Discovery Projects
The discovery project is a required component of the PharmD curriculum. It lasts 5 weeks during the end of the P2 year. Topic selection occurs during the spring of your P1 year & projects within clinical and preclinical drug development are regularly offered. You’ll meet regularly, in person or virtually, with your project team and will be mentored by an expert in your chosen project area. With your team, you’ll formally present your project to faculty members and student colleagues at the end of year three. Additional information on the discovery component of the curriculum can be found here.
Up to ~10 students are selected each year for an intensive, extended discovery project. This opportunity consumes one of your indirect patient care elective APPE rotations, and extends your project over an additional 6 weeks, for a total of 11 weeks. The opportunity allows for a more intensive dive into students’ selected topic and more one-on-one time with their selected research advisor. The application for this opportunity requires additional steps and is due with topic ranking during the spring of your P1 year.
Work-Study and Volunteer Research Opportunities
Pharmacy students may participate in research under the supervision of faculty on a volunteer or work-study basis.
Work-study opportunities can be located here.
Volunteer research opportunities may be found in within SOP’s weekly bolus, in emails sent throughout the year, or may be created by direct outreach to professors researching topics you are interested in.
When searching for a professor to conduct research under, using UCSF’s Profile Database can be a helpful tool. Below is a helpful demonstration of how to best use this resource.
Prior to reaching out to faculty, it is suggested that you read their recent publications to ensure their research is of interest and to provide substance to your outreach email. Providing times & dates for a brief meeting within the first email may help in getting time on their calendar. Further tips on how to best approach researchers can be found on OCPD’s Networking for Pharmacy Students page.
