Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell

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Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciencesof
Cornell University Program in Pharmacology

• Graduate School Curriculum

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Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences

• Partnership between Weill Medical College and
  Sloan Kettering Institute
• Part of the Tri-institutional MD/PhD program (w/
  RU)
• Part of a 4 campus Chemical Biology Grad Program
  (w/ RU and CU in Ithaca)
• SKI will soon have a new Graduate School on
  Cancer
• 7 degree granting programs
• Pharmacology
• Neuroscience
• Physiology, Biophysics Systems Biology
• Immunology Microbial Pathogenesis
• Biochemistry Structural Biology
• Cell Biology Genetics
• Molecular Biology

consists of Pharm. Dept. of WMC Mol. Pharm. and
Chemistry Program of SKI
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Program Statistics
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Current Students

• 10-15 with industry experience
• Undergraduate Degrees
• 5 Pharmacology
• 25 Chemistry/Biochemistry
• 65 Biology
• 5 Other

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Teaching PharmacologyGraduate Students

• Medical School Curriculum CHANGED 8 years ago
• Cell and Molecular biology Biochemistry course
  disappeared
• Pharmacology Course disappeared
• INITIAL Graduate School response
• Core Course for ALL students Program specific
  Specialty or enhancement courses
• CORE COURSE tried to be all things for all
  programs Molecular and Cellular Biology,
  Immunology, Neuroscience, Signal Transduction
• Useful for some (leveled the playing field eg,
  math majors entering Biophysics and chemists
  entering Pharmacology) but not for others
  (teaching to the lowest common denominator)
• CURRENT SYSTEM
• Each program mounts its own curriculum
• Devolved into two halves -
• Cell, Molecular, Biochemistry
• Pharmacology, Neuroscience, and Physiology

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Curriculum 1st Year
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Logic Experimental Design

• First Second Quarters
• All Pharmacology, Neuroscience and Physiology
  graduate students
• Lectures, Journal Articles, Presentations
  Research proposal
• A multidisciplinary course about the fundamental
  biochemical, cellular, molecular, immunological,
  genetic, and bioinformatics approaches used in
  biomedical research.
• Texts
• Molecular Biology of the Cell (Alberts)
• Principles and Techniques of Practical
  Biochemistry (Wilson and Walker)
• GOALs
• Students should learn the basic principles of
  molecular and cellular biology.
• Students should develop an understanding of the
  techniques and methods available to a modern
  biologist.
• Students should develop an appreciation for how
  to design experiments, include proper controls,
  and analyze data.

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Curriculum 1st Year
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Principles of Pharmacology IChemical Biology

• First Quarter
• All Pharm Students anyone else who wants to
• Lectures and Journal Articles
• GOALs
• Students should develop an understanding of the
  chemical reactions used in biological and
  laboratory synthesis and manipulation of
  proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and
  carbohydrates.
• Students should also develop an understanding for
  the chemical principles that underlie enzyme
  function.
• By the end of the course, students should be
  comfortable reading journal articles on chemical
  biology and will be expected to give an oral
  presentation and written report on a topic in the
  field.
• Lecture Topics
• Kinetics, thermodynamics, receptor-ligand
  interactions, metabolism metabolite synthesis,
  peptide chemistry and synthesis, proteases,
  protein-protein interactions, nucleic acid
  chemistry synthesis, lipids and membranes,
  glycoproteins, glycosyltransferases.

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Principles of Pharmacology IISignal Transduction

• Second Quarter
• All Pharm Neuro students some Physiol
  Students
• Lectures and Journal Articles
• GOALs
• Provide an understanding of the basic recurring
  themes in cell signaling and to familiarize the
  students with a majority of the key signal
  transduction pathways.
• Lecturers emphasize
• the use of pharmacologic and chemical tools used
  to study problems in signal transduction
• molecular structural insights into signaling
  mechanisms, deduced from x-ray diffraction, NMR,
  and computational approaches.
• By the end of the course, students should feel
  comfortable with reading and comprehending
  journal articles that report on the latest
  findings in signal transduction.
• Lecture Topics
• GPCRs Effectors, cAMP CREB, Calcium, NO
  ROS, Kinases Phosphatases, RTKs small G
  proteins, MAPKinases, Phospholipids, Ceramide
  Sphingolipids, Apoptosis Caspases, NFkB,
  Neurotrophins, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, JAK/STAT
  TGFß/SMAD, Frizzled/Hedgehog, Nuclear Receptors,
  Dioxin/AhR.

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Principles of Pharmacology IIIPrinciples
Systems

• Third Quarter
• All Pharm Students anyone else who wants to
• Lectures only
• Text Basic Clinical Pharmacology (Katzung)
• GOALs
• Students should develop an understanding of the
  General Principles of Pharmacokinetics,
  Pharmacodynamics, and Pharmacogenetics.
• Students should also develop an understanding for
  the basic physiology and pharmacological tools or
  drugs used in various organ systems.
• Lecture Topics
• Principles
• Absorption, Distribution Biotransformation,
  P450s, Pharmacogenetics, Transporters,
  Pharmacokinetics, Receptor Theory
• Nervous and Circulatory system
• Cholinergics, Adrenergics, Anti-ischemics,
  Antihypertensives, Heart Failure Drugs,
  Antiarrhythmics, Diuretics, Anesthetics
• Host Defense, Inflammation Endocrine System
• Anti-asthma, Anti-inflammatory, Contraceptives,
  Antihyperlipidemics, Anticoagulants
  thrombolytics, Insulin Hypoglycemics,
  Anti-ulcer, Antibiotics, Anti-virals

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Principles of Pharmacology IVCancer

• Fourth Quarter
• All Pharm Students anyone else who wants to
• Lectures and Journal Articles
• GOALs
• Students should develop an understanding of the
  unique problems associated with treating cancer
  and the current approaches.
• Lecture Topics
• Pharmacogenetics, Natural product
  chemotherapeutics, Proteomic Genomic
  Approaches, RNA splicing in cancers, Cell Death
  Apoptosis, Resistance antifolates, Imaging,
  Radiobiology Radiation therapy, Proteases,
  Antibody Therapy, T cell vaccines, Humoral
  responses, Transcription factors Oncogenes,
  Targeting signaling proteins, Stem Cells,
  Cytokines, Gene Therapy engineered cells.

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Curriculum 1st Year