“We must acknowledge...that the most important, indeed, the only, thing we have to offer our students is ourselves. Everything else they can read in a book or discover independently.”
Daniel C. Tosteson, MD, dean for faculty of medicine from 1977-1997, Harvard Medical School
From New England Journal of Medicine 1979
Training Pioneers in Therapeutic Sciences
The Therapeutics Graduate Program focuses on pharmacology, toxicology and drug discovery, emphasizing research in both HMS labs and in real-world internships. Our goal is to provide students with the intellectual tool kit and practical skills necessary to be productive researchers in therapeutics discovery throughout the workforce.
The certificate program offers rigorous, multidisciplinary training relevant to identifying and developing novel therapeutics, understanding and investigating mechanisms of drug action, analyzing the reasons for clinical failures, and developing new compounds and applying them in preclinical and clinical studies to improve the treatment of disease.
This program will provide students with all the tools and skills necessary for these aims, including quantitative skills and modern cutting-edge techniques. This involves elucidating and understanding biological pathways and therapeutic mechanisms, understanding adverse effects to limit toxicity, identifying novel therapeutic targets, and characterizing the pharmacologic profiles (pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics) of new compounds. Students will understand the social implications and impact of these activities, and we therefore aim to link this training to industrial, clinical, and regulatory activities and to encourage students to consider their studies in a society-wide context.
Program: Immunology
Hometown: Edmmond, OK, USA
PI(s): Nora Barrett
I grew up with food allergies, and I’ve always wanted to do something that could help other members of my community. For me, science was the best way to do that. I’m currently researching the effects of mTOR signaling in the airway epithelium in the context of type 2 inflammation (chronic rhinosinusitis, asthma, etc). I’d love to leverage the resources and classes provided by the TGP to turn my current research into real impact on human patients in the future! After graduation, I’d love to work in the biotech or pharmaceutical industry so that I can help create treatments or devices that can help patients.
I’m also very involved in the performing arts! As a child, I used to act professionally (some commercials, a movie, and even an episode of Barney!). Now, I love performing in musical theatre, and am a member of a Boston dance team called Inc Dance Crew.
