Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Our majors get hands-on research experience in PMY 409 (Experimental Pharmacology), a requirement for the BS. We also offer lab research experience to majors and interested non-majors with appropriate backgrounds via PMY 498 (Undergraduate Research Participation in Pharmacology and Toxicology).

You'll also have an opportunity to earn research honors.

Many of our faculty work with students from universitywide programs, including:

• Center for Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (CURCA)
  
• Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP)

As a student researcher, you will work in our labs at the cutting edge of pharmacology and toxicology research to gain insight and expertise on every part of the research process. You will take on a focused project and, under a mentor’s guidance, build on the skills and concepts from your coursework to generate independent, high-quality data.

We encourage you to make significant intellectual contributions to your labs. Many of you will stay with a lab two to three years, carrying out longer-term projects and getting your names on publications in prominent journals. This makes your CV very competitive for applications to graduate school, MD and PharmD programs and other pursuits.

Very often, students produce posters based on their research. You may present your work at the New York Pharmacology Society Annual Meeting and at the university’s Celebration of Academic Excellence, where our students not only consistently present, but also win prestigious awards.

You are strongly encouraged to present your research at the annual meetings of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics or Society of Toxicology.

Each fall, undergraduate researchers are invited to present posters at the annual Pharmacology and Toxicology Research Symposium. The student with the best poster at this event wins a cash award.  

Participating in lab meetings gives you insight into life in a research lab and connects you to fellow researchers, from other undergraduates through senior faculty members. In your lab you can gain a wide range of skills in techniques and data analysis, including:

• high-performance liquid chromatography
• mass spectrometry
• nuclear magnetic resonance
• microscopy
• protein analysis
• receptor binding
• behavioral analysis
• statistical analysis
• research ethics

You can earn research honors if you:

• complete a minimum of 12 hours of approved PMY 498 credits (with 9 credits in the same lab)
  
• and present your research at a department-approved research presentation.

Your research honors will be recorded on your transcript.

Although we have no formal prerequisites, our research opportunities are selective. Faculty prefer students with some knowledge in fields such as medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry and statistics, but previous lab experience is not necessary. Course credit requires you to work three hours per week in the lab for every hour of credit you earn — so a three-hour class means making a commitment of nine hours per week.

These are the steps you need to follow to get credit for undergraduate research:

• Familiarize yourself with our faculty's research through one of these suggested links and select the lab that interests you most.
  • Faculty Profiles
  • CURCA
• E-mail or call the faculty member directly to request a meeting, providing your latest CV and a description of your interest in research. Specify any topics you especially want to pursue.
  
• If the faculty member accepts you into his/her lab, he or she will contact David Shubert, PhD, director of undergraduate research and summer programs, who will arrange for you to receive credit through PMY 498. Non-majors may earn course credit via independent study in our department or their home department, or make other arrangements.
  

Our searchable faculty profiles describe faculty research interests and ongoing projects:

The ASPET Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) Award introduces undergraduate students to mentored research experiences in pharmacology to heighten interest in careers in research and health care disciplines.

This 10-week program gives you a chance to perform mentored research in the biomedical and STEM disciplines and explore graduate careers.

Every fall semester, our faculty brief majors about the undergraduate curriculum and research opportunities for the coming academic year.

This student-run group hosts faculty presentations throughout the year.