Department of Pharmacology

Overview

The Department of Pharmacology supports an association of post-doctoral fellows and trainees interested in meeting on a regular basis. The association is coordinated by Dr. Kevin Livingston, a post-doctoral fellow in the department. One purpose of the association is to foster continual interaction and exchange of ideas among post-docs. During post-doctoral association meetings, the post-docs get together to discuss ongoing research and career development, as well as social interests.

Since the foundation of the association in 1996, our goal has been to focus on career development issues. Periodically, guest speakers are invited to our meetings to discuss different aspects concerning academic and non-academic career development. For example, Dr. Mark Dell’Acqua, Professor and Vice Chairman in the Department of Pharmacology recently spoke at one of our association meetings about his experience moving from a post-doctoral position to an academic faculty position. Our association also focuses on other career development aspects such as writing grants and preparing CVs and resumes.

The organization also established an event at the yearly departmental retreat in which former students, who received their Ph.D.s from the Pharmacology Department and have taken different career paths, come to share their experiences.

Postdoctoral fellowships are available to support research training in the areas of alcohol and drug abuse, utilizing pharmacogenetic, molecular biological, genomic, proteomic and behavioral genetic
strategies. This NIAAA-supported multidisciplinary postdoctoral training program, originally awarded in 1976, supports eight postdoctoral fellows per year. Laboratories contributing to this training program conduct research in areas including investigations of molecular mechanisms of alcohol and drug effects in animals and cellular systems; genetic, genomic and proteomic analyses of the basis for alcohol and drug abuse in animals and humans; behavioral studies in animals; and human epidemiological studies. University of Colorado faculty preceptors in this program are at the Anschutz Medical Campus, in the Departments of Pharmacology, Psychiatry, and Medicine in the School of Medicine, and in the School of Pharmacy, as well as in the Department of Psychology and Integrative Physiology and the Institute for Behavioral Genetics in Boulder, CO.