Centers and Institutes

Interdisciplinary research centers

The department is home to research centers focused on orphan drugs, personlized medicine, epilepsy, neuropharmacology, and drug response forecasting.

Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuropharmacology

To promote interdisciplinary research investigating the interaction between individual patient characteristics and the effect of drugs on cognition. The work of the Center will guide new drug development, enhance the ability to personalize medication therapy and examine the ethical and public policy implications resulting from the use of cognitive-altering agents in pediatric and adult populations.

Center for Forecasting Drug Response

There is a wide variability in patient response to drugs. It is imperative to better understand this inherent variability and strive to choose and dose drugs more appropriately. The mission of the Center for Forecasting Drug Response is to offer core expertise in the pharmaceutical sciences to clinical investigators across the University of Minnesota that will facilitate advanced pharmacokinetic, pharmcodynamic, pharmacometric and pharmacogenomic study design, data analysis and interpretation of results.

Center for Orphan Drug Research

The Center for Orphan Drug Research is a center dedicated to drugs for rare (or "orphaned") diseases. In addition to scientific research, the Center includes education and policy development in its service mission.

Epilepsy Research and Education Program

The mission of the Epilepsy Research and Education Program is to generate, disseminate and apply knowledge about the causes, epidemiology, management and treatment of epilepsy and related seizure disorders.

Institute of Personalized Medicine

The Institute of Personalized Medicine is a coordinated effort by a group of University of Minnesota researchers with expertise in multiple disciplines to advance understanding of the role played by pharmacogenomics in explaining the inter-individual variation observed in therapeutic response and outcome and treatment related toxicity.  The long term goal is to move pharmacogenetic testing into the clinical setting to improve safety and efficacy of drug therapy.