Doctor of Philosophy

Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine

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Are you ready to advance human health through innovative research?

The PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine program provides you with foundational coursework and research experience across a spectrum of basic and translational sciences that support drug discovery, delivery and development. Didactic course requirements are modest, flexible and tailored to fit individual needs and career goals.

You will spend the majority of your time on research projects under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Activities include participating in weekly research seminars, journal clubs and lab meetings. Outside the classroom you will have access to career seminars, student organizations, and all of the resources of the WSU Spokane campus, including fitness resources as well as a childcare subsidy program.

Once admitted, you will receive a competitive stipend, health insurance, and tuition waiver.

Research Areas at the College Include:

  • Autoimmune Disorders
  • Cancer Biology
  • Drug Delivery/Nanotechnology
  • Drug-Drug and Drug-Diet Therapeutics
  • Pharmacogenomics
  • Drug Metabolism and Disposition
  • Toxicology
  • Cardiovascular
  • Neurobiology
  • Translational Pharmacology
  • Pharmacokinetics

Priority Deadline: December 5 

Final Deadline: January 10 

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The PhD Experience

The WSU Spokane campuses houses research faculty and students in pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and other health sciences.
Health Sciences Campus in Spokane, Washington

With state-of-the-art research core facilities and the chance to learn alongside health sciences students across disciplines.

Love Where You Learn
25+ graduate training faculty with active research projects

Our faculty use multi-disciplinary basic and translational approaches to:

  • Understand mechanisms of disease
  • Identify new therapeutic targets
  • Develop novel treatments
  • Optimize therapeutic regimens
Department Directory
PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine students work with a faculty mentor to complete research projects.
Following graduation Sara Dumit went on to work as a health physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in 2021 was invited to attend the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
100% of students employed at graduation

Career options for graduates include the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology companies, hospitals, specialty laboratories, government agencies, academia, and more!

40+ fields of expertise among faculty

Learn from preeminent researchers who are world-renowned experts in their fields.

Faculty Experts Index
Paine lab leads the Center of Excellence for Natural Product-Drug Interaction Research (NaPDI) and Mary Paine serves as the principal investigator.
The Natesan lab studies computational drug design.
Top Tier Ranked in the top one-third nationally for grant funding

 Active research projects are supported by both federal and private funding organizations.

Active Research Labs

Learning Outcomes

Build a Strong Foundation

Demonstrate mastery of knowledge in the general field of pharmaceutical sciences.

Develop Expertise

Develop the expertise to use appropriate methodologies to solve novel and emerging problems related to pharmaceutical sciences.

Publish

Disseminate your research findings to local, regional, national, and international audiences primarily through publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at conferences.

Get Involved

Participate in professional organizations, including becoming members, attending meetings, and taking leadership roles where appropriate.

Enhance Your Career Opportunities

Participate in teaching, internships, fellowships, workshops, credentialing and grant applications to enhance competitiveness for career opportunities as appropriate.

Think Critically

Develop critical, integrative, and evaluative thinking at the highest levels of rigor.

Communicate Ideas

Develop advanced written and oral communication skills.

Become a Researcher

Become independent, self-motivated researchers with the ability to identify specific problems in your field of expertise and to formulate solutions to these problems.

Build Your Knowledge Base

Develop a comprehensive knowledge of previous and current research in your field of expertise and be able to demonstrate that knowledge capability in a review of the literature at a level that is potentially publishable.

Pose Questions

Generate innovative questions within their field of expertise and pose hypotheses related to those questions

Test Theories

Apply sound methodological approaches to test hypotheses related to specific research questions and describe the methods effectively.

Present Data

Perform statistical analyses of research data and present the results in a way that clearly describes the data.