Introduction
The Ph.D. on Biopharmaceutics-Pharmacokinetics to specialize the graduates in Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Technology and other similar degrees in an essential area of the pharmaceutical research. The course provides the basis for designing and evaluating drugs and dosage forms in order to improve the quality and disposition. The cultural area is strongly inter-disciplinar, beeing knowledges of Phisiology, Biology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology, Pharmaceutical Technology, Analysis, Phisiology, Biology and Manufacturing requested.
Aim of the Course
For a period of three years, the Ph.D. course will have as objective to give the knowledge of the basical subjects in the areas of mathematics, statistics, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutics, physical pharmacy, pharmaceutical analysis, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, where the recent scientific acquisition have gained the most advanced steps.
Teaching and Research Activities
The board of teachers will decide the programme of studies, which includes integrative courses to attend and activities to carry out. The integrative course can be institutional or specific (intensive), and are given by the teachers Ph.D. staff or other external qualified teachers. Other integrate activities will consist on seminars driven by assistant researchers both from University or Industry. The Ph.D. student is appointed a tutor, who will supervise and coordinate the research work. After the beginning of the course, the student , under the guidance of the tutor, has to indicate the specific subject of his research activity. The student has to give every year four seminars, at the presence of the teacher collegium and other students, on its research subject and two seminars about a more general subject belonging to the Ph.D. cultural area. Moreover, the student shall actively attend national and international congresses. Furthermore, the Ph.D. student must carry out a research project in a qualified foreign laboratory, performing scientifical activities connected to his own research subject, for a period of at least 6 months. This mobility could be applied through the Erasmus programmes actually supervised by the Faculty of Pharmacy of Parma. At the end of the research the student will present a written dissertation, in which the obtained results will be reported. Anyway these results will be previously presented to the teacher collegium during a public seminar.
Curricula
The students can choose between two curricula: the first, Biopharmaceutical, mainly concerning the preparation of pharmaceuticals dosage forms and control of drug release ("in vitro" phase); the second, Pharmacokinetics,dealing with the study of absorption, distribution, methabolism and excretion of drugs ("in vivo" phase). The Ph.D. student admitted to the course, will perform one of these curricula, that anyway are tightly connected on each other.
Admission
The most suitable cultural background for the admission to Ph. D. course is provided by the degrees in Pharmacy and in Pharmaceutical Technology. Graduated students in other disciplines will be admitted only if they've integrated their education. In any case, the teacher collegium will test of the candidates preparation and will eventually suggest the appropriate programme of study. The educational-scientific structures for the research activity will be the Pharmaceutical Department and the Institute of Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy of the University of Parma. Three positions are available each academic year, one reserved to foreign citizens; more positions could be eventually added if financed by external grants.
Students and Research Projects