Degree Structure
College
Pharmacy
Department
Level
Graduate Masters
Study System
Courses and Theses
Total Credit Hours
33 Cr. Hrs.
Duration
2-4
Intake
Fall and Spring
Language
English
Study Mode
Full Time and Part Time
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Important Dates
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Degree Overview
The academic aim of the program of Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences is to prepare students for professional roles in the area of pharmacy, with the knowledge and skills to advance the discipline from the academic, research and practical standpoints. The M. Pharm. Sci. program will prepare the students to address the current and future challenges in disciplines such as patient care, pharmaceutical industry, health promotion, research and development, management and investment in drug industry, and academic positions. The intent is also to prepare students to engage in independent and collaborative research in academic, governmental and applied life science contexts. During this educative process, students will participate in knowledge generation and improvement, research synthesis, and knowledge/technology transfer. There is only two Master in pharmaceutical sciences programs offered in the UAE, the existence of CoP within the medical campus of the UoS and having the Sharjah Institute of Medical Research inside this campus will make the program highly attractive for pharmacy graduates looking for graduate programs
What You Will Learn
Pharmacy is becoming a key player in primary and preventive health care and is defined as the science of the composition, use, and dispensing of drugs.
The program prepares you for professional roles in pharmacy, with the knowledge and skills to advance the discipline from academic, research, and practical standpoints. The M. Pharm. Sci. program will prepare the students to address the current and future challenges in disciplines such as patient care, the pharmaceutical industry, health promotion, research and development, management and investment in the drug industry, and academic positions. The intent is also to prepare students to engage in independent and collaborative research in academic, governmental, and applied life science contexts. During this educative process, students will participate in knowledge generation and improvement, research synthesis, and knowledge/technology transfer of Medical Research inside this campus will make the program highly attractive for pharmacy graduates looking for graduate programs.
University Requirements
College Requirements
Degree Requirements
Program Structure
| Components | Credit hours |
| General Courses | 12 |
| Concentration-specific Courses | 12 |
| M. Pharm Thesis | 9 |
| Total | 33 |
The completion of 33 credits is required for the program. The course work includes 12 credit hours of general compulsory courses, 12 credit hours of specialized courses, and a 9 credit hours for the master thesis.
Course Description
General Courses
| 1103613 | Experimental Design and Data Analysis | (2-0:2) |
| The course will cover single factor experiments, multiple factors, full factorial and fractional factorial designs and screening designs, the fundamentals of hypothesis testing and relevant biostatistics. | ||
| 1103611 | Research Ethics | (3-0:3) |
| This course covers multiple topics on different research ethical issues related to research goals and maintain ethical conducts while carrying a research project. Also, topics like plagiarism, conflicts of interest, bias, fraud, falsification of research results, informed consent, attribution of authorship, and process and adequacy of peer review publication processes will be discussed as well. The course will be delivered using multiple learning strategies including, active learning, team-based learning, peer and instructor-assessment, case discussion and presentations in order to motivate critical thinking and scientific judgment. | ||
| 1102612 | Pharmaceutical Sciences Journal Club-I | (1-0:1) |
| This course is designed to enhance the ability of graduate students to critically evaluate peer-reviewed scientific articles. Articles will be selected from current scientific literature in a variety of disciplines in pharmaceutical sciences, including drug delivery, drug development, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutics. Each student will present 2-4 articles per semester. The articles are selected by a supervisor guided student. | ||
| 1103612 | Research Seminar | (1-0:1) |
| This course introduces students to the academic research process and exposes students to strategies of problem-solving. It trains students on critical thinking, research, writing, and documentation. During the course, students will be assigned to come up with a research proposal including a key scientific question and they will conduct research into the literature related to their scientific question and they should develop a research design that addresses this question and provide more knowledge to this field. Students will give a presentation about a certain topic followed by a discussion in which all students are evaluated based on participation. Students are given a short essay assignment based on each presentation. The student presentations and short essays count toward the final grade. A research paper also is assigned. | ||
| 1102615 | Pharmaceutical Sciences Journal Club-II | (1-0:1) |
| This course is designed to enhance the ability of graduate students to critically evaluate peer-reviewed scientific articles. Articles will be selected from current scientific literature in a variety of disciplines in pharmaceutical sciences, including drug delivery, drug development, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutics. Each student will present 2-4 articles per semester. The articles are selected by a supervisor guided student. | ||
| 1101611 | Instrumental Analysis | (3-0:3) |
| This course will introduce the MS. students with the basic instrumental techniques including infrared, UV-Vis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 & 2D NMR techniques), mass spectrometry and different chromatographic techniques, used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of organic compounds, the course will also include practical applications through qualitative and quantitative analysis of unknown samples (single and mixture of components) using spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques. | ||
| 1102611 | Foundation of Pharmaceutical Sciences | (3-0:3) |
| The purpose of this course is for students to practice application of their knowledge in basic pharmaceutical sciences to a variety of conditions and states of health and disease. In this course, students are trained to use basic pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics principles in optimizing therapeutic outcomes in a variety of disorders. Principles in formulation of biotechnological products and engineering delivery systems for biotechnology products, lipid-based, polymer-based, and physical delivery approaches. Also included in the course are applied pharmacokinetics principles in developing an appropriate therapeutic regimen in renal and cardiovascular disorders. Protein structure, stability, structure prediction methods, protein drug discovery, and protein engineering are also discussed. | ||
Medicinal Chemistry
| 1101612 | Advanced Organic Chemistry | (3-0:3) |
| The course will cover single factor experiments, multiple factors, full factorial and fractional factorial designs, and screening designs, the fundamentals of hypothesis testing, and relevant biostatistics. | ||
| 1101621 | Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis | (3-0:3) |
| This course will focus on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical analysis, covering topics such as the control of the quality of the analytical method, physical and chemical properties of drug molecules, development and validation of analytical methods of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical according to the ICH and FDA, sample preparation and extraction of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. It will also include qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis of drug molecules and related substances in raw material, finished products, and biological matrix using stability indicating methods (HPLC, GC, LC/MS, and GC/MS), enantio-selective separation, in addition to good analytical practice [GAP] and good laboratory practice [GLP]. | ||
| 1101622 | Advanced Topics in Medicinal Chemistry | (3-0:3) |
| This course surveys the strategies and techniques used to transform biologically active molecules into potential therapeutic agents. Forward and reverse chemical genetics approaches will be discussed. Diversity-oriented synthesis; fragment-based as well as rational- and structure-based drug design will be discussed. Further topics include: sources of molecular leads, qualitative and quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis, improving pharmacokinetics and reducing toxicity based on functional groups/isosteres modifications. A flavor of an introduction to bioorganic chemistry will be included in the course. The course concludes with case histories of successful drug discovery illustrating the application of design principles taught in the class. | ||
| 1101631 | Special Topics in Medicinal Chemistry | (3-0:3) |
| This course will explore some important topics in medicinal chemistry research. For example, Medicinal chemistry of cancer therapeutics, e.g. epigenetics proteins as drug targets, kinases, cancer stem-cells drug targets. Medicinal chemistry of CNS and inflammatory diseases drug targets. Recent advances in antiviral drugs. The course is designed to integrate the information from drug targets, molecular mechanism of action, organic synthesis and drug resistance for pharmacists. The course emphasizes on the drugs that are being clinically used and potential new drug targets. | ||
| 1101632 | Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis 1 | (3-0:3) |
| This course will focus on drug stability studies (real time and accelerated stabilities testing), statistics and data processing. It will also emphasize on spectroscopic analysis including Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Atomic Emission Spectroscopy AES & Flame Photometry, and Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy & ICP-AES and their applications in pharmaceutical analysis, it will also include the pharmacopoeial method of analysis concerning raw material and all pharmaceutical dosage forms. | ||
Pharmaceutics
| 1103623 | Regulatory Affairs | (3-0:3) |
| This course will cover fundamentals and concepts of regulation of pharmaceuticals prevailing in different countries. The course will focus on the regulatory strategies and market authorization approvals from different countries. Regulations for non-clinical studies, clinical trials, submission and review, and good manufacture practice (GMP) will be discussed. | ||
| 1103621 | Advanced Drug Delivery Systems | (3-0:3) |
| This course will introduce students to a variety of recent topics in the area of controlled drug delivery and relevant biomedical applications. Each topic will provide a comprehensive and critical examination of current and emerging research on the design and development of advanced drug delivery systems and their applications to experimental and clinical therapeutics. Emphasis is given to polymer based systems and assembled Nano-carriers and scaffolds for the delivery of therapeutic drugs, proteins, vaccines and genes. | ||
| 1103622 | Advanced Pharmaceutics | (3-0:3) |
| This course covers advanced topics in physical pharmacy and biopharmaceutics including the influence of physico-chemical properties of drugs and biological factors on drug delivery and design of dosage forms. The course will discuss the principles and concepts of drug selection, drug absorption and transport through various systems, drug metabolism, drug delivery design with special emphasis on targeted drug delivery. | ||
| 1103614 | Advanced Pharmacy Management | (3-0:3) |
| The course provides an overview on community/retail pharmacy setting where students learn the various aspects involved with managing a pharmacy. The primary focus is financial analysis including third-party issues, budgeting, control, and personnel management as well as financial risk management. | ||
| 1103615 | Advanced Cosmetics & Parapharmaceuticals | (3-0:3) |
| This course discusses the principles applied in the formulation design of cosmetics and parapharmaceuticals. The course will devote focus to the use of nanostructured delivery systems in skin care products. Dispersed systems used in delivery of active compounds to the skin such as microemulsions, nanoemulsions, multiple emulsions and lipid/polymer based delivery systems will be discussed. Safety assessment and regulations governing cosmetics will also be discussed. | ||
Pharmacology
| 1102613 | Molecular Pharmacology | (3-0:3) |
| This course comprises the detailed principles of molecular pharmacology including receptors and cell signaling. As examples, the course focuses on the mechanism of action of anti-microbial agents, anti-neoplastic agents, anti-arrhythmic agents, anti-psychotic agents and anti-diabetic agents. The course discusses the principles of pharmaco-genetics/-genomics and its role in drug development. | ||
| 1102622 | Pharmacogenomics | (3-0:3) |
| This course will give students a broad perspective on the critical role played by genetics in drug therapy and the emergence of pharmacogenomics as a new field. It will provide an insight into the growing importance of this field and the prospective role it will play in clinical therapeutics and future drug design. Topics to be studied include common methodologies used in the application of pharmacogenomics, the role pharmacogenomics in altering drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, the role of pharmacogenomics in the pharmacotherapy of various diseases of the cardiovascular, CNS, hematologic, respiratory and immune systems as well as cancer and toxico-genomics. | ||
| 1102621 | Gene and Stem Cells Therapy | (3-0:3) |
| This course will focus on gene therapy and stem cells as major approaches to treat inherited human diseases and cancer. It will cover the general principles and basic mechanisms in gene therapy. It will also illustrate the compilations of current clinical trial efforts, methods of gene delivery, immune therapeutics, oncolytic virus therapeutics, antisense therapeutics as well as ethical considerations. | ||
| 1102623 | Neuropharmacology | (3-0:3) |
| The neuropharmacology course will discuss the various central neurotransmitters, their pathways and drug-induced changes in functioning of the nervous system. The specific focus of this course will be to provide a description of the cellular and molecular actions of drugs on synaptic transmission. This course will also refer to specific diseases of the nervous system including drug dependence and their treatment in addition to giving an overview of the techniques used for the study of neuropharmacology. | ||
| 1102624 | Principles of Cancer Chemotherapy | (3-0:3) |
| This course will focus on the role of drugs in management of cancer. Topics to be studied include the relationship between cancer biology and the response of cancer cells to treatment with anti-cancer agents with emphasize on cell signaling, DNA damage induction and repair, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis. Classification of anti-cancer drugs, their mode of action, adverse effects, mechanisms of resistance and ways to overcome it will also be studied. | ||
Thesis
| 1105635 | Research thesis-I | (3-0 :3) |
| Student will produce and defend a thesis under the supervision of a faculty member in one of the three concentrations offered. This course integrates different skills including hypothesis formulation, research techniques, review of literature, proposal and thesis writing, and oral presentation and discussion. Student (in collaboration with the supervisor) will propose a research point that would be implemented through laboratory work, survey analysis or any other tool. Student will present the results of each stage in a seminar within the department. After completion of the research work, student will prepare a thesis including all his/her work and will defend the research work in front of a discussion committee who will approve/disapprove the research thesis. | ||
| (6-0:6) | Research thesis-II | 1105636 |
| Student will produce and defend a thesis under the supervision of a faculty member in one of the three concentrations offered. This course integrates different skills including hypothesis formulation, research techniques, review of literature, proposal and thesis writing, and oral presentation and discussion. Student (in collaboration with the supervisor) will propose a research point that would be implemented through laboratory work, survey analysis or any other tool. Student will present the results of each stage in a seminar within the department. After completion of the research work, student will prepare a thesis including all his/her work and will defend the research work in front of a discussion committee who will approve/disapprove the research thesis. | ||
Career Path
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