molecular modelling and rational drug design. This research division also involves the discovery of new biological targets for drugs and diagnostics, involving cell and molecular biology. Cancer and microbiology are major research areas.
Drug delivery and pharmacokinetics
This area is concerned with formulation of drugs for improved bioavailability, especially using materials science to design sophisticated drug delivery agents capable of responding to the biological environment. Pharmacokinetics groups study drug metabolism, drug transport molecules and pharmacogenetics to understand why drug effectiveness varies with individual patients. Advanced statistical and mathematical modelling methods are developed and applied to interpret clinical data.
Drug usage and pharmacy practice
Study concerns work practices in the pharmacy profession and attempts to guide health service policy to more effectively utilise the pharmacy workforce. Health economics and discovering patient preferences are important themes.
