If you want a job that can contribute to saving lives now and in the future, being a Pharmacologist is right up your alley! Pharmacologists investigate how potential medicines interact with biological systems.

New diseases (Bird Flu, and SARS) are constantly cropping up while old ones (HIV) linger on. The job of a Pharmacologist is especially important as we keep playing “catch-up” in finding drugs to cure us. This, coupled with an aging population and a reliance of drugs has made the Pharmacologist a life saving superhero tucked away somewhere in the lab.

Pharmacologists aim to understand how drugs work so they can be used effectively and safely. They also conduct research to aid drug discovery and development. They do this by undertaking in vitro research (using cells or animal tissues) or in vivo research (using whole animals) to predict what effect the drug might have in humans.

Areas of specialty as a Pharmacologist include; clinical pharmacology - carrying out work involving the effects of medicines on people within clinical trial studies; neuropharmacology - studying the effect of chemicals on the nervous system; and regulatory pharmacology.

Most pharmacologists work as researchers or in public policy, in universities, the burgeoning biotech industry and government agencies.

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