UCSD & Pfizer Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology- Oncology

The UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in conjunction with the UCSD Moores Cancer Center is pleased to announce the two Postdoctoral Scholar Research Doctoral Fellowships in Clinical Pharmacology-Oncology starting on July 1 2012 through June 30, 2014.

The fellows will engage in pharmaceutical sciences research in quantitative pharmacology, drug discovery, drug development and clinical oncology at UCSD and at Pfizer Research, La Jolla.

Candidates Requirements

Applicants must have these minimum qualifications: - Pharm.D. or/ PharmD/Ph.D. degree or equivalent, awarded or in process. - Licensed or eligible for California licensure as a pharmacist.

Prior pharmacy residency and/or equivalent hospital pharmacy experience is preferred.

Fellowship Benefits

The program is designated to develop individuals with skills in basic and clinical oncology,and and clinical pharmacological research who would enter a career in academia or the pharmaceutical industry in pharmaceutical development. Training and career interests may extend from drug discovery through clinical trials and to outcomes and post-marketing surveillance studies.

The fellow will develop collaborative professional relationships with members of the oncology health care system and research community. This range of activity reflects the interests of our existing research and clinical care programs.

Fellows will learn clinical and basic research, attend seminars, studyin biostatistics and trial design, teach pharmacy students, review and write research proposals and compose manuscripts for publication. The interaction between the basic and clinical scientists and clinical fellows creates an environment that nurtures state-of-the-art basic, applied and clinical research.

This program will be tailored based to the education and training background of the fellow. Candidates will have opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in clinical research through UCSD CREST program.

Fellowship Program Objectives:

1. Oncology coursework and training on:

  • Development of a comprehensive understanding of cancer biology, biomarkers and common targets for cancer therapy
  • Understanding current and developing translational tools that may be used to assess effective inhibition or activation of targets in cancer therapy
  • Understanding of the ethnic differences in polymorphisms of therapeutic targets
  • Application of pharmacokinetic principles to pharmacology with a focus of anticancer drugs
  • Identify correlations of drug exposure with toxicity and therapeutic endpoints.
  • Prediction of long term patient tolerability and resistance to cancer therapy efficacy

2. Clinical Oncology

  • Understanding of Clinical Oncology principles with a focus on selection of treatment options
  • Engaging in discussions of study design for chemotherapeutic agents based on tumor type, drug targets and statistical requirements
    • Design for phase 1 studies
    • Design and analysis of clinical exposure – response and efficacy trials
  • Implementing medication-related guidelines/protocols for the care of individuals with cancer
  • Optimizing the outcomes of the care of individuals with cancer by providing evidence based, patient-centered medication therapy as an integral part of an interdisciplinary team
  • Detecting medication therapy problems and toxicities in cancer patients
  • Designing evidence based therapeutic regimens for individuals with cancer
  • Implementing and monitoring progress of drug regimens

3. Quantitative Pharmacology: Pharmacometrics

The fellow will learn valuable prognostic tools for fulfilling model-based drug development, mathematical and statistical approaches that construct, validate, and utilize disease models, drug exposure-response models, and pharmacometric models to facilitate drug development. The fellow will integrate theory and practice and apply principles and concepts of quantitative pharmacology.

UCSD faculty including voluntarily faculty will provide a comprehensive set of tools for training and developing expertise in the pharmacometrics field, including computer code information with case study.

Summarized briefly, the following topics are a significant focus of the UCSD/Pfizer Research and Clinical Oncology Fellowship:

  • Model-based drug development serves as an integral part of quantitative pharmacology. Dose-response relationships and quantitation of receptor number, occupancy and efficacy according to contemporary concepts of state and binding functions.
  • Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling
  • Developing models of disease progression
  • Pharmacogenomic considerations starting with basic concepts of statistical genetics, analysis of SNP’s, INDEL’s, linkage disequilibrium, haplotype, hap-maps and the current and future application of these concepts to assessing drug efficacy and toxicity
  • Quantitative pharmacology applications in populations interpreting the data for new drug development and evaluation
  • Use of pharmacometrics in the development of biologic therapeutic agents
  • Identifying pharmacodynamic–biomarker-outcomes linked models
  • Learn and confirm key characteristics of new molecular entities in a quantitative manner, with goal of providing explicit, reproducible, and predictive evidence for optimizing drug development plans and enabling critical decision-making.

Duration: Two-years

To apply for this position please send:

  • A letter describing your background, career interests and how this fellowship would fit into your plans.
  • Curriculum Vitae including list of publications
  • Three letters of recommendation

Fellowship Selection Committee
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
9500 Gilman Drive #0657, La Jolla CA 92093
Email: dlacy@ucsd.edu