| Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1892 |
| Type | Public |
| Dean | Christopher J. Molloy |
| Undergraduates | 200 |
| Postgraduates | 70 |
| Location | New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |
| Website | http://pharmacy.rutgers.edu/ |
The Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy (EMSOP) is a constituent of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. It was founded in 1892 as the New Jersey College of Pharmacy in Newark, NJ and merged with Rutgers University in 1927 as the Rutgers College of Pharmacy. In 1971, the school moved to its current location. [1]. In 2003, the school was renamed as the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy in recognition of Ernest Mario's contributions to the pharmaceutical industry and the school.
The school is currently located in William Levine Hall on Busch Campus in Piscataway, NJ. Construction on William Levine Hall was completed in 1971 and is now where all departmental, admissions, and deans offices are located with the exception of some faculty members who may have offices in other buildings and on the other New Brunswick campuses.
Enrollment is currently around 1100+ students with incoming freshmen classes of around 250 students. EMSOP admits students directly from high school into a 6 year Pharm D. curriculum with the exception of transfer students who fill vacated spots left by students who leave the school in the beginning of the 3rd year.
As a technicality, EMSOP does not offer and M.S. or PhD degrees in Pharmacy. Rather, students wishing to pursue these degrees are actually enrolled in Rutgers' "Graduate School-New Brunswick." However, classes and research are pursued with the graduate faculty of the School of Pharmacy.
The Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy is currently accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).
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The Ernest Mario School of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,traces its origin to 1892, when a group of concerned pharmacists decided that New Jersey’s citizens needed a pharmacy school of their own. The New Jersey College of Pharmacy, chartered by the State of New Jersey as an independent college, was located in a building on High Street in downtown Newark. The School’s first two graduates completed its part-time evening program in 1894.
From these humble beginnings, the College slowly grew and by the early 1920s achieved recognition by the national accrediting agency for pharmacy. From its newly constructed building at 1 Lincoln Avenue in Newark’s north ward, the New Jersey College of Pharmacy was formally incorporated into Rutgers University in 1927. Shortly thereafter, following national trends, the four-year Bachelor of Science degree was adopted as the standard for all its graduates.
The College’s enrollment expanded significantly with the influx of veterans after World War II, and in the late 1940s, the school established graduate programs in the pharmaceutical sciences, first offering the Master of Science and then the Doctor of Philosophy. In the early 1960s, again following national trends, the four-year BS curriculum was expanded to a five-year program. And once again, the school outgrew its space. With strong alumni support, a new building was planned and built on the University’s science campus (now the Busch Campus) in Piscataway. William Levine Hall opened in 1971.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the research programs of the College of Pharmacy expanded significantly with more basic science faculty and more funding from the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies. The College became a leader among U.S. pharmacy schools in external funding. Once more there was a need for expansion and renovation. Today, the Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and William Levine Hall now provide laboratories, offices, and classrooms for our faculty and students.
In the 1980s, with the development of innovative clinical programs in collaboration with leading New Jersey hospitals, community pharmacies, and the pharmaceutical industry, additional clinical faculty joined the School. In 1988, the school established the six-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program. By 2003, in conformance with changed national standards, the PharmD became the sole professional degree.
In the 1990s the school created a post-doctoral fellowship program to train graduates for careers in the pharmaceutical industry. Now the largest program of its kind in the nation, the Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship program attracts top graduates from pharmacy schools throughout the U.S.
The Department of Chemical Biology is the second largest department of the five departments in terms of faculty and the research conducted in the department is very wide ranging but mostly focusing on cancer prevention. It is the founding department of the Center for Cancer Prevention Research. The department defines its research as "examining how chemicals—including food, drugs, and environmental agents—interact with biological systems, especially the human body." [2].
The department staff help teach the undergraduate Pharm D. degree in the courses of Molecular Biology and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, and Diet and Nutrition and Disease Prevention.
The Department of Medicinal Chemistry focuses its research on developing new chemical entities into potential therapies as well as the study of existing drugs, their biological properties, and their quantitative structure-activity relationships. [3]
Departmental staff teach some of the most challenging undergraduate courses including Medicinal Chemistry 1+2, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, and Herbal Medicine and Nutraceuticals.
The Department of Pharmaceutics at Rutgers conducts research into 4 self-designated broad concentrations: Biopharmacueutics, Pharmacokinetics, Drug Delivery, Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine.
The departmental staff contribute the courses of Intro to Pharmaceutics, Drug Delivery, Introduction to Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, and Problems in Pharmaceutics.
The Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration is the largest department of the 5 academic departments at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. It seeks to be "the face of pharmacy" for EMSOP and conducts research mainly into clinical outcomes as well as coordinating and establishing community outreach and preceptor relations.
Staff from this department sometimes overlaps with other departments and thus courses, but unique subjects that are covered in the department include pharmacy economics, and pharmacy practice management.
The Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology focuses on research into the interactions between external agents and biological systems. Some notable research includes immunotoxicology and inflammation, renal toxicology, wound repair in the skin and cornea, nitric oxide biochemistry, benzene toxicity, and heavy metal toxicology. The research conducted in the department is supported by over 2.5 million dollars in grants from the National Institutes of Health. [4]
Departmental staff contribute the courses of Intro to Pharmacology, Pathophysiology, and various other required pharmacology courses and electives.
The Pharm.D. curriculum consists of six years of study. The first two years are called Pre-Professional years and most of the classes are offered by the School of Arts and Sciences rather than the School of Pharmacy, and the class content provides basic knowledge in chemistry, biology, economics, psychology, human physiology, physics, and mathematics; which aid in professional studies. Upon successful completion of the first and second pre-professional years with satisfactory scholastic standing of a cumulative GPA of no less than 2.8, students must go through an interview process in order to continue their study. The third through sixth years are called Professional years and most classes are offered by the School of Pharmacy faculty, with the exception of Introductory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The Rutgers Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program was founded in 1984 by Dr. Joseph A. Barone and Dr. John L. Colaizzi as a project co-piloted by Rutgers University’s Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and two pharmaceutical companies. A development in the structure and management of the Fellowship Program was the establishment of the Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowships in 2002 and the appointment of Dr. James G. Alexander, one of the first fellows to complete the program, as the Director.
The Fellowship Program is designed to provide Pharm.D. graduates with specialized and in-depth training to prepare them for a career within the pharmaceutical industry and offers a multitude of positions in industry for pharmacists to make contributions in a corporate setting. In these positions, fellows receive hands-on training to develop skills and experience in a variety of disciplines, including Medical Affairs, Medical Information, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research, Marketing, Business intelligence, Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Research, Drug Safety/Risk Management, Consumer Health, Advocacy and Health Policy, Drug Regulatory Affairs, Market Research, Medical Communications, Medical Education, Medical Science Liaison, Pharma Partnering, Promotion Compliance, R&D Strategy and Analysis and Scientific Communications.
The program’s partner companies include pharmaceutical enterprises such as Bayer Healthcare, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Hoffman-La Roche, Novartis, Merck, Sunovion, Acorda, Daiichi-Sankyo, Sanofi and TKL Research. More than 99% of the 600+ alumni were employed within the pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical industries upon program completion.