The Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of McGill University is a research-intensive department with a strong commitment to teaching at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels. Our full and affiliated members lead over thirty different research programs and are training over eighty graduate students. Our undergraduate program currently offers Majors, Honors and Minors programs in Pharmacology.
The Department has interests in both basic and clinical areas of research, although its emphasis is on the basic sciences. The Department is constantly adding to its expertise by attracting new or affiliated members to its growing staff. Of the present 38 full or affiliated staff members, the repertoire of its research specialties includes neuropharmacology, reproductive, endocrine, receptor, cardiovascular, cancer, developmental, clinical, autonomic and biochemical pharmacology, molecular biology, proteomics, genomics and toxicology.

Neuropharmacology involves the study and treatment of debilitating diseases of the nervous system, such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, mental depression and drug abuse. Investigations in this field are by definition multidisciplinary in nature. They address the fundamental mechanisms underlying drug action in the nervous system, and the knowledge already gained through the research of several of our staff members should lead to the discovery of novel treatments for these disorders. Other colleagues are studying how certain drugs act to combat arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms).