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The Department Pharmacology
and Toxicology at the Ponce School of Medicine has a history of
excellence since its establishment. The department has been selected
several times by our medical students as 'The Department of the
Year' in terms of excellence in teaching. During the last three
years, our students have performed slightly above the national
average in the Pharmacology SHELF Exam. Medical Pharmacology course
is a two-semester, 8-credit course which includes approximately 61
lectures in addition to 9 small group discussions. The Department is
supported by a staff of 13 people, including 1 department director,
6 faculty members, 2 lab supervisors, 1 administrative assistant, 2
secretaries, and 1 nurse. Members of the department have several
collaborative research projects with other institutions in Puerto
Rico and in the US mainland. In addition, each summer the department
provides research training to selected medical students through the
Medical Student Summer Research Program.
The department has modern, state-of the art research facilities with
equipment located in seven laboratories including multi-user core
facilities and tissue/cell culture facilities. Large and specialized
equipment includes: GC-Mass spectrophotometer, three UV/VIS
spectrophotometers, spectrofluorometer, inductively coupled plasma
spectrometer (ICP), FPLC and HPLC with electrochemical detector,
tissue culture hoods, fluorescence microscopes, a 1000-watt solar
simulator, oxygen electrodes (gas/liquid phases) and smaller pieces
of equipment utilized for research involving nucleic acids and
proteins. Funding for research projects is provided by grants from
the following programs: RCMI-NIH, MBRS-NIH and NASA.
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