Our Research
The James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati is located within the academic health center which is comprised of the colleges of medicine, nursing and allied health sciences.
Our close proximity to these other health-related colleges, as well as to the University Medical Center Hospital, the Cincinnati Veteran's Affairs Hospital and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, facilitates our long-standing history of interdisciplinary collaborations across academic departments/colleges, hospitals, industry and government.
Our faculty conduct cutting-edge translational research encompassing discoveries in basic and applied science and advances in patient care. Our research efforts seek to further our understanding of:
- Cellular mechanisms of human disease
- Drug penetration of biological membranes and barriers
- Targeted drug delivery
- Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of therapeutic agents
- Pharmaceutical economics
- Health outcomes and policy
The research enterprise of the College of Pharmacy is undergoing historic growth with the addition of new, talented and accomplished faculty in our focus areas of research and scholarship that include:
An interdisciplinary research group with interests in design and development of new investigational and interventional tools for human diseases, from cancer to infections. This group combines the principles of pharmacology, chemical biology, nanoscience, molecular biology, nuclear imaging and medicine to find exciting ways to solve biomedical challenges.
Basic research in Biomembrane Sciences encompasses the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying development, growth, and barrier properties of biological membranes as relevant to the etiology and treatment of disease.
Applied research in this area covers drug delivery technology and also measurement and/or prediction of the barrier properties of biological membranes. Areas of strength include development and experimental assessment of mathematical models underlying membrane transport, molecular pharmaceutics leading to innovative drug formulations, and the rational design of nanocarriers.
The College has particular expertise in the areas of skin, hair and nail. This includes developmental biology, topical and transdermal delivery, prediction of skin barrier function, and safety and efficacy evaluation of cosmetic products. This research overlaps with the broader program carried out campus wide by the Skin Science & Technology Center at UCRI and also aligns with the teaching program in Cosmetic Science. Other campus partners include the College of Medicine Department of Dermatology, Shriners Burns Institute, the Ohio Center for Microfluidic Innovation, and the Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics.
The Health Outcomes Research Team conducts research that will enable government, industry, managed care, and academia to improve the effectiveness of health care and the management of health care systems, health care policy and the effective use of medication.
We assess health care delivery from an economic, clinical and humanistic view and disseminate this research widely. We are a highly energetic group of faculty and graduate students committed to high-quality research in pharmacy operations, health outcomes, quality, pharmaceutical economics, healthcare and drug policy, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance and drugs of abuse.
We are an interdisciplinary group with backgrounds in pharmacy, medicine, industrial engineering, economics, finance, and quantitative analysis. We have studied drugs for cancer, end-stage renal disease, HIV/AIDS, hypertension and heart failure, hypercholesterolemia, asthma, diabetes, migraines, and ulcers, among other diseases.
Our research track encourages collaboration with faculty and students across the Academic Health Center. Additionally, the Carl H. Lindner College of Business offers graduate training in operations and business analytics, finance, economics, marketing, accounting, management, and information systems.
The University of Cincinnati defines the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning --SoTL in short-- as the practice of rigorously testing the effectiveness of various teaching approaches in the college classroom. The goal is to provide faculty with "evidence-based" teaching tools that can transform their pedagogy and tremendously enhance student learning.
The faculty at the James L Winkle College of Pharmacy are actively engaged in this type of scholarship as we strive to discover the most effective methods of teaching both the science of pharmacy but also the art of practice. Our research foci include broad pedagogical topics as curricular assessment, active-learning strategies, and experiential learning to more specific areas of interest such as cultural awareness, interprofessional team work and self-care. We apply the same rigorous standards to our methodology as other scientific research practices leading to evidenced based teaching.
The goal of the clinical research program is to optimize the use of medications. The clinical research program spans work from the bench to bedside and beyond. We have laboratory-based researchers, clinical scientists working in phase 1 trials and practitioners engaged in practice-based research in hospital, community and ambulatory settings. Often, many common chronic illnesses are studied; however, we have specialists who focus in therapeutic areas such as oncology, psychiatry, infection disease and others. We have many practice partners who collaborate with us. Students are able to participate in the research with faculty and practice partners. All students are required to do an outcomes project at the end of their fourth year. Approximately, one third of students choose to do a research elective. Our program is rich with research opportunities.
Both UC and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center house numerous core facilities where services are provided at a reduced cost for UC researchers. View the Academic Health Center Facilities.
The UC College of Medicine houses a number of core facilities designated as core service centers for use by the research community. The service center designation signifies that the rates charged by each of these facilities have been reviewed and approved by the UC government cost compliance office, thus the service fees can be cross-charged to grants and contracts. View the College of Medicine Facilities.
GESC is a fee-for-service, one-stop core facility that provides genomics- and epigenomics-related services to researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It also provides services to other institutions and organizations on contract bases.
Mass Spectrometry Facility is dedicated to inorganic, organic and biological mass spectrometry analyses. View protocols for purified proteins.
Faculty in the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy collaborate extensively with investigators from other departments/colleges through existing centers of excellence and institutes, including those listed below:
The Researcher’s Gateway at UC is a secure, password-protected portal for faculty to access specific information regarding research at UC. This is separate from public accessible information available through the UC Research website.
The mission of the UC Office of Research Integrity is to provide services to ensure compliance while facilitating research. Office of Research Integrity provides services in the following areas:
- Animal Care and Use
- Biosafety
- Radiation Safety
- Human Subjects Research
The UC Institution Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is a federally mandated committee that oversees and evaluates all animal use in research and/or teaching, as well as all animal facilities. All faculty who plan to submit a new application for animal use or a revised application containing new species or techniques should meet with the administrator of IACUC to go over the application. To maintain AAALAC accreditation and maintain federal funding, all investigators must be compliant with the most recent edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
Regulatory mandates, IACUC policies, Training, Instructions, and Forms can be found at the IACUC website.
Animal use and key card access to vivaria require:
- An approved animal use protocol
- Appropriate training, including IACUC training and facility training
The UC Biosafety Office assures compliance with regulations pertaining to the possession, use and disposal of all bio hazardous agents. These include select agents and toxins, recombinant DNA, viral constructs, etc. Also included are any human-derived materials.
The UC Radiation Safety Office (RSO) oversees the purchase, use and disposal of all radioactive materials (RAM) and radiation-generating equipment on the campuses of UC, Children’s Hospital, Shriner’s Hospital, and Hoxworth Blood Center. The UC Radiation Safety Committee (RSC) must review and approve all activities involving the use of RAM and radiation-generating equipment.
All human subjects research is conducted according to Federal-wide Assurance (FWA), unless exempt. FWA requires review and approval of such research by an IRB.
As described in Human Research Protection Policy III.01 REVIEW BY THE INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD OF HUMAN SUBJECTS RESEARCH, in order to approve human subjects’ research, the IRB shall determine that "Scientific or Scholarly Review by qualified individuals(s) has demonstrated that (a) the research uses procedures which are consistent with sound research design; (b) the research design is likely to answer the proposed scientific questions, and (3) the importance of the knowledge expected to result justifies approval of the research. Such review shall be certified by the academic department chair or responsible administrator."