Graduate Program in Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology
What is Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology?
Many drugs act on cellular signaling pathways. The molecular basis of cellular signaling and its control by various drugs and hormones is a major aspect of modern pharmacology and this aspect is emphasized in the Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology. The objective of the Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology is to equip students with the skills required to conduct state-of-the-art biomolecular, biomedical, and pharmacological basic research. The Program assists students in becoming independent investigators in these research areas.
Advances in biomedical sciences are often based on the development of new drugs which improve and save the lives of millions of patients. Drugs with specific biochemical actions are also powerful research tools. They provide pharmacologists and other biomedical scientists unique research opportunities which help to elucidate cellular signaling cascades. Students of the Graduate Program will develop expertise in the fundamentals of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology. They will be able to solve a variety of problems in basic biomedical sciences involving the design of research strategies for the discovery of novel drugs or gene therapy approaches to regulate aberrant signal transduction cascades.
The Program
The Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Graduate Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been ranked in the top Pharmacology programs nationwide, reflecting the outstanding teaching and research quality of its members. The program is one of the Basic Science Programs of the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
The objective of the Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology is to equip the students with skills required to conduct state-of-the-art biomolecular, biomedical, and pharmacological basic and translational research. The Program assists the students in becoming independent investigators in these research areas.
Application & Pre-requisites
The Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology requires an undergraduate major in biomedical science (e.g. Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology), chemistry, physics, or engineering. http://molpharm.wisc.edu Accepted graduate applicants commonly have strong scientific backgrounds, a passion for research, and significant laboratory experience.
All applicants are required to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), preferably by October of the year preceding admission to ensure the scores will be available by December 1st. The GRE subject test is not required. Application deadline is December 1st: https://www.gradsch.wisc.edu/eapp/eapp.pl
Grants & Financial Support
Faculty trainers are required to maintain extramural funding. Students are paid a competitive stipend, and tuition is covered. All MCP graduate students receive a stipend (the recommended level for biological sciences graduate students is $25,000 for 2013-14), full tuition remission, and low cost options for individual or family comprehensive health insuranceContact
Theresa M. Duello, PhD
Diversity Initiatives
Collaborative Recruitment
5240 Medical Sciences Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1300 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
608-262-7456
Graduate Program in Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology Faculty
Elaine Alarid
Molecular mechanisms of steroid hormone action.
Kurt Amann
A molecular understanding of the mechanisms underlying cell structure and motility.
Richard A. Anderson
Molecular mechanisms regulating cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation; implications for cancer.
Anjon Audhya
Molecular mechanisms that regulate membrane trafficking during development.
Ravi Balijepalli
Trafficking and regulation of voltage-activated cardiac ion channels.
David Beebe
Exploring a variety of engineered in vitro microenvironments to probe the nature of cell interactions that regulate cell behavior.
William Bement
Cytoskeleton controls over cell division and wound healing.
Emery H. Bresnick
Stem Cell Biology, Molecular Hematology, and Vascular Biology: From Fundamental Mechanisms to Translational Medicine.
Mark Burkard
Targeted therapy directed at protein kinases.
Baron Chanda
Mechanisms of modulation of voltage-dependent gating in ion channels.
Edwin R. Chapman
Molecular mechanisms that underlie neuronal exocytosis.
Lara Collier
Genetics of tumorinitiation, progression, and therapy resistance.
Vincent Cryns
Abnormalities in cell death contributing to the pathogenesis of cancer and obesity, and translating these insights into improved therapies.
Cynthia Czajkowski
Structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors.
John Denu
Mechanism and biological function of reversible protein modifications involved in modulating signal transduction, chromatin dynamics, and gene activation.
Ying Ge
Cardiac Systems Biology; Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms in Heart Failure; Cardiac Regenerative Biology and Medicine
Michael N. Gould
Basic and translational research in breast cancer.
Daniel S. Greenspan
Modulation of BMP signaling and formation of the extracellular matrix scaffolding in development and tissue remodeling.
Jeffrey D. Hardin
Epithelial migration and embryonic development.
Melissa Harrison
Molecular mechanisms driving the initial wave of gene expression in the totipotent cells of the early embryo.
Troy Hornberger
Skeletal muscles sense mechanical information and convert this stimulus into the molecular events that regulate changes in muscle mass.
Anna Huttenlocher
Cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate cell migration; implications to tumor invasion and metastasis and inflammation.
Meyer B. Jackson
Synaptic transmission in the central nervous systems.
Colin R. Jefcoate
Physiological mechanisms associated with P450 cytochromes.
Jeffrey Johnson
Molecular Neuropharmacology/Neurotoxicology.
Joan Jorgensen
Identify genes that are sexually dimorphic during sexual differentiation, characterize their functional significance, and understand how they are regulated.
Robert Kalejta
Mechanisms of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replication and pathogenesis.
Ned Kalin
Neurobiological basis of fear, anxiety, and depression at preclinical and clinical levels.
Timothy J. Kamp
Cardiac ion channels and embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyoctyes.
Patricia J. Keely
Integrin and small GTPase signaling events in differentiation and transformation.
Judith Kimble
Germline stemcells (GSCs) and their regulation in the nematode C. elegans
Michelle Kimple
Guanine Nucleotide Binding Proteins, pancreatic beta-cell biology, insulin secretion, diabetes pathophysiology
Pamela Kreeger
Systems biology to identify treatment approaches for ovarian cancer and endometriosis.
Youngsook Lee
Molecular mechanisms regulating cardiovascular development and disease.
Bo Liu
Molecular mechanism underlying vascular inflammation; molecular mechanism underlying occlusive vascular diseases; development of new materials for biomedical applications.
Xuelin Lou
Development and function of central nerve terminals and neural circuits.
Thomas F.J. Martin
Molecular approach to exocytosis of neurotransmitters.
Kristyn Masters
Issues in cell-material interactions to create 'smarter', bioactive materials that are capable of directing cell function.
Shigeki Miyamoto
Rel/NF-kB transcription factors.
Deane F. Mosher
Biochemistry of cell adhesion and movement.
William F. Murphy
Bio-inspired non-covalent assembly of materials.
David Pagliarini
Mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolism; cell signaling; proteomics.
J. Wesley Pike
Transcriptional mechanisms of steroid hormone action in the skeleton.
Luigi Puglielli
Lipid signaling in the aging brain and molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
Ron Raines
Chemical biology; protein design and engineering; enzymology.
Alan C. Rapraeger
Syndecan regulation of cell adhesion and growth factor signaling.
Avtar Roopra
Understand the epigenetic mechanisms behind transcriptional regulation and chromatin structure.
Lixin Rui
The mechanisms of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway in lymphomagenesis, investigation of the F-box protein FBX010
Krishanu Saha
Using human stem cells together with emerging engineering methods in material science and synthetic biology.
Linda Schuler
Physiologic growth, differentiation, and functional activity of the breast.
Nathan Sherer
HIV-1 assembly and spread; host-pathogen interactions; retroviral gene regulation; virus trafficking; cell-cell communication; live cell imaging.
Vladimir Spiegelman
Molecular mechanism of cancer development and progression.
Rupa Sridharan
Epigenetics of cell fate change
Robert Striker
Working on naturally occurring and lab generated mutants in the polymerase affects fidelity, replication, and processivity.
John Svaren
Role of EGR and NAB proteins in peripheral nerve myelination.
James A. Thomson
Focusing on understanding how a cell can maintain or change identity, how a cell chooses between self-renewal and the initial decision to differentiate, among other cell related potentials.
Randal S. Tibbetts
Genome surveillance; DNA damage-induced signal transduction.
David A. Wassarman
Transcriptional regulation by histone modifying complexes in Drosophila.
Beth A. Weaver
Regulation of chromosome segregation during mitosis.
Deric Wheeler
Mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies.
Yongna Xing
Cell signaling pathways related to cancer.
Wei Xu
Transcriptional regulation of estrogen receptor (ER) signaling pathways.
Jay Yang
Basic mechanisms of clinically relevant problems such as pathological pain, heart failure (diabetic cardiomyopathy), and sepsis using cellular, molecular, and electrophysiological techniques.
Jerry Yin
Molecular genetics of learning and memory formation in Drosophila and mice (molecular neurobiology, nervous system function and dysfunction).
Su-Chun Zhang
Working on how functionally diversified neuronal and glial subtypes are born in the making of our human brain.
Xinyu Zhao
Focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate neural stem cells and neurodevelopment, with the goal of applying this knowledge in the treatment of neurological disorders and injuries.