Pharmacology and Toxicology was established as a department at the Medical College of Georgia in 1943. The Department has a rich history of accomplishments in fundamental research including the discovery of the adrenergic receptor subtypes-alpha and beta- which has lead to the development of many drugs used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Currently, our research programs focus on cardiovascular studies and neuroscience.

The field of pharmacology originally developed as a means to discover how the age-old remedies and poisons exert their effects on man. Pharmacology as a modern discipline provides the groundwork for discovery and development of our future generation of therapeutics. The scope of pharmacology has expanded greatly over the last decade to incorporate many new approaches such as computer-assisted drug design, genetic screens, protein engineering, and the use of novel drug delivery vehicles including viruses and artificial cells.

Our society needs pharmacologists who understand the bases of modern therapeutics for careers within academic, pharmaceutical and governmental laboratories to study and develop tomorrow's drugs. Our fifteen departmental faculty members work with approximately 60 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff on a variety of research areas that include cardiac, vascular, and pulmonary diseases, and schizophrenia, learning and memory, neuroprotection and drug abuse. Our experimental approaches range from the molecular to the whole animal level.