Project Work In Pharmacology And Therapeutics Department In Pharmacy

Pharmacology project

As we have seen before in this blog, Pharmacology and Therapeutics or Toxicology (P.C.L) is the major link between pharmacy and medical departments. Project work in this department is one of the simplest for pharmacy students. However, there is a big ‘but’ to that statement. You may want to know the reason.

Some schools have a bachelor programme for pharmacology where pharmacy students study under them. In such schools, it becomes a little difficult for pharmacy students to get a project topic within their scope. What do I mean? Pharmacy students get just a year of the practical experiment during school days. established can mean trouble when a project supervisor wants a project topic for a pharmacy student that will involve research area where the student did not do in school.
Read Also: Project/Research Work In Pharmacy School Guidelines In Nigeria
Just like in the other department, projects work begins with having a project supervisor, writing project proposal, and getting approval and finally research.

Types Of Project In PCL

Let me split Pharmacology research into three categories. They are;

• Survey
• Bench work
• Research on recent advances

Survey In PCL

A survey in pharmacology is more or less like a survey in PCA. Some topics may even be same with a small difference.

Research On Recent Advances In PCL

In this case, there may not be any work except reading up other articles and combining for a better analysis. In this aspect, the student gets hands-on articles written on the topic with the sole intention of analyzing all to make sense. In this case, the student may never get close to a laboratory for any bench work or carry out a survey. Modern gadgets have made this a little bit simple as all the student need to do is get an internet enabled the device for the research. However, there is a little problem. Most of these articles cost some money. It becomes easy if the school has these resources and grants access to students to use in the academic library.

Bench work In PCL

Bench work in pharmacology has a variety of approach. They are;

• Research on effect of new therapeutic agent on animals
• Comparing the action of new therapeutic agents and already establish one on animals. The new drug can be a herbal product.

New Therapeutic Agents

In a topic involving the investigation of the effect of an agent on animals, the first step is to extract the drug if it is a herbal product or buy it from the market if it is a drug on the market. Pharmacognosy laboratory is mainly the laboratory for extraction using the same process in pharmacognosy. That is not to say pharmacology laboratory may not be capable of it if they have the equipment and resources.
Read Also: Guidelines On How To Choose A Project Topic In Pharmacy
Once extraction is complete, the test animals are group based on the topic. Animals used range from rats, mice and other small animals such as tadpoles. It could be a group of A, B, C, D where each group contains five animals. Depending on the topic, each group animals will have the same weight, age, and size. In most cases, all the animals will have the same variables. All the animals are induced by the disease of study. Induction is a way of infecting the animals. Infection can be bacteria or others such as cancer cells.
As the project continues, the rats will be administered the drug using different dose on each group and observing their physiological activities. The test result is noted.
In this project, all other variables are constant including the quantity of feed and water, light and temperature, etc.
In other projects, the study of the effect of the therapeutic agent on the animal using the different route of administration is establish. In this case, all the animals in each group given the same dose using the same route and observe. The other groups were given the same dose with other routes and observe. The final effects of the agent on each group are noted.

Comparison Of Two Therapeutic Agents

In situations whereby the student is to do a comparison, another set up just like the first is organised using the other test drug. The two results compared together. However, it is very unlikely that one student will carry out both. Two students will likely carry it out under one supervisor.
In more complicated bench work, the animal is sacrifice and its organs investigated for more results such as how the agent moves into various organs and the quantity in these organs.
Once the result is out, write starts. The project is submitted for correction and approval. After the approval, the student goes ahead to print two copies of which one is to be submitted to the supervisor for onward transfer to the external supervisor. This copy is what the external supervisor will use to correct the work. The student corrects the work based on the correction by the external supervisor. Four copies of the work are printed. The four copies are for the department together with the copy the external supervisor corrected.
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