The laboratories in the Department of Pharmacology conduct research in a wide variety of fields and disciplines. A traditional focus of the Department has been molecular pharmacology and understanding the mechanisms of signal transduction.

Areas of cell signaling being investigated include:

• Signaling through G-protein coupled receptors (Ross, Smith, Sternweis, Taussig, and Wilkie)
• Nuclear hormone receptors (Kliewer, Mangelsdorf, and Wan)
• Cell-surface receptors involved in axon guidance (Zhang)
• Cell cycle regulation (Luo and Yu)
• Regulation of signaling protein function by covalent modifications (Cobb, Reese, and Yu)

Other areas of interest include:

• Cancer biology (Cobb, Kliewer, Luo, Mangelsdorf, Martinez, Wan, and Yu, )
• Chemical biology (Corey)
• Evolutionary biology (Michael and Reese)
• Glycobiology (Lehrman)
• Amine metabolism (Michael and Phillips)
• Nuclear and vesicular trafficking (Albanesi, Chook, and Goodman)
• Lipid metabolism and membrane composition (Goodman)
• Parasite biology (Collins, Kliewer, Mangelsdorf, Phillips, and Reese)
• Stem cell biology (Collins and Hamra)