Department of Pharmacology

The Department of Pharmacology equips students with basic and clinical research skills needed to discover and develop therapeutic agents. The department employs in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo techniques to assay plant extracts, and natural products/ isolates from plants in several disease models. Finding new uses for existing drugs and toxicity monitoring has become one of the mainstay assays performed in the department.

Department of Pharmaceutics

The Department of Pharmaceutics is a place where an unwavering commitment to excellence in research, instruction, and service is demonstrated through extraordinary productivity and success. Pharmaceutics is the study of relationships between drug formulation, delivery, disposition, and clinical response and the quantitative aspects of drug delivery. It involves the design, development, and evaluation of drugs in combination with an appropriate dosage form. A pharmaceutical scientist characterizes the physical properties of drugs, develops innovative delivery systems for drugs, and quantitatively evaluates drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and pharmacological activity in the living organism. The Department of Pharmaceutics in UCC SoPPS provides curricular content in the areas of physical pharmacy, biopharmaceutics, pharmaceutical compounding, and dosage form design, in the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) degree program.

Department of Pharmacognosy

The Department of Pharmacognosy at UCC welcomes you to the science and therapeutics of natural products of medicinal importance. Pharmacognosy is the study and the evaluation of drugs from plants and other natural sources. The teams at this Department are constantly exploring ways to harness the medicinal value of nature that has been the heritage of rich traditions in Ghana. Being on a seafront university, we also take advantage of the vast marine resources at our disposal in addition to the plant ecology to identify novel agents for the management of diseases mainly in the therapeutic areas of pain and inflammation, infectious diseases, and neurologic disorders. We use High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, Ultraviolet, Infra-red, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, and other methods to identify and profile secondary metabolites to feed the drug discovery pipeline. Also, as a key department in the PharmD programme, the Department ensures our students are well trained in natural product drug discovery as well the evaluation of medicinal products from natural products to safeguard the healthcare of a population increasingly in demand for natural products for their healthcare needs.

We welcome prospective student and collaborators

Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Welcome to the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. Pharmaceutical Chemistry is a multidisciplinary field that primarily studies the discovery, design, and development of drugs for the improvement of animal and human health. The field is also concerned with diagnostics, therapeutic target identification, and validation. Pharmaceutical chemistry is a highly collaborative field at the intersection of synthetic organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, pharmacognosy, pharmaceutics, bioinformatics, and computational chemistry.

As a Department, we aim to equip students with adequate knowledge and skill to positively impact the field of pharmacy and the health sector. Our students gain a comprehensive understanding and skills in chromatographic (HPLC, GC) and spectroscopic (UV/Visible, FT-IR, MS, NMR) methods and their use in molecular structural analysis, (bio)analysis, and bioassay development for high-throughput screening (HTS). Additionally, our students acquire the know-how isolation and characterization of bioactive metabolites from natural sources (plants, animals, microbiological, mineral, and marine), rational drug design using computational tools, and in-depth structure-activity relationship (SAR) analysis. Also, as part of the PharmD program, students learn about the role of chemistry in analytical quality control and quality management systems of orthodox drugs and herbal products, and how medicinal chemistry principles inform choices in clinical therapy. Faculty in our Department are involved in diverse translational research areas including, but not limited to, antimicrobial (tuberculosis, MRSA, Aspergillosis), antimalarial, drug discovery against neglected tropical diseases (NTD: leishmaniasis, Buruli ulcer, leprosy, soil helminths, trypanosomiasis), anti-inflammatory, and ligand discovery for purinergic G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Join us. We warmly welcome prospective students and collaborators for a thorough, productive, and enjoyable research period.

Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology

Pharmaceutical Microbiology is an applied branch of Microbiology. Generally, pharmaceutical microbiology provides knowledge and understanding with regards to the significance of the presence of bacteria, yeasts, moulds, viruses, and toxins in pharmaceutical raw materials, intermediates, products, and pharmaceutical production environments, as well as the microbiological control of pharmaceutical products, production environments, and people. The Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology focuses on the development of anti-infective agents, the use of microorganisms to detect mutagenic and carcinogenic activity in prospective drugs, and the use of microorganisms in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products like insulin and human growth hormone. As Pharmaceutical Microbiology is crucial to the manufacture and production of drugs, biologics, and devices, people working in these industries must have a strong understanding and in-depth knowledge of pharmaceutical microbiological principles, techniques, processes, and strategies to avoid any potentially costly and life-threatening failures and consequences

Department of Pharmacy Practice

The Pharmacy Practice Department at UCC SoPPS is critical in the PharmD curriculum run by the School. The Department’s chief role is to provide adequate learning experiences for the student pharmacist in direct patient care and provision of pharmaceutical care services. Through this Department, students gain knowledge on the rational use of drugs, evaluation of medications, disease state management, and what it requires to main strict professional standards. Mindful of the future of pharmacy practice, the Department employs critical thinking and problem-solving approaches coupled with hands-on laboratory skills activities across diverse pharmacy practice settings. We use simulated and standardized patient encounters to foster the development of key skills relevant to the changing demands of pharmacy practice. Faculty in this Department have varied expertise in community, hospital, industrial, and regulatory areas of pharmacy practice. They are involved in research geared towards the clinical, economic, and policy-related applications of pharmaceutical care.