Clinical Pharmacology Postdoctoral Training Program: Program Overview
Program Overview | Admissions | Faculty | Course Descriptions
A Unique Opportunity
Systems clinical pharmacology is an emerging interdisciplinary field of clinical pharmacology that integrates with personalized medicine. The field describes and encompasses complex interactions in pharmacological systems, augmented by modeling and discovery of emergent properties, whose theoretical description is only possible using techniques of systems biology. Systems clinical pharmacology extends from the molecular interactions of drugs with their targets to the impact of these interactions on individual patients and, in some cases, populations.
It is an essential component of personalized medicine which consists of the use of bioinformatics to access patient history to:
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- Analyze biopsy material and human specimens to categorize patient outcome
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- Estimate risk and stratify therapeutic or toxic response to drug therapy
What role will systems clinical pharmacology play in the development of personalized medicine? No doubt, this new field is in its infancy and training of clinical pharmacologists in system approaches is of great need. Therefore we have developed a world class training program to address this unmet need.
History of Clinical Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center
The Clinical Pharmacology Training Program at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) has a long history of distinguished clinical pharmacology leadership. Accomplished leaders of this program include:
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-William Beaver, MD: Credited with introducing principles of blinded randomized clinical trails into the FDA's regulations as well as providing international leadership in the advancement of analgesic clinical trails.
-Raymond L. Woosley, MD, PhD formally established the GUMC Clinical Pharmacology Training Program in 1988. As an internationally recognized cardiovascular clinical pharmacologist in the area of individual variability and response to medication and in the mechanism of anti-arrhythic drug action, Woosley expanded the program through key faculty recruitments and personal research initiatives that eventually included safety of marketed drugs and herbal remedies, pharmacology of aging, women's health and drug development and regulatory science.
-Darrell R. Abernethy, MD, PhD, assumed directorship from 1994-1999 bringing recognized expertise in geriatric and cardiovascular pharmacology until his departure in 1999 for the prestigious position of Clinical Director at the National Institute of Aging.
-David Flockhart, MD, PhD, director of the program from 1999-2001, led the program to become one of the leaders in pharmocogenetics, bringing his research on genetic differences in drug metabolizing enzymes, pharmocogenetics and genotyping to international attention.
-Anton Wellstein, MD, PhD, assumed the role of program director from 2004-2007. Under his leadership he provided excellent clinical pharmacology leadership in the area of angiogenesis and oxidative stress responses. Excellent collaborations provided a strong research training environment for fellows in oxidative stress mechanisms of hypertension and renal disease.
-Milton Brown, MD, PhD, current director of the Clinical Pharmacology Program, assumed leadership in 2007. Brown's strong background in drug discovery and development was complementary to the strong collaborations that already existed amount the faculty and he was well positioned to provide expanded leadership in clinical pharmacology. In addition to the existing clinical pharmacology faculty, most of whom had participated actively in the NIGMS training program, faculty with expertise in bioinformatics, proteomics, metabolomics, genomics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and neuroscience were coalesced together to begin a new and exciting direction in systems clinical pharmacology.
In September 2008, Howard Federoff, MD, PhD, Dean and Executive Vice President of Georgetown University Medical Center charged "The Systems Medicine Design Team" to look comprehensively at the medical center's strengths in systems medicine approaches to research, educations and clinical care in order to shape a 10 year vision for the entire medical center. More information on this initiative can be found on the GUMC website.
