Pharmaceutical Sciences (MS)

Overview

While pharmacists work to manage patient care with emphasis on therapies using existing drugs, pharmaceutical scientists are engaged in the discovery and development of new drugs. At SIUE, a multidisciplinary approach is used to not only determine the detailed biological mechanism of disease, but develop the molecular interventions that can provide the treatment or cure. Students are taught in state-of-the-art laboratories by an internationally recognized faculty with many years of both academic and pharmaceutical industry experience.

Program Format

The program can be completed through traditional daytime courses. Lab and research courses are offered on evenings/weekends.

What can I do with a degree in pharmaceutical sciences?

This program prepares students for: 

• Research positions in the pharmaceutical sciences 
  • Industrial
  • Academic
  • Government
• Doctoral degrees in health sciences, medical and drug discovery research
• Science components of other non-research but science- and technology-related positions relevant to the pharmaceutical industry 
  • Evaluation of new technologies for business development units
  • Scientific patent advising
  • Administration
  • Consulting

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, indicates a continued growth rate for medical scientists of 8% through 2024.

Graduate Assistantships

Graduate assistantships for teaching, research and related administrative duties are available and include a tuition waiver and monthly stipend. A graduate assistantship enhances your educational experience and helps to develop valuable professional skills.

Faculty

Faculty members provide opportunities for students to study in three of the main areas of the discipline. 

Medicinal chemistry faculty allow students to explore all aspects of drug design and discovery, including: 

• Computational methods
• Structure-activity studies
• Synthetic methods development
• Natural products chemistry

The pharmacology team allows students to engage in studying the cellular signaling pathways that are important in disease processes and the mechanism of action of drug candidates for treating the resulting diseases, including pharmacogenomic aspects of patient populations. 

Pharmaceutics faculty guide students in the study of mathematical, computational and experimental methods to study the pharmacokinetics (ADME) of drug molecules in vivo, as well as all aspects of drug delivery.

View current pharmaceutical sciences faculty.