Research
SOP Research Environment and Expertise
Facilities in the School
The School of Pharmacy is located in a 102,000+ square foot building on the Amarillo campus of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. The building was provided through funds donated by the people of Amarillo. The School has approximately 16,700 square feet of research space spread among 15 laboratories (many of which feature an open floor plan to accommodate multiple investigators), 2 cold rooms, 2 common equipment rooms, and one dark room. The School has access to an AALAC-accredited animal vivarium at the Texas Tech University HSC School of Medicine. In addition, the School has a central dishwasher and sterilizer, as well as facilities for disposal of radioactive, toxic, or biohazardous waste.
Equipment Acquired For the Program
The School of Pharmacy has invested in extensive equipment to facilitate research. The equipment available to faculty and graduate students include:
- a real-time PCR machine
- an LC-MS/MS
- a confocal microscope
- several low- and high-speed centrifuges
- ultracentrifuges
- UV/Vis spectrophotometers
- fluorescence spectrophotometers
- Cryo biological storage system
- Innova 4080 incubator shaker
- Nikon Eclipse microscope
- Beekman Coulter Allegra high speed centrifuge
- Hunter thin layer peptide mapping system
- Fotodyne high performance photo documentation system
- automatic omometer
- BioRd gel drying system
- Barnstead nanopure infinity
- EC4000P programmable power supply
- Branson sonifier 450
- fluorescent microscope (Olympus Merlin 4A high speed frame transfer 12 bit system)
- PCR machines
- several fully-automated HPLCs
- liquid scintillation counters
- gamma counters
- cryostats
- clinical flow cytometers
- a molecular modeling workstation
- fluorescent plate readers
- single-punch microprocessor-controlled Carver presses
- a 16-station rotary tablet machine
- a fluid-bed granulator
- a microfluidizer for aqueous coating dispersions and liposomes
- particle size analyzers
- a capsule filling machine
- manual and automated dissolution equipment
- a Quantasorb surface area measurement equipment
- a PK-blender
- differential scanning calorimeters (DSC-7 and DSC-4)
- a navicyte and perm-gear diffusion cell assemblies
- an Instron
- a brain microdialysis setup
- stability ovens
- photo stability chamber
- humidity chamber
- several cell culture facilities
Library Facilities
Researchers rely on the TTUHSC Library at Amarillo, which is a division of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center library system.
- The TTUHSC Libraries’ annual resource budget for support of TTUHSC programs is currently set at $2,063,430.
- Library holdings specifically relevant to these programs: The four libraries of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center have holdings of 292,389 volumes, including over 2,144 current paid serial subscriptions for over 1,288 serial titles covering the biomedical literature of basic sciences, medicine, nursing, allied health, and pharmacy. In support of the School of Pharmacy, the Harrington Library of the Health Sciences currently subscribes to 98 journal titles in the basic sciences for pharmacy study and research, and 101 pharmacy journal titles. Many of these titles are also current subscriptions at the three other libraries of the TTUHSC system. The Amarillo campus library also holds over 350 pharmacy and pharmacy-related book titles, as well as 6 audiovisual titles in pharmacy. Total audiovisual holdings for the Harrington Library amount to 2,924 items.
- Electronic journal access: Over 2,500 electronic journals (which TTUHSC has purchased or which are accessible free of cost) are available to TTUHSC researchers. These journals provide full-text access to articles and greatly increase the resources available to investigators.
- Cooperative library agreements available to researchers: Strong cooperative library arrangements are in place to support the information needs of all programs of the TTUHSC. TTUHSC Libraries enjoy the distinction of ARL (Association of Research Libraries) status. ARL status is conferred on less than 10% of the nation’s health sciences libraries. The TTUHSC library system is also recognized as a Resource Library of the National Library of Medicine. This permits participation in a nationwide network of health sciences libraries for interlibrary loan. Regionally, the TTUHSC libraries are charter members of the SCAMeL (South Central Academic Medical Libraries) consortium. Through membership in this consortium, TTUHSC Libraries have been able to radically increase the number of electronic journals, books, and databases to which they have access as a result of consortial purchases. All libraries of the Texas Tech University Health Science Center system have access to the OCLC interlibrary loan network to supplement information needs that lie outside of the traditional biomedical disciplines. Additionally, all TTUHSC libraries are members of TEXSHARE, a state-wide network of all libraries in institutions of higher education in Texas. This consortium has enabled the TTUHSC Libraries to provide access to even more statewide databases and electronic resources. All four libraries share the CYBERTOOLS system. All are linked by telefacsimile and ARIEL document delivery services to all Texas institutions of higher education, to all campuses of the institution, as well as to an ever-increasing number of ARIEL institutions nationwide.
SOP Research Expertise
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) boasts of a faculty of widely-recognized, talented, and accomplished leaders in the scientific community. Some TTUHSC scientists are hailed as international experts in their areas of research, and together, the faculty and staff of TTUHSC have created a strong curriculum for medical, pharmacy, nursing, and health care students. While still a relatively new school, the School of Pharmacy (SOP) has already gained recognition for a strong program and skilled faculty. The links below provide specific information about the qualifications of SOP faculty members.
TTUHSC Pharmacy Practice and Managed Health Care Faculty, Staff, and Residents
TTUHSC Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students, and Post Doctoral Research Associates
Faculty Research Expertise
Faculty Memberships to Review Bodies
Office of the Associate Vice President for Research for all TTUHSC, Lubbock
The Office of the Associate Vice President for Research is the acting body for all research occurring within TTUHSC. Click here to browse their site.
Office of the Associate Dean for Research for School of Pharmacy, Amarillo
Associate Dean for Research - Thomas J. Thekkumkara Ph.D.
Research Administrator - Logan LaRue
Coordinator - Marty Stephens
The Office of the Associate Dean for Research acts as the contact office for all research activities that take place within the School of Pharmacy on all campuses. The Office is responsible for various research opportunities within the School of Pharmacy and will distribute this information when appropriate.
The Office of the Associate Dean for Research maintains a webpage: http://www.ttuhsc.edu/sop/research/. Information helpful to researchers is contained within this site. The SOP Research Office informs faculty of new information on the Web Forum under "Office of Research." In addition, opportunities for grants and funding are posted daily on this Web Forum, also under the folder entitled "Office of Research." The Office assists researchers in preparing grants and applications for Institutional Review Board approval. Additional information about the services and programs offered by the Office of the Associate Dean for Research is available on their website.
TTUHSC Office of Sponsored Programs, Lubbock
The Office of Sponsored Programs' (OSP) mission is to assist the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (HSC) faculty and staff in obtaining and efficiently using externally-sponsored programs' resources to further the HSC missions of instruction, research, academic support, and public service. The OSP is responsible for pre-award, award, and post-award assistance with grants, contracts, cooperative agreements and variations thereof, arising from applications and proposals submitted to external agencies. It is responsible for overseeing budget setup and subsequent revisions for expenditures.
OSP staff serve as administrative and processing staff for four federally-mandated committees: human subjects/materials of human origins use in research, animal research, biohazardous materials research, and recombinant DNA research. In addition, the School of Medicine funds two internal seed grant programs per year, and the OSP assists the faculty research committee in administering this process.
The University's Office of Sponsored Programs has its own webpage: Sponsored Programs Contact information and a variety of forms and information may be accessed directly from this site.
Human Research Protection Office, Lubbock
The HRPO is responsible for the oversight of all TTUHSC Institutional Review Boards (which are charged with approving/disapproving human experimentation).
Continuing Education, Amarillo
The Division of Continuing Education is dedicated to providing the highest quality of CE programs for faculty, alumni, and members of the pharmaceutical community. An emphasis is placed on the continuing education needs of pharmacists practicing in West Texas rural communities. For more information on continuing education opportunities at the School of Pharmacy, visit: http://www.ttuhsc.edu/sop/ContinuingEd/.