Dennis J. Pillion, Ph.D.

Interim Chair and Professor

The Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology is committed to excellence in research, teaching, and training.  The Department offers two separate programs of study leading to a Ph.D. degree, one in Pharmacology and Toxicology, and one in Toxicology. The Ph.D. Program in Pharmacology and Toxicology offers formal lecture courses in both Basic and Medical Pharmacology, participation in seminars, and research experience with faculty members. The program goal is to prepare exceptional students for productive and successful careers in medical research, academia, government, or industry. Training spans all areas of pharmacology and toxicology, from the molecular to the whole-organism level. Major research interests include biochemical pharmacology and toxicology, dietary phytoestrogens and disease prevention, molecular biology of drug-metabolizing enzymes, neuropharmacology of neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular and coronary pharmacology, environmental toxicology and molecular endocrinology, signal transduction, antisense therapy, drug receptors, hormone effects on smooth muscle, autonomic neuroeffector transmission, pharmacokinetics, pharmaco-genomics and proteomics, cancer chemotherapy, ion transport and pyrimidine metabolism, antiviral and anti-AIDS drugs, hormone receptors, mechanisms of toxicity, intracellular calcium regulatory mechanisms, chemical carcinogenesis and drug delivery.

The Graduate Training Program in Toxicology is also administered in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. The goal of the program is to educate students for the interdisciplinary field of toxicology. It acts as a "feeder program" recruiting and admitting students who are interested in toxicology, providing the core curriculum, and facilitating lab rotations with participating faculty. Core courses include biological chemistry and cellular physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology of disease, molecular medicine and functional genomics, and toxicology. A student in good standing after completing the core curriculum will identify a mentor and complete elective courses and dissertation research in a participating degree-granting program. Students are expected to conduct original research addressing specific toxicology problems in Biology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, Epidemiology, Environmental Health Sciences, Genomics and Pathobiology, or Nutrition Sciences. Education and research training in UAB's Graduate Training Program in Toxicology is designed to prepare individuals for careers in research, academia, industry and government.