School of Pharmacy faculty members are expected to engage in scholarship consistent with our mission and to expand the scientific knowledge associated with the practice of pharmacy and medicine. We seek to expose students to many different aspects of pharmacy practice and the pharmaceutical sciences, including clinical and basic research.
PCOM advances biomedical, pharmaceutical and clinical research initiatives that address the evolving needs of patients and society. Students work closely with faculty to develop and support individual student growth and engagement in research. Research may be undertaken during the academic year, over the summer and as projects conducted as part of APPEs during the fourth professional year, as well as non-curricular work based opportunities. Non-curricular opportunities can be funded through the Federal Work Study (FWS) program for students with financial need, allowing them to earn money to help pay education expenses.
The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences has made significant strides following the construction of a modern, multi-user pharmaceutical research laboratory at PCOM Georgia.
Research within the department is rapidly growing with the support of the School of Pharmacy and PCOM. Expanded and well-equipped laboratory space facilitates the research interests of the faculty and provides scholarship opportunities to students across diverse areas including autoimmune, cardiovascular, neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer and the molecular basis for treatment, drug development and target identification, the use of natural products to fight cancer, obesity, hepatoregeneration, cardiovascular regulation and disease, biomedical imaging, biomarker identification and translational bioinformatics.
A solid foundation of research has been built on administrative support, productive collaborations with nearby institutions including the University of Georgia and Emory University as well as successful competition for intramural and extramural grants. Research opportunities in the department will continue to grow with the addition of a vivarium at PCOM Georgia and further expansion of existing laboratory space.
Central to the mission of the department is academic and research training of students. PCOM students participate in research with faculty through the federal work-study program, as volunteers, through the Graduate Program tracks and APPE elective rotations.
The focus of the Department of Pharmacy Practice is on creating, through research, and disseminating in the literature, scientific knowledge about the effective, safe, and economical use of medications. Within the department, practicing clinicians focus on evaluation of drug regimens and clinical outcomes of patients through partnerships with individual hospitals, hospital systems, and outpatient clinics. Administrative and social science faculty within the department utilizes extensive corporate and governmental databases to evaluate disease state, medication usage, hospitalizations and pharmacoeconomic considerations based on individual treatment regimens. Students have opportunity to work with departmental faculty on research projects, presenting results as well as manuscript production.
Part of the mission of the department is to educate and train students to become clinicians and enter the profession of pharmacy. To this end, faculty also engages in research of teaching, learning and education to improve pharmacy education in the classroom, teaching skills laboratories, and experiential rotations.
PCOM School of Pharmacy Students Present COVID-19 Research
Pharmacy and graduate students from PCOM Georgia presented research on potential drug
treatments for COVID-19 at the Puerto Rico Section 73rd Southeastern Regional American
Chemical Society (SERMACS) meeting in October 2022. Read more.
PCOM Georgia Researchers Study Possible COVID-19 Drug Treatments
Department of pharmaceutical sciences associate professors at PCOM Georgia, each with
their own expertise, along with doctoral, graduate and high school students and research
assistants, have joined forces to investigate various strategies for the prevention
and treatment of COVID-19. Read more.
Click the links below to learn more about faculty researchers within the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Pharmacy Practice.
Dr. Huang’s research interest lies in brain physiology and pathophysiology. Currently
his main focus is on the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, and especially on the
regulation of the NMDA subtype of the glutamate receptors. "NMDA receptors", as they
are called, play critical roles in learning and memory, and in the development of
the brain. As NMDA receptors are also critically important in brain disorders, his
studies have significant implications that extend to a broad range of pathological
processes in the central nervous system, including brain and spinal cord injury, epilepsy,
chronic pain, stroke, Alzheimer disease, and schizophrenia.
Dr. Kim has prior experiences in fabrication and characterization of polymeric microneedles,
development and evaluation of topical formulations, pharmaceutical analysis, and conducting
in vitro permeation studies.
Dr. Mody’s research is currently focused on multiple areas such as developing thermosensitive
polymers for drug delivery, synthesis of antiviral agents, and evaluating Y-site compatibility
of clinically used drugs.
In his search for clinical biomarkers for the early stages of congestive heart failure,
Dr. Sharma’s research is focused on apoptosis and the signaling cascade that occur
with sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction. In addition to intramural resources, Dr.
Sharma’s research had been funded through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
of NIH, American Heart Association and Oral & Maxillofacial Research Foundation.
One of the major focuses of Dr. Shashidharamurthy's research is to delineate the molecular
mechanism(s) lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) during various autoimmune/inflammatory disorders such
as arthritis and lupus. This may eventually lead to development of novel therapeutic
approaches. Dr. Shashidharamurthy also conducts research focused on the individual
role of FcGamma receptor and complement proteins during the pathogenesis of immune-complex
(IC) mediated vasculitis (funded by American Heart Association), attenuation of IC-mediated
inflammation by prostaglandin E2 receptor antagonists and synergistic effect of IC’s
and TLR ligands during IC-mediated inflammatory disorders.
Dr. Wu is actively involved in the research laboratory at PCOM Georgia. His research
projects focus on improving oral absorption and targeting of anti-tumor and antiviral
agents. He has published several research papers in these areas and presented his
work at a number of national meetings.
Dr. Reece's area of clinical and research specialty is endocrinology with a focus
on diabetes. She has given podium and poster presentations on diabetes at regional
and national meetings and has published several peer reviewed manuscripts.
READ MORE
Dr. Rollins' research interests include pharmaceutical marketing, direct-to-consumer
(DTC) advertising, consumer behavior and community pharmacy practice. Dr. Rollins
is a journal referee for the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and has
presented and published on numerous subjects in pharmacy practice, including drug
advertising, patient satisfaction, patient drug information and pharmacy simulation
software.
Dr. Thomas's research and teaching interests include development and implementation
of specialized pharmacy education curriculum and practica, and therapeutics in oncology
and cancer pain management.
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Avadhesh C. Sharma, PharmD, PhD
Chair and Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Phone: 678-407-7344
Email: avadheshsh@pcom.edu
John Tovar, PharmD
Chair and Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacy Practice
Phone: 678-407-7357
Email: johnto1@pcom.edu
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